The Resurrected Christ
August 4, 2008
Why don’t we see Jesus for who he really is? You know the resurrected Jesus, the Risen Lord, the one that sits at the right hand of the father. The one who died and was buried and on the third day rose again. The one who will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.
His body was literally raised from the grave, as ours will one day rise from the grave. Our resurrection through Christ is a physical resurrection. Not a disembodied spirit resurrection, but a physical one, one in which we will be made new. Surely our God values the physical.
Our future and the vision of that future include the physical world, the world we are called to tend and keep. Proverbs offers us this wisdom, “If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed.” (Proverbs 29:18, The Message). As God’s people we have stumbled over ourselves when it comes to caring for creation, mostly because we can’t see what God is doing, what God has done through his son Jesus Christ. We have not seen the vision of reconciliation that scripture offers. We have not seen the vision of heaven come down. Our vision of creation suffers from our understanding of God’s intent for it.
In the Lord’s Prayer we pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Yet we don’t actualize that expression when it comes to the Father’s will for the physical world. Revelation offers us the hope we need.
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’” (Revelation 21:1-5, NIV).
John is offering a vision of heaven coming down to earth, of earth being renewed of God making his dwelling with man. Of the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven with trinity at its center. This is a God who will make his home on this earth and bring light through his glory.
If we understand that as Christians we are given a physical body to live with God on earth and share in the splendor of the new creation; than we too can see and act as God’s children to uphold one of the oldest commandments to tend and keep what by nature is God’s.
Alexei Laushkin, a graduate from Claremont McKenna College, works for the Evangelical Environmental Network. He and his wife live in Alexandria, VA.
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