Resurrection As Historical

     We may wonder whether the Resurrection was an historical event. While it is incorrect to affirm every detail of the New Testament post-Resurrection accounts of Jesus as if they could have been photographed, it is equally mistaken to declare them all as subjective products of spirited fantasy or inner conviction. The post-Resurrection passages include actual persons, places, and incidents that could have been videotaped, among them Thomas, other disciples mentioned by name, a place of burial, and the Risen Christ himself. These passages also contain or imply wonder-filled meanings beyond the range of any human or camera lens. Within and beneath the Easter texts, whether statements referring to photographable incidents or metaphors based on a unique event, is this central Christian discernment: that at an actual time and place of the Creator's own choosing, God's intention for humanity (God's "Word" for everyone - Jew and Gentile alike), embodied in Jesus the Christ, was born, ministered to many, was wrongly executed for treason by the Roman government, and was raised from death in a transfigured, exalted form unknown to us. Jesus "entered a new order of life: one which does not and cannot occur as part of the present order of things."¹ "...the resurrection of Christ was an objective event but of an unusual kind. Although it was not simply an event in the minds of the disciples, yet it was not publicly observable. Christ appeared only to chosen witnesses."² In the New Testament the Resurrected Christ is depicted with "a body identical yet changed, without the usual limitations of the flesh yet capable of manifesting itself within the order of the flesh."³ Thus, the Resurrection was an historical happening - even though the physics of this "divine surprise" is beyond our knowledge. The meanings of the Resurrection are preached virtually every Sunday.

(1) Norris, Understanding the Faith of the Church, p. 137.
(2) Thomas, Introduction to Theology, p. 226.
(3) quoted by Thomas, ibid.