For me, there is no more electric moment in the New Testament than the encounter between the risen Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Mary’s soul must have been struck with utter shock and dismay when she sorrowfully came to the tomb where Jesus lay early that Sunday morning to dress the body only to find the sepulcher empty. Yet moments later she was in an ecstasy of joy when she became the first human to ever see a resurrected being, her own beloved Master.
Mary’s news was greeted at first with skepticism by most of the apostles. We can scarcely imagine the impact it had on them. As John says, “For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.” Then they began to piece together all that he had taught them, that he would be killed and rise again on the third day. Until then they had never fully understood, and as the truth powerfully dawned on them we can imaging them rethinking everything they had seen and heard over the past three years of Christ’s ministry.
And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.
And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them. And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures. (Luke 24: 36-45).
Jesus’ invitation to handle his body and feel the nail prints in his hands and feet, followed by a physical demonstration of eating, is a dramatic illustration of the reality of the resurrection. For anyone basing their faith on the New Testament, this is Christianity. At this point Jesus becomes not just another holy man or prophet carrying God’s message to mankind. He becomes something much more - the living, risen Christ, the Savior of the world whose atonement and sacrifice deliver to all men and women the promise of that same resurrection. To take the resurrection out of Christianity is to gut the Christian faith of much of its hope and promise.
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