Column: As It Is Written. . . .

Jesus Now Glorified

by Patrick Henry Reardon

If we reflected on it more closely, perhaps we would observe something curious, even surprising, in the Gospel stories about Jesus after his Resurrection; namely, what I venture to call a quality of restraint. Except for the wounds in his flesh (Luke; John), the risen Savior appears to his disciples rather much as they remembered him from before. He is alive, of course, but he does not display—visibly—the signs St. Paul seems to suggest as characteristic of the resurrected body: "It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body" (1 Cor. 15:42–44). What the apostles actually see, in these appearances, is the same Jesus as they always knew him.

The plain, unremarkable form of his post-Resurrection appearance may be contrasted with the way Jesus is portrayed at the time of his Transfiguration. On that occasion, we are told, "the appearance of his face was altered, and his robe was white and glistening" (Luke 9:29). His appearance at that time took on a radiant quality not of this earth: "His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, as no launderer on earth could whiten them" (Mark 9:3). The witnesses to this event were overwhelmed by a sense of luminosity: "His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light" (Matt. 17:2).

If Jesus could appear in such glory before the Resurrection, it is hardly unreasonable to wonder why he did not do so after it. Yet, the records indicate that he did not.

Need to Be Recognized

I suggest that this fact is significant in two ways, one touching upon apologetics and the other pointing to a theological truth.

With respect to apologetics, it seems significant that Jesus, when the apostles saw him after the Resurrection, should appear to them very much as he appeared during his earthly ministry, in "the days of his flesh." It was singularly important for Jesus to be recognized as the same Jesus the chosen witnesses had always known. If, when he appeared to them in the upper room, the risen Savior had come bathed in the glory of an ethereal light, the experience of the apostles might have prompted them to wonder if his body were really of the same substance as before. "Handle me and see," he instructed them, "for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have" (Luke 24:39).

In short, if the testimony of the apostles was to be credible to the world—if their witness to the Resurrection was to "stand up in court"—it was necessary for them to have recognized Jesus as the man they had known before.

No More Secrecy

In addition to this concern of apologetics, the "plainness" of Jesus' post-Resurrection appearance also indicates a theological truth; namely, his true "publication" as the risen Lord was the testimony he received from the Holy Spirit. According to the New Testament, the Resurrection was not preached until the Holy Spirit came down in power upon the Church.

Then, and then only, did the apostles go forth to announce that Jesus, "being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death—him God raised up" (Acts 2:23–24). The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is the proof of the Resurrection: "This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this which you now see and hear" (2:32–33).

Continue Reading

---