TLDR: This blog covers a few thoughts on resurrection based on N. T Wright’s Surprised by Hope, What I have Learned: A Theologian Looks Back, and several online videos

“What are we waiting for? And what are we going to do about it in the meantime?” These are the two questions which lay at the very center of N. T. Wright’s study on the Resurrection of Christ. In Surprised by Hope, Wright attempts to answer these two questions by doing three things: He helps us understand how much of what we know about the resurrection is inaccurate, misguided, confusing, and un-biblical. He then proceeds to give a proper historical and biblical explanation of Jesus’ resurrection in a way that is beautiful, moving and engaging. In so doing, Wright brings centuries of theological research down to the level of his listeners and readers.

Our problem is that so many people in Western Christianity have been taught in churches that “Resurrection as a statement of our final hope is not about our bodies being raised but about our spirits or our souls going to heaven, and people have construed the work of resurrection as meaning that when we die we go to an afterlife in heaven.” This statement hides a sad truth and that is that many churches have a difficulty accepting Jesus’ own bodily resurrection. They see his resurrection as a spiritual reality only. Some believe that resurrection means that he remained alive spiritually in his movement, that his friends felt as though he was present in their lives and still guided their actions, that they felt he was in their heart, that, in light of his passion, faith in him became for the disciples a new form of spirituality that gave power and impetus to his movement, etc. A famous theologian once said that if they found the bones of Jesus tomorrow, the Church would not change in any significant way. Translation, “his resurrection was just a spiritual phenomenon and not a bodily resurrection.”

This is not how the communities of the New Testament saw Jesus’ resurrection. Rather, for the early church the idea that Jesus himself was raised in a new physical body is such a strong belief that many of them chose martyrdom rather than denying this reality. “For the New Testament the word Resurrection doesn’t mean that somebody’s body lies in the grave while his soul goes marching on. The body is given a new life. Jesus seems to have gone through death and out on the other side into a new kind of physicality for which there was no precedent and of which, as yet, there remains no subsequent example. The New Testament community and Christianity for the first 200 years says very emphatically, ‘This is what God through the Holy Spirit will do for us who belong to the Messiah. One day we will be raised as he was raised.’” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSDw1v63cGM). 

After affirming the bodily resurrection so strongly, the next question for the New Testament communities is, “What does it mean?” Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts are not saying, “Well, Jesus having been raised from the dead is now in heaven and you will go and join him. They are saying, “Jesus has been raised, therefore new creation has begun, and therefore we have a job to do… Jesus comes to the upper room and says, ‘Yes, it really is me. Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I send you.’” (N. T. Wright, What I have learned: A Theologian Looks Back. Online class at Admirato.com).

The second way in which Wright attempts to answer these two questions in Surprised by Hope is by teaching us a proper theology of eschatology. Eschatology is a compound word of “Eschaton” (last days) and “logos” (study). He clearly and compellingly tells us what Holy Scripture has to say about the resurrection of the dead, the events Scripture associates with the “Last Days,” and the theological implications of these scriptural passages. He does this as an erudite professor speaking to students who have never taken a theology class. In many ways this is a study of everything you ever wanted to know about what Scripture has to say about the end of the world but didn’t have the language or the courage to ask.

The third way Surprised by Hope answers these two questions is to show how the Christian’s hope of the resurrection is the core of any social action, evangelism, spirituality, liturgy, prayer, and ethics in which we engage personally as believers and corporately as a church. In other words, a rediscovery of a biblical understanding of the resurrection will help us find hope in our current world and times. This hope will then move us to ministry and worship in a practical way that brings joy to the lives of those people who are in our lives, those people we encounter in our daily walk, and the communities in which we live, work, and play.

The resurrection of the Son of God means that one day “God will fill the whole earth with his love and his presence and his knowledge and his glory as the waters cover the sea. Jesus is the small beginning of that. And it is through Jesus, the risen one, that this is now already happening. By his Spirit, his followers are going out to be resurrection people for the world, and to anticipate the time when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord that way.” (N. T. Wright, What I have Learned, Ibid.)  This is what Paul says in 1 Cor 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”   

There is nothing more radically beneficial to our faith in Christ than a proper understanding of his resurrection and our future hope of resurrection. Likewise, there is nothing more transformative to the communities in which Christians live than for those Christians to be deeply involved in working for the Kingdom of God in their midst. The resurrection of Christ has social, political, economic and theological implications. This is so because as Christians we don’t live in a vacuum, but rather we are interconnected one to another within a complex system of relationships that permeate the totality of our lives.

To believe in the resurrection of Christ is to choose to be fully alive in our faith and to choose to be fully involved in the world. There is no one more radically alive person than a Christian who knows what they believe in and hope for. Faith and hope are transformative for individuals, families and communities. I highly encourage Wright’s Surprised by Hope, as I believe it will transform your life, enliven your faith, and rekindle your hope.

May our Lord continue to bless you, Fr. Roman+