Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany: Epistle, 1 Corinthians 15:21-26, 30-42     

1 Corinthians 15:21-26, 30-42

After so many years in the Christian ministry, first as a hospice chaplain, and now for many years in a congregational setting I think what mystifies me most is the attitude of Christians toward the resurrection. Not the resurrection of Jesus so much, but that which is promised to us. Why am I mystified? Because I find that many are either poorly taught regarding it or they simply see the resurrection differently from what the Scriptures declare. May I say (write) this clearly: resurrection is physical. I could type that statement many times over hoping that would sink in. But in teaching over the years on this most blessed of subjects, I cannot tell you how many blank stares I have received. And the untruth behind many of those stares is the gnostic idea that spirit is good, matter is bad, and so the resurrection is just immaterial. Isn’t it?

It’s one of the primary reasons I want Christians, adult Christians to be hard at work reading their Bibles and good writers as they unpack and make comments on it. Many people today-and I will call out those of my own age and older (60’s and above), that many have a very poor view of what Jesus has promised them. And wouldn’t one want to know as much as possible about the incredible future which awaits those redeemed by the blood of the lamb? Our epistle text this week points to the fact that what is placed into the ground is what will rise. Now, granted, it will be raised fit for eternal life. Hear Paul clearly, “So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. There is a transformation. But that transformation comes to the body placed in the ground. And even if it is there long enough to completely disintegrate, it will be raised. Nothing is too hard for the Lord.

In another place, Paul puts it this way: “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Philippians 3:20-21). There it is dear family in Christ. Resurrection is physical. The Bible says so.