Resurrection rises again

Resurrection is just not believable to many folk, I was thinking again last night during our How To Face Death class. As is usual, only one or two considered the traditional Christian view at all plausible. And I’ve sympathy with the view. ‘Worm meat’ is the most commonly believed state, post-mortem.

But what interests me is how resurrection is still a very pervasive hope in our culture – redefined in secular terms.

Christianity teaches not resuscitation of the corpse, but the gift of a new body. (Hence, the resurrected Jesus has a body, but it’s not like yours or mine – able to appear and disappear, be present but not quite recognised etc.) And is not the desire for a new body one of the dominate narratives in our culture?

Rejuvenating creams, personal trainers, clothes design, body insurance, plastic surgery, virtual reality. I wonder what percentage of the economy is based on a secular, this-worldly version of resurrection?

Except that like all desires that are repressed, the original Christian notion returns in a distorted form, purged of the unpleasant talk of death. And unconsciously returning, the longing for a new body now persecutes more than liberates us – I suspect…