His Resurrection, and Yours

Over the years, a lot of people have asked me about what eternity will be like. They want to know what their spouse, parent, or child is experiencing, now that they’re gone. They want to know if we’ll really see the people we loved in this life, if we’ll really recognize each other.

I don't know the first thing about life after death, but I do know some things about the Bible.

In some ways, scripture paints a really vivid, detailed picture of eternal life with God—golden streets, gates of pearl, jasper, emerald, amethyst! But, in other ways, the picture in the Bible is vague and incomplete. If you want to know what your relationships with others will be like after this life is over, there isn’t a lot to go on: people are no longer married (Mark 12:25); we’ll be together, and with Jesus (1 Thess 4:17); no one will need weapons anymore (Isa 2:4). Beyond that, you have to start speculating.

And not much is said about what we will be like then. In 1 Corinthians, Paul contrasts “heavenly bodies” and “earthly bodies” (15:40) before going on to say that, when Jesus comes again, “we shall be changed… this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.” (15:52-53) I think I get his point, but, again, this is pretty fuzzy on the details.

But Paul does say one other thing that, I think, unlocks this mystery for us, at least a bit. It’s in Romans 6:5. Talking about baptism, he writes: “if we have been united with him [Christ] in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

Followers of Jesus can expect a resurrection like his one day.

That’s all Paul gives us there, but that’s alright, because the gospels give us a lot more. What does a “resurrection like his” look like? Well, think about the Easter stories:

• Mary Magdalene doesn't recognize Jesus when she first meets him, but when he says her name, she knows his voice. (John 20:14-16)
• Jesus is somehow no longer impeded by locked doors. (20:26)
• But Jesus has a body that's physical enough to show Thomas the scars on his hands and his side. (20:27)
• He can have a long conversation with two disciples without them ever recognizing him, but at dinner they immediately know who he is again. (Luke 24:15-31)
• Jesus can vanish. (24:31)
• Jesus can also eat a piece of fish, which he does to prove he has "flesh and bones" and isn't a ghost. (24:38-43)

In these scenes, Jesus is different and strange, and yet he’s also the same man they’ve always known. He has a body, but it’s not quite like the bodies we have now. These descriptions don’t always mesh neatly—I guess meeting a resurrected person is a tricky thing to describe—but they still give us the fullest picture we have of the kind of life in store for God’s children. 

It will be different. So different that you may be unrecognizable at first. But that never lasts. The reunion might be a little clumsy, but the resurrection promise that Easter holds out to us is the promise of a new life with Jesus and with all of his people, together, forever. 

What we celebrate this holiday isn’t just Jesus’s empty tomb. It’s the hope of empty tombs and open graves for all of Christ’s people one day. It’s his resurrection, and yours. 

A resurrection like his.

Happy Easter! You can listen to this week's devotional right here: