The second lesson from this story is this. The experiences of Peter and John at the tomb also indicate that the body of the Lord was glorified. It was sown a natural body and was raised a spiritual body. And in this body Jesus lives, seated at the right hand of God where He waits in glory, interceding for His own until the moment when He will return again in judgment. Praise God we need not think of Jesus today as the vulnerable Jesus of history! Jesus died, but He died once for all. He was buffeted and spat upon and cursed, but that will never be repeated.
I know that there are people who think of Jesus as a figure hanging on a cross. Others have a mental picture of Jesus in the garden praying, or wandering about doing good. But none of these pictures is exactly accurate for those who live today. Paul saw the Lord on the road to Damascus, but He was not the lowly Jesus. He was the exalted Lord, surrounded by a light so bright it blinded the apostle. John saw the living Lord triumphant among the candle sticks that represent the churches.
Make no mistake about it. We pray today to a powerful Lord, to an exalted Lord. This Lord will return for His own one day, and take them to be with Him in glory.
Finally, the transformation of the body of Jesus Christ points to a new mode of life for all believers. He is the firstfruits. And we, the harvest, shall be like Him in our bodies as well as in His traits of character. Our resurrection bodies will be better than physical bodies. They will not be our physical bodies resuscitated. Our bodies hamper us. They tie us to earth, to habits, even to traits of character that we have inherited from our parents through their genes. They slow our thought processes. When we are sufficiently tired they carry us away in sleep. Eventually they die.
But we are to gain by death. The resurrection body will not hamper us. The body of the risen Christ was the forerunner of our bodies, and it was and is wholly subservient to His wishes. It did not hamper Him. It freed Him. In that body He knew no pain, no suffering, no want. For us there will also be freedom. There will be no want. There will only be unlimited time and unlimited opportunities for service.
In one of his great sermons on the resurrection, D. L. Moody tells the story of a bright young girl about fifteen years of age who was suddenly cast upon a bed of suffering, completely paralyzed on one side and nearly blind. She could hardly see, but she could hear. And as she lay in bed one day she heard the family doctor say to her parents as they stood by the bedside: “She has seen her best days, poor child.”
But the girl was a believer, and she quickly replied, “No, doctor, my best days are yet to come, when I shall see the King in his beauty.”
Her hope lay in the resurrection. This is our hope also. The days may be bleak. Suffering may be all too real. But we look with confidence for our ultimate redemption by the power of Him who is the resurrection and the life.
