Give Us This Day ...

Notes on

The Meaning Of Jesus:  Two Visions

by

Marcus J. Borg and N. T. Wright

Note 1:  These notes follow the outline given in the Table of Contents.

Note 2:  Most, if not all, of the sentences and phrases in the following pages were

pulled directly from the book and are placed within quotes.

Note 3:  The grey highlighted items can be considered primary key points.

Note 4:  The yellow highlighted items can be considered secondary key points.

PART IV:  “GOD RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD”

7.  The Transforming Reality of the Bodily Resurrection (by N. T. Wright): 

“ ‘What happened on Easter Day?’... ‘Why did Christianity arise…?’ ”

….other messiahs…Their movements either died with them, sometimes literally or transformed themselves into a new movement around a new leader.  Jesus’ movement did neither.  Within days of his execution it found a new lease of life; within weeks it was announcing that he was indeed the messiah; within a year or two it was proclaiming him to pagans as their rightful Lord.  How can a historian explain this astonishing transformation?....God had raised Jesus from the dead.”

Resurrection in First-Century Judaism

“What would they have understood by resurrection, and why would they use this language to describe what had happened to Jesus?  Many people today, both Christian and non-Christian, use the word loosely, to refer to life after death or reincarnation or something else.”

“The Sadducees, the ruling elite, denied a future life of any sort.”

“Many Jews believed in a continuing life after death, but in a disembodied state that neither needed nor expected a future reembodiment.

“At the other end of the spectrum from the Sadducees we find the Pharisees, with their well-known belief in the resurrection of the body….Resurrection for Pharisees, was thus part of their belief both in the goodness of the created, physical world and in the ultimate triumph of the justice of God.”

“For the first-century Jew, resurrection was not a general term for ‘life after death.’

“Daniel…uses new metaphors to denote the concrete rising to life of dead people and to connote two things: (a) that it will be like waking from sleep, and (b) that it will be to a life of more splendor than before.”

“This literal meaning of resurrection – the concrete reembodiment of those who have died, especially the righteous and wise – continued on to become the mainstream Pharisaic belief…”

“…it was possible for people to believe in resurrection without necessarily believing that something had happened to a corpse.”

“ ‘The resurrection’ still formed part of the long-term Pharisaic and rabbinic hope for a new state of affairs…instead of remaining simply a vivid image for God’s new day, it became one element within that final hope, which could be referred to, like the phrases ‘the messianic age’ and ‘the kingdom of God,’… ”

“It was never envisaged that one person might receive ‘the resurrection’ while the rest of history continued unchecked.”

“ ‘The resurrection’ was to be the raising to life of all the righteous dead….as part of the great final reversal of the world’s, and Israel’s, fortunes…”

“…the supposedly resurrected individual is a concrete human being, not a disembodied spirit.”

“ ‘The souls of the righteous are in God’s hand’….enjoying a peaceful rest until the time of visitation and resurrection”

“Resurrection was one option among others for how one interpreted what God was going to do with and for those who had died…”

“There is no evidence for Jews of our period using the word resurrection to denote something essentially nonconcrete.

Early Christianity Within its Jewish Context

“Resurrection implies at the very least a coming back to something that had been forfeited that is, bodily life.”

“What the early church insisted about Jesus was that he had been well and truly physically dead and was now well and truly physically alive.”

“….a sequence of resurrection ‘appearances’ that then stopped.  Paul knows….that his seeing of Jesus was the last such event.”

“…the early Christians not only said that Jesus had been raised from the dead; they concluded from this that God’s new age had indeed begun, however paradoxically.”

“This rules out as well the explanation that has recently been offered, that the early Christians received a ghostly visitation from their recently deceased leader.”

“So why did the early Christians use the word resurrection to describe what they believed had happened to Jesus?....and proceeded to build a new worldview, a significant variation from within contemporary Judaism, on this belief.”

“…the early Christians really did believe that they were living in the ‘age to come’ for which Israel had longed, the time of forgiveness of sins, the gift of the Spirit, when the Gentiles would be brought in to worship the one God of Israel.  The ‘present age’ was still continuing, but the ‘age to come’ had been inaugurated.”

“Other groups whose messiah was killed faced a choice:  either find a new messiah, or give up the revolution.”

“The early Christians…affirmed not only that ‘the resurrection,’ the great hope of Israel, had happened, but that it had happened in a way that nobody had imagined…They reconstructed their worldview….the transforming principle, the string that had pulled back the curtain, revealing God’s future has having already arrived in the present.”

The Evidence:  Paul

“Early Christianity did not consist of a new spirituality or ethic.  It consisted of the announcement of things that had happened whose significance lay precisely in their happenedness:  specifically, the messiah’s death, burial, and resurrection.”

“…resurrection….involves the undoing of death and burial alike.”

“Jesus’ resurrection is the beginning of the ‘end,’ and the resurrection of all believers is (one feature of) the final end of the ‘end.’  The world as a whole has entered the last days in which Jesus rules as Messiah and Lord.  These days will continue until all that opposes or threatens his rule has been dealt with.  Finally, death itself…will be destroyed, and God will be all in all.  The significance of Jesus’ resurrection is…that the new creation has already begun.”

“…the resurrection body possesses both continuity and discontinuity with the existing body….The resurrection body is thus not identical with the original body; it has not, that is, merely been resuscitated; it is, rather, the transformation of the existing body into a new mode of physicality….a transformed physicality, with new properties and attributes but still concrete and physical.  ‘Flesh and blood,’ which cannot inherit the kingdom, are the present mode of physicality…”

“If the present world is to be abandoned, why work to improve it, to rid it of oppression and dehumanization?  The point of the resurrection, for Paul, is that entropy does not have the last word, for humans or for the world as a whole.  God has the last word, and it will be lifegiving.  Present Christian existence, therefore, with all its pains and struggles, is infinitely worthwhile.”

“…what mattered was that the resurrection had happened – not, of course, as an isolated bizarre miracle, but as the messianic focal point and climax of the story of the creator and covenant God with Israel and the world.  This was the hinge on which the door of history turned. The resurrection of Jesus did not merely offer new, or more sharply defined, hope for the future.  It gave new perspective to the present time, cosmically and personally.”

The Evidence:  The Gospels

“We shall never be sure how many women went in what order to the tomb….”

“….lawyers and judges have regularly declared that this is precisely the state of the evidence they find in a great many cases:  this is what eyewitness testimony looks and sounds like.  And in such cases the surface discrepancies do not mean that nothing happened; rather, they mean that the witnesses have not been in collusion.”

“A story that carried significance for a person, a family, a village, or a community would not change; it would always be told that way in and for that community….They let them stand, warts and all:  this was how their community had told the story from the very first days.”

“…how the body of Jesus was neither resuscitated nor left to decay in the tomb but was rather transformed into a new mode of physicality, shocking and startling to the disciples and to all subsequent readers.”

“The stories hold together both (what we would call) the physicality of the risen Jesus (the empty tomb, the fact that Jesus could in principle be touched and felt, his cooking of breakfast, his eating of fish) and his ability to appear and disappear at will, passing through locked doors, and to remain unrecognized on one occasion and puzzling on others (‘none of them dared ask him, ‘Who are you,’ for they knew it was the Lord’; ‘when they saw him they worshiped, but some doubted’).”

“The deep point of the stories is that the creator God, the God of Israel, has liberated his people and renewed creation.  If this is ‘translated’ into a meaning that does not involve events within creation itself, it has deconstructed itself and is halfway to Gnosticism.”

“And can we not see that the undoubted, and deeply important, metaphorical dimensions of the stories work, ultimately, only if the basic thing they are describing actually happened?”

Historical Conclusion

“…the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth was empty because his body had been transformed into a new mode of physicality….”

“Once you allow that something remarkable happened to his body that morning, all the other data fall into place with astonishing ease.”

“The question is, whether you are prepared to allow that certain worldviews, including the many skeptical ones that render resurrection out of the question, could and perhaps should be challenged, or whether they are set in stone forever.”

“It is no good falling back on ‘science’ as having disproved the possibility of resurrection.  Any real scientist will tell you that science observes what normally happens; the Christian case is precisely that what happened to Jesus is not what normally happens.”

“Assuming that a camera would pick up what most human eyes would have seen (by no means a safe assumption), my best guess is that cameras would sometimes have seen Jesus and sometimes not.”

The Meanings of Easter

“I have heard many devout sermons explaining the ‘meaning’ of the resurrection in ways that to me seem inadequate.  I have heard, for instance, that Jesus’ resurrection proves the existence of life after death.  That certainly was not the point for the first Christians: they already believed in life after death, and in resurrection after ‘life after death.’  For them, Jesus’ resurrection meant that the story of God, Israel, and the world had entered its new phase.  It was about history and eschatology, not just about personal futures.”

“I have heard, too, that the resurrection means that Jesus is now alive, and one can enter into relationship with him…..It is, in fact, more the truth of Pentecost….Jesus has not abandoned his people but will come to them by his spirit.  The risen Christ is now ‘with you always, even to the end of the age,’ but this is a further promise, made possible by the fact of the resurrection, not the inner meaning of the event itself.”

“Rather, the meaning of the resurrection must begin with the validation of Jesus as messiah….It means that Israel’s God, the creator, has affirmed that Jesus really was, all along, his ‘son.’  It means, therefore, the acceptance and validation of his messianic achievement, supremely in his crucifixion: the resurrection declares that the cross was a victory, not a defeat…..if the messiah is not risen, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.  It is the resurrection that declares that sins have indeed been dealt with.”

“The deepest meanings of the resurrection have to do with new creation….God’s new world had been brought to birth.”

“It was, therefore, the sign of hope for the future not only for individuals but for the whole world….it was the sign that the whole creation would have its exodus, would shake off its corruption and decay, its enslavement to entropy.  The New Testament is full of the promise….in which the living God will wipe away all tears from all eyes.  The personal hope for resurrection is located within the larger hope for the renewal of all creation…Take away the bodily resurrection, however, and what are you left with?....If Jesus’ resurrection involved the abandoning of his body, it would make exactly the wrong metaphorical point.”

“….the resurrection of Jesus means that the present time is shot through with great significance.  What is done to the glory of God in the present is genuinely building for God’s future…Take away the resurrection, and these things are important for the present but irrelevant for the future and hence not all that important after all even now….build now…the things that will last into God’s new age, is the vocation to holiness: to the fully human life, reflecting the image of God.”

“ ‘If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above’; get rid of all the dehumanizing behavior that destroys God’s good creation and the creatures made in his image, all anger and lust, greed and pride.  The resurrection thus opens the door to a new world…”

8.  The Truth of Easter (by Marcus Borg):

The Centrality of Easter

“Easter is utterly central to Christianity.  ‘God raised Jesus from the dead’ is the foundational affirmation of the New Testament.  About this Tom and I agree.  We also agree that the best explanation for the rise of Christianity – indeed, the only adequate explanation – is the resurrection of Jesus.  We also agree about its central meanings.  Put most compactly, I see the meanings of Easter as twofold:  Jesus lives, and Jesus is Lord.  Both claims are essential:  Easter means that Jesus was experienced after his death, and that he is both Lord and Christ.”

The Historical Ground of Easter

“What we disagree about is the historical ground of those affirmations….Specifically, we disagree about whether the truth of Easter depends upon an empty tomb.”

“Tom argues vigorously for the historical factuality of the empty tomb and sees it as central to the truth of Easter.  He thus affirms what is commonly called a ‘physical resurrection’: something utterly remarkable did happen to the corpse of Jesus, namely, it was transformed into ‘a new mode of physicality.’  I see the empty tomb and whatever happened to the corpse of Jesus to be ultimately irrelevant to the truth of Easter.

The Irrelevance of the Empty Tomb

“For me, it is irrelevant whether or not the tomb was empty….simply that it doesn’t matter.”

“The meaning of resuscitation is obvious:  a person dead or believed to be dead comes back to life again.  Resuscitation is resumption of previous existence.”

“Resurrection in a first-century Jewish and Christian context is a very different notion….resurrection does not mean resumption of previous existence but entry into a new kind of existence….for a resurrected person will not die again.  There is a sense in which it is also beyond the categories of space and time; the resurrected Christ can appear anywhere and presumably can appear in more than one place at the same time.  Thus, whatever happened on Easter, it was not resuscitation.”

“…resuscitation intrinsically involves something happening to a corpse:  resurrection need not.  Resurrection does not refer to the resumption of protoplasmic or corpuscular existence.  To be sure, resurrection could involve something happening to a corpse, namely the transformation of a corpse; but it need not;  Thus, as a Christian, I am very comfortable not knowing whether or not the tomb was empty.  Indeed, the discovery of Jesus’ skeletal remains would not be a problem.  It doesn’t matter, because Easter is about resurrection, not resuscitation.”

“The people traveling with [Paul] did not experience what he did.  Importantly I think visions and apparitions can be true, by which I mean truthful disclosures of the way things are.  I do not put them in the category of hallucinations….apparitions do not involve a physical body, even though what is seen often includes seeing a person in bodily form.”

“The physical body is to the resurrection body as a seed is to a full-grown plant.  Continuity:  the seed becomes the plant.  Discontinuity:  a full-grown plant looks radically different from the seed.”

“Then Paul distinguishes between two kinds of bodies…. ‘physical body’ and ‘spiritual body’…. ‘physical body’ means literally ‘a body animated by soul,’ and the second phrase means ‘a body animated by spirit’ ”

“…the story of the risen Christ appearing to two of his followers on the Emmaus Road…it is the day we know as Easter Sunday….They sit down at a table together…they recognized him.”

“…the risen Christ journeys with us, whether we know that or not, realize that or not, even as it also affirms that there are moments of recognition in which we do realize that.  Thus I do not see the Emmaus Road story as reporting a particular event on a particular day, visible to anybody who happened to be there, but as a story about how the risen Christ comes to his followers again and again and again.”

“For me, the historical ground of Easter is very simple:  the followers of Jesus, both then and now, continued to experience Jesus as a living reality after his death….included visions or apparitions of Jesus… ‘Jesus is still here, but in a radically new way.’  Continuity and discontinuity are both affirmed.”

“Thus I see the post-Easter Jesus as an experiential reality.”

The Two Central Meanings of Easter

“The first of the central meanings of Easter has just been stated:  Jesus lives.”

“There is a second equally important meaning…Jesus is Lord.”

“These experiences were not in the same category as having an experience of one’s deceased parent or spouse….their experience of him after his death as having the qualities of God; like God, he was a spiritual reality; like God, he could be experienced anywhere.  Hence, ‘Jesus is Lord.’ ”

“Indeed, I see ‘raised to God’s right hand’ as the central meaning of being ‘raised from the dead.’  Jesus not only lives but is Lord.  The right hand of God is a position of honor, authority, and participation in the power and being of God….Jesus has become one with God…”

“Jesus is Lord.  Rome is not.  The domination system is not.  If Jesus is Lord, then all the would-be lords of our lives are not.”

“…I see the difference between Tom and me as this….we both affirm the resurrection of Jesus and see it as central to the New Testament.  But we understand the historical events or ground behind this affirmation differently.  My position is that experiences of the risen Christ as a continuing presence generated the claim that ‘Jesus lives and is Lord’ and that the statement ‘God raised Jesus from the dead’ and the story of the empty tomb may well have been generated by those experiences.  Tom’s position is that the fact of the empty tomb and the appearances generated the claim ‘Jesus lives and is Lord.’  But we both affirm the claim.  This is who Jesus is for us as Christians.”

The Completed Pattern of Good Friday and Easter

“I will briefly describe five meanings of the completed pattern of death and resurrection….All of them are post-Easter retrospective interpretations generated within the community.”

Rejection/Vindication

“The execution of Jesus was the rejection of Jesus by the religions and political authorities of the day.  The domination system killed him.  The resurrection of Jesus is God’s vindication of Jesus.  It is a simple no-yes pattern:  Jesus’ death was the domination system’s no to what he was doing; Jesus’ resurrection was God’s yes to Jesus.  It is therefore also God’s no to the rulers of this world.”

“…the lords of this world crucified Jesus, but Jesus is Lord and they aren’t….It is the continuation and climax of the conflict between the lordship of God and the lordship of Pharaoh.”

Defeat of the Powers

“…not simply the political and religious authorities in Jerusalem, but the powers that rule this age.”

“These powers hold us in bondage….in bondage to many things….and our bondage is not simply political….bondage has become a comprehensive metaphor for the human condition.”

“The Lordship of Christ is the path of personal and existential liberation from the lords of this world.”

Revelation of the Way

“…the revelation or disclosure of the way or path of transformation to new life.  Here death and resurrection become a metaphor for the internal spiritual process that lies at the heart of the Christian path.”

“[Paul] refers to himself as having died, and crucifixion is a metaphor for his own internal death:  ‘I have been crucified with Christ.’  The result of that internal death is a new identity:  ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.’….It is the meaning of the famous saying about bearing one’s cross: ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’  Following Jesus means following him on the path of death and resurrection.

“….the incarnation of the Way. ‘Jesus is the way’ ”

Revelation of the Love of God

“  a revelation of the depth of God’s love for us.  This interpretation depends upon the completed Christian story already being in place, in which Jesus is seen as God’s only and beloved son…..God’s giving up of that which is most precious to God – namely Jesus as God’s only son…..death of God’s only son for us is the incarnation of the depth of the divine love.”

Sacrifice for Sin

“ ‘Jesus died for our sins’…often seen as the ‘real’ meaning of Jesus’ death.”

“When I am asked, ‘Do you believe Jesus died for your sins?,’ my answer is no and yes.”

“Sacrifice as a way of dealing with sin was central to the world of Jesus…the timing and location of Jesus’ death meant that such imagery was close at hand.”

“…the temple claimed an institutional monopoly on the forgiveness of sins.  There were certain kinds of sins and impurities that could be atoned for only by sacrifice….the temple claimed an institutional monopoly on access to God”

“…to say ‘Jesus is the sacrifice’ means ‘You don’t need the temple; you have access to God apart from the temple.’  It is thus an antitemple statement.”

“…Jesus is ‘the once for all’ sacrifice for sin means that God has already taken care of whatever it is that we think separates us from God.  If our own sense of sin and guilt, or unworthiness or failure, makes us feel unacceptable by God, then we simply have not understood that God has already taken care of it.  As Paul put it, ‘Christ is the end of the law,’ meaning the end of the system of requirements and failing to measure up.”

“ ‘Jesus died for our sins’ means the abolition of the system of requirements, not the establishment of a new system of requirements.”

Thus we have five primary understandings of the death of resurrection of Jesus….The first two emphasize that Jesus is Lord, and the domination system and the powers are not.”

“The third sees the end of Jesus’ life as the embodiment of the path of transformation.  The fourth affirms that the death of Jesus as God’s only son is the incarnation of God’s love for us.  The fifth sees him as the once-for-all sacrifice who brings an end to the law as the basis of the divine-human relationship.”

“Domination systems and Jesus are antithetical to each other.  God makes possible our liberation from the powers that rule this world and our lives.  The path of transformation is the path of an internal dying and being reborn.  God is in love with us. God is immediately accessible and accepts us just as we are.”