resurrection
Good morning, SundaySchoolers!
Our topic last Sunday morning was the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus as reported in the four canonical gospels. We did not finish, so agreed to continue along the same line today.
Here's a handout that may help us pick back up and get into discussion, listing the place in each book where the gospel writer reports Jesus appearing and conversing; and, for discussion, suggesting what each writer means to convey. Which is to say, the writer's agenda - - as for example, Mark's agenda is to so frustrate his readers that those around Jesus don't "get it" as to who and what He is, that they are driven to proclaim Christ themselves. My suggested agenda items for each evangelist's Resurrection report may not be complete, and may have items that other class members don't agree with.
Notice how the reported appearances increase as time goes on and the early church develops (and maybe encounters problems). Remember that every writer has agenda, reasons and occasions for writing. Remember that we are neither challenging historicity, nor submitting to a pietistic hugging our breast and looking toward heaven with a beatific smile and saying "I believe that" approach, but trying to understand what the writer is trying to convey and why. Remember that in our class, no question may not be asked and no topic may not be discussed.
+++++++++++
MARK 16 c.a. 70 AD
None, no post-resurrection appearances. Mary Magdalene, Mary Mother, Salome flee the empty tomb scene in fear. and that’s the end of it. Totally disregard the Short and Long Endings added later.
?Mark’s AGENDA? (Retrospectively some 40 years after Easter). To have a heavenly being proclaim Jesus’ resurrection. As Mark’s climax, to inspire Mark’s frustrated readers to go out and proclaim Christ.
MATTHEW 28 c.a. 80-100 AD
9f. Easter Day at the tomb, Jesus meets Mary Magdalene and the other Mary.
16f. Later, Jesus meets the eleven disciples on the mountain in Galilee.
?Matthew’s AGENDA? (Retrospectively 50 to 70 years after Easter).To have a heavenly being proclaim Jesus’ resurrection. To have Jesus appear in person to the women. To (vss 11-15) cover/refute the rumor that it was all made up. To have Jesus appear to the eleven and make it obvious and okay that some would doubt. To commission preaching the Gospel, & making disciples, & the use of baptizing, & the Trinitarian formula (either to initiate the new Jewish/Christian church doing this, or to retrospectively have Jesus authorize it [etiologize why the early church is doing these thimgs!])
LUKE 24 c.a. 80-130 AD
13f. Easter Day, Jesus appears to Cleopas and another disciple on the road to Emmaus.
36f. Easter Day evening, Jesus stands among those two plus the eleven and companions at the room back in Jerusalem. He eats a piece of broiled fish. Tells them to stay in Jerusalem.
50f. Easter Day evening, Jesus leads “them” to Bethany, blesses them, and Ascends into heaven.
?Luke’s AGENDA? (Retrospectively 50 to 100 years later) To have heavenly beings (2 now!) proclaim Jesus’ resurrection. To have the heavenly beings rationalize, establish the new doctrine of how and why Jesus was/is the long expected Messiah even though he suffered and died (which heroic and victorious messiahs did not do). To have Jesus in person appear to two disciples. To have Jesus himself rationalize, establish the new doctrine that Jesus Messiah had to suffer and die. To reestablish the eucharistic formula (take, bless, break, give Bread). To make normal a new mystery that Jesus appears and vanishes and appears where and when he will. To make clear that the resurrected body is not a ghost (Greek, phantasma, phantom, fantasy). Yet again to reaffirm that it was meant to happen all along that the Messiah should suffer, die, and rise again - - BECAUSE for the messiah to suffer and die would have immediately dismissed Jesus as the messiah, and the disciples and others would have gone on looking for The One. To command the disciples to wait in Jerusalem (as opposed to MK and MT sending them to Galilee), because for Luke, everything begins, centers, and ends in Jerusalem. To set the stage for Pentecost, reports Jesus’ Ascension and the disciples returning to Jerusalem to wait as Jesus commanded.
JOHN 20 c.a. 90-120 AD
11f. Easter Day at the tomb, Jesus meets Mary Magdalene.
19f. Easter Day evening, Jesus appears to the disciples, in a locked room where they are meeting. Thomas is not there and doubts.
26f. The following Sunday in the same house, Thomas is there.
?John’s AGENDA? (Retrospectively 60 to 90 years after Easter). To tell Jesus appear to Mary physically but untouchable. To show the mystery of the bodily resurrected and recognizable Jesus appearing to this one and that one, coming and going as he will, doors and locks are no obstacle. Through the words of Thomas, to affirm Jesus as God, which is part of Gospel John’s message. Because decades have passed and it is no longer possible to see Jesus personally for oneself, to indicate that doubt is okay, but those who believe without seeing (i.e., all of John’s target audience) are more blest than those who insist on seeing for themselves.
JOHN 21 (written/added after John 20, but credibly by the same author [same author as 1stJohn?] - - there is no early manuscript that includes 20 but not 21).
1f. Later, (“3rd time”) Jesus shows himself to seven disciples by the Sea of Tiberias (Galilee), directs them to a large catch of fish, cooks bread and fish for them.
15f. Same time/place as 21:1f above, Jesus restores/reconciles Peter.
20f. Jesus mentions the Beloved Disciple privately(?) with Peter.
?John’s AGENDA? To add to the author’s first ending. To show Jesus as still present bodily some time later, in Galilee as well as before in Jerusalem. To show Jesus’ powers as still existing. To show the Beloved Disciple still in the picture. To show Jesus is only marginally recognizable. (Unlike the Synoptics, establishing the Eucharist is not part of Gospel John’s story). To show that Peter, forgiven and restored, is still the preeminent shepherd disciple (may be to settle a later power issue occurring at the time this gospel was written?). Retroactively, to show prescience of Peter’s martyrdom. To refute/put down a rumor that Jesus had said the Beloved Disciple would live until the second coming. To say the (unnamed) Beloved Disciple is the author of this gospel and an eyewitness to Jesus?
++++++++
Art: "Easter Morning Resurrection Sunday" by Catalina Walker. Besides its being strikingly brilliant, and primarily my favorite color (red), an appeal of this art piece to me is the suggestion, especially apt to our discussion, that each viewer may see what s/he will.
art: https://pixels.com/featured/easter-morning-resurrection-sunday-catalina-walker.html