Letter from Isabelle: Is Jesus alive?

Dear Revd Glynn,

Is Jesus still alive?

Love from Isabelle.

Dear Isabelle,

The answer is no and yes. Let me explain.

Jesus was born about 2,012 years ago and he died about 1,979 years ago. He was a real man, made of real bones, skin, and flesh and blood. When he died all that real bones, skin and stuff died too. There is no real flesh and blood Jesus hiding in heaven or anywhere else.

However there is more to us, and more to Jesus, than just bones, skin, and flesh and blood. The most ‘real thing’ about Jesus was his love and his vision for how he wanted life to be. That ‘real thing’ lived on in his followers after he died. That ‘real thing’ still lives on in people who try to love as he did, and try to make the world a place similar to his vision.

This is what many people in the Church understand by the word resurrection. It wasn’t that the real bones, skin and stuff of Jesus came back to life and continued walking around in Palestine for the next so many years. Or that the real bones, skin and stuff of Jesus continues walking around on earth or up in the clouds somewhere. Rather resurrection is a way of talking about how the real love and vision of Jesus lives on within his followers, and sometimes even within people who aren’t his followers but love anyway.

Glynn