Still Without Understanding

  By now you should realize Jesus came to teach and he came to teach about life after bodily death. In Luke there are numerous references to spirits and life after the body has died. Luke Ch. 7: 11-17 "...a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother's only son, and she was a widow...".  [Jesus said] "...'Do not weep....Young man, I say to you, rise!' The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother." Ch 8: 41-56 "Just then there came a man named Jarius, a leader in the synagogue. He fell at Jesus' feet and begged him to come to his house, for he had only one daughter, about twelve years old, who was dying." ..."While he was speaking, someone came from the leader's house to say, 'Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the teacher any longer.' [Jesus went to the leader's house] "They were all weeping and wailing for her; but he said, 'Do not weep, for she is not dead but slee...

   Creation and Water--The Source Let us take a detour from thinking about 'resurrection' and consider a passage from "Island of Adventure" by Ross E. Hutchins (1968). Shelley saved this book from being tossed out of her school library and gave it to me. Thank you Shelley. "Water was the essential part of this primordial witch's brew that gave birth to life and, once started, living things of endless variety emerged from the sea and spread over the barren rocks and eventually clothed the land with green vegetation through which animal life roamed. The droplets of water that fall on The Island this morning could tell an interesting story; some of their molecules may have flowed in the veins of ancient dinosaurs or up through the trunks of tree ferns in Carboniferous forests; they may have been frozen into ice on the polar caps or flowed down jungle streams in tropical Africa.  The water in your morning coffee has been distilled and redistilled a million-millio...

It is important to note: The two main religious divisions of Judaism in Jesus' time were the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Sadducees did NOT believe in resurrection and life after death. They also did not believe in spirits or souls. The Pharisees believed in resurrection and spirits. They believed a final resurrection would occur "at the end of days", apparently not at your death or in the near-time. Resurrection is not something new and not just associated with Jesus. In addition to the Pharisees the concept is rooted in various theologies in different ways. One well known reference is to the Phoenix rising from the ashes. The Phoenix story is found in Egyptian and Greek AND JEWISH stories. This post will key on references in Matthew regarding resurrection and the relation to spirits. Chap 9: v18: "...he said, 'Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.'...and the girl got up.' " Chap 16: v21: "...and be killed, and on the third day be...

                                                    Let us look at what is said about resurrection in the gospels. This blogpost will be on Mark. Blogposts for input from Matthew, Luke and John will follow in separate posts.  Christians are said to be "Easter People" or "Resurrection People". It seems realistic since Jesus' ministry focused heavily on resurrection and his life's story is resurrection. So, let us study what is said in the Gospels regarding resurrection. I have added "metamorphosis" in the title as you may see Jesus's examples of resurrection are not all exactly the same in each of the Gospels. Also, Jesus focuses on spiritual entities, and this seems critical in understanding resurrection. The purpose of this study is to encourage you to make up your own mind of what may have happened with Jesus. Definitions: Resu...

Creation   Creation, in the beginning, now and the future.... “Every living organism originated from a common ancestor; there is one DNA, and all plants and animals share it. The carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in our bodies, in all animals and plants and in the earth itself, were created by generations of stars. … Cradled in the great forests of the world, the air that gives us life gives breath to fishes of the sea and everything that lives, and it has been so since the beginning some 4.6 billion years ago when a supernova in our galaxy, the Milky Way, exploded and a new star, our sun, was born. As swirling gases and dust broke off from the sun, planets were created, including Earth and the moon. … “…We are related to every human being of every culture, color, tongue, and land; we are related to all animals on earth, all fish, all plants, rocks, and rocky mountain ridges, and every star, moon, sun, and planet in the universe.” (Select portions from a ‘Reflection’ by Anne Rowth...

  I want to wrap up my discussion showing Jesus in what I'm calling his "unhinged" state. You should look up the definition of "unhinged". Jesus did NOT always peacefully discuss various potential "options" of what his target Jewish faith leaders were doing and what they should NOT be doing and the consequences of NOT listening to him. I have focused on Jesus "unhinged" because I think it shows how human Jesus is. He was/is angry at what was/is wrong, and he reacted directly and bluntly. No doubt about hypocrites. I briefly summarized the outraged Jesus in Matthew Chapter 23 in an earlier post. Almost the entire Chapter 23 involves Jesus yelling (yes, I think he was yelling and it should be read that way) and letting the Pharisees and scribes know they are condemned. Yet he closes with the comforting: "How often I have desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings..." However, he's not done ...