Resurrected with Scars

People have said, ‘Don’t cry’ to other people for years and years, and all it has ever meant is, 'I’m too uncomfortable when you show your feelings. Don’t cry.’ I’d rather have them say, 'Go ahead and cry. I’m here to be with you.’

Mr. Rogers

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This Sunday we are celebrating the Ascension of Jesus

I know, I know

Ascension Day is always Thursday

But perhaps this event, almost rushed over in the Gospels

Is something we need to think about

Have you ever seen one of those pictures of Jesus being “lifted up”

Talk about a sanitized Jesus!

A glowing, beautiful,

clean, perfect ,

white Jesus, with clean flowing hair,

and an amazing white robe,

surrounded by clouds,

headed via the express lane to heaven. 

And the hint is that Jesus is leaving all the travail of earth behind,

and is headed off to be Christ the King, glorified in the heavens.

And then there is that Christ the King thing!

This whole thing about the ‘exaulted’ Jesus

Jesus the Victor

Jesus the King

Jesus the warrior who will return and scour the earth of all evil

Its not that there is not truth in the idea that the “Sacred rules”

But seriously

This stuff gets us into a lot of trouble

It makes us arrogant.

Coercive, and sometimes even cruel

This is the Jesus of dominion

And dominionism

But think about the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus!

There is the appearance to the disciples,

later to Thomas,

and that dusty trek on the road to Emmaus. 

There is his arrival by the Sea of Galilee,

where he sits by the fire and cooks breakfast

The post resurrection Jesus is not a repaired, sanitized, and ethereal

The post resurrection Jesus is the same Jesus who walked through the dust of the earth

Who ate meals with his friends

The same Jesus who was arrested, beaten, killed on a cross,

and pierced with a spear

When Jesus went back to God

I believe he went back with dusty feet,

And with hands smelling like fish and robes smelling like campfire smoke

I think he went back, as dark, Semitic man with frantic hair

And I believe he went back with holes in his hands and feet

And a wound in his side

And is it this Christ

We comes to us in the person of the Spirit

The Spirit, which, as it dwells in us

Creates a “continuing incarnation”

The ascended Jesus is not one who “Lord’s it over” us

Who coerces

Demands

Dominates

And asks us to do the same

(by grabbing political power, pushing coercive laws,

 and buying into the pathway of power and wealth)

The ascended Christ is a Christ with scars

Who still profoundly identifies with the pain and grief of the world,

Who still steps into the mess with love and generosity and compassion,

And asks us

To do the same.