The Death and Resurrection of Jesus:

All for the Sake of Friendship

Objective: By the end of this lesson, the student should be able to relate the significance of the death and resurrection
of Jesus to his calling to follow Jesus in everyday life and in social-historical events.

Introduction

We have been re-telling the story of Jesus of Nazareth. Let us review some of the most important things we
remember about him.

1) First, Jesus was born, grew up, and lived among a suffering yet believing people. The suffering of
people was not an isolated case of individuals having sinned, but it was experienced by the majority who bore the
brunt of the unjust social structures of poverty, domination, discrimination, and marginalization.

These inhuman situations separated the people from the love of God, not because they wanted to part ways
with God, but because these people were treated with indifference by their very own, who perceived them as sinners.
Being told that they were unclean or impure, they internalized this in their consciousness and believed that they
betrayed God and did not belong to God’s chosen people. In our storytelling of Jesus’ life, we pointed to the
dynamics of Jewish social and cultural life, and that of the Roman imperial rule, as largely the factors that constricted
the people from living a more humane life.

The people of Jesus however were also a believing and hopeful people. Because of their negative
experiences, they believed in a God who never abandoned them in the past and who continued to offer His/Her
promise of fullness of life. With great anticipation, they desired the coming of God who would transform the world
into one where righteousness, justice, and peace reigned. Helpless at times in front of a bigger force that
overwhelmed them, these people did not lose hope that someday God would make a decisive intervention in history
to change the world.

2) In his proclamation of the nearness of the Kingdom or Reign of God, Jesus is the unique and definite
bearer of God’s salvation – In the social context we summarized above, Jesus opened the lives of people to a
radically new world, which he called the “Kingdom or Reign of God.” The phrase is Jewish and belongs to their
tradition, but Jesus proclaimed the message with a difference.

For Jesus, the kingdom or reign of God was not only something that would happen in the future, but it was
already happening now, in the present reality of the world and people’s lives. Whenever people experienced healing,
forgiveness, acceptance, importance, mercy, wellness, love, compassion, justice, and all other positive experiences,
there the unconditional love of God was present. Whenever people respected one another, helped one another,
carried one another’s burden, did something to make the life of one another better than it was, there the power of
God was present.

Jesus’ prayer -“may God’s kingdom come as it is in heaven”- was a clear indication that Jesus’ idea of God’s
transforming or liberating presence was at hand or in our midst, something we could experience as a present reality.
God’s offer of life and love would still reach its fullness in the future, but like a mustard seed, its growth was already
happening now.

That future is a radically new world where we, men and women, will live a new humanity as Jesus is also
recognized as the “new Adam”. The future will be different and not merely a continuation of the present. For
example, we are studying now with the aim of earning a college degree, and we look forward to our future as people
with decent-salaried jobs. That kind of future is a mere continuation of the present in a linear fashion. The future that
we learn from Jesus is different because it involves values and virtues that will make us truly humans before one
another and with God. We may get jobs after college but it is the values and good habits that we live by that makes a
difference in the world. For Jesus, God’s kingdom is a future where true love, justice, and peace reigns.
 3) A last point before we go to the topic of our new lesson is this: His being a divine person is not apart
from his being human; it is in his being human that the divine or the God-self is embodied and expressed, the
“extra” in the ordinary.

For Jesus, the values of the kingdom or reign of God were principally about sharing, empowerment,
solidarity, and service. He displayed these values to the multitude and crowds. Among them were the poor, sick,
infirm, the sinners, outcasts, children, and women. To these people, he offered God’s utmost care, and he told them
that they were blessed, because God chose to be on their side.

Those who questioned him and accused him of subverting the conventional order of things, he criticized for
their oppressive ways, and he challenged them to change their ways of thinking, valuing, and acting toward the
values of the Kingdom that gave privilege to the disadvantaged people.

His disciples were invited to a personal relationship with him, but he continually dared them to “take their
cross and follow him” by living up to values that were in contrast to the values of society. The word that was used
for their 360-degree turn-around of life was metanoia or total conversion.

For Jesus, people were more important than laws and institutions. It was not that he wanted to abolish the
laws and institutions of society and religion, but to make these effective in serving people and nurturing their well-
being. His works of healing and exorcism, his teachings and prophecies, were not meant to prove his divinity; but
they were manifestations of God’s power that was working in and through him. It was a God who wanted to change
the human situation for the better.

God sent Jesus to make His/Her presence felt with greater impact in order to show that God’s name was
“solidarity with humanity” in good and bad times. While in the past history of the Jews, God was experienced in
many varied ways, as we read in the Old Testament. Now this God had a face and body. Jesus’ coming to the world
or his “incarnation”, means that he is the human embodiment of God’s life and love.

Born to poor Jewish parents in an obscure rural village, Jesus experienced the suffering and the hope of
people. Even if he belonged to the poor and non-literate populace, he was perceptive of the anguish of people and
their aspiration for a new world. He felt and understood the hardships of people because he was with and among
them.

Baptized in the Jordan River among the suffering and hopeful people, Jesus claimed to himself a vision and
mission from God to renew the earth. His unique intimate relationship with God who he called Abba affirmed his
calling and mission in life, and this also made him effectively a Spirit-filled person in the tradition of the Jews.
Yet, he was also distinct from other Spirit persons: God was in him, with him, and through him. He was
more than a healer, a miracle-worker, a teacher, a prophet, and an inaugurator of a renewal movement, because it
was God who spoke in and through him with authority, and it was God’s power that worked in and through him. It
was this deep relationship with God in his everyday human life that we understand his “divinity”. When he ate with
the poor, it was not just the “human” Jesus who was acting, nor was he only the “divine” Jesus when he healed or
prayed in the synagogue or temple. This is a wrong understanding.

We Christians profess that there is no separation, confusion, and division between his humanity and divinity.
In all the things he said and did, in his humane ways (angtaonatunaynanagpakatao) that God or the divine was at the
same time present (angtaotunaynanagpaka-Diyos o nagpakabanal). Jesus was truly a man of God and a person for
others.

The human life of our God-sent Spirit person came to an end. Yet we also know that was not the real ending
of the story, because it continues until today. We say that Jesus died, was buried, and he is risen. We might be
asking a lot of questions: What caused his death? Why was he killed? If he were God-empowered, did he have to
die? Why not get down from the cross? What is the “resurrection” all about? What have all these questions to do
with us today, who are struggling with difficulties? In this lesson, we shall be enlightened in our searching.
 A. Is there anyone here who has lost a person close to him (a parent or sibling, relative, or a friend)?
The person may have died, or has person parted ways with you. Please stand up.

- Is there anyone among you who are standing who wants to share your experience of
losing someone?

B. Is there anyone among you who has experienced great pain or suffering? Please stand up.

- Would anyone of you who are standing, please explain briefly your experience of pain
and suffering?

C. Is there someone among you who felt that the death of a loved one, or the separation from a
special someone, or the pain or suffering you went through, did not make you lose hope but
were challenged, inspired, motivated, to continue with determination? Please stand up.

- We would like to hear for a moment the experience of those who are standing now

D. What insights or realizations do you have from our activity?

Suffering comes to us in different forms at different times. Usually, the most painful that we may consider is
the loss of a loved one. Surely, we never wanted that someone we loved be taken from us. Sometimes, it could be
sickness that afflicts us. A broken relationship or an unfulfilled dream also has a strong impact on our lives.

Many times, we ask why such sufferings happen to us and why not to others. Moreover, we point our finger
to something or someone as the cause of our suffering. We seldom point a finger to ourselves to be the cause of the
suffering. Sometimes, the easiest thing we do is to blame God. And when we start blaming God, we start
complaining that He or She does not really love us or He or She is playing favorites. Experiences of suffering can
also lead some people to think that God does not exist at all.

It has been the theme of this course, Theology I, to search for God in the world. Time and again, we affirm
that God takes the initiative to befriend us, whether or not we are aware of His/Her reaching out, and whether we like
it or not. Before we find God, God has found us already. God has no other intention than for us to be happy.
Christians believe that God is not a punishing or vindictive God, but a God of life and love. God never wants
something wrong or evil to befall us. We experience suffering due to the choices or decisions that we or other people
make.

God has given us the freedom to choose, to love, to be compassionate. We can use this freedom positively
or negatively. Even in the darkest moments of our life, God does not abandon us. It is we humans who question
God, but God can take all our doubts and criticisms. He/She does not give up and will never give up on us. What
God desires for us is that we overcome suffering and avoid making choices that will harm us and other people. The
problem sometimes is that we look for grand or big events or miracles for God to prove His/Her love for us. But it is
often in small, simple, or ordinary events that God speaks to us, giving us strength, confidence, and hope again.
Through faith, God uses other people to touch us so that we can stand and face life again with determination.

In the next step, we shall see how Jesus and his God Abba (or Papa, Tatay) faced suffering, even death, and
rather than succumbing to death, Jesus was raised to eternal life.

Let us DISCERN

Suffering for the Kingdom of God

Some 50 or 60 years after the death of Jesus, a person wrote a letter to his or her friends who were struggling
with their faith in Jesus because of the trials and difficulties they were facing. The author said: “In the days of His
flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from
death, and He was heard because of His piety.  Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which
He suffered.” (Hebrews 5: 7-8)

The letter suggests that Jesus went through a process of learning to trust, believe and obey God. It seems
that Jesus was like all of us who had to go through “loud crying and tears” and pleaded to his Abba “to save Him
from death.” According to the reflections of the letter-writer, Jesus did not evade, and in fact endured suffering, for it
was by going through it that he was able to “learn obedience” or to follow the will of Abba. It was a process of
holding on to the faith that had grown so much throughout his life, until death. What really happened?

In the time of Jesus, people had the notion that suffering was a result of sin. In their society and culture,
those people who did not follow the Law of God as written in the Hebrew Bible would not be blessed but instead be
cursed by God. People who went against God’s Law must then be punished. This line of thought resulted in their
concept of sin and punishment. Those who followed the Law were rewarded with a good life. Their concept of sin
was connected to the purity system, which we studied in the past lessons. Those who considered themselves clean,
and thus thought of themselves as righteous people, looked at sickness, diseases, and disabilities as effects of sin. As
a result, those who considered themselves clean did not mingle with the unclean because of fear of contamination,
and so the unclean were prohibited also from entering Jerusalem and particularly the temple. [In Filipino culture,
there are people who think that their miserable life, sickness, or even death is a result of wrong doings, either by the
people themselves or by their ancestors. People say, “Kinakarmatayodahilsaatingmalinggawain.”]

Jesus did not consider suffering as a punishment from a vindictive God. He might have faced difficulties,
such as the “temptations in the wilderness” when he confronted himself and made choices between the values of
society and the values of God’s kingdom. Jesus also might have been torn apart by anguish during his prayer at the
garden in Gethsemane. In the face of impending death, “Father,” he said, “if you are willing, take this cup away from
me. Nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine” (Lk. 22:42). We are also told that at that moment, “sudden fear”
and “great distress” came to him and he was sorrowful “to the point of death.” He threw himself on the ground as he
prayed (Mk 14:32ff).

How did Jesus understand his own suffering? Since his baptism at Jordan, Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom
or Reign of God in words and deeds. He spoke of God’s new world in parables and sayings, and he was not remiss
in directly criticizing the Jewish elite and the Roman empire for their wrongdoings. He strongly disagreed with the
lifestyle of such rich people as the Pharisees and the Scribes (Mt. 21:1-36) which made him hated and disliked by
them. In his teachings, Jesus talked about the poor and powerless inheriting the Kingdom of God, which resulted in
an unacceptable reaction by the rich and powerful.

Jesus identified with people at the margins of society; he healed them, forgave them, ate and drank with
them, walked with them, gave them attention by listening to their stories, and many more. As we read in the gospels,
Jesus was questioned for eating in the house of Zacchaeus, an infamous tax-collector (Lk. 19:1-10) , for forgiving
the sinful woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee (Lk.7:36-50), and for healing those with leprosy, for making the
blind see and the lame walk, and for casting out demons.

In all of these, at the center of the life of Jesus was the Kingdom of God that came close to people, especially
the sufferers of many kinds of social illness. People considered by society as unclean experienced Jesus as the “good
news” (gospel; evangelion) who brought them joy. Jesus was the border-crosser; he erased the boundaries that
divided and excluded people, because for him all people belonged to the family of God. For the rich and powerful he
proposed a different meaning of faithfulness to God. For the former, faithfulness to God was following the purity
rituals as prescribed in the Bible. But for Jesus, it was compassion that was required of faithfulness to God.

In the synagogue where there was a man with a withered hand, he posed a challenge without mincing words:
“What is more important, to save life or to kill?” He looked around at his fellow Jews, especially the self-righteous
Pharisees, “with anger and grieved at the hardness of their heart.” Jesus was angry because the platform of holiness
of the Pharisees failed to respond to the needs of the sick. In the
 story before this event, inside the synagogue, Jesus and his disciples were walking on the rice field, and the
Pharisees reprimanded them because they had plucked the grains. It was the Sabbath, a holy day for the Jews that
required everyone to rest and not work as God did when God created the world. But Jesus threw a provocative punch
at the Jewish religious leaders: “The Sabbath was made for humans, not humans for the Sabbath.” Ouch! Jesus just
pricked the very fiber on which Jewish society was built: the Law and social institutions and its leaders.

In short, the whole life of Jesus was consistently pursuing the Kingdom of God. Everywhere he went, it was
that mission that governed and guided his thoughts and behavior. Many people were attracted to Jesus’ message and
they started following him. We see multitudes of people, especially the poor, marginalized, and the sick following,
listening and believing in Jesus. It was also fast enough for the Jewish authorities to notice him. Eventually, both the
influential Jews and the Roman leaders started to consider Jesus as a possible threat to them and the Empire. They
started thinking that if people continued to believe in Jesus, there would come a time that they would outnumber
them and might overturn their government. This led to their cooperation with the Romans to get rid of him.

Anyone who followed the tradition of the prophets of old faced the consequences of his actions. In most
likelihood, Jesus also knew of a possible negative effect of his actions upon the Jewish and Roman leaders. After all,
John the Baptist got the ire of King Herod, who ordered the baptizer beheaded. Jesus was not an exemption from
this possibility. It was not that he had superpowers to know everything, including the future.It was because, as a
logical consequence, anyone who disturbed the social order had to accept the possibility of arrest and death.

On behalf of God and for the sake of the poor, the sinners, and the sufferers, Jesus stood firm in his
conviction, a conviction that he held until his death: all for the sake of the friendship with God and people. The
gospels tell us that Jesus predicted his death because of what he had done for God and people. Anyone who was
different in society had a gut feeling that he or she would be hated by authorities. Jesus felt the same way; for
examples, consult the following texts: Mt. 16:21-23; Mk. 8:31-38; Lk. 9:22-27. Not only once did Jesus feel that
something bad would happen to him. We read his looming passion in these texts: Mt 17: 22-23; Mk. 9:30-32; Lk.
9:43-45.

It was during the meal on the night he was arrested (what we call “Last Supper”) that Jesus shared with his
disciples his impending death. During that meal, Jesus delivered his “Mi Ultimo Adios” or farewell speech. Jesus
linked all the things he said and did for the sake of God and people and he enjoined his disciples not only to
remember him but to do the same: “Do this in memory of me.” It was his last invitation to his friends, as if saying,
“If you really believe and if you are my true friends, give also your whole life in service to people.”(See, Mt. 26:26;
Mk. 14:22; Lk. 12:14)

The Arrest and Execution of Jesus

No person in his right mind wants to experience suffering. We know that death is inevitable yet we try not to
think about it. Likewise with Jesus, he did not want to suffer, if only he could escape from it. However, with his
mission, he had gotten into a lot of trouble already with the Jewish leaders. The climax of his confrontation with
Jewish leaders was his entry into Jerusalem and the event that happened in the Temple during the Passover.

It is striking that when Jesus entered the central city of economic, political and religious power, he rode on a
donkey (or in Matthew on a colt and an ox), wore dirty tattered clothes, and yet people shouted “King of the Jews.”
This dramatic entrance recalls Zech. 9:9-10. Jesus’ entry was different from Jewish and Roman ways where the king
or the emperor was carried by slaves or rode on a white horse, dressed in extravagant royal attire, welcomed by
trumpets, and proclaimed themselves as sons of God before the crowd who bowed their heads in reverence. We may
look at the scene either as Jesus displaying humility or shaming the powers-that-be. It looks more like the second
case scenario: an intentional and skillful mockery of the Jewish elite and Roman imperial rule. Jesus was removing
the legitimacy of the rule of the influential people and groups.

The other event was the “Cleansing of the Temple” (Mt. 21:12-17/Mk. 11:15-18). In this scene, Jesus got
mad at those people selling different kinds of animals for sacrificial offering. Jesus overturned their tables and drove
 them away not because of what the vendors were doing, for they were in fact just doing
business for their livelihood. The action of Jesus was symbolic act (and that was a strong
symbolic act), directed against the Temple and its leaders, the Priests (Mk. 11:15-18; Jn.
2:13-19). The Temple had ceased to be a space of encounter with God and had become a
place with a system of dishonesty, corruption, and falsehood. The Priests allowed the
vendors to sell around the Temple but in return they should give the Temple Priests a
portion of their profit. In other words, the aristocratic Priests were enriching themselves
from bad practices. They therefore interpreted the action of Jesus as a symbolic threat to
destroy the temple. Without the Temple, the privileged position of the Priests would be
taken away. Their power over people would be gone(read Jn. 11:47-48).

Scholars say that it is this act of driving out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and its
consequences, which triggered the arrest of Jesus. “Enough is enough” could have been on the lips of the Jewish
elite. Before Pilate, the Sanhedrin enlarged the accusation on Jesus: “We have found this man subverting our nation.
He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king” (Lk. 23:2).

This Temple incident with Jesus telling them about its destruction and rebuilding in three days prefigures His
destruction and the coming of a new age where His Body becomes the real Temple of God (CCC #593).

We might be raising our eyebrows when we say that Jesus was “executed”. During those times, there were
two kinds of people who were given the death penalty: political rebels and criminals, such as rebellious slaves and
rural bandits. Jesus did not belong to the second type, thus it was most likely that he was killed because he was
perceived as a rebel or subversive. His violent execution by crucifixion was related to a perceived political threat to
the ruling powers (see, Lk. 23:2). As a practice, crucified individuals were naked and displayed publicly at a
prominent place. This was a form of utmost humiliation of the crucified. The purpose was to deter others from
rebellion and crime but also to magnify the power of the ruler who approved the execution. In many cases, the
Roman procedure was to leave the victims as hanging corpses to serve as food for wild beasts, scavenger dogs, and
birds of prey.

The death of Jesus was the ultimate consequence of what he stood for and lived up to in service of God’s
kingdom. It was a death he freely accepted, and he hoped that his Abba would be with him until the end. On the
cross, Jesus felt a forsaken man; he was rejected as a threat to social order by some Jews, tried as a rebel by the
Romans, and abandoned by God whose nearness Jesus proclaimed. On the cross, he shouted in pain, “My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?… Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last” (compare with Ps. 22).

The “loud cry” in Mk 15:37 is a terrifying shriek of horror. It is a cry of the pain of being totally abandoned,
often experienced in those times when the demons were cast out of a person under exorcism. In Psalm 22, the “loud
cry” is not a cry of despair but a plea for God’s faithfulness, of trusting God despite the intense feeling of being
forsaken. In the book of Exodus 3:7 (see also, Deut. 29:7), the “loud cry” was an experience of salvation, of
deliverance from suffering. The cry of Jesus therefore, was not merely a human struggle with pain but a conviction
that this was a God of com-passion. It is a cry of being abandoned yet holding on to God. God was with Jesus on the
cross, crying and shouting in pain too. It was perhaps the same “loud cry” that we make when a beloved has died, or
when we feel pain from a separation.

Later on, the communities that were formed after the Resurrection interpreted the death of Jesus. They gave
meaning to the death of Jesus in at least three ways: (1) Jesus died as a rejected prophet-martyr; (2) Jesus’ death was
of righteous suffering, vindicated by God; (3) Jesus died to redeem us from our sins (see, 1 Cor. 15:3).

(1)Most Christians, in the past and today, prefer the third interpretation- that the death of Jesus is
salvation for our sins. He offered his life on the belief that this was his ultimate contribution to make our life and
the world a better place. In the Jewish tradition, redemption occurs when a family member bails another family out
of his or her troubles, usually debts. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “God’s saving plan was
accomplished once and for all by the redemptive death of His Son Jesus Christ.”(CCC #571).
 We can have a better understanding of Jesus’ redemptive death when we link this to his entire ministry of
service to God and others. Jesus “rescues” us, not because we too helpless to do anything with our life. Like him, we
are asked to overcome suffering, to be strong and courageous in the face of danger. We need God for our salvation,
but God needs us also to make his work of salvation effective. As the Filipino saying goes, “Nasa Diyosangawa,
nasataoanggawa.” We need to cooperate with God and to continue what Jesus started, by offering our lives,
however we can, to fill our world with love, justice, and peace.

Moreover, we must be aware that Jesus’ death on the cross did not put the responsibility only on the Jews in
His time, especially His enemies, also on us today, by our continuously committing sin. By doing wrong and
submitting ourselves to sinful situations, we too continue to crucify Him (CCC #598).

(2) The other two ways of interpreting the death of Jesus are also important and may be relevant to our times.
Jesus’ death as prophet-martyr can serve as inspiration for us in the same manner that there are people
around us who are willing to give their lives that we may be freed from suffering. Some of them are Ninoy
Aquino, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Blessed Monsignor Oscar Romero, the missionaries, and people of
goodwill, who were killed because they wanted to protect and defend the lives of other people. The world needs
more prophet-martyrs and companions of God.

(3) Likewise, Jesus’ death as righteous suffering can help us develop ourselves to do good to others. At
times when we are doing something for the greater glory of God, there will be people or groups who will want to
hurt us and stop our good deeds. “Righteous suffering” is suffering out of doing good. It is different from “deserved
suffering” which comes from doing something wrong or evil, and comes in the form of a jail sentence or execution.
Jesus is a righteous sufferer – “Alang-alangsamatuwidnalandas, sikapinnatintuwirinangbaluktotnalandas o
ibalikangmganaliligawsalandas. Kung magdusa man tayodahilsahirap at pasakit para samatuwidnalandas,
harapinnatinito at lampasannatinnang may lakas ng loob at tapangdahilkasama at karamaynatinangDiyos.’ CCC
#1521 teaches that our union with the passion of Jesus… makes us consecrated (to him) to bear fruit.”

The Resurrection of Jesus

Where were his closest friends when Jesus was dying on the cross? The gospels are unanimous that they
were afraid:

Mk 14:50 “They all forsook him, and fled”

Mk 14:72 Peter “broke down and wept”
Mk 15:50 “They were … looking on from afar”
Lk 24:21 “We were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel”

While most of his disciples, especially the men, were nowhere to be found, it was the women and a younger
male disciple who stood by Jesus until his last breath. The gospel writers are also unanimous about the resurrection
of Jesus from the dead. We read that Jesus was buried in a borrowed tomb, and as in Jewish tradition, the corpse
should be anointed, the women (Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome) brought spices to anoint
the body of Jesus. The body, however, was not there. These women were witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. The
rest of the disciples, were scattered after the death of Jesus. Some of them probably went back to their places of
origin, others continued the work they left behind, but all of them were probably walking around without direction
even in the midst of their everyday preoccupation. But something happened to Jesus and something happened to the
disciples. What exactly happened which we call the “resurrection”?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) states:

Christ’s resurrection was not a return to earthly life, as was the case with the raisings from the dead
that he had performed before Easter: Jairus’ daughter and the young man of Naim, Lazarus. These
actions were miraculous events, but the persons miraculously raised returned by Jesus’ power to
ordinary earthly life. At some particular moment they would die again. Christ’s resurrection is
essentially different. In his risen body he passes from the state of death to another life beyond time
and space. At Jesus’ Resurrection his filled with the power of the Holy Spirit: he shares in the divine
life in his glorious state, so that St. Paul can say that Christ is the “man of heaven.” (CCC # 646)

First, the resurrection should not be understood as a resuscitation of a corpse. Resuscitation means
that a person, who is near death or thought to have died, is restored to the former mortal, physical life. The
examples cited by the CCC (the daughter of Jairus; the young man in Naim; and the raising of Lazarus) are cases of
resuscitation. These three individuals might have suffered from some severe illness that caused a serious lack of
oxygen which the normal function of brain and heart. They could have fallen into a coma, but they were not dead.

Today, we see some people in the intensive care units of our modern hospitals who are resuscitated by
machines. Doctors or paramedics revive them by pumping their hearts. When somebody drowns, we apply them
mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. When a person is resuscitated, he or she is revived and goes back to normal, everyday
life. In short, they were not really dead. The CCC and the Gospels tell us that the three persons were “raised”; that
means “resuscitated”, by the power of Jesus in and through whom God acts.

What happened to the Jesus however, is different; it was not resuscitation but “resurrection”. This means
that Jesus really and actually died on the cross; in fact, as we discussed earlier, he died in a violent execution.
Christians believe that Jesus was resurrected and will never die again. What does this mean?

In asking what the resurrection of Jesus means, there are two levels of experiences involved: what
happened to Jesus, and what happened to the disciples who testified to his resurrection. Since it is through the
testimonies of the disciples that we come to know what happened to Jesus, there are two general interpretations of
the resurrection: (1) the disciples encountered a physically risen Jesus and (2) they experienced a spiritually risen
Jesus. As to the first position, we already stated that resurrection is different from resuscitation, which is a restoration
to the same mortal, physical body. The second view is implicitly held by the CCC which we quote above, and thus
the official position of the Catholic Church: that what the disciples experienced was a spiritually risen Jesus.

The view of a “spiritually risen Jesus” has three main sources in the New Testament.

1) The pre-gospel Easter proclamation in 1 Corinthians 15:3-11. According to St. Paul:

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he
appeared (ophthe) to Peter, and then to the Twelve. Then he appeared(ophthe) to more than five hundred of
the brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared ( ophthe) to
James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared (ophthe) to me also. For I
am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the
grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked
 harder than all of them--though it was not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether then it was I or
they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

The word “appeared” occurs several times in the letter of Paul. In the original Greek language of the New
Testament, “appear” means ophthe. It comes from horao, which means “to see”. The risen Jesus “appeared” to Peter,
the Twelve, five hundred brothers, James, the apostles, and Paul himself. Paul is not talking about merely a physical
seeing when he used the word “appeared”. It may include physical or external sight but Paul was conveying
more of a “total experience.”In Filipino, the nearest equivalent is nadama, naramdaman, nagpadama, or
nagparamdam. To experience as opthe or nagpadama is to experience Jesus as one who is present even if people do
not see him with their eyes. What was that experience all about? How did Paul experience the Risen Jesus?

In Acts 9:3-9, we read of Paul’s intense conversion experience on the road to Damascus. The light from the
sky, falling from the horse, hearing a voice, and getting blind for three days- these are signs of a dramatic total
conversion of Paul. From there on, he became an apostle, one who received the mission and sent to preach the good
news. In Philippians 3:5-6, Paul describes himself as a former Pharisee who was zealous in legalistic righteousness.
So, it was a turnaround for Paul on the way to Damascus, from the rigid legalistic man to an announcer of Christ’s
salvation. In other words, the experience of Paul of “seeing” the Risen Jesus was liberation from the old self to
a new self.

What happened to Paul was also what happened to the other disciples, Peter, the Twelve, the 500, and many
more. The resurrection was initially a conversion event and a realization of having been forgiven by Jesus (for
abandoning him when he was arrested, suffered and died; see, Mk. 14:50-52). After the death of Jesus, the disciples
scattered, yet some of them may have continued to reflect on their own and some possibly met one another.
Individually or in groups, they recalled their experience of Jesus, his words and deeds, and how he changed their
lives.

The experience of fear and shame for having deserted Jesus in the darkest moments of his life eventually was
transformed into an experience of forgiveness. But how can a dead person forgive? It was through their experience of
“seeing” the Risen Jesus. Paul expressed this truth as a bright light flashing that enlightened him ( “natauhan”;
“naramdaman ng lubusan”). The conversion experience might have been radical because Paul’s whole life changed.

Something happened to the disciples too. They experienced being accepted again by Jesus. It was the feeling
of forgiveness and acceptance that led them to the realization that the Spirit of Jesus was with them – HE IS ALIVE!
With the conversion experience brought about by the forgiveness of Jesus, Paul and the disciples also felt that they
received a mission from the Risen Jesus to continue his work of healing, teaching, casting out demons, and prophetic
actions.

What happened to Paul and the disciples cannot be proven or disproven by scientific instruments. So how do
we know it was true? It was true because their lives changed. It was through their way of life and their witnessing to
the world that people knew the Risen Jesus has “appeared” to them. Perhaps the greatest evidence of the
resurrection is the transformed selves of the people who believed in Jesus and continued to do his work. In this
sense, the disciples experienced a spiritually risen Jesus.

How can we explain the reality of this new relationship with the Risen Jesus and the new empowerment to
mission? It can only be because Jesus has been raised to new life by God. It was not only the disciples who thought
and felt that Jesus had resurrected. Something brought about by God also happened to Jesus the same God that made
the disciples experience the Risen Jesus.

2) The “appearance stories” in the gospels.All these stories speak of the experience of communities after
the death of Jesus. A good example is the Emmaus story. Let us read this long story in Luke 24:13-35. Let us
reconstruct the story.

The Emmaus story probably is not a single occurrence but a chain of occurrences. “Emmaus never
happened because Emmaus often happens,” as one scholar puts it. It is not a particular event on a particular day but
the Risen Christ coming to his followers again and again. The story tells us that the Risen Christ journeys with us,
whether we know it or not, even as it also affirms that there are moments of recognition in which we do realize it.
The story shows that Jesus, in his risen condition, continued to break bread with his friends, and this implies that he
continued to share with them his mission to proclaim and actualize the good news of God’s Rule especially among
those who are hungry for food and justice. The Emmaus story suggests that, for some disciples who were still
struggling to understand the execution of Jesus, the initial venture to continue the mission was the beginning of their
conversion process.

Again, it was not the physically risen Jesus whom they met on the road to Emmaus. It was a spiritual Jesus
who they encountered. Today, we may meet the Risen Jesus among strangers--those who are different us, those we
ignore and those we are prejudiced against. We tend to see people through our eyes and fail to recognize their being
different from us. Differences in terms of culture, gender, economic class, and other determinants are not a problem
to be solved, if only pay attention to them. Difference is a treasure and must be celebrated. We are called to eat with
them, reflect with them, tell stories, laugh and cry with them, walk with them with trust and respect.

In the Mass, we recognize the Risen Jesus in the bread and wine we partake of, for his body and blood. The
Risen Christ knows no boundaries that divide people. He invites himself to “stay” with us, to remain in a personal
relationship with him. Knowing Jesus cannot remain on the level of belief or intellectual knowledge. Knowing Jesus
is a journey of walking with him with our whole heart, mind, and body. We remember in the Eucharist his command
to his disciples: Do this in memory of me! This means, we do what he did for the kingdom of God by helping and
our society to become spaces where love, justice, and peace are nurtured among different people.

3) The empty tomb stories. According to bible scholar Fr. Herman Hendrickx, CICM (Resurrection
Narratives, 1984), a number of scholars have suggested that this tradition originated from an annual liturgical
celebration of Christ’s resurrection, a celebration held by some Jerusalem Christians in an empty tomb, decades after
the death of Jesus.

For centuries after the time of Jesus up to this day, Christians have emphasized the empty tomb stories as
central to the Christian faith. It is said that the empty tomb is a proof that Jesus had risen. This thinking needs to be
placed in the proper order. What came first, what was foundational, was the resurrection faith, the faith that
Jesus is risen. Because of this faith the story of the empty tomb makes sense. And even if there were no empty
tomb, the faith that God raised Jesus to new life stands firm in the Christian faith. If the tomb were found today
(physical traces of a dead body), it would not affect our faith in the resurrection. In this sense, the resurrection faith is
independent of the empty tomb.

What then is the value of the empty tomb tradition? We quote here Theology professor Dennis Gonzalez in
his research on the tradition: “This tradition (of the empty tomb) is historically and theologically significant for its
portrayal of Mary Magdalene and other women as among the first witnesses of the Risen Jesus and as the first ones
to proclaim the Easter faith (Mt 28:1-10; Mk 16:9-11; Jn 20:11-18). If the resurrection was a powerful conversion
event for the disciples, the empty tomb tradition seems to suggest that Mary Magdalene and some women disciples
were the ones who initiated the conversion process. Perhaps these women forgave the men for abandoning Jesus,
and their attempt to overcome fear and offer forgiveness was the first expression of the offer of forgiveness from the
Risen Christ.”

It is unfortunate that Mary Magdalene has been for many centuries considered a prostitute. This is grave
injustice to this woman who was a faithful disciple of Jesus. Mary Magdalene was given the title “apostle to the
apostles” by the Christian movement from the late first to the 4 th centuries, because she was the first witness to the
resurrection, and she announced it to the apostles. But why was she portrayed later as a “repentant sinner”?
 In the male-dominated society and Church of the Roman Empire, women were not considered bearers of
God’s saving presence. To aggravate the situation, there was a spread rumor about “three women” in Jesus’ life: the
Mary of Bethany, Mary of Magdala, and the repentant woman. These were three different persons, but, the notion
spread that there were not three women but only one, the “prostitute”. The three stories, according to this notion,
refer to one woman only. The Catholic Church began teaching that Mary Magdalene who suffered a psychological
breakdown, was the same person as Mary of Bethany and the “sinful woman" who anointed Jesus in Luke. This
identification was made official by the Church in a homily given by Pope Gregory I around the year 591. In a famous
series of sermons on Mary Magdalene, given in Rome, he identified Magdalene not only with the anonymous sinner
in Luke's gospel, but also with Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. The “seven demons” removed
from her by Jesus was interpreted as “the seven capital sins,” and Mary Magdalene began to be condemned not only
for lust but also for pride and covetousness. Pope Gregory's homily became an official interpretation of the church
that Mary Magdalene was the woman of the “alabaster jar”—a prostitute.

This was a great injustice not only to the historical Mary Magdalene but to all the women of the world.
Biblically and historically, they were three different persons. It was only in the last 50 years that we realized the
erroneous, unjust interpretation. We must recover Mary Magdalene as the first witness of the resurrection, the
exemplary leader of the early church, today’s symbol of all women, and men as well, of courageous
discipleship, to break down the barriers of discrimination and marginalization that are often based on gender
prejudice. How should we teach Mary Magdalene today? First, correct the historical injustice; let us tell
others the truth about Mary Magdalene. Second, let us recover the title of Mary Magdalene as “Apostle to the
Apostles”. And third, affirm the positive role of women in the church and our societies, and join the women’s
struggle for mutuality and justice.

To summarize the resurrection of Jesus:

 In the resurrection, something truly happened to Jesus which by God’s action he was raised to new
life, beyond time and space, and which by God’s action also, the Risen Jesus was experienced by the
disciples.

 In the resurrection, something happened to the disciples, who have experienced the spiritual Jesus
and made them speak of him in a meaningful and deep way.

 What the disciples experienced in the resurrection was a conversion experience, of being forgiven
and accepted again by Jesus and commissioned to continue his work of healing, teaching, and
prophetic works. They experienced this because Jesus rose, in their midst.

 The resurrection gives new HOPE for all believers. It shows us the coming of the New Age or the
Kingdom of God. So just as Jesus conquered death, then we too see a light of hope that in our
everyday struggles we can rise again and again, with Jesus who gives us courage to overcome the
“deaths” in our life.

After you identified and shared your personal experience of suffering in the preceding sections, it would be
nice now to reflect on one unforgettable suffering and see how you were able to go through it and come out
victorious.

Consider the following in your reflection:

1. Write in detail the step-by-step actions that you did in responding to your suffering.
2. What events and persons inspired you to “resurrect” from your suffering?
3. Enumerate some acts of “dying” to yourself which were necessary for your “rising”?
4. What particular values have you developed in your “dying” and “rising” from that difficult situation?
 5. Like Christ, who feared death yet accepted it because of His undivided faith in His Loving Father, can you
now say to yourself that you do fear death yet are convinced that it is necessary to have everlasting life? Are
you like the seed that needs to die in order to bear fruit?

Being victorious in rising from your suffering, you are now invited to share your story to your group and to
the whole class.

Chapter Summary

1. Suffering comes to us in different forms at different times. The most painful may be the loss of a loved one.

2. The Hebrews (OT) and the Jews (NT) had a common notion that suffering was a result of sin. People who
did not follow the Law of God would not be blessed but cursed. Thus, following the Law of God brought
you blessings or reward from God. This line of thought resulted in their concept of sin and punishment.
Those who followed the Law were rewarded with a good life.

3. Sickness, diseases, and disabilities were effects of sin. Those who were considered unclean were not allowed
to mingle with the clean because of fear of contamination, and so the unclean were prohibited also from
entering Jerusalem and the temple.

4. Jesus’ suffering was not considered a punishment for sin, rather, it was the result of His doing good and with
the unfortunate, rejected, disabled, sick and those considered sinners, such as prostitutes and tax collectors.
He also attacked the unjust and inhuman attitudes of the so-called pure and powerful, such as the Pharisees,
Roman leaders, and rich people, during His time.

5. Jesus identified with people at the margins of society. He healed them, forgave them, ate and drank with
them, walked with them, gave them attention by listening to their stories.

6. Jesus was the border-crosser. He erased the boundaries that divided and excluded people. For him everyone
belonged to the family of God. To the rich and powerful, he proposed the different meaning of faithfulness
to God.

7. The good acts and teachings of Jesus attracted many people from all walks of life, even Pharisees, but most
especially the poor and rejected, for they found life in Him. The influential Jews and Roman leaders started
to think that if the multitude of people following Jesus continued to increase in number day by day (as they
observed), there would come a time that they would be outnumbered and be overturned. So they decided to
get rid of Him.

8. His death was therefore a consequence of His doing good and making the Kingdom of God reach its
fulfillment.

9. The death of Jesus is interpreted by most Christians in three ways: that the death of Jesus is salvation for our
sins; that Jesus died as a martyr (as foretold in the Bible accounts (OT/NT)) who can serve as inspiration for
us; and that Jesus’ dying was a righteous suffering, which can help us develop ourselves to do good to
others.

10. Jesus resurrected from the dead after three days. His resurrection was not resuscitation. Two levels of
experiences must be considered in understanding Jesus’ resurrection: what happened to Jesus and what
happened to the disciples who testified to his resurrection. There are two general interpretations on the
resurrection: (1) the disciples encountered a physically risen Jesus and (2) they experienced a spiritually
risen Jesus.
11. The interpretation of the resurrection as a “spiritually risen Jesus” has three sources in the New Testament.
They are: the appearances of the Risen Christ to His disciples and to many people; the experience of the
Empty Tomb; and the experience of the Risen Christ by His disciples in their Walk to Emmaus.

12. Paul expressed this truth as a bright light that enlightened him. The conversion experience might have been
radical because Paul’s whole life changed. What happened to Paul was also what happened to the other
disciples, Peter, the Twelve, the 500, and many more. The resurrection was initially a conversion event and a
realization of being forgiven by Jesus (for abandoning him when he was arrested, suffered and died).

13. The greatest evidence of the resurrection was the transformed lives of the people who believed in Jesus and
continued to do his work. In this sense, the disciples experienced a spiritually risen Jesus.

14. The important message of the Resurrection is HOPE. Hope for us believers to overcome various “deaths”,
and to be ALIVE in Jesus by making Him present in our everyday, in our self, in other people, and in the
world.