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While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. Yet for all their joy they were still disbelieving and wondering, and he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.  Luke 24: 36-43

Do you remember when Jesus made the cover of Newsweek? Shortly afterward, he made the cover of US News and World Report also! I was a little surprised by this, given the characters who have been on the cover of these magazines. But Jesus’ appearance was appropriate, and the articles were thought provoking. The Newsweek article proposed that Jesus is - hands down - the most influential figure in the history of civilization.

I liked the articles. But at first, I was put off by the pictures – here, I'll show you. They’re old paintings, most of them four or five hundred years old, and I wondered where the new paintings were. We do not have many new paintings of Jesus, and I don’t know why. Maybe the public rejects new religious art. I know in some cases that is true.

When Eric and I were in Quito, Ecuador, we toured several church buildings on the city square. I was taken with the San Francisco Church, which is the largest architectural complex in all of South America! It took 150 years to build. The priests hired a famous sculptor to create the Virgin Mary statue to rise above the altar. When it was complete, the sculptor placed the statue, and a ruckus ensued. Ultimately, the church sued the artist and removed the sculpture, saying that this depiction of Mary was not at all what they had in mind! She appeared to be too young, frolicking around (like she was dancing!), and much too fanciful for such a reverent iconic person such as the Virgin Mary. Ultimately, the court ruled in favor of the artist and sent the sculpture back to the cathedral, where it has been ever since.

Isaiah 53 has a prophecy, that the Messiah (and I quote), “had no beauty or comeliness that any should desire him, he was one from whom people turned their faces. A man of sorrow acquainted with grief.” Why then is Jesus usually portrayed as a handsome, gentile man?

The paintings of Jesus in the magazines were done mostly by Italian painters. They showed the baby Jesus, Jesus during his ministry, Jesus on the cross, Jesus raised. In all of them, Jesus’ face was shining. Jesus as a baby – no red or puffy new skin, only shining. Jesus at work in his ministry – his face not frustrated or concerned, but shining. Jesus on the cross with his head bowed in death and dried blood on his face – his face is shining. The risen Jesus – his face shining. There was a lot of shining, and I reacted to that. Why have him shining? Should he glow in the dark?

No, they didn’t think that. What they were trying to do was to show in art that the only way you can really know Jesus is through Easter, that the only way you can really know Jesus Christ is through the resurrection. Through the lens of the resurrection, we look upon Jesus in all phases of his life and we see on him the glow of resurrection. If we look back over his whole life, even his infancy, the glow was there because, as the artists were testifying, he is risen!

Of course, these artists did not literally think Jesus would shine. They just thought he would shine, because when you are raised from the dead, you are different. When you are raised from the dead, you do not look the same, act the same, or sound the same. If the artists had been writers, if they had been using words, they could have simply said, “He has risen from the dead, he has triumphed over death, he lives forever, and he is seated at the right hand of God.” Words can do that. But if you only have paint and a brush, how are you going to say that? They said it by painting a resurrection glow!

The scripture tells us that the resurrection glow doesn’t just belong to Jesus, but to Christians as well.

Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. Everyone who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the works of the devil. Those who have been born of God do not sin because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin because they have been born of God. The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love a brother or sister.

For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. I John 3: 2-11

So how do you look when you’ve got a resurrection glow, when you’ve become a child of God?

How do you talk?
What do you sound like? 

  • What do you do?  

Should you…

  • talk in a different voice, like an evangelist?  (imitate)

  • do you throw in a verse of scripture now and then?

  • When you’re playing ball, do you throw the ball differently?

  • When you walk, do you strut?

If you’ve been baptized, you have been buried with Christ and raised with Christ. Now what? Somebody who has been raised does not look the same, sound the same, talk the same, or act the same.

The people of Jesus’ day heard those words about being raised with Christ, and they did not know what to do with them either. Some thought it meant that they had to be morally and ethically rigorous. They thought the goal was to get an A+ in religious rigor.  (You’ve heard of the three R’s?  But I’ll bet you didn’t know that the early church had three R’s also:  religious rigor & righteousness!)  These people were really taking it seriously.  But Paul warned them, and wrote, “What you are really doing is self-serving, self-promoting, and spiritually egotistical, and it has nothing to do with Jesus Christ.  You are simply doing your own thing and calling it ‘being really religious’.”

I guess that cuts out carrying around a huge Bible, walking with a strut, or talking like an evangelist. And so the question remains: How do we change because we have been raised with Christ?  I John says that when we are risen with Christ, we become like him. It says that the person who acts right, who doesn’t make a practice of sin, is the person who has been raised with Christ.

So do Christians sin? Absolutely. We sin. But we try not to make a practice of sinning. I John says that the simple test for those who have been raised with Christ is this: that you practice righteous ways and love your brothers and sisters.

Do you remember your baptism? Some of us were infants, and we don’t remember literally, but even we can remember in our mind’s eyes… we came into baptism in old, ragged clothes. When we were baptized, we left behind the old rags. Remember what those old rags represented? The very things we were taking off in our lives, getting rid of in life. What are those things? The scripture names them–jealousy–take off the jealousy. Gossip? Throw it away. Profane words? Get rid of it. Hurtful anger? Get rid of it. That was the old.

Do you remember on the other side of your baptism when you put on new clothes? Clean, white clothes? Do you remember what those were? Compassion. Put it on. Being kind to people? Put it on. Humility? Put it on. Put on forgiveness; put on love. Once you have been raised with Christ, you do not wear the old rags anymore. You wear the new clothes of the resurrection:  compassion, kindness, humility, forgiveness, and love.

If somebody were to take your picture as someone who has been raised with Christ, would you literally glow like those paintings of Jesus? Of course not! But, then again, if somebody took your picture as a child of the resurrection, would you glow? Of course you would, of course you would. The ancient artists were right about the resurrection glow.