Resurrection of Brokenness

There's no doubt -- pun intended -- that what Thomas encounters in the second of Jesus' upper room appearances after the cross is Jesus.  All the proof we need that the peripatetic teacher from Nazareth whom Thomas followed all those months and all those miles is Jesus is found in the scars.  

Thomas's view is confirmation of the unity or continuity for which we all hope when we are raised.  We all want to keep on being us in heaven, just better.  I'd like to have my achilles tendons and eyesight fixed.  

But we're here now and not in heaven.  How does death and resurrection work for us who have yet to die, sacrificially or otherwise?  What about us changes?

I'm thinking that Thomas' reaction "My Lord and my God!" is a important insight into how resurrection changes things.  That is to say that death and resurrection are more than or at least the fulfillment of God's incarnation.  

Thomas exclaims in confirmation and revelation! When he says "My Lord" he confirms that the same Jesus who died is present, real.  He is everything he ever was before, and more.  And Thomas continues, "and my God!"  

We need to be careful and not oversimplify this moment.  Thomas is likely not saying that Jesus is now God.  Nothing else, including the earlier dialogues between Jesus and Thomas supports that interpretation.  Moreover, only one verse after Thomas’ confession John concludes his gospel by writing, “Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed … but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20.30-31).

When we oversimplify this moment we set ourselves up to worship the "God parts" but not continue to follow the "human parts."  That's what the earlier dialogue between Thomas and Jesus was about:  "Thomas said to Him, 'Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?' Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.'"

It is by way of incarnation especially after death and resurrection that God makes God's self present.  And Thomas recognizes that.  Jesus doesn't become God.  God makes God's self present in him.  The Way is God's towards us! 

So could it be that resurrection, especially for those of us who have yet to die, has something to do with making God present and less about "self-improvement?"  More about brokenness and less about perfection?  

I feel like I'm asking a question about communion now and about how Christ is present with us in the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the cup.  We call it "real presence."  We don't presume to enjoy a perfectly restored loaf.  

The bread stays broken.  The scars persist and in them my God is present!