The Things We Only Understand Afterwards
Perhaps that’s why the resurrection was always going to be so difficult to believe.
Welcome to today’s reflection.
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A comment appears beneath almost every article I write about the resurrection of Jesus. Sometimes it’s phrased politely. Sometimes less so. But it almost always says the same thing.
“People don’t come back to life.”
I am fairly sure it’s meant to be a ‘mic drop moment’ with the expectation that I will suddenly realise the error of my ways and renounce my faith. In fact, the first few times I read it, I found myself wondering how best to respond. Should I point towards the historical evidence? Should I talk about the empty tomb, the eyewitnesses, or the extraordinary transformation of the disciples?
Then one day it dawned on me.
They’re absolutely right.
People don’t come back to life.
And crucially, perhaps that’s precisely the point.
The resurrection was never supposed to sound ordinary. If it did, Christians wouldn’t have spent two thousand years talking about it. It would simply have been another event recorded in history before everyone moved on.
Instead, the resurrection stands apart because it still refuses to fit into the categories we already have.
And that made me realise something else.
Maybe the resurrection isn’t the only part of life we struggle to understand until afterwards.
