OUTLINE
Lecture 12 -- The Disciples’ Visions of Jesus
In the last lecture, we saw that even though historians cannot prove, on
historical grounds, that Jesus was raised from the dead, it is relatively
certain that his followers claimed that he had been, based on visionary
experiences some of them had. These claims, as we will see, are not only the
basis for the beginning of the Christian religion, but they are also the basis
for a new understanding of Christ. From this point on, he was understood not
as a mere mortal but as, in some sense, God.
I. Scientific Studies of Visions
A. Can historians really say anything about visionary experiences?In fact, they can because we have documented and scientificallyexamined accounts of visions from the past.
B. The first major study of visionary experiences was conducted nearthe end of the 19th century by a scholar named H. A. Sidgwick. Heinterviewed more than 15,000 men and women and determined that7.8 percent of the men and 12 percent of the women had had at leastone vivid hallucinatory experience (that is, a vision that Sidgwickjudged to be nonveridical).
C. The most comprehensive modem survey was undertaken by A. YTien in 1991. In his analysis of more than 18,000 people, some 13percent claimed to have had at least one vivid hallucination.
D. How does one explain these large numbers-the fact that one outof every eight people seem to have had some kind of visionaryexperience taken to be real?
E. Psychologist Richard Bentall explains that it is related to a skill allof us have called source monitoring.1. This is a skill that we all use all the time to differentiate betweenself-generated events-that is, sensations that occur within ourown heads-and externally generated ones-sensations causedby external stimuli.
2. Bentall argues that like all skills, source monitoring fails onoccasion; at those times, what is happening only in our headsis vividly but mistakenly taken to refer to something thatoccurs externally.
3. This source-monitoring skill is very much tied to theenvironment in which we live: If we have been raised in asociety that subscribes to the existence of ghosts or the realityof dead people reappearing among us, then the chance thatwhat one “sees” will be assumed to be a ghost or a dead personis heightened.
4. Moreover-and this is a key point-stress and emotional arousalcan have a serious effect on source-monitoring skills, making usmore susceptible to a breakdown in our ability to differentiatebetween internal and external processes. This is especially truein times of deep grief trauma, or personal anguish.
5. Bentall, of course, is not referring to visions in the distant past,but for those of us interested in the visions of Jesus’s followers,Bentall’s Iindings are significant because, if nothing else, thedisciples of Jesus, after his death, were experiencing deepgrief trauma, and personal anguish.
6. It is striking, in this connection, that the two most frequentlyreported visions that people have are of significant religiousfigures and loved ones who have been lost. We can examineboth kinds of visions, based on modem research.
II. Visions of the Virgin
A.. One common vision in the modem age of a significant religiousfigure involves the mother of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, who regularlyappears to people, sometimes to multiple people at one time, inextremely well-documented cases.
B. A number of visions have been discussed by René Laurentin,a Catholic theologian who has a degree in philosophy from theSorbonne in Paris and two doctorates, one in theology and one inliterature. He has written many books describing the visions of Mary inthe modern world.
C. One example involves a set of appearances in 1984, in which a largegroup of people--more than 1,000 at one time--saw Mary appearnear a local waterfall; these included doctors, lawyers, psychologists,and psychiatrists, nearly 500 of whom were personally interviewedand described their experience. Obviously, religious visions arenot experienced only by uneducated and illiterate peasants.
D. A large number of Marian apparitions are documented in suchplaces as Lourdes, France; Garabandal, Spain; and Fatima, Portugal.1. In Fatima, for example, more than 50,000 people attested tothe “cosmic miracle of the sun” on October 13, 1917, duringwhich the sun began to spin wildly and tumble down to earth,radiating indescribably beautiful colors. This miracle wasattributed to Mary.
2. One sometimes hears that Jesus must actually have appeared tothe disciples because Paul indicates that 500 brethren saw himat one time, and mass hallucinations are impossible. But if suchhallucinations are impossible, then the sun actually must havefallen toward the earth in 1917; this miracle was seen not by500 people but by 50,000.
III. Bereavement Visions
A. Another type of exceedingly common vision is the bereavementvision, in which a deceased person appears to a loved one, convincingthe visionary that the deceased is still, in some sense, alive.1. These types of visions occur most frequently-but not always-with departed family members. The deceased person appears,speaks to, or touches the living person-or does all three.
2. In almost every recorded instance, the person who has had thevision is convinced that his or her loved one is still alive and iswell, even knowing, of course, that the body has died.
3. These kinds of visions happen most commonly when thedeceased was especially beloved; when his or her death wassudden, unexpected, or violent; and when the visionary feelsguilt over how the loved one had been treated.B. An interesting and large set of anecdotal evidence has beencollected by Bill and Judy Guggenheim in an account of what theycall after-death communications.1. The Guggenheims are not trained psychologists, and theanecdotes they have collected cannot be used for a scientificanalysis for scholarly purposes.
2. But they are extremely important for seeing what peopleactually say about such experiences. The Guggenheimscollected more than 3,500 accounts from people who claimedthey were contacted by dead loved ones.
3. Even when the contact came in a dream, invariably, thevisionaries accepted it as real, not as an event of their psyches.
4. In fact, the most striking feature of virtually all the stories isthat the person who had the experience almost never doubtedthat the deceased had, in fact, initiated the contact and that thevision showed beyond all doubt that the person lived on andwas doing well.
5. These visions could take place soon after the loved one had died,but sometimes they took place two or even three years later.
6. Again, these visions occur most frequently when the visionaryis physically and emotionally exhausted, and they are morecommon when the person has died unexpectedly or tragically.Strikingly, many people don’t think such things happen or evenknow about them happening until they have the experience.C. The similarities between these common modem-day experiences and
the visions of Jesus experienced by his followers cannot be missed.1. In Jesus’s case, we note the violent and sudden death of adeeply loved teacher--one for whom the disciples had givenup everything in order to follow.
2. Jesus was suddenly and brutally taken away from the disciples,publicly humiliated, tortured, and crucified.
3. And the disciples had plenty of reasons for feeling guilt andshame over how they had failed Jesus both during his life andat his greatest time of need, at the very end.D. Soon after his death, some of Jesus’s followers had visions of him,
as people do. They were deeply comforted by his presence and
felt his forgiveness, as people do. They had not expected these
experiences, which had come upon them suddenly and vividly,
making them think that their teacher was still alive, as people do.
IV. Conceptions of the Afterlife
A. One key difference between modem people living in 21”-centuryAmerica and the disciples of Jesus living in 1”-century Palestine isthat today, people who believe in the afterlife tend to think that afterdeath, a person’s soul goes to heaven even as the body deteriorates.In other words, for most people today, the afterlife is a spiritualexperience, occurring after the body is dead.
B. But Palestinian Jews, such as the disciples, believed that theafterlife was a physical experience to be lived in the same body thathad died once the resurrection took place and people returned totheir bodies to enjoy a material eternal life.
C. How, then, would those people understand an after-deathcommunication from a deceased loved one?1. For them, if Jesus was alive again, it was not because his spiritlived on after death. It was because he had been brought backto life in his body.
2. But then where is his body if he comes and goes and is nowhereto be found once the vision is over?
3. For the disciples, there was a clear and obvious answer. Jesushad been raised in the body, and his body had been taken up toheaven. Jesus had been exalted to the realm of God. He had, infact, been made divine.
Suggested Reading
Bentall, “Hallucinatory Experiences.”
Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament.
Connell, Meetings with Mary.
Ehrman, How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee.
Fredriksen, From Jesus to Christ.
Goulder, “The Baseless Fabric of a Vision.”
Guggenheim and Guggenheim, Hello from Heaven!
Hamack, History of Dogma.
Laurentin, The Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary Today.
Wiebe, Visions of Jesus.
Questions to Consider
1. Do you know of anyone (including yourself) who has had visions of
departed loved ones or of important religious figures? What do you
make of these visions?
2. This lecture maintains that historians-whether believers or not-can
agree that the followers of Jesus had visions of him after his death and
that this is what led them to believe he had been raised. Historians who
believe Jesus really was physically raised would say that the visions are
veridical, and those who do not would say they are nonveridical, but
both could agree that these followers experienced visions. Do you agree
or not? Why or why not?
Transcript -- Lecture 12
The Disciples’ Visions of Jesus
In the last lecture, we saw that even though historians cannot prove on
historical grounds that Jesus was raised from the dead, it is relatively certain
that his followers claimed that he had been, based on visionary experiences
that some of them had. These claims, as we’ll see, are not only the basis
for the beginning of the Christian religion, they’re also the basis for a new
understanding of Christ, who from this point on was understood not as a
mere mortal, but as, in some sense, God.
How, though, can we understand these visions of the disciples from a
historical perspective? Can historians really have anything to say about
visionary experiences? Or does belief in religious visions require religious
belief? In fact, historians can talk about visionary experiences without
adhering to any particular religious faith because we have documented
and scientifically examined accounts of visions from the past examined by
psychologists and other researchers.
The first major study was conducted near the end of the 19th century by a
scholar named H. A. Sidgwick, who interviewed over 15,000 people-men
and women-and determined that 7.8 percent of the men and 12 percent of
the women had at least one vivid hallucinatory experience-that is, a vision
that Sidgwick judged to be what I’m calling nonveridical.
The most comprehensive modem survey was undertaken by A. Y Tien
in 1991. In his analysis of over 18,000 people, some 13 percent claim to
have had at least one vivid hallucination. How does one explain these large
numbers, in which one out of every eight people appear to have had some
kind of visionary experience taken to be real?
If they are real--that is, if they are veridical visions--then, of course, there’s
nothing to explain. People are seeing things because those things are there.
But some, if not all, of them must be nonveridical--hallucinations. How
does one explain the relative frequency of such experiences?
Psychologist Richard Bentall explains that it is related to a skill, that all of
us have, called source monitoring. This is a skill that we all use all the time
to differentiate between self-generated events--that is, sensations that occur
within our own heads-and externally-generated ones-sensations caused
by external stimulation. Bentall argues that, like all skills, this differentiating
source monitoring fails on occasion. So what is happening only in our heads
is vividly but mistakenly taken to refer to something that occurs external
to us.
This source monitoring skill is very much tied to the environment in which
we live. If we’ve been raised in a society that’s subscribes to the existence
of ghosts or the reality of dead people reappearing among us, then the
chance that what one sees will be assumed to be a ghost or a dead person
is heightened. Moreover-and this is a key point-stress and emotional
arousal can have a serious effect on source monitoring skills, making us
more susceptible to a breakdown in our ability to differentiate between
internal and external processes. This is especially true in times of deep grief
trauma, or personal anguish.
Bentall, of course, is not referring to visions in the distant past. But for those
of us interested in the visions of Jesus’ followers, Bentall’s findings are
significant because if nothing else, the disciples of Jesus after his death were
experiencing deep grief trauma, and personal anguish. Obviously, they’d be
highly susceptible to having visions, given their emotional state.
It’s striking in this connection that two of the most frequently reported
visions that people have are of significant religious figures and especially of
loved ones who have been lost. We can examine both kinds of visions based
on modem research.
One very common vision in the modem age of a significant religious figure
involves the mother of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who regularly appears
to people-sometimes to multiple people at one time-in extremely well-
documented cases. I picked this example because there are a lot of Protestant
apologists for Christianity-those who think that you can prove the truths
of the Christian faith, including the historical truth of the Resurrection--
who claimed that the appearances of Jesus to his disciples after his death
demonstrate that he really was raised.
I occasionally have debates with some of these apologists, and they’re
always very interesting and entertaining. Typically, we have a resolution
such as, resolved: Historians can prove that Jesus was raised from the dead. I
think the answer is no. They think the answer is yes. But my view should be
clear from what I’ve said before in this course.
I won’t review here everything I said before in Lecture 10 about the limits
to what historians can demonstrate about the past. There I tried to show why
historians cannot prove Jesus’ Resurrection any more than they can prove
any other miracle. Still, these apologists that I debate think that there can be
evidence for a miracle. And one piece of evidence for them is that there can
be no other explanation; The fact that we have recorded appearances of Jesus
appearing to so many people after his death and so many times shows that, in
fact, he must have been raised from the dead. And so Jesus appears to Peter,
he appears to Mary, he appears to the apostles, he appears to 500 brethren at
one time, as the Apostle Paul says.
This apologetic claim overlooks two factors. First is that our sources of
information are completely problematic for these appearances of Jesus to
his followers after his death. And second, even more important, is that we
have records of all sorts of visions experienced by all sorts of people-for
example, visions of the Virgin Mary-which are much better documented
than the visions of Jesus. And yet, these very same apologists, as good
Protestants, refuse to believe that Mary really appeared to anyone, even
though the evidence is the same kind that they use, only better. I’ll discuss
these two problems in order.
First, the early Christian accounts of Jesus’ Resurrection appearances are
obviously problematic, because they are so inconsistent with one another.
According to the gospels, who went to Jesus’ tomb after he was buried? Was
it Mary Magdalene by herself as in John’s gospel? Or was it Mary with
other women, as in Matthew, Mark, and Luke? How many other women
were there? And who were they? It depends which gospel you read.
Was the stone already rolled away from the tomb before they got there, or
not? Depends which gospel you read. Wfrom did they see there? A man?
Two men? An angel? Two angels? Depends which gospel you read. What
were the women told to tell the disciples? It depends which gospel you read.
Did they actually tell the disciples anything or not? Depends which gospel
you read.
If the women did speak to the disciples, were the disciples lI1StI'llCt6d to go in
Galilee to meet Jesus, or to stay in Jerusalem? It depends which gospel you
read. And did they go to Galilee? Or did they stay in Jerusalem until after the
Ascension of Jesus? It depends which gospel you read. Did Jesus appear first
to Peter, or to Mary Magdalene alone? Or to Mary Magdalene with other
women? Or to two unnamed disciples? It depends which gospel you read.
And so on and so on. These are not the sorts of sources that historians think
that they can rely upon, because they differ at virtually every point.
Now, some people have pointed out that if the followers of Jesus did see
him alive afterwards, of course, they’d be confused, so they would not get
the story straight. That’s fair enough. But if we don’t have records that we
can accept as reliable, how can we know what happened? Moreover, it’s
important to remember that historians since the Enlightenment have realized
that even if some such miracle happened, it can’t be shown to have happened
by appeal to historical evidence.
But the main point I want to stress is the second one that I made before. If
the disciples did have visions of Jesus, whether veridical or not, their visions
would be very similar to other visions of esteemed religious figures who
have appeared that we can now know about and study, because religious
figures do appear to people in visions. They appear many times, often to
multiple people at once.
Nowhere is that more clear than in visions reported in the modem age of the
Blessed Virgin Mary. But as I’ve indicated, my debate opponents, who are
always Protestants, almost always reject the idea that Mary has appeared to
people. This makes me think that they really are not concerned with evidence
unless it happens to fit their own particular religious beliefs, because the
evidence for Mary’s appearances is even better than for Jesus.
A number of visions of Mary have been discussed by René Laurentin,
a Catholic theologian who has a degree in philosophy from the Sorborme
in Paris and two doctorates-one in theology and one in literature. He’s
written many books describing the visions of Mary in the modem world.
My authority for what I have to say here is his work, The Apparitions of the
Blessed Virgin Marg/ Today.
One example involves a series of appearances starting in 1984. There was a
large group of people attending a Mass in Betania, Venezuela. Afterwards, a
number of people went outside to enjoy some time near the local waterfall.
And the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared above it. This began a series of
visions. Sometimes Mary would appear for five minutes, sometimes up to
half an hour. As many as 1,000 people were there and had the vision. This
continued periodically until 1988.
Over 490 people were later interviewed by a professor of psychology, and
they evidently told virtually the same story. If this was a hallucination, it
was a very long series of mass hallucinations. These experiences were not
had only by the uneducated, the illiterate, or the gullible. They were also
experienced by hundreds of people, all at the same time, among them
doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, engineers, and lawyers-that is, by
highly sophisticated and educated people.
A whole slew of Marian apparitions are documented by Laurentin in such
far Hung places as Nicaragua, Mexico, Argentina, France, Spain, Portugal,
Egypt, Yugoslavia, and elsewhere. I’m not saying that I personally think
Mary actually appeared in these places, but her devotees claim that she
did, and that she was seen by multitudes of people. I would call these
mass hallucinations.
A more famous incident happened in Fatima, Portugal, where Mary was
credited with the famous cosmic miracle of the sun on October 13, 1917.
As a very large crowd was gathered in anticipation of a miracle that Mary
was predicted to perform, they saw the sun begin to spin wildly and tumble
down to the earth, then return to its normal position, radiating indescribably
beautiful colors. This was a miracle attested to by more than 50,000 people.
One sometimes hears that Jesus must actually have appeared to the disciples,
because Paul indicates that 500 brethren saw him at one time, and mass
hallucinations are impossible. If they’re impossible, then the sun actually
must have fallen toward the earth in 1917. This miracle was seen not by 500
people, but by 50,000.
In addition to these visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, there are accounts
of modem appearances of Jesus himself These have been documented in a
book called Wsions of Jesus by Phillip Wiebe, Chair of Philosophy at Trinity
Westem University. He studies 28 cases of Jesus appearing to people from
psychological, neuropsychological, mentalist, and other perspectives.
None of the 28 is more striking than what happened in 1959 in Oakland,
Califomia, at a Pentecostal Holiness church whose preacher was named
Kenneth Logie. Evidently, there was a woman who was standing up giving
her testimony in church. And while members of the congregation were
watching and listening, they saw her disappear. She was replaced by a male
figure who was obviously Jesus. He was wearing sandals and a glistening
white robe. There were nail marks in his hands that were dripping with oil.
After several minutes, he disappeared and the woman reappeared.
This event was seen by 200 people who later testified to it. And it was
actually captured on film. Wiebe himself saw the film. Do I think that it
happened? No. Do I think that people think that they saw it happen? Yes.
Even better attested than visions of religious figures, such as Mary and
Jesus, are bereavement visions, in which deceased persons appear to loved
ones, convincing them that they are still, in some sense, alive. These kinds
of visions are exceedingly common. They happen most frequently, but not
always, with a departed family member-a grandmother, a spouse, a child.
The deceased figure appears, or speaks, or touches the person, or sometimes
does all three.
In almost every recorded instance, the person who has had the vision is
convinced that their loved one is still alive and is well, even though they
know, of course, that their body has died. These kinds of visions happen
most commonly when the deceased was especially beloved, when his or her
death was sudden, unexpected, or violent, and when the visionary feels guilt
over how the loved one had been treated.
An interesting and large set of anecdotal evidence has been collected
by Bill and Judy Guggenheim lI1 an account of what they call after-death
communications. Now, the Guggenheims are not trained psychologists, and
the anecdotes that they’ve collected can”t be used for a scientific analysis
for scholarly purposes. But they are extremely important for seeing what
people actually say about such experiences.
The Guggenheims collected more than 3,500 accounts from people who
claimed they were contacted by dead loved ones. Even when the contact
came in a dream, invariably the visionary accepted it as real, not as an event
of their psyche. In fact, the most striking feature of virtually all the stories is
that the person who had the vision almost never doubted that the deceased
one had, in fact, initiated the contact, and that the vision showed beyond all
doubt that the person lived on and was doing well.
These visions could take place soon after the deceased one had died, but
sometimes they took place a year, two years, or even three years later.
Persons who appeared were not simply seen in the vision. They were also
heard and touched on occasion. Again, these visions happen most frequently
when a person is physically and emotionally exhausted, and they are more
common when the person has died unexpectedly or tragically.
It is striking that a lot of people don’t think that such things happen, or
even know about such things happening, until it happens to them. Now, the
similarities between these common modem day experiences and the visions
of Jesus experienced by his followers after his death cannot be missed. Here
was the violent and sudden death of a deeply loved teacher, one for wfrom
the disciples had given up everything in order to follow.
It’s important to remember the sequence of events. There were high
expectations that Jesus might be the messiah. And in fact, there is very
good evidence that Jesus’ followers thought he was the messiah before he
died. We’ve already seen one reason to think this. There’s a saying of Jesus
that almost certainly goes back to his lifetime, one that he himself actually
delivered. It’s a saying in which Jesus is talking to his twelve disciples, and
he says to them that when the kingdom of God comes, you twelve will be
seated on twelve thrones ruling the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
If the twelve disciples are going to be rulers in this future kingdom, who’s
going to be the ruler over them? Kingdoms have a king. They would be co-
rulers, but there has to be somebody who ultimately is seated on the throne.
Jesus is the one who chose them. Jesus is the one whose teachings are going
to bring them into the kingdom. How could it be anyone except Jesus who
would be on the throne?
What is the name, then, of the person who rules as the king of the future
kingdom of God? In Jewish circles, this person is named the messiah. Now,
the reason for thinking the Jesus actually delivered this teaching to his 12
disciples is because nobody after Jesus’ death would’ve made up such a
saying, since Jesus is talking to all 12 disciples, including Judas Iscariot.
If nobody would make up that saying after Jesus’ death, then it must be
a saying that was around before he died. It’s a saying that Jesus actually
delivered, which means that, during his lifetime, he was telling his disciples
that he was the messiah. There’s another reason for thinking that Jesus taught
his disciples that he was the messiah.
It is clear that the disciples thought he was the messiah after he died.
Messiah is the Hebrew word for “the anointed one,” referring to the king of
Israel. The Greek word is the word christos, or Christ. How much did the
disciples of Jesus think that he was the messiah after he died? They started
calling him Jesus Christ so much that, in fact, Christ-messiah-became his
second name.
And so certainly after his death his disciples thought he was the messiah.
But it is worth noting that there was nothing about Jesus’ death in itself
that would make them think he was the messiah, for the reason we’ve seen
before. Namely, that the messiah was supposed to be the glorious conqueror
of the enemies of God’s people. He was not supposed to be someone who
was humiliated, tortured, and executed by the enemies.
But that means that Jesus’ death would not have made anyone think that
he was the messiah, any more than the death of any other prophet in the
entire history of Israel made anyone think that they were the messiah. The
messiah wasn’t supposed to die. And here is the key point. It’s also the case
that belief in Jesus’ Resurrection would not make anyone think that Jesus
was the messiah. Because just as there was no belief that the messiah would
die at the hands of his enemies, so too there was no belief that the death of
the messiah would be followed by the resurrection of the messiah.
If someone were thought to be raised from the dead, no one among the Jews
would immediately think, a-ha, he must be the messiah. We have other
people raised From the dead even within the Bible. Elijah, in the Hebrew
Bible, raises someone from the dead-the son of the widow of Zarafat, but
nobody thought that that person was the messiah. Jesus raised the daughter
of Jairus from the dead, but nobody thought she was the messiah. Jesus
raised Lazarus from the dead, and no one thought he was the messiah. No
one raised from the dead, even if by God, would be considered the messiah,
because the messiah was not supposed to be raised.
Then why did the followers of Jesus claim that he was the messiah after they
came to believe that he had been raised from the dead? Precisely because
they thought he was the messiah before he died. While he was still alive, the
disciples expected that the kingdom would come. The Son of Man would
arrive and wipe out all the foreign powers, and he would set up God’s rule
on earth. They themselves would be rulers in this kingdom, and Jesus would
be the messiah.
This was supposed to happen very soon. Mark’s gospel-our earliest
gospel-indicates that Jesus taught his disciples that they would not die
before the end came, that their generation would not pass away before the
kingdom arrived. And so they’d be alive when it happened. The Son of Man
would arrive, set up the kingdom. They’d be the rulers; Jesus would be the
messiah. And that was their expectation.
But then, Jesus was arrested, put on trial, tortured, and crucified. They
thought he was going to be the king of the future kingdom. He wasn’t made
king of the future kingdom-he was executed. This changed everything.
How did the disciples react to the arrest of Jesus? They were obviously
filled with fear. We have indications in our early accounts the disciples fled
Jerusalem. Probably they were fleeing for their lives. If Jesus was arrested
and crucified for an act of insurrection, then his followers would be subject
to the same charge as well. And so they got out of town, and probably
returned home to Galilee.
Moreover, we have reports that they-or at least some of them-actually
denied even knowing Jesus in order to escape arrest. According to our
gospels, the Apostle Peter was asked three times if he knew Jesus, and he
denied him in order to get himself off the hook. And so our earliest sources
suggest that the disciples wanted nothing more to do with this situation, so
they left Jerusalem and they went to Galilee.
Apart from fear for their own lives, the disciples must have been wracked
with a sense of loss, as their beloved teacher had not turned out to be who
they thought he was, and had instead been unceremoniously executed by his
enemies. And the disciples must have been struck by the bitter realization
that they had been completely wrong about him. They thought that he was to
be the king of the future kingdom, and instead, he was executed. All of their
dreams were dashed.
In addition to loss, they felt guilt and shame for how they had behaved, both
during his life and at his greatest time of need at the very end. The disciples
were prime candidates for visions of their lost loved one. And so it’s not
surprising that, soon after his death, some of Jesus’ followers had visions
of him, as people do. They were deeply comforted by his presence when
they had these visions. And they felt his forgiveness, as people do. They had
not expected these experiences, which had come upon them suddenly and
vividly, making them think that their teacher was still alive, as people do.
One key difference between modem people-living today in the 21st
century in America-and the disciples of Jesus-living in the 1st century in
Palestine--is that people today who believe in the afterlife tend to think that,
after death, a person’s soul goes to heaven even as the body deteriorates.
For most people today, the afterlife is a spiritual experience after the body
is dead.
But Palestinian Jews like the disciples believed that the afterlife was a
physical experience, to be lived in the same body that had died, once the
resurrection happened. And people returned to their bodies to enjoy a
material eternal life.
The kingdom of God for ancient Jews was not where you go when you go to
heaven. The kingdom of God was a real kingdom here on earth. This is the
case in the teachings of Jesus. That’s why he told the twelve, “you twelve
will be ruling Twelve Tribes of Israel in the kingdom.” It’s going to be a
kingdom-a real kingdom, here.
That’s why Jesus can say that “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth
when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the
kingdom,” but you are cast out. Because “people will come from east and
west, From north and south, and [recline at table] in the kingdom of God.”
People will be eating there. People will be fellowshipping there. People will
be in their bodies there in the kingdom here on earth.
How would people like that understand an after-death communication from
their deceased loved one? For them, if Jesus was alive again, it was not
because his spirit lived on after death; it was because he had been brought
back to life in his body. But then, where is his body, if he comes and goes,
and is nowhere to be found once the vision is over?
For the disciples, there was a clear and obvious answer: Jesus had been
raised in the body, and his body had been taken up to heaven. Jesus had been
exalted to the realm of God. In fact, he had been made divine. This, then, is
the beginning of the view that Jesus was God.
