How can something that is imagined go wrong? Is imagination not always what one wants it to be and is therefore always error-free? Imagination is not perfect (at least not this blogger's), so things can go wrong, and they did, in the last post. Before it was composed, what entered the imaginary mind in the beginning was not what flowed into the analytical mind. Below is the paragraph with the error, as posted:
This change of form [at the Transfiguration] was from human flesh to a heavenly matter, a spirit-based flesh (a term just invented here) that was able to shine as bright as, perhaps even brighter than the sun. Fast forward from Jesus' Transfiguration to the end of Jesus' ministry, to the third day after His crucifixion, when Jesus again transformed, this time in reverse, from (lifeless) human flesh to (living) spirit-based flesh.
Everything was fine until the end, when the transformation at Christ's Resurrection was described to be "from (lifeless) human flesh to (living) spirit-based flesh." That is wrong. Conceptually, it should have been from (lifeless) human flesh to living spirit-based flesh to living human flesh. In order to show a parallel between the Transfiguration (from human flesh to spirit-based flesh) and the Resurrection, and to highlight the many transformations between Christ's spirit-based flesh and living human flesh, a reference to the one-time transformation from lifeless human flesh to spirit-based flesh is omitted in the corrected paragraph (below).
The initial error was compounded by resorting to intellectual rationalization in the paragraph that followed, focusing on what the disciples thought they were seeing, a "ghost," rather than on what Christ had said and demonstrated [1]:
“Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.”
And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
They gave him a piece of baked fish;
he took it and ate it in front of them.
The misplacement of the focus on the disciples and not on Christ caused the analysis to take a wrong turn, even though it seemed to work at the time it was being composed. For any confusion caused, this blogger apologizes. (This is a good lesson for this blogger: get distracted and there could be consequences (in this case, a mind haunted by the mistake); therefore, it is necessary for him not to lose his focus on Christ and things should be fine, even then, "to err is human" (quoting Alexander Pope, the English poet. [2]))
Below (the part underlined and italicized) is the correction:
This change of form was from human flesh to a heavenly matter, a spirit-based flesh (a term just invented here) that was able to shine as bright as, perhaps even brighter than the sun. Fast forward from Jesus' Transfiguration to the end of Jesus' ministry, to the third day after His crucifixion, when Jesus again transformed, this time in the reverse direction, from spirit-based flesh to human flesh.
(The change cannot be from (lifeless) human flesh to (living) spirit-based flesh because spirit-based flesh does not want to be touched, only human flesh can be, and needed to be touched in the case of Christ to prove that He was alive. In order to arrive at what was first imagined, this analysis is being relied upon: the Body of Christ entered the tomb humanly dead but came out of it divinely alive. In the tomb, He went from human flesh to spirit-based flesh since lifeless human flesh cannot self-resurrect. While He was in that state, He did not want to be touched. He even told Mary who was at the tomb, "'Stop holding on to me,* for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" [3] It was only after Christ went to God that He was able to come back to earth with flesh and bones that make up a human body, and to feel hungry and eat. This detour to Heaven seems to be supported by the explanation next to the asterisk ("*") above, see [4] below).
(In the blogger's mind, these are the imagined steps:
Step one: Jesus died and was buried in the state of human flesh.
Step two: In the tomb, Jesus' human flesh was transformed into spirit-based flesh.
Step three: Jesus self-resurrected.
Step four: Mary at the tomb saw Jesus in spirit-based flesh.
Step five: Jesus' ascension took place immediately after He spoke with Mary. See [4] below.
Step six: Jesus came back to earth after returning from a trip to see His Father.
Step seven: Upon His return, Jesus was able to appear fully in human flesh.
Step eight: Jesus, after His first ascension (see [4] below), was able to transform at will between His spirit-based flesh and his fully human form.)
In addition, these two sentences are deleted:
The following is their replacement:
Even though the disciples thought that they were seeing a "ghost" in Lk 24:36-43 they were not. They thought they were because they never expected a man who had been dead but missing to suddenly appear in a room in which they were gathered, probably without knocking and going through a door, and stand "in their midst." [5] At the time Christ was standing physically in the room, He was in the flesh, human flesh, not spirit-based flesh.
It seems that Christ was able to go easily from human flesh to spirit-based flesh, as He had during His Transfiguration, and while He was in the tomb in order to self-resurrect. However, for Him to go the other way, from spirit-based flesh to human flesh, He seems to need God's blessing to do so. At the Transfiguration, He was able to appear as bright as or brighter than the sun, after which, with God's blessing (Christ's entire human existence had been blessed by God), He returned to His disciples as man. Immediately after His resurrection, Christ did not want to be touched because He had not yet ascended to His Father. It was only after Christ had made the trip back to Heaven to see His Father before He was able to have human flesh and be touched.
How many times Christ had gone back and forth between His state in human flesh and His state in spirit-based flesh and how quickly He was able to switch between the two states during His 40 days on earth before His return to Heaven is up to one's imagination. To be able to appear in a room without entering through a door, Christ had to be in spirit-based flesh, but He had to have human flesh to eat [6] and to show Thomas that He was alive and for Thomas to touch His wounds [7]. (Again, the different states of Christ body are imagined, and since this blogger is human, his imagination will be prone to error, even if the focus is directly on Christ.)
[1] http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/24 at 38-43.
[2] http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/to-err-is-human.htm
[3] http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/20 at 17.
[4] Quoted from http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/20 without hyperlinks:
* [20:17] Stop holding on to me: see Mt 28:9, where the women take hold of his feet. I have not yet ascended: for John and many of the New Testament writers, the ascension in the theological sense of going to the Father to be glorified took place with the resurrection as one action. This scene in John dramatizes such an understanding, for by Easter night Jesus is glorified and can give the Spirit. Therefore his ascension takes place immediately after he has talked to Mary. In such a view, the ascension after forty days described in Acts 1:1–11 would be simply a termination of earthly appearances or, perhaps better, an introduction to the conferral of the Spirit upon the early church, modeled on Elisha’s being able to have a (double) share in the spirit of Elijah if he saw him being taken up (same verb as ascending) into heaven (2 Kgs 2:9–12). To my Father and your Father, to my God and your God: this echoes Ru 1:16: “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” The Father of Jesus will now become the Father of the disciples because, once ascended, Jesus can give them the Spirit that comes from the Father and they can be reborn as God’s children (Jn 3:5). That is why he calls them my brothers. [Emphasis original.]
[5] http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/24 at 36.
[6] http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/24 at 41-43.
[7] http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/20 at 24-29.
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