Jesus, Not a Ghost!
Ghosts and the Bible (Based on Luke 24)
Have you ever seen a ghost? Have I ever seen a ghost? Well, no, but in most cases how would we even know? I mean we have this image of what a ghost is. We have seen translucent figures in movies. We have seen weird effects in photographs. We have seen movement on the periphery of our vision and turned quickly to find nothing there.
My grandmother once told me that this is how ghosts manifest themselves. You can’t see them straight on, only through the corner of your eye. The problem is that when you turn your head to see them straight on, they disappear!
In Luke Chapter 24 Jesus seems to appear naturally among the Disciples while they are deep in discussion. When he does so he tells them “Peace be with you.” In response, Luke tells us, “They [the Disciples] were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost!” (Luke 24:37)
Well, we can certainly understand their reaction. It was almost a logical explanation for the circumstance. After all, they had just seen Jesus die on the cross. They knew he had been buried. What is it Arthur Conan Doyle had Sherlock Holmes say about such circumstances? “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” (Or words to that effect.)
I would guess that most people are skeptical about the existence of ghosts, but whether you personally believe in ghosts or not, the people of that age, people much closer to the natural world than we are, were inclined to believe in them. To the Apostles, immersed in the context of that day, it seemed a real possibility that this image of a man before them was not Jesus in the flesh, but a ghost, in spite of the fact that they had been told, while still in Galilee, that “The son of man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again.” (Luke 24:7) It did not seem to occur to them that this was Jesus risen, not Jesus the ghost.
To dispel all doubts, Jesus shows his wounds. He even allows the Disciples to touch the wounds. In this account it is not only Thomas who does so.
You have to wonder why Luke is making such a big deal about this ghost thing. Why am I making such a big deal about it? Well, actually, it is a pretty big deal for our theology and our understanding of Jesus Christ and Christ’s role as savior.
Jesus came to Earth both fully divine and fully human. A ghost, in the understanding of that day was, and is, neither one of these things. A ghost is a soul or perhaps a mere apparition that has no real effect on the physical world. If Jesus was and is just an apparition, then he could not do what he theologically needs to do in our world.
A soul is an essence, but Jesus is more than that. Remember prior to this scene in Luke, two young men, dressed in white, remind the women, who come to the tomb to put spices on the body, that Jesus had already told them that he will rise again. So the body is not there. Which means that in spite of the worst that humanity could do, Jesus had returned, not simply in the spirit, but also in body, physically making an impression on the world.
This is one reason, in our reading, we see Jesus actually partaking of a meal with the disciples. He eats the broiled fish and eats it in their presence. In the understanding of that day, a ghost could not eat food, there was nowhere to hold it. So the disciples were left to conclude that Jesus must actually be there. If there had been an apostle named Sherlock, even he would have to agree it was Jesus in the flesh, however improbable, it was the only possibility.
But this eating of the fish with the disciples by Jesus is also a symbolic gesture. He shares with them even as he shared food with them at the Last Supper, even as he had shared with the five thousand. This breaking of the bread was a kind of sign and seal on the real presence of Jesus.
And now, the disciples must know this is the real Jesus, because he takes them to school in the old style. “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.” (v.44)
So, this is Jesus, not a Ghost. Jesus is a physical man fulfilling prophecy that had been laid out over the last thousand years. He explains that he is the Messiah who suffered and rose from the dead on the third day. (v.46) And then he gives the disciples a commission. He tells them that “repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations…” (v.47)
And I think this wanders into another area you may not have thought about before. Luke in this passage, indeed, goes to great lengths to show that Jesus is not a ghost. He was a physical being and by extension, this physicality carries over to us.
We can see this reflected in our concept of the Body of Christ. This is important for the wider church because it defines who we are in both a physical and spiritual way. Together, we of the church, are an embodiment of Christ in the world. In effect it is our mission to take on the work of Christ, feeding the hungry, bringing hope to the downhearted, helping to lift the financial burdens of those in financial trouble, bringing healing to the ill, being a blessing to those who need a blessing whatever their circumstance. (Which frankly is all of us.) So, we don’t think of the Body of Christ, the church, as an ephemeral thing. Do we? It is an organization made up of real people!
And there is another issue regarding ghosts that I would like to address (while I am at it). We talk about being guided by the Spirit. When we say this, we are not talking about being guided by a capricious ghost, but by the will of God as well as we can interpret it through our limited understanding. The Spirit, sometimes even referred to as the Holy Ghost, is not a ghost in the colloquial sense of the word. In the original Greek of the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is referred to by Jesus as the “paraclete”.
“Paraclete” is a Greek term which means helper, comforter, or advocate and this paraclete would come after Christ to help Christ’s followers in all their (all our) various endeavors. It is actually a common term thrown around by theologians so that we can avoid calling the Spirit a Ghost. That is probably more than you wanted to know, but I think it is important to understand that when we speak of the Holy Ghost, in say the apostle’s creed, or see it in our liturgy, it is not with the spooky connotation that we might associate with scary movies or Halloween.
So, you can see that apparitions and wandering dead souls don’t really play a part in Christian Theology per se. But I don’t think that necessarily precludes the existence of ghosts. The apostles certainly thought it was a possibility. And there is a story in the Old Testament when King Saul wants to consult with the prophet Samuel. He comes to the Witch of Endor who summons up Samuel’s ghost for him. What can I say? Make your own judgment.
My grandmother was certain she saw a ghost on a consistent basis. It was the ghost of my grandfather’s dog Barney, a lumbering boxer that would follow my grandfather around his farm like a lost puppy. And when my grandfather would get on his Harley for a ride to town, that dog would chase him down the dirt road to the nearby highway to Imlay City. And having given up at some point, he would lope back home to curl up on the back porch to await Grampa’s return.
Several years after my grandfather and his dog had passed on, I was at my grandmother’s for a thanksgiving meal. A few of us were in the kitchen. I saw her turn her head quickly as she peeled potatoes at the counter. She asked me if I had seen the ghost of Barney. I had been looking directly where she turned. I had to confess I had not seen him. She saw it. I did not.
I think the final lesson to learn from this passage is that for us, as it was for the Apostles, the presence of Jesus is not as a ghostly apparition. Christ is present in our lives in a real and palpable way. Christ guides us through his Word in the Holy Book. We appeal to God for help through Jesus Christ when we pray. We have the actions of Christ to be an example in our lives. We have the actual physical help of Christ through the Body of Christ. We have the encouragement of Christ through our meditations. Jesus is there in our need, making lives better and relationships closer. My friends, Jesus is not ghost.
Ἀμἠν
Resources:
NIB Vol IX, p.484-487
Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible, (Abingdon Press, New York, 1962) p.654.