People are sometimes puzzled when they hear a scripture passage that says, “Jesus was raised” from the dead. Didn’t he raise himself?
The Gospels were written in Greek. Toward the end of the fourth century, St. Jerome translated them into Latin. Until the 20th century, it was this Latin text that was used to make translations into other languages.
In modern times, translators have gone back to the early Greek texts of the New Testament in order to render a more exact translation. In the Greek text, some passages speak of Jesus rising from the dead. But most (19 in all) clearly say that he was raised.
Both are true. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says on the one hand: “The Father’s power ‘raised up’ Christ his Son.” It also says later on: “As for the Son, he effects his own Resurrection by virtue of his divine power.”
It is a question of whether Jesus is being looked at from the point of view of his humanity or from the point of view of his divinity. On the one hand, Jesus was not simply God masquerading in a human body. In his humanity, he became truly one of us – “tested in every way, but without sin” (Heb 4:15). As one of us, Jesus placed himself in dependence on the Father, trusting that the Father would bring him through death to glory.
On the other hand, it was the Second Person of the Trinity who took flesh, and Jesus could say, “The Father and I are one.”
Picture someone holding up a Bible and saying, “It’s all in here! Everything you ever need to know about living your life as a disciple of Jesus Christ is given to you in this book.”
Well, not exactly. The Scriptures give us God’s revelation, and we believe that there will be no new revelation in terms of a change in what Jesus taught. On the other hand, there is a continual unfolding of the implications of what Jesus did and what Jesus said.
For one thing, there are new situations that every generation has to face – nuclear weapons, medical procedures, global economics, a radically different view of the universe…
Scripture gives us timeless truths, but the Bible is not a “how to” manual with detailed directions on how to live those truths.
We desperately need the gift of the Spirit that Jesus promised his disciples. We need to let the Spirit shape our understanding of those timeless truths as they are applied to the circumstances of our lives.
Which is to say, to be a disciple of the Lord, I need to pray.