A More Substantial Reality. . .

When purchasing an appliance I was asked about the need and then given several options.  One of those options was described as more substantial or heavy duty.  It was beefier than the other choices and able to handle more demanding use.  Maybe you have been faced with the same choice.

When it comes to such things as angels and spiritual things (even Christ's presence in the bread and wine) and heaven, we are tempted to believe that these are not as substantial as the stuff we hold in our hands or see with our eyes.  But that is not exactly true.  The life to come is not less substantial than the life we now enjoy in the flesh.  It is MORE substantial.

When C.S. Lewis talked about how angels (and the Risen Lord Jesus) could pass through a wall, he did not diminish the substance of these but did just the opposite. He said that they were able to pass through the material substances because they were a more substantial reality than the substances we think of as pretty substantial.  In other words, like a rock is more substantial than water or air and can pass through it, Lewis suggested an angel (or risen body) is MORE substantial than our materiality.  It goes against the way we think of things and it is not something one can prove but it is a very useful way of thinking about these things.

We tend to think of the things most real as the things you can touch or feel or see.  So spiritual things, even the promise of a glorious new flesh and blood, tend to be seen as less real than even the inanimate object such as a rock.  The danger of this is that we dismiss the spiritual beings (angels) and spiritual reality -- even heaven and our own resurrection flesh and blood, as being something less than what we deal with every day.  

We say sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt us.  Maybe that is not such a good thing to say.  The Word of the Lord is His power and might; it endures forever.  In contrast to this, the things of this life do not -- not even our own bodies!!  Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.  From dust you came and to dust you shall return.  EXCEPT for the resurrection.

That same thing can be said of the Sacraments.  Christ's presence in the water of baptism or the bread and wine of the Eucharist is not a less substantial presence than the water itself or the bread and wine but a more substantial one.  This is part of the great mystery of the means of grace.  God is not less present where He has put His Word but more present than what eye can see or finger can touch.  It is this greater presence, greater reality, that can be accessed only by faith for now -- until all the old is gone and replaced with the new that sin and death cannot touch.

So which treasure is greater?  The one moth can consume or rust can destroy or the one that nothing can diminish?  So perhaps we need a change in thinking.  The Gospel offers us not something less than the life we now have but something more, radically more.  That is the shape of the things to come heralded by the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.