“So what? What meaning does Easter still have for us today?” I wrote last week that this question is what we would turn to after dealing with the question of what the Easter experience actually was. But first let me say just a little more about the “what happened” question.

The gospel Easter stories of the empty tomb and the crucified Jesus’ physical reappearance were not known until decades after these events supposedly occurred. The belief that Jesus was, in some fashion, still alive, that he had been “raised,” likely arose in response to visions of him that occurred at various times to his followers. This is the type of experience described by Paul, our only first-hand account of the resurrected Jesus.

But was there something before the appearances experienced by the disciples? I think there was, and it both allows us as modern people to make sense of Easter and reestablish the central experience of the man Jesus himself.

The undisputed assertion shared by all the gospels is that Jesus was an extraordinary person. His teachings were astonishing and his interactions with people transformative. Unfortunately, that is about where the consensus ends. The gospels’ various accounts of what precisely those teachings were and just what he did that touched people so deeply are not consistent. Their views do occur within a reasonably narrow range, however, which we’ll come back to in a moment.

My belief, though, is that the impact Jesus had on his followers did not end with his death. Why would it? To varying degrees, his followers had become different people as a result of their experience of Jesus. Based on the gospel accounts, through Jesus they had had a new and profound experience of the presence and the love of God. Their minds and hearts were opened to a new appreciation of the reality and meaning of God. Most importantly, this experience was a communal one which drew them closer to each other and into a new sense of connection with people generally.

And then Jesus died. Executed by Roman imperial authorities. Crucified. In shock and grief, the challenge to his followers was to reconcile their experience of this godly man with his disastrous and horrible end. To make sense of this catastrophe, two things occurred.

The more literate of the disciples turned to the scriptures, the Hebrew Bible. There they found an assortment of passages and stories which could be summarized under the idea found in Isaiah of God’s “suffering servant.” Contrary to the usual idea of the Messiah as a conquering hero, a story was constructed of God’s anointed as rejected, condemned, suffering, and even dying for the sake of God’s people. Now, Jesus’ humiliating death on a cross could be understood and even celebrated.

But was that the end of Jesus? Not for his disciples, some of whom began having visions of him raised and in heaven. I suspect the first to have such experiences were women. I think this is what is behind the stories that women were the first to the empty tomb.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul recites a list of appearances to the disciples, and women are not mentioned. But Paul admits that these lists were given to him and they sound suspiciously creedal, like the Jerusalem church’s “party line” to preserve the priority of Peter, James and the twelve. Surprisingly, while it is said several times that the first appearance of Jesus was to Peter, there is no story recounting such an event.

Visions were relatively common occurrences in the premodern world. What would have stood out to those who experienced them and to those who heard about them, was not that they happened or their implication that Jesus was alive. What was important was that Jesus was now with God in heaven. His life and death were thus vindicated by God raising him to heavenly glory.

So, what are we to make two thousand years later of these visions of Jesus’ resurrection/ascension (which are really two words for the save event)? I don’t think we have to draw any conclusions at all if we don’t want to. While not as common as before, stories are still heard of modern-day visions and appearances. Countless people have claimed that they were visited in some way by deceased loved ones. Near death experiences (NDEs) often include encounters with the dead or with spiritual beings. What do we make of them? Some dismiss them, others affirm them. Most of us, I suspect, are agnostic and make no judgement.

Yet what a few dozen people may have seen centuries ago is irrelevant today. Easter can be a celebration of new life arising from death, and of hope overcoming defeat. Its ancient stories can still be enjoyable and touching to hear. These stories, however, are all filled with the imagery and ideas of the ancient world. Jesus ascending to heaven and sitting at God’s right hand is today just romanticism. Heaven has no meaning as a place in the universe and throne rooms are tourist attractions.

As modern people, then, the Easter stories tell us nothing of value about Jesus and do not move and change us as happened to the people who encountered him in his lifetime. Yet that today remains the goal: encountering Jesus, as much as we can two thousand years after his death, in ways that transform us, giving us hope and a new vision of ourselves and of the world we live in.

During his life, teacher (rabbi) and prophet were the titles most often given to Jesus. Messiah (Christ) and savior came later, after his death, as part of a dramatic and, I believe, mistaken attempt to redefine him for posterity and create a religion which he never envisioned. It’s these latter titles that have become essentially meaningless today and are hiding the astonishing Jesus that people encountered in the villages and on the dusty roads of ancient Palestine.

The robed young man in the tomb at the end of Mark’s gospel was right. What we are looking for is the Jesus of Galilee rather than the Jesus of Jerusalem. Who was that Jesus and what did he teach? For over two hundred years, scholars have been working to create a realistic understanding of this man, stripped of the religious dogma and theological labels that have nearly hidden him from our eyes. The results have been impressive, though far from perfect.

Nonetheless, their work has surprisingly—or not—yielded a picture of Jesus close to that which is often people’s common understanding of him. This is the Jesus of the parables and of the beatitudes, the Jesus who has gracious words for the poor and the sick, and harsh words for the rich and powerful. This is the Jesus who welcomes outcasts and shares a meal with those others judged unworthy. This is the Jesus who challenges everyone to open their eyes and ears, hearts and minds to recognize the presence of a gracious God within themselves, within their neighbor, and in the creation all around them.

This Jesus was not a lecturer in religion and ethics. He touched people and changed them with his words and actions. While Jesus’ ideas were and are profound, more importantly they were, and can still be, transformative. They can change lives. Experiencing this Jesus is the only “resurrected” Jesus that can be meaningful and powerful today and deserving of our attention.