The Brand-New You

by Max Lucado

What'all this talk about a new body? Do we change bodies? Is the new one different than this one? Will I recognize anyone? Will anyone recognize me?

"He will take these dying bodies of ours and change them into glorious bodies like his own" (Phil. 3:21 TLB).

Your body will be changed. You will not receive a different body; you will receive a renewed body. Just as God can make an oak out of a kernel or a tulip out of a bulb, he makes a "new" body out of the old one. A body without corruption. A body without weakness. A body without dishonor. A body identical to the body of Jesus.

Would you like a sneak preview of your new body? We have one by looking at the resurrected body of our Lord. After his resurrection, Jesus spent forty days in the presence of people. The resurrected Christ was not in a disembodied, purely spiritual state. On the contrary, he had a body—a touchable, visible body.

Why the Tears?

"Jesus said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping?'"  John 20:15

When Mary Magdalene came to the tomb on Easter Sunday morning, she met the resurrected Christ in the garden.  She did not know it was Jesus because her eyes were filled with tears, and she was preoccupied with her deep hurt and utter despair.

Her hopes and dreams had crashed and burned as she saw Jesus beaten and crucified.  Her Lord and Savior was now dead.  How could that be?  Wasn’t He the Messiah?  And to add insult to injury, someone had even taken His body from the tomb.  It couldn’t get any more heartbreaking for Mary.     

And in her profound state of grief, Jesus asks her this simple but probing question, “Why are you weeping?”