The Y Chromosome

The official Easter season has come and gone, but I can’t get the resurrection out of my mind. That was the most astonishing occurrence in all of human history, second only to a virgin birth 33 years earlier.

It would appear that a virgin birth meant no Y chromosome was passed from a human father to a son, yet Jesus was definitely born a “boy.” Somehow God reproduced His miracle of the first Adam’s blood in the last Adam (that’s what Jesus is called in Corinthians).

Admittedly, I‘m a bit lost in this particular scripture, but since I believe it to be so crucial in understanding God’s plan for us, I tried reading it in The Message bible. I Corinthians 15:45-48 “The First Adam received life, the Last Adam is a life-giving Spirit…The First Man was made out of earth, and people since then are earthy; the Second Man was made out of heaven, and people now can be heavenly…”

Back to that X chromosome thing—if Jesus had lived during the NCIS or CSI era, they would check his blood type and seek to match his DNA for paternity identification. Whom would it show to be his father? How would present-day forensic scientists explain it?

The first Adam had to be covered with animal blood (skins-Genesis 3:21) and sin demanded continual sacrifices of blood for a relationship with God. Yet, those sacrifices could never remove sin, but cover it until the next sacrifice.

However, the last Adam—Jesus, sacrificed his own blood (the blood that God Himself created and deposited in the borrowed womb). Hebrews 2 says about Jesus, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity…he had to be made like them, fully human in every way…” Did you notice that “flesh and blood”?

“Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (I Cor. 15:50) but “flesh and bones” can. Jesus demonstrated his flesh and bones in Luke 24:39, and we know Jesus not only inherited the kingdom of God, but sits on the throne with the Father.

Jesus’ torn flesh was the bridge between God and humanity, but it was his blood, all of it, that paid the price for humanity’s sin. In seeming defeat, when his blood was gone, his life was gone and his body died. Leviticus 17:11 explains that “the life of a creature is in the blood…”

However, hallelujah, the borrowed tomb could not keep captive the flesh and bones (Luke 24:39 above) and Jesus in victory walked out, leaving the linen cloths. When Adam sinned, he lost his heavenly covering and found himself naked—when the last Adam (Jesus) arose, he was covered and clothed from heaven.

This is too big and too important to be relegated to a once a year holiday. In communion, we are told to remember Jesus’ death; daily, we should rejoice at his resurrection!

♫ “Arise, My love.
Arise, My love.
The grave no longer
has a hold on you
No more death's sting
No more suffering
Arise...Arise...my love. ♫
NewSong