After His Resurrection, It Was Now The Son Of God As The Most  Brilliant Light

By Michael H. Brown

Here it is in Scripture: when Jesus resurrected and appeared to His disciples, He "was revealed to them completely changed in appearance" [Mark 16:12].

John goes on to detail how when Mary Magdalene first saw Him, she didn't know Him. There was splendor for those weeks of appearances afterward.

Why is that? What was so different about Jesus? What is so different now?

It was -- it is -- the same Jesus. It is still the Man Who died on Calvary. But He is now in glorified form -- and from all indications (from Scripture to modern visions), that glorification is now represented in the most brilliant light imaginable.

In case after case after case, those who have had apparitions or report near-death experiences describe encountering Christ as a Man of fantastic luminosity. There is no portrayal that can do Him justice. There is no painter who has ever captured what they have seen.

This is a Light unlike earthly light and that's the thing that is reported most noticeably: the incredible luminosity that precedes and emanates from Jesus.

How does Jesus look now? How did Christ look after He resurrected? "His whole Body had a golden halo around it, and I could see that the golden halo burst out from around Him and spread into a brilliant, magnificent whiteness that extended out for some distance," says one woman from Washington who had a famous brush with death and has never recovered from the awesome experience.

Distance? A light that goes forever!

He was power and beauty as she had never seen power and beauty. Another named Ralph Duncan who "died" during a struggle with leukemia in the mid-1970s claimed to have seen a luminous being Who did not look like the traditional images of Jesus and Whose eyes were "shooting fire." Yet another, Vicki Umipeg, saw a "radiantly brilliant figure, much brighter than the others."

The accounts are almost endless: of a Figure Who comes with a love that goes beyond the greatest love on earth -- that towers above even the love of a mother for a child -- and is brilliant beyond brilliant, like the sun itself.

Now, we have to be awfully cautious: Scripture tells us that deceptive spirits can come as "angels of light." Moreover, we are admonished to be careful when someone says Jesus is appearing "here or there." Discernment is always in order.

But these are not accounts of a "second coming." These are alleged glimpses into Heaven. And in that Light is knowing. In that Light is all healing. And all brilliance. Remember, He has been given all authority and power on earth and in Heaven (Matthew 28:18).

This is a constant theme: that no matter how bright everyone else in Heaven seems (angels, saints), Jesus is far, far brighter.

In Revelation we are granted a similar description. It says Christ had hair "as white as snow-white wool and His eyes blazed like fire. His feet gleamed like polished brass refined in a furnace, and His voice sounded like the roar of rushing waters."

He is Light. Scripture tells us that. Look at Matthew. There we are told that when Jesus comes again, it will be on the clouds of Heaven with "power and great glory."

There are the rainbows as brilliant as emerald. There is the gemlike sparkle of jasper. Translation: no one can describe the brilliant appearance of God and Jesus in human terms.

When yet another near-death witness named Rebecca Springer saw Him, "a radiant glow overspread the wonderful Face, which He lifted." Others have characterizes His approach as like an incredible beam of light -- or even a comet. A doctor named George Ritchie saw Jesus as brighter than all the light bulbs in the world, "a Man made out of light."

If not for supernatural sight, they say, they would have been blinded.

That's how Jesus is now: brighter than anything we have ever seen because -- now -- He is Light Itself.

[Resources: afterlife books]

April 2004