Yes, the human body needs space time to exist in its physical form.
At the last judgement when our bodies are resurrected they will be spiritualized and proper for the spiritual place-state of either heaven or hell. When Jesus resurrected from the dead, He physically resurrected from the dead, but His physical body was spiritualized, and was no longer bound by the restrictions of the physical universe. He could walk through walls and move instantaneously anywhere He wished. He could be touched like when Thomas put his fingers into His wounds. Curiously though outside of that encounter with Thomas He asked no to be touched. He could eat, and was able to handle the physical objects necessary to make fire like He did when He cooked fish, and bread on the shore of the lake. People didn’t recognize Him until He chose to be recognized.
I think that a resurrected physical body that becomes spiritualized exists in a hyper reality that contain higher dimensions than the three of the physical universe. None of which require time or space as we can know it or can understand it. This feels like a person in a two dimensional universe looking for depth, and having a sense of what it is, but impossibly trying to grasp at where it is.
On a side note I think the strange elements of instantaneous travel, not wanting to be touched, and the non recognition motif after the resurrection lend a tremendous weight to the actuality of the resurrection itself. 1st century Jewish understanding of resurrection was that a resurrected body would shine as bright as the sun. If you were going to concoct a fable in which God came to earth, died, and was resurrected then it would make much more sense to have the resurrection happen within the parameters of current understanding.
I apprehend what you are saying, Cranster and am familiar with the passages of the New Testament used to support the idea that Jesus’ resurrected body, at least at times, has no physical matter to it. Years ago, I spent more than a year having regular conversations with Jehovah’s Witnesses in my home. Their team leader Nelsa used to bring a new recruit by each time to show them how to debate a Bible-thumper like myself (yes, to my shame, I used to win a lot of arguments, but won few souls to Christ). She used the passages you mentioned and similar reasoning–although her purpose is not to prove that Jesus can remove matter from His essence and recreate the matter of His essence at will. Instead, she used the passages as proof text to show that Jesus is not the unique and eternal God-man, but is the Michael the Arch Angel. Some of her proof texts:
While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself
stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
(Luke 24:36)
and
Jesus said, "
Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ "
(John 20:17)
and
42So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a
spiritual body.
(1 Corinthians 15)
Regarding the first passage, she reasoned that Jesus could walk through walls, and so He must have the body of an angel, not a physical body like you and me. My response was that she was making an argument from ignorance. Luke writes that Jesus “stood among them” but not that He walked through walls. He might have teleported or made Himself invisible, but still have been physical.
Regarding the second passage she reasoned that Jesus told the woman to not touch Him because he was an angel, in non-physical form and could not be touched. I answered that she was not paying attention to the words Jesus used. For Jesus did not say to not touch Him. Instead He said to not
hold on to Him. In other words, He was saying that she should not try to keep Him with her on earth, for He had to return to Heaven.
Regarding the third passage, she reasoned that
spiritual body = spirit (or non-physical) body
My response was that she was making another argument from ignorance. For nowhere does Saint Paul indicate that a spiritual body is a non-physical body. All he says–and all we can know from what he says–is that a spiritual body is a non-perishable, glorious and powerful one. I then mentioned this passage:
37They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
(Luke 24)
and asked why, if Jesus had a non-physical body, did He go out of His way to show that His body has flesh and bones?
Her response was that they would not have believed Jesus really rose from the dead if Jehovah God had not temporarily given Him flesh and bones.
I then said that this sounds deceptive to me, and asked why, if Jesus had the body of an angel, did He not ever say He had the body of an angel? She had no answer for that one.
I mention all this to you, Cranster only to spare you and I several posts of debating whether Jesus’ body is always made of physical matter, or merely sometimes made of physical matter. Would you be content to say that we cannot know either way unless we find some official Church doctrine that resolves the matter of Jesus’ mysterious matter for us?
Again, the focus should not be on that, but on 1) trust in God’s mercy and 2) our relationship with the Lord.
