Resurrection Hope

There was no time to give Jesus a proper burial before the Sabbath began on Friday at dusk and burial preparations were not allowed on Saturday.

So, early on Sunday morning, a group of women who had followed Jesus throughout His ministry returned to the tomb to anoint His body according to Jewish custom.

You can imagine their surprise when they found an opened and empty tomb. Jesus’ body was gone.

As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes.

The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! (Luke 24:4-6, NLT)

His is risen!

This is the central claim of the Christian faith.

Yes, we really do believe that Jesus is alive.

When we speak about the resurrection of Jesus, we are not speaking metaphorically about a sort of spiritual awakening.

We are talking about a bodily, flesh and blood resurrection.

Jesus conquered death and is alive in the fullest sense of the word.

This is good news!

But maybe you’re still back at Friday afternoon. Maybe you’re still back at the cross, watching from a distance with the disciples, as all of their hopes for the future died with Jesus.

Maybe you’re dealing with fear and anxiety and doubt and loss.

Maybe joy and celebration seem unattainable and even naïve.

What cause is there for joy and celebration in the midst of this chaotic world?

What we need now is hope.

That may sound trite.

After all, where has hope ever gotten us?

That’s fair.

I can hope the shelter-at-home order is lifted tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean it will be. I can hope the trip I have planned in June doesn’t get canceled, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be. I can hope I don’t run out of toilet paper, but that doesn’t mean I won’t.

But I’m not talking about that kind of hope. I’m not talking about a warm and fuzzy feeling. I’m not talking about wishing for the best or sending positive thoughts out into the universe.

I’m not talking about hope that is subject to changing circumstances or a changing world but about hope in the unchanging nature and character of God.

I’m talking about biblical hope – the confident anticipation of what God will do in the future based on what God has done in past.

The resurrection of Jesus declares that God’s work of restoration has begun.

This is what Paul was talking about when He said, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV)

The resurrection wasn’t an isolated event. It was a paradigm for what God is doing in us and will do for all of creation.

God is inviting us to participate in the resurrection now. He is offering us resurrected lives.

Here’s the point.

No matter what happens, no matter how the coming days unfold, the resurrection of Jesus assures us that death has been defeated and that God is at work restoring His very good creation to what it was always intended to be – including you and me.

That is why we hope. That is why we celebrate.

He is risen!

He is risen indeed.

Read Revelation 21-22 and consider the promise God has made about the “new heavens and the new earth” in light of the resurrection.

Back to the Garden

Jesus died on Friday afternoon. The Sabbath – the Jewish day of rest – began at sundown, which left little time for a proper burial.

As evening approached, Joseph, a rich man from Arimathea who had become a follower of Jesus, went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. And Pilate issued an order to release it to him. Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a long sheet of clean linen cloth. He placed it in his own new tomb, which had been carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a great stone across the entrance and left. (Matthew 27:57-60, NLT)

There was no time to wash and anoint Jesus’ body as was customary. So, a group of women who had followed Jesus throughout His ministry went back to finish the burial process on Sunday morning after the Sabbath.

Mary Magdalene, arrived at the tomb early that morning only to find that the stone had been rolled away and Jesus was gone.

A thousand thoughts rushed through her mind. Of all the explanations she must have considered, resurrection wasn’t one of them. It seemed far more likely that the body had been stolen.

She began to weep.

She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”

She thought he was the gardener. (John 20:14-15, NLT)

What a beautiful mistake.

Listen to what the book of Genesis says.

Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. (Genesis 2:7-8, NLT)

In the beginning, God breathed life into Adam, the first man, and placed him in a garden.

But Adam rebelled against God and, through his sin, brought death and decay to all of creation and to all mankind.

On the first Easter, God again breathed the breath of life into a man’s nostrils. On Easter, the crucified Jesus again became a living person. He stepped out of the tomb and into another garden.

Listen to how N.T. Wright puts it.

“Easter functions as the beginning of the new creation. The Word through whom all things were made is now the Word through whom all things are remade” (Surprised by Hope, 238).

God has not given up on His creation.

What was lost in the garden of Eden was redeemed here in the garden of the resurrection.

This is the good news of Easter! This is both the present reality and the future hope of every follower of Jesus!

Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (2 Corinthians 5:17, NLT)

The old is gone.

The new has come.

This is the promise – the good news – of the resurrection.

Read John 20:1-18 and reflect on the parallels between the resurrection and the creation accounts in Genesis 1-2.