“He is risen!”
This is the good news we celebrate this coming Easter Sunday!
This is the single most important event in history. Why is the Resurrection so important? The Resurrection is the reversal of Genesis 3. The Resurrection is Jesus’s conquering of death. Not just his death but death itself for all humanity. In 1 Corinthians 15, the longest passage on the resurrection, Paul says that “all will be made alive” because the resurrection comes through Jesus Christ who is the firstfruits of the resurrection (15:20-26). Because of Christ’s resurrection, we can proclaim, “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (15:54-57).
When we focus on Jesus’s death for our sins as central to the gospel, we miss the bigger picture of what God is doing in the world through the resurrection. Jesus’s death and resurrection is not about saving a disembodied soul to go exist in a non-physical spiritual world. His death and resurrection is about reclaiming the good creation back to God and ushering in the new reality of God’s Kingdom here and now. When we focus only on the death of Jesus as the salvation of our souls when we die, we shift the focus of the Christian life to obtaining that goal at the end. The hope of the resurrection is that God’s Kingdom has been established here and now and Christ has cleansed us to receive the Holy Spirit as our marker as Kingdom people.
It is by grace that we enter God’s Kingdom. We then live into this new reality as people who have answered the call to follow Jesus as King. As people of the Kingdom of God, we live into this new reality in every aspect of our lives no matter where we live, who is in charge, or what the culture does. When we see the wars, crashes, and tensions in the world, we remember the basic message of the gospel, “He is risen!” Jesus Christ is King yesterday, today, and forever and there is nothing in this world that can shake that reality.
It is our mission as a church to proclaim this good news. After Mary shared the good news with the other disciples, Jesus appeared to them and offered peace to them. In John 20:21, Jesus commissions his followers, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” He then breathed this new life of the Kingdom on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (v22).
As people who are called to “Proclaim the Gospel,” we need to know the heart of God and what he desires for his creation. When we see the creation not living into the reality of God’s good creation, we proclaim what the resurrection will bring to these broken realities. Romans 8 says that the whole creation is groaning in anticipation for redemption (8:22-23). The good news is not just for our souls, but for our bodies and the creation as a whole. When we allow the resurrection to shape our imagination, we will find our voice to proclaim the gospel that the world so desperately needs to hear.
Practices to consider:
Read the newspaper and identify brokenness you see in the world. Take that to God in prayer and ask that the reality of the resurrection will be revealed to you. What position should a follower of Christ take to bring the reality of God’s good creation?
Hold an Easter egg and imagine the tomb opening on Easter morning and New Life rising. How would you explain this New Life to a child?
Reflect on the experiences of your life and the world you see around you. What are a few things you would change to make the world perfect? Spend time in prayer asking God for imagination and action to make this perfection a reality.