Easter 2024 - Part 3

On Easter Sunday we celebrated the miracle of Christ’s resurrection and explored the implications of his crucifixion and return from the grave, often misunderstood to be the way that we might go to heaven when we die and leave this world behind, a world destined to end. Stephen stated that, “it may come as a relief to some of you to know that while it is true that the Easter message is at the heart of Christianity, it is not about the end of the world and how we can go to heaven.”

John begins his gospel with, “In the beginning…” which theologian N.T. Wright jokes is like saying, “I just wrote a new and original symphony,” only to have the symphony begin with the famous opening of Beethoven’s 5th, because that’s exactly what John is doing: he starts his gospel by evoking the very first verse of the bible in Genesis: "In the beginning…"

But this is John’s way of saying, “this story of Jesus, this good news that I’m about to tell you is a new creation story” and at the end of John’s Gospel, you find that, like in the account in Genesis, John begins to count the days. In the Genesis creation story the author lists the days of the week; John suddenly becomes obsessed with the days of the week. He keeps reminding us in the middle of all of this calamity - the trial, crucifixion, and death of Jesus - which day of the week it is. 

The resurrection of Jesus is not meant to be understood as an odd event in the world; the resurrection is the beginning of a new world and points to the way the world is going to be. We are meant to look at the resurrection of Jesus Christ and see new creation.

Because, we have all had hopes and dreams that we’ve lost or will lose. We all have something in us that’s been broken or will be broken. We all have people we love and care about, friends and family who will be taken from us and who we'll one day be taken from.

Yet, the resurrection is a promise, that just as God has reclaimed Jesus from the grave one day he will reclaim all of creation, he will do this for creation and he will do this for you and for me. He will restore us to each other.  

And, there is no greater promise than that.

He is Risen.

 

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