Resurrection: Something Entirely New

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What do you celebrate? What is so exciting to you that it is worth throwing a party for? A new job? A restored relationship? The ability to finally go on that vacation you have been waiting for? An acceptance letter to the school you have been working so hard to get into? Your newborn baby? A new house? What is such a big deal to you that you find it worth celebrating? My wife Amanda and I are celebrating a new beginning in our life together. Our first child has recently made her entrance into the world and we could not be more ecstatic. Even though raising a newborn baby is tons of work and costs us much sleep, our baby girl brings us incredible joy. The miracle of new life is astounding. We’re grateful for our beautiful little girl. We’re celebrating.

Jesus' resurrection - the beginning of something entirely new - is worth celebrating most of all.

While it is certainly good to give thanks for the many gifts God has given us, Jesus' resurrection is worth celebrating most of all. It is the good news of what God has done for us and for our salvation. For the earliest Christians, everything revolved around Jesus’ resurrection. It changed the way they understood everything else. In fact, it was so central in their thinking that it even affected when they gathered together every week. Most of the earliest Christians were Jews, and the Jewish custom was to meet on Saturday (i.e. the Sabbath). However, Christians began a new tradition of meeting on Sundays because it was the 1st day of the week – and this celebrated that something new had started because of Jesus' resurrection. Their weekly gathering was itself a celebration of the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. Everything revolved around Jesus' resurrection. It meant that something entirely new had begun.

Jesus’ resurrection is the first of its kind - nothing like it has ever been seen before.

Jesus’ resurrection is utterly unique. The world has never seen anything like it before (or since). But what exactly do we mean when we say that Jesus was “resurrected”? We might assume that Jesus’ spirit somehow floated back up to heaven after He died. But is this all that we mean by “resurrection”? No, it’s not. Jesus’ first followers (i.e. the apostles) claimed that Jesus’ material, physical body actually got up out of the grave. Now, there was certainly something different about Jesus’ resurrected body. He suddenly appeared to His disciples within a locked room and then vanished. But this does not at all mean that Jesus was any less physical than He was before He died – like He was some kind of ghost or hologram. Jesus’ disciples recognized Him as the same person whom they had known for years – even though He died and was placed in a tomb just days before. They watched Jesus eat right in front of them. Jesus even invited one of them (i.e. Thomas) to see and touch the scars on His physical body. When the apostles claimed that Jesus was resurrected, they were not talking about some kind of “spiritual” resurrection. No, they meant that even though Jesus was literally killed (i.e. He physically died), His physical body actually got up out of the grave three days later. Of course this sounded crazy to everyone around them. This claim about Jesus’ resurrection is what got these apostles in trouble constantly (just read the book of Acts). But they refused to stop talking about it. They could not contain themselves. Something utterly new had taken place – something that had never been seen or heard of before. And it had profound, life-changing implications.

Jesus’ resurrection is worth celebrating because it tells us that God has begun to unbreak the world.

This world is not the way that it should be. Whether it is the physical pain of disease and death or the emotional pain of disappointment and broken relationships, we are no strangers to pain and suffering. This world is cursed because of human sin. Creation itself is even under bondage because of sin (Romans 8:18-25). We know that this world is not the way it’s supposed to be. We know this because of the horrible reality of death. The result of sin is death, and death reigns in this world. None of us gets to escape it. Death is not something to be celebrated. It is horrible. It is awful. God created us to live, not to die. God created this world to be full of life, not death. And yet, no man in the history of the world has ever been able to escape death – not until Jesus. His resurrection has opened up a new chapter in the history of the world. Something wonderfully new has taken place. Jesus’ resurrection tells us that death is not all-powerful. Death can be reversed.

C.S. Lewis captures the astounding implications of the resurrection:

“…the New Testament writers speak as if Christ’s achievement in rising from the dead was the first event of its kind in the whole history of the universe. He is the “first fruits’, the ‘pioneer of life’. He has forced open a door that has been locked since the death of the first man. He has met, fought, and beaten the King of Death. Everything is different because He has done so. This is the beginning of the New Creation: a new chapter in cosmic history has opened.” (C.S. Lewis, “Miracles of the New Creation,” Miracles)

Jesus’ resurrection gives us a life-changing hope.

Because Jesus got up out of the grave, we can be assured that this world will not remain in darkness. Death will not have the final word. Jesus' resurrection tells us that God has the power to undo the brokenness of this world. He has already begun to do so. This hope that God will renew all things gives meaning to every aspect of our lives. How we live – now in this present world – matters. It matters because God cares about this world. He cares about it so much that He sent His Son into this world and raised Him from the dead to renew this world from the inside out. And one Day He will fully renew it. Therefore, everything we do in this world matters. Everything – our relationships, our eating habits, how we spend our money, our jobs – it all matters. Jesus did not rise from the dead so that we could be more “spiritual” – in a way that is unrelated to the tangible aspects of our everyday lives. Because Jesus got up out of the grave, we can be transformed by the power of His Spirit to live lives that make a difference in this world. This is worth celebrating.