The Resurrection of Jesus was not the after-thought “happy-ending” that made the real truth of the crucifixion more bearable. Nor was that first Easter, at least in the minds of those early Christians who recorded it for us, a metaphor or story explaining how Jesus died and went to heaven. Nor is it again the means by which Jesus came back and said “see, I won after all, and though death is tough the good news is that like me, one day you’ll escape from this horrible world and get to go away to a cloud-filled heaven.”
The Resurrection for the early Christians was both the means of a new creation that would culminate in the kingdom of God, and the first fruits of that new creation kingdom. To begin to meditate on this, and grasp its meaning for ourselves, we have to see the resurrection new creation in light of the first creation that preceded it.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:15-17)
Paul saw Jesus as the one through whom and for whom God the Creator had spoken the universe into glorious existence. Paul looks back to the original Genesis account, and sees Jesus as the source, sustainer, and receiver of the entire cosmos which God declared was “very good.” And while sin wrecked both humanity and the physical world, the Jews still believed that God continued to hold that basically good world together. They believed that God “so loved the world” that he would come and redeem it. Paul grew up singing the Psalms, and in his New Testament writings we see the same basic delight in the physical world combined with the new revelation that it was Jesus Himself who was the Word that God spoke to create all things, and Jesus Himself who kept the world together for His good pleasure in spite of all that sin had done. Ever since Plato many if not most of us have deep down believed that the physical world is bad, dirty, or at best irrelevant in comparison to “spiritual” things. But not so for the Jews nor for the early Christians. The created world is the work of God, and if it is broken, God’s promises are not to abandon it but to fix it. And it is this that leads Paul further and farther out, to a place where no other religion or worldview has ever dared go:
And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Colossians 1:18-20)
This same Jesus who was before all things and the creator of the first world, is now the first born, the first fruits of the new world that is being born out of the old. A careful study of Genesis shows that while the creation was perfect in the sense of “without sin,” this does not mean that it was perfect in terms of being a finished work. God wanted people to be his stewards and representatives in the world, stewarding and ruling the created order towards “bigger and better things.” But sin put that plan off track, it threw a wrench in the system. So on the cross, Jesus cried “it is finished,” and he was right. The sin and death of the first creation brought on by the first Adam were dealt with at the cross. But in John’s gospel we find the risen Lord, the second Adam, standing in a second garden on the first day of a new week, putting the physical world back on track, back in line with God’s original intentions. “Behold I am making all things new!” That is the cry of Easter, because at the incarnation Jesus took on the body of the first creation, a body that suffered at the hands of sinful humanity and bore the full brunt of the final enemy that is death. But notice what happens next: God doesn’t whisk Jesus’ soul away to an immortal heaven. Nor does he give him a ghostly body that will allow him to leave behind the dirty created body he took at the incarnation. No! God takes the broken, marred, twisted, old creation body, and raises it up in the power of the Spirit into a new body. And Romans 8 makes it clear that what God did with Jesus’ body on that Easter Sunday he will do to our broken bodies and to the entire world. Jesus’ resurrection is the breaking in of a new world, a new creation that we taste in the present and will receive fully at the second coming!
And if this is true, what a difference it makes! Martin Luther apparently once said that if we knew Christ was coming again tomorrow, we’d plant a tree today. That’s resurrection talk right there! Because through the resurrection we can participate in the new creation that is coming fully at Christ’s second coming. The world is not a hotel we temporarily live in that’s going to be demolished next month, but the fixer-upper project of the Risen Lamb.
But it’s not just a renewed care for the Earth that comes on Easter. It’s a renewed calling to creation and care of all kinds. Art, music, literature, architecture . . . if Christ is renewing and restoring the cosmos through the resurrection, then every single human thing we do has value as a way for us to anticipate that new creation in the here and now. Paul tells us both that because of the resurrection “we are new creation” and that we are still “groaning” for the hope that we haven’t yet received . . . the redemption of our bodies. In the same way, our calling in the here and now involves living out the resurrection hope we have for the future in the present, aka loving the earth, creating beautiful works of art, building brilliant buildings . . . heck, maybe even farming?
Which is of course a beautiful reminder. Our task is not just to make it through this life, but to build upon, steward, and care for the physical world and the cultural gifts we’ve been given. This is at least one part of what it means to live in light of Easter, to join Jesus in that second garden in Jerusalem, which is really the whole world.
Next up, The Resurrection Crown.
Peace,
Michael
Authors Note: This and the following blogposts are the result of countless books, articles, discussions, sermons, prayers, etc. etc. But most recently, credit should be given to Colin Gunton’s The Triune Creator, Ben Witherington’s We Have Seen His Glory, Christopher J.H. Wright’s Knowing the Holy Spirit through the Old Testament, and least recently but most importantly, N.T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope and The Resurrection and the Son of God.
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