The Resurrection
Read: John 20-21
All of Scripture so far is pointing to this moment. The prophets, the hope of a perfect ruler of Israel, and the Tabernacle especially point to Jesus’s sacrifice on our behalf and the resurrection. If you are reading this and call yourself a Christian, the foundation and power of your beliefs rests on the empty tomb, the folded death cloth, and on a man who walked away from death with nothing but healed wounds to prove it happened. How perfect the story of redemption is! To use the most dreadful and inescapable act humans experience to bring life, eternal life.
Praise the living God who sent His one and only Son to fulfill all the law’s requirements, living a perfect, blameless life, a measure no human could achieve. Our falling short of the mark God had set out for humanity was more than that; rebelling against Him and His ways is sin. And the penalty for sin is death. The covenants of old all required the blood of a perfect lamb for atonement to occur for those God had chosen to be His own. In all our God’s effort and patience, we failed to hold up our end every time. We needed a greater Exodus, a more internal circumcision, a spiritual rebirth. Thus, our need for a human sacrifice of a savior. In Christ, we have the one who took on our sins and shame so that we might gain His life. And His victory over death provides an undefeatable hope, foundational to us, His people. Having been made such by grave-robbing power, the same power has robbed us from the clutches of sin and death and into the hands of our God, who we now call Father.
The implications of this were difficult to grasp at first. John 20:9 paints the picture of Jesus’s work for the short time He would be on earth before He ascended. “They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.” Mary is the first to the tomb, so disillusioned by her sorrow she seizes to recognize Jesus, thinking He was the gardener initially. Thomas needed to touch the wounds in Jesus’s hands and side to believe, and Peter, with some others, reverted straight back to their old way of life before Jesus had to step in with a new command. In all cases, Jesus graciously helps them overcome their doubt and believe in His resurrection. The temptation may be to isolate these stories, though. How prideful it would be of us to assume Peter and the disciples were just being slow to understand as they usually are when Paul describes this effort to believe (our justification) as foundational to our everyday lives as Christians and God’s work in us (sanctification). “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling” Philippians 2:12. Every day, we ought to refresh ourselves with and grow in our understanding of the resurrection. Abiding in the newness of life we have in Him and the victory over death, we could have never won for ourselves but have freely in Christ.
John's conclusion is felt as I write all Christ's resurrection implies for our lives, there is quite a lot to write (and keep writing) about regarding what Jesus has done (John 21:25). But the stories we do have, the testimonies we have heard, are for our belief in Him to be made sure. “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31). The question then could be simple for us: do you believe? Standing around with the setup team before a Sunday gathering this summer, I heard someone jokingly begin to preach, “Some of y’all ain’t livin’ like that stone is rolled away!” Pocket sermons can be small indeed, but it's a provoking thought nonetheless. Prayerfully meditate on the scripture today and reflect on how beautifully glorious this news of the resurrection is!
At the end of your time in devotionals today, I challenge you to pick a worship song that stirs your affection for Christ and speaks specifically to His resurrection; listen to that song, and worship our God whose name is to be praised forever!
