The power and the glory of Easter

The biblical custom of worship and rest on a Saturday Sabbath was obviously well established amongst God’s people in the days of Jesus. In fact, it was one of their chief distinguishing marks.

From a very early point in Church history, however, Christians began to observe Sunday. The explanation they frequently gave for the change was a simple one: it was the day of the resurrection of Jesus. They wanted to celebrate his coming back from the dead and his continued life.

In Exodus 20 the fourth commandment gave as the reason for the Sabbath – the rest of God on the seventh day of creation. In Deuteronomy 5 the reason had to do with the redemption of God’s people from slavery in Egypt.

Early Christians saw in the resurrection of Jesus both creation and redemption. It was a new creation, or at least the first act of God’s great new creation long promised. It was also the culmination of God’s redemption through Jesus.

Whether they were right to change the day or to have any special day at all has been disputed.

I believe that they were.

But the point for us to observe with them is the reality, power and significance of the resurrection.

The resurrection of Jesus is real: it was an event that occurred within space and time. Without its reality, resurrection is merely an idea, a hope, a dream.

The first disciples certainly believed that all people would be raised from the dead in the end. But was it any more than a dream? The historical resurrection of Jesus turned the dream into a reality, their hopes into assurance.

His resurrection was also a demonstration of power, power over death. That is why it is important to recognise the bodily resurrection of the Lord. In the very arena of the body, where we are destined to go down into defeat in decay and death, he triumphed.

Of course, his body is a resurrection body, as ours will be. But his presence with his disciples was not ghostly or spiritual. It was physical.

The resurrection is filled with significance. It is the vindication of Jesus and our assurance that his work on our behalf was finished. But is it is also the new creation, the beginning of what God is proposing for his world.

His resurrection was the future breaking into the present and inviting us to join it.

Attaching yourself to Christ, being ‘in Christ’, is to leave the past for the future – ‘For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive’ (1 Corinthians 15:22).

Christians do not romanticise death. We do not treat it as though it were simply a slip into oblivion. We think of it as ‘the last enemy’, one that needs to be defeated. We grieve – but not as though we have no hope.

Through our tears we see the Lord Jesus and know that he went through the death experience and came back in triumph. Our whole hope rests on him, and we will not be disappointed.

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