Day One

“Modern attempts to get away from the sheer historical facts of the Resurrection are, at best, based on a total misunderstanding. The whole Bible proclaims the need for, and the achievement of, a salvation that will remake creation (not one that will ignore it or escape from it), and it is just such a salvation, at once supernatural and historical, that was won on Easter Day. If the Resurrection narratives are [merely] a subtle way of convincing us that God still loves us, or that there is a life (albeit, a non-material one) beyond death, they must be reckoned among the oddest and most ill-conceived stories ever written.”

[Michael Sadgrove (b. 1950) & N. T. Wright (b. 1948), “Jesus Christ the Only Saviour”, in The Lord Christ [1980], John Stott, ed., vol. 1 of Obeying Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3 vol.,    London: Fountain, 1977, p. 73]

The above selection from Christian Quote of the Day came through on Easter morning. It addresses the very issue I plan to raise in this post and flows from the previous post on the meaning of the cross. Before I get to that there is this odd thought that came to mind this morning while reading the Daily Office relating to the Gospel of John.

All four of the Jesus stories (Gospels) assert that the discovery of the Resurrection occurred on the first day of the week. If all one reads are Matthew, Mark and Luke then that assertion just seems like a bit of historical grounding. But what, in the mode of multiple layers of meaning, if there is more significance to that Sunday timing than historical grounding? John wrote his Gospel quite some time after the first three were in circulation. An ancient document which may be the earliest to describe the books of the New Testament (the Muratonian Fragment) has this to say about the fourth Gospel: “to his fellow disciples and bishops, who had been urging him [to write], he said, ‘Fast with me from today to three days, and what will be revealed to each one let us tell it to one another.’ In the same night it was revealed to Andrew, [one] of the apostles, that John should write down all things in his own name while all of them should review it.”

John included several episodes not found in the earlier Gospels: the wedding at Cana, the Samaritan woman and the raising of Lazarus being some of the best known. He also gave greater significance to the Resurrection being on the first day of the week, though in a roundabout manner.

John opens his Gospel echoing the opening verses of Genesis. But that is not the only Genesis reference. If he opens with the first day of creation, he reaches a climax when Pilate brings Jesus, beaten bloody, before the crowds, with the words Ecce Homo, “behold the man.” This event occurs on Friday, the sixth day of the week. In Genesis 1, the sixth day of creation concludes with the creation of humankind. We move from the beginning of the glory of humanity bearing the Imago Dei, to the brutalized Incarnate God whose scarred body illustrates the rage and loathing of a broken humanity who has failed its attempt at self-deification. Ecce Homo indeed. In the waning hours of that Friday, Jesus is crucified. In his dying he takes on himself the full weight of our fallen nature, the very nature that had nailed him to the cross. Taking on that burden, he dies. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. (Gen 2:2) On the seventh day our crucified humanity lays in a tomb. John’s Genesis pattern may seem completed at this point. Certainly, the Genesis creation story linked to the Jesus story seems to bookend the whole story of God’s creation.

Yet there is still a Genesis link to come. On the first day of the week, in Genesis the beginning of creation, Jesus rises from death. It is not a resuscitation of a corpse. This Risen Jesus is quite corporeal, eating with his disciples, inviting Thomas’ touch. But he has also appeared in a locked room. In Luke’s story he vanishes after blessing and breaking bread with two disciples in the village of Emmaus. This embodiment seems something altogether new. And that is it, the significance of the Resurrection on the first day of the week is the announcement of a new creation. It is a theme picked up by Paul in his writings, a theme which has echoes in the prophetic writings. The Resurrection is a vindication to be sure, but it is more. The Resurrection is the defeat of death to be sure, but it is more. The forgiveness of sins, which Paul ties inextricably to the Resurrection (And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 1 Corinthians 15:17) frees us from the chains of our past sins to be sure, but it is more. The Resurrection is the inauguration of the new creation. And in Christ we participate as part of that new creation. To leave that out, to confine the Resurrection to vindication or victory over death or forgiveness is to miss the ultimate consummation of the work of Jesus. For Christ is risen, the new creation has begun, and this is a life worth exploring. Alleluia.