Art: “Resurrection Icon” Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Available online at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Resurrection_(24).jpg

Written by Brian Johnson, Pastor of Haymarket Church, Haymarket, VA

icon of the resurrection
Art: “Resurrection Icon” Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Available online at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Resurrection_(24).jpg — Art: “Resurrection Icon”
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I passed on to you as most important what I also received: Christ died for our sins in line with the scriptures, he was buried, and he rose on the third day in line with the scriptures. He appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve, and then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at once—most of them are still alive to this day, though some have died.
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But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead. He’s the first crop of the harvest of those who have died. Since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead came through one too. In the same way that everyone dies in Adam, so also everyone will be given life in Christ. Each event will happen in the right order: Christ, the first crop of the harvest, then those who belong to Christ at his coming, and then the end, when Christ hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he brings every form of rule, every authority and power to an end. It is necessary for him to rule until he puts all enemies under his feet. Death is the last enemy to be brought to an end.
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Death has been swallowed up by a victory. Where is your victory, Death? Where is your sting, Death?
1 Corinthians 15:3-6, 20-26, 54b-55

Christ is risen!

Death could not hold him! The grave could not keep him! He has broken the chains that bind us, he has defeated the final enemy, Death itself.

On Good Friday, we told the story of God-in-the-flesh walking through the darkest night of human history – a story of a God who loves us so much that God is willing to be abandoned for our sake. God submits to the darkness of death in order to bring us into the overwhelming glory of eternal life.

Today is the other half of that story because, as Frederick Buechner put it, Easter means that “The worst thing is never the last thing. It’s the next to last thing. The last thing is the best.” The last thing is the thing that overturns and overthrows everything we thought we knew about how this world works. The last thing – the end of history as we know it – is Jesus Christ, the crucified one, raised from the from the dead.

And notice what he’s doing in this icon – he’s bringing us along with him. His resurrection is not just a sign of how awesome he is. It’s not just vindication of all he did before his crucifixion. It’s not just another reason for us to worship him as God. (Though, it is certainly all those things and more). The resurrection is also our liberation. It is our victory day! When Christ breaks the chains of death, he breaks them for all people, for all eternity. Here, in this icon, we see him pulling Adam and Eve – the symbolic parents of all humanity – out from their graves. Their graves lie open. Because Christ is risen, they have hope. Their sin – their rebellion against God – does not get the final word. The final word is not death. The final word, now and always, is eternal life.

Notice the old man bound at the bottom of this icon – perhaps it’s Satan, who Christ has defeated (the strong man who must be tied up so his house may be plundered, as in Mark 3:27). Or perhaps it’s the old humanity, our former nature, the old way of being human – which has been crucified with Christ (as in Romans 6). Perhaps it’s a representation of all the evil forces and systems which seem to be so powerful – the powers and principalities, authorities and rulers, who Paul speaks of in Ephesians 6:12. Perhaps the old man represents Death itself, whose reign is now over. However you wish to name it, the Good News is this: the forces of evil have been defeated, we have been liberated, and Christ is victorious.

Easter is a promise – Easter is a victory – which means that death does not get the final say. Evil, while it may still seem strong, is on the run. Peace is stronger than violence. Love is stronger that hatred. Life is stronger than death. In the end, God wins. And even if we can’t always see it in our day-to-day lives, we know – we trust – that this is true, because we have seen it in Jesus Christ.

Christ is Risen! He has defeated death itself. And, by his victory, he brings us – he brings all people – with him into the Kingdom of his Father, into eternal life.

Christ is Risen! Thanks be to God!