But we do not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead. We think we do but we don't. What does it really mean to us? Do we just look back on it today as a nice moment of history? It is't just that death is a setback for Jesus and he gets a continue or an extra live from the Father to give it another try. This death is not an unintentional setback. This resurrection is more than just a return to more of the same.
He makes himself the door and portal from death to life. He is the ladder from heaven to earth and earth to heaven which the angels traverse. He is a bridge from the futility of life here below to the promise of total fulfillment of everlasting joy in heaven.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.
We are baptized into a death which is no mere accident. Jesus freely lays his life down to kill the sin in our own hearts. But Jesus is not destroyed. His life is indestructible (cf. Heb. 7:16). He not only lays all of the evil within us to rest but he himself, the Good Shepherd, carries us beyond death into glory.
This is why Jesus is the only name which can save (cf. Act. 4:12). Only he has the obedience to do what is necessary. Only he is the life on which death has no claim. Therefore only he is the resurrection and the life (cf. Joh. 11:25).
He commissioned us to preach to the people
and testify that he is the one appointed by God
as judge of the living and the dead.
To him all the prophets bear witness,
that everyone who believes in him
will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”
So this is no abstraction. This is no historical curiosity. This is something which must apply to each of us this Easter day. We miss the point if we leave this event in the past and nod in reverence. Jesus wants to fill us with the power of his resurrection right now.
If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
So let us come to understand the Scriptures that he had to rise from the dead. Without the resurrection of Jesus we cannot know life. But Jesus is truly risen, alleluia! He invites us, not just to acknowledge his victory, but to share it.
“The right hand of the LORD has struck with power;
the right hand of the LORD is exalted.
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD.”
Don't reject this stone! He is the cornerstone and without him we can't build anything which lasts.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
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