Resurrection Reflection
Where does your Bible begin? I believe the answer to this question greatly shapes how you view Resurrection Sunday.
If your Bible begins in Genesis 3, the introduction of sin and the fall of mankind, then most likely your primary worldview is one of decay, struggle and suffering. You can catch this dynamic fairly quickly in preachers. The Good News becomes an ongoing plea to recognize how bad things are — so bad, Jesus had to be killed for it. But, if you can speak the prescription, you will no longer be tied to the devil’s domain and can long for the day when all this will be over so we can go — somewhere else.
However, if your Bible begins in Genesis 1, the creation story where God saw that everything was good and walked and communed with His image-bearers in the garden, then most likely your primary worldview is one of Presence, awareness and glory — here and now. The Good News becomes an open invitation to see the self-giving love of Christ which has germinated the reconciliation of all things (To restore to perfect harmony). Yes, we look forward to eternal life, but that life has already begun — here and now — because of resurrection.
If you are a Genesis 3, there may be a subconscious satisfaction brewing that all of this will soon burn up, as it well should. If you are a Genesis 1, you feel a responsibility and urgency as all of creation is waiting for you to re-present Christ now because its the very thing the world needs most.
In contrast to the evacuative escape to a castle in the clouds, notice the coming down-ness of the end of the Bible in Revelation 21.
“And I saw the holy city descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband. And a loud voice said, ‘Look! The residence of God is among human beings and He will live among them and they will be His people and God himself will be with them’”.
The story begins in a garden. Jesus was arrested in a garden. At the empty tomb, Mary first thought the resurrected Christ was the gardener. And in the grand finale, we see the end of the story is a descending city — which is a society of well ordered gardens.
I mostly refrain from dualistic propositions, but this one does seem to bear itself out along party lines. If your view is the gospel starts with a problem that needs to be fixed, you may be a Genesis 3. If your view of the gospel is the invitation of Elohim, the loving community of Trinity in Whom there is a space for you, then you may be a Genesis 1.
Jesus reversed the curse. Jesus was the first to overcome death itself so that we can do the same.
May we enter into this Resurrection Sunday with a renewed awareness of what it all really means. May we apprehend the reality that the same power which raised Jesus from the dead can be resident in you and me. Here and now.
Happy Easter.
