-IN THE BEGINNING, AGAIN ~

-Easter and God's New Creation ~
-By: Winn Collier

Our throwaway culture teaches us to toss whatever we've used up and to discard whatever has lost its shine. But from the very beginning, we discover that God is not a throwaway God. When the tragedy of Eden ruptured the Lord's friendship with humanity and polluted His beautiful work, He did not abandon creation. Death--this vile reality we humans were never intended to experience--infected the world, and immediately God began the rescue. He had created life, and now He would recreate life. ~~

Theologian Vigen Guroian explains, "We think we have a resurrection because we had to have a cross, but I think we have a cross because we had to have a resurrection." The truth is, we had to have both, but Guroian makes his point well. The resurrection is not an afterthought or the exclamation point that punctuatees the rest of Jesus' ministry. Rather, resurrection is the pinnacle event--that moment in which the totality of God's intentions become visible. Death had marred all of creation and all of creation would now be healed. Death would trample down death, as the ancient Christians sang in their Easter services. And then, once death had met its doom in Jesus, new creation would commence. All things would be made new. Jesus would walk out of the tomb, signaling that death was not the ultimate victor.

The Apostle John narrates this vivid story. After Jesus' betrayal and beating and violent death, John tells us that Joseph of Arimathea had requested the Lord's body and secured a tomb. The horrific day ends with these simple, sorrowful words: "...they laid Jesus there" (John 19:42).

A dark tomb. Sealed tight. The Light snuffed out.

But not for long. The next words slice through the grieving and the gloom. Mary Magdalene discovers the tomb, open and evacuated (20:1). The Light had broken free.

John, ever the image-crafter, framed his gospel as a new Genesis story, commencing with the iconic words repeated from the Bible's opening line: "In the beginning" (1:1). Genesis recounted the seven days of creation, and now John begins to recount a new creation week. John tells us (twice for emphasis) that Jesus rose from the dead on "the first day of the week" (20:1,19). God had created once, and now, in Christ, God would create again.

Through Jesus, life stood again at the center. Because He crushed death, we can live. Through Jesus, the hearts of men and women, the land, human society--everything ruined by the fall will be recreated. God won't throw a single thing away. He will make all things new.~~
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Article from: In Touch / April 2012