So What's The Big Deal About Easter? {Part Three}

We are keeping our mini-series moving along this month.  We can't believe that it is already week three of our series!  Check out today's post from Keith & Amy Whitfield on understanding the meaning of the resurrection.  To see their previous posts click here and here.

Let's Hear From Keith: 

How can we understand the meaning of the resurrection? Not just that it happened but why it happened and what this event means?

Biblically speaking, death follows disobedience. Take, for example, Genesis 3 and the sin of Adam and Eve. The next four chapters are marked by death. In Genesis 4, Cain killed Abel. Then Cain feared for his own life (4:14). “Then he died” is the refrain of the genealogy in Genesis 5. Again, in Genesis 6-7, death and destruction touched the whole earth as God judged through the flood. Death is an inescapable reality, even though God’s creation was originally designed for life and the flourishing of God’s good creation.

In the New Testament, Jesus Himself grieved the reality of death. He wept in the presence of Mary and Martha when His friend Lazarus died (John 11:32-35). He wept because death is an unwelcomed intrusion into God’s good world. Death signifies that things are not the way they are supposed to be. In the presence of death, Jesus proclaims that death will not reign. He says, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25).

In Luke 24:1-8, we read the biblical testimony on Jesus’ resurrection. The women arrived to prepare Jesus’ body and found a surprise. The stone was rolled away, and there was no body to be found. Then, two angelic beings exclaimed, “He is not here but He has been resurrected!” (Luke 24:6).

So what does the resurrection of Jesus mean? Remember the connection between death and disobedience. If death is defeated, our disobedience has been dealt with. Earthly judges condemned Jesus, the innocent One, to the cross. But the Judge of heaven, God Himself, vindicated Jesus Himself from the dead. When we trust the verdict of God over the verdict of men, we too are vindicated along with Jesus. His life is our life. His obedience is counted as our own.  And His victory is ours.

Let's Hear From Amy: 

I look at my son and daughter now, and I remember that time of innocence and blessed ignorance in childhood. Remember when you really didn’t know what this thing called death was all about? Sure, you had heard of it, maybe even knew of someone who experienced it, but hadn’t really faced the despair that can come with proximity to it. Growth and change come for children, and there are many rude awakenings as awareness of the world grows, but that one is the worst.

But when I was eight years old, through circumstances in my family that no one could have ever imagined, I was thrust into that new understanding quickly and, for a brief span of time, rather repeatedly. I had experienced sadness before, but it had been a childlike sadness, over issues that were rather small and easily fixed. This time, I felt it all around me, in every person, and for a little while it came to stay. The seeming finality of death was all too real.

This chapter in my life opened the door for a battle with anxiety about this one thing-- fear of losing more family members, concern when all the people I loved weren’t right with me at all times, and worry that I couldn’t make it through the sadness if it ever happened again.

But as I got older, I learned two things. First, I learned that this thing I was so afraid of is unavoidable. It happens every day, and it happens to everyone. There is nothing I can do to stop it. By itself, that concept doesn’t help me much. If left alone with that, my fears will only grow.

But second, the gospel changes everything. When Lazarus died, Martha’s despair was great. She went so far as to tell Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” And He knows that anguish. He has entered the world of suffering and He knows that things are not right. But He told her in that same conversation, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he did, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”

He came into this world to live with us. He took our place in death to atone for sins. And He didn’t stay in that death—He brought resurrection and life.

This doesn’t mean that I don’t still struggle when I have to face grief. And it doesn’t mean that I don’t ever experience fear. But I have an answer now that makes all the difference. And that answer comes because of His resurrection.

I know that the anguish we feel every time we face this reality is there because this world is not the way that God created it. Things aren’t as they were supposed to be. But I also know that something changed that morning when the stone was rolled away and Jesus declared victory over death. Hope sprung forth, and it is enough to combat my worries. It says that every need I have has been met in Christ, even the need to be rescued from death. My sins are forgiven because of what He did on the cross, and the ultimate penalty of death has been overcome.

No, the world doesn’t look like it did in the beginning. But He makes all things new, and He sets all things right. And He brings hope that answers even our deepest fears.

Keith & Amy Whitfield live in Wake Forest, NC, where Keith teaches Systematic Theology at SEBTS.  Keith previously served as pastor of Waverly Baptist Church in Waverly, Virginia, in the years 2005 to 2010, and from 2010 until 2012, they lived in Nashville, TN, where Keith taught at a liberal arts college and helped to train church leaders. Amy loves teaching and writing, and has a passion for women to be transformed by the gospel in their daily lives.  Amy currently serves as Assistant to Charlotte Akin,  and also assists in other areas with research and writing.  Amy and Keith have two children: Mary (age 9) and Drew (age 7).