Easter is the beginning of God’s new creation. We don’t have to wait. It has already burst in. And the whole point of Gospel’s accounts of the resurrection is that we who believe in Jesus are to become, in the power of his spirit, not only beneficiaries of that new creation but also agents. As the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15.58 “So, my dear family, be firmly unshakable, always full to overflowing with the Lord’s work. In the Lord, as you know, the work you’re doing will not be worthless.” If we were to take the normal Western view of life after death, a long chapter on resurrection might end with something like this: “Therefore, my beloved, lift up your head and wait for the wonderful hope that is coming to you eventually.” But for the Apostle Paul, as is clear throughout 1 Corinthians, the resurrection means that what you do in the present matters into God’s future. The resurrection of Jesus is the reaffirmation of the goodness of creation, and the gift of the Spirit is there to make us the full human beings we were supposed to be, precisely so that we can fulfill our Kingdom mandate at last. What are we waiting for? Jesus is coming. Let’s go and plant some trees, work for justice, and creatively announce and enact that God’s new creation is here.
Easter is the beginning of God’s new creation. We don’t have to wait. It has already burst in. And the whole point of Gospel’s accounts of the resurrection is that we who believe in Jesus are to become, in the power of his spirit, not only beneficiaries of that new creation but also agents. As the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15.58 “So, my dear family, be firmly unshakable, always full to overflowing with the Lord’s work. In the Lord, as you know, the work you’re doing will not be worthless.” If we were to take the normal Western view of life after death, a long chapter on resurrection might end with something like this: “Therefore, my beloved, lift up your head and wait for the wonderful hope that is coming to you eventually.” But for the Apostle Paul, as is clear throughout 1 Corinthians, the resurrection means that what you do in the present matters into God’s future. The resurrection of Jesus is the reaffirmation of the goodness of creation, and the gift of the Spirit is there to make us the full human beings we were supposed to be, precisely so that we can fulfill our Kingdom mandate at last. What are we waiting for? Jesus is coming. Let’s go and plant some trees, work for justice, and creatively announce and enact that God’s new creation is here.