Again we say, rejoice! Let all the mountains bow, let the starry hosts direct their faces in adoration to the son! A new world is born, is ushered in, is promised. There is an empty cross, there is an empty grave, and the Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified is no longer in it! This is good news. This is the Good News.
This is the apex of the most important story, the story of history itself. Praise God that we get to live in the light of it, basking in the clearly revealed gospel of the resurrected Christ. So many godly men and women throughout the ages could only dream of knowing what it would be like when the Messiah would come. For us, it is as simple as opening a book called the Bible, and then seeing the world-changing effects that the good news in that book has already had around the world, and will continue to have until the world is won by the gospel.
Knowing that the stone was rolled away and that the tomb is empty makes each sunrise a little brighter, because it is now no longer just a sunrise, it is the sun rising on a world that has heard her redemption heralded by a messenger from the front lines. We are celebrating because the victory was won in eternity past when God decided on it; is won now because Christ has lived, died and risen; and will be won in the future when the last of Christ’s enemies are put in subjection before him.
See this through a historical analogy: the 8th of May, 1945, was VE Day (Victory in Europe Day). This was the day that the Allied forces accepted the unconditional surrender and defeat of Germany, and throughout Allied nations everyone celebrated that the war was won. The battles were still being fought in some places because the news of surrender had not yet reached those places, but the war was nevertheless decided, the enemy’s defeat was sure, and it was only a matter of time until V-J Day (Victory over Japan) on the 2nd of September 1945, when all could say that the war was truly and finally over (history aficionados, if this author has made a mistake in any of these historical details, he will gladly update them).
In redemptive history, we are right now living between the 8th of May and the 2nd of September. If you asked this author, he might suggest we’re around the 23rd of May, and the last ceasefire is still a ways off (if he may stretch the analogy just a little further). However, unlike World War II, God’s war against sin is a war that will only ever have one innocent casualty, the man Christ Jesus. Every other man, woman and child who died fighting by Christ’s side was once arrayed against him, taking up arms against the radiant king of the eternal throne. Each one was a restored rebel, a forgiven fighter, a blood-bought belligerent. Each one promised as he joined the ranks of the Almighty God that his life would be as willingly laid down for the gospel as the Son’s life was laid down for him.
Easter means that the tables have turned. Satan is an emperor with no clothes, and now the world of weeds, brambles, thorns and ice is thawing for the Great Spring to come, when men will lay down their swords, when the calf and the lion shall sit together in peace, and a child shall lead them (Is 11). How incomprehensible is this, and yet how beautiful! Every loss we should sustain on our walk towards the Celestial City can now only be a slight and momentary affliction on the way to an eternity of settled Shalom, perfect peace, joy in the presence of our great Bridegroom, at the marriage feast that will end the great story that God called Time.
So, let this Easter be an encouragement to you. The empty tomb speaks at the Christian, saying, ‘As surely as Christ has risen from this tomb, so also is your faith soundly placed in him.’ The empty tomb stares at the non-Christian, saying, ‘Come and see, come and learn for yourself. The man Jesus of Nazareth was buried here, and all of history proves that he was seen alive afterwards. Will you seek the truth, or will you turn away?’ Brothers and sisters, he is Risen. Risen indeed.
Distilled Orthopraxy 