Jesus’ Resurrection: A treasury of hope, comfort, and joy

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
(1 Corinthians 15:12-19)

When it comes to the Resurrection, the apostle Paul didn’t mince words. The Christian faith stands or falls on the historical fact that Jesus rose from the dead. The Resurrection proves that Jesus was who he claimed to be, confirms that God accepted his sacrifice for the sins of the world, and secures the certainty of life after death.

Beyond these things, Jesus’ appearances after his Resurrection demonstrate his divine authority and intimate humanity, offer us a vital key for understanding Scripture, and give us a glimpse of the beauty and wonder we’ll enjoy with him in our own resurrected bodies.

The infinite power and intimate presence of Jesus

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20)

The final words of Matthew’s Gospel, known as the Great Commission, are a record of Jesus’ mission statement to his followers, a charter for the church, as it were. Being his followers, we rightly focus on the verses containing his commands, while perhaps gliding over the promises that bracket those commands.

Jesus began his instructions by assuring his disciples that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him. This is an astounding claim. Because Jesus obeyed his Father by going to the Cross, his Father not only raised him from the dead, but also returned him to the position of power and glory which they shared since before creation, and which Jesus had set aside to become human. The Son of God became the Son of Man, and now rules sovereign over all things: life and death, angels and demons, nature and history, societies and individuals.

It was no coincidence that Jesus chose a mountain in Galilee for this moment. He had chosen a similar nearby location, probably visible from the current spot, for the Transfiguration, in which he had showed his inner circle of disciples a glimpse of his glory.

Having assured his followers of his sovereign authority, Jesus also promised he’d be with them always, to the end of the age. This is not a metaphorical presence. If we’ve trusted Jesus, he has come to live with us and will never leave or forsake us. He is present with us in every moment and circumstance, walking with us, weeping and rejoicing with us, caring for us every step of the way.

Despite everything the eleven disciples had experienced, some of them still had doubts, even at this moment. Jesus graciously gave them what all his followers need in order to walk with him: the firm assurance of his infinite power and intimate presence.

The key that unlocks all of Scripture

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
(Luke 24:44-49)

As followers of Jesus, we’re committed to reading, studying, and meditating on the Scriptures. We want to be taught, comforted, and encouraged by them. Most of all, we want to encounter God in the pages of Scripture, to get to know him better through his Word.

At the same time, we’re forced to agree with the apostle Peter that there are things in the Scriptures that are hard to understand (2 Peter 3:16). The Bible is a collection of ancient writings whose forms of expression and cultural background are alien to our own. To properly approach a book or passage of Scripture, we need to know something of its historical context and literary genre, its author’s intention, and its place in the overall story of God’s revelation. Above all, we need God’s Spirit to open his Word to us.

Along with the Spirit, we also need the vital interpretive key that Jesus gave his disciples following his Resurrection. The final chapter of Luke’s Gospel recounts two instances of Jesus providing this key, to underscore its importance.

On the road to Emmaus, Jesus conversed with a pair of disciples who hadn’t yet believed that he had risen: “And he said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:25-27).

Later on, in Luke’s parallel account of the Great Commission, Jesus told his disciples that everything written about him in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled, and opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

For the Jews of Jesus’ day, the phrase “Law, Prophets, and Psalms” was shorthand for the entire Scripture, what we call the Old Testament. In other words, Jesus was claiming that all of the Bible is about him – yet another astounding claim, but also the key to unlocking the meaning of God’s Word.

This is not an invitation to dig for spiritual allegories behind every poetic phrase or narrative detail, nor to impose our own meaning on the text. The Scriptures contain history, prophecy, practical instruction, ethical principles, and songs that model prayer and worship, and each part must be allowed to speak in its own voice. At the same time, each part contributes to God’s grand narrative of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration, and the central focus of that narrative is Jesus.

Along with the psalmist, we’re invited to pray that God would open our eyes to see wondrous things in his Word – all of which point to his Son, Jesus, who is the source and ideal of all wonders.

The beauty and delight of our bodily resurrection

As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marvelling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them. (Luke 24:36-43)

In his prologue to the book of Acts, Luke wrote that after Jesus rose, he presented himself alive to his disciples by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days and speaking about the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). These appearances occurred in a variety of settings involving diverse individuals, groups, and on one occasion, a gathering of 500 people (1 Corinthians 15:3-8).

More than providing a wealth of evidence for the Resurrection, these appearances also demonstrated the variety of Jesus’ friendships that he shared with his followers. In a culture that dismissed women, Jesus chose Mary Magdalene and her circle of friends as the first witnesses of his Resurrection. On the road to Emmaus, he travelled and ate with a pair of disciples who were still distraught over his death. In the locked upper room, Jesus appeared to his terrified apostles, gently calmed their fears, and invited them to touch the scars in his hands and side. A week later, he graciously repeated the invitation to Thomas, who required more proof. To remove any doubt in his disciples’ minds that he was physically alive, Jesus ate a piece of fish in front of them. On another occasion, he joined seven of them on a fishing trip to the Sea of Galilee and made breakfast for them on the shore.

Beyond proving that Jesus was alive, these interactions gave his disciples a foretaste of the warm, intimate relationship they would enjoy with their Lord in this life and forever. More than that, Jesus’ risen form served as a preview of what our resurrected bodies will be like in the New Creation. Writing about the implications of Jesus’ Resurrection, along with the beauty and delight we’ll share with him in our own resurrected bodies, Timothy Keller offered this conclusion:

One of the deepest desires of the human heart is for love without parting. Needless to say, the prospect of the resurrection is far more comforting than the beliefs that death takes you into nothingness or into an impersonal spiritual substance. The resurrection goes beyond the promise of an ethereal, disembodied afterlife. We get our bodies back, in a state of beauty and power that we cannot today imagine. Jesus’ resurrection body was corporeal – it could be touched and embraced, and he ate food. And yet he passed through closed doors and could disappear. This is a material existence, but one beyond the bounds of our imagination. The idea of heaven can be a consolation for suffering, a compensation for the life we have lost. But resurrection is not just consolation – it is restoration. We get it all back – the love, the loved ones, the goods, the beauties of this life – but in new, unimaginable degrees of glory and joy and strength.

Sources and further reading

Timothy Keller, Hope in Times of Fear: The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter, Penguin Books, 2022.

Timothy Keller, Go Forward in Love: A Year of Daily Readings from Timothy Keller, Zondervan, 2024.

Rebecca McLaughlin, Is Easter Unbelievable? Four Questions Everyone Should Ask About the Resurrection Story, The Good Book Company, 2023.