End or Beginning?
For many Christians the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the climax to a wonderful story recorded at the end of the gospel accounts. This version of a salvation story goes something like this . . .
God’s son, Jesus, came to Earth, lived a perfect and sinless life, brought healing to many, even raised the dead, and then took mankind’s sin by dying on the Cross. Sin and the grave could not hold Him and on the third day, Christ became the risen Lord! After commissioning His followers to proclaim the good news around the world, Jesus returned to Heaven. This is the Christian’s destination after they die. For those still alive, there is the eager expectation that Jesus will return soon and take us back with Him to spend eternity there.
But is Christ’s resurrection the completion of why Jesus came to Earth . . . or is it really just the beginning?
New Creation, New World
The purpose of Jesus’ resurrection is not so we can go to Heaven. Rather, it is in order to launch God’s new creation. This includes the birthing of a new race of people from every tribe and nation recreated by God’s Spirit. And the beginning of a whole new world in which creation itself will one day be renewed until the whole Earth is filled with the glory of God. But first, let’s take a step back.
In the week leading up to His death and resurrection, Jesus journeys to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. Throughout the Old Testament, the Jews had long-awaited the return of YHWH to Zion. But when Jesus arrived and spoke about the arrival of His kingdom, and what was necessary in order for it to come, it was not in the way they had anticipated. Jesus begins to fulfil the Jewish expectations in many new ways.
New Nation
The Passover is a reminder of the deliverance of God’s people but Jesus’ entry into the temple was not to celebrate this freedom. As Matthew records (in Chapter 21), it was to bring judgement on the neglect of Israel’s calling to be ‘a light to all peoples’.
Israel had become ethnocentric and had focused on being ‘the chosen’, rather than ‘the blessed to be a blessing’. As a result, their light had gone out. The fig tree had borne no fruit. Those who had been entrusted with God’s vineyard had failed to carry out the master’s wishes. Jesus then prophetically spoke of His impending death at the hands of the vineyard tenants, and declares that ‘the kingdom of God would be taken away from Israel and given to a nation [soon to be birthed] that would produce the fruit of it.’ This new nation would comprise people not from one ethnicity alone, but from a multitude of nations, representing all the families of the Earth (Gen. 12:3; 17:4).
In Matthew 22, Jesus continues to reiterate what is about to take place with a parable of a wedding feast where those who had been invited (the Jews) were unwilling to attend. Instead, as many as could be found outside were invited instead (the Gentile nations). In Chapter 23, Jesus pronounces seven “woes” over the religious leaders who had hindered and kept people out of God’s kingdom. He laments over Jerusalem who had killed the prophets sent to her and warns that its house was becoming desolate.
New Temple, New Age
As we arrive at Chapter 24, Jesus leaves the temple and His disciples point out its great architecture. However, Jesus proceeds to confound them as He tells them that the temple will soon be destroyed. The disciples ask when this is to take place and Jesus lets them know ‘the signs’ of Jerusalem’s destruction and judgement, as prophesied by Daniel 490 years previously. These are not signs pointing to the end of the world, but the end of ‘an age’ (age of the Old Covenant) which would take place within a ‘generation’.
As Jesus predicted, in AD70 the city of Jerusalem is destroyed and the Old Covenant temple and sacrificial system is gone. Church history confirms that those in Judea who heeded Christ’s warnings to ‘flee to the mountains’ for protection were spared, when Jerusalem was surrounded by armies and the ‘great tribulation’ and desolation Jesus had spoken about was about to take place. More than a million people perished in the city and the Jewish population was almost annihilated. The Son of Man ‘coming on the clouds’ was an Old Testament idiom which represented a coming judgement, this time on the nation of Israel.
Through the death and resurrection of the Messiah, a new temple was about to be established with Christ as the cornerstone. This would be a temple not built with bricks or by human hands. This would be a temple of ‘living stones’ (1 Peter 2:5) where God would now reside.
New Covenant
Jesus’ disciples prepare for the Passover. As they are eating, Jesus takes a cup, give thanks, and proclaims that it represents His blood of a new covenant, poured out for the forgiveness of sins. He then leads them outside to a garden called Gethsemane where, unlike God’s first representatives who failed in the first garden, Jesus submits in obedience to His Father’s will.
The stage is set . . .
[To be continued]
(Photo by Bruno van der Kraan on Unsplash)