What is the resurrection of Jesus all about? There are many valid interpretations of the story of the resurrection. For starters, Jesus’ resurrection foreshadows the resurrection of believers at the time of his return. In addition to this, it attests to his power over death, something that no human being has ever done. These are certainly essential points to be drawn from Christ’s resurrection. But what is the central meaning of Christ’s resurrection? What’s The Point of the resurrection? It is that Christ is King of the New Creation. The resurrection, more than anything else, evidences the kingship of Jesus.
Since the Fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, sin and death have reigned over creation. This is a tragedy in the story of scripture because God’s intention from the very beginning was for human beings to reign over creation. He created for us. When the tables were turned and death, a very unnatural thing, took over and dictated every element of human existence, everything had gone astray. From the point of its origins, God promised to undo this. He promised that the corruption of death in the creation would be reversed and humanity would once again take its place as the rightful rulers of the creation, just as He designed it. He also promised that this would happen through a Jew.
In the resurrection of Jesus, then, the promise is fulfilled. God is declared just in fulfilling his promise both to Israel and to all of the creation.
In the resurrection, Christ not only defeats death, but this very defeat declares him the rightful King of all.
The concept of Christ as King runs through the gospels from start to finish. Jesus’ first words in Mark’s account are, “The Kingdom of God is near!†(Mark 1:5). Jesus then goes on to teach about the Kingdom and what it is like. He also goes on to demonstrate his authority as the rightful King of God’s Kingdom by performing miracles and teaching with authority. The resurrection, then, is the ultimate miracle that proves his kingship.
This becomes clearer in John’s account of the resurrection. One of the more famous elements of the resurrection story in John’s version of the Gospel is Mary mistaking Jesus for the cemetery gardener. This is a mistake on Mary’s behalf, but she’s right in a way. She’s wrong in that Jesus is not the cemetery gardener, but she’s wrong in that he is, in fact, a gardener, but the rightful gardner of all of the creation. Jesus is the gardner that Adam was always meant to be. Jesus is is the True Gardener, the True Adam.
Do you remember in the story of creation when God crowns Adam and Eve king and queen of the creation, he places them in a garden (symbolizing all of creation) and instructs them to tend it and keep it? And then they fail, right? Well this gardener, Christ the King, did not fail. He was faithful to death, even death on a cross, and because of his great faithfulness, God has give him authority over the creation. He is the True Gardener.
This echoes the words of Psalm 2:8–9, a coronation psalm, which read: “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.†This happened through the resurrection. Jesus broke the power of death with a rod of iron and dashed it in pieces like a potter’s vessel. He’s the King, He’s the Gardener. He’s the resurrected Lord.
