If, come Easter morning, a preacher mounted the steps of the pulpit and proclaimed, “Hitler is risen!” I doubt that anyone would reply, “He is risen indeed!” In fact, if the proclamation were taken seriously, there would probably be screams of horror. The world as we know it would be turned upside down in the worst way possible. Why? Because it would not be good news if God raised Hitler from the dead.
What this thought experiment reveals is that the proclamation “Jesus is risen” depends entirely on the identity of Jesus.[1] “Jesus is risen” is good news because of who Jesus is, not because resurrection is an unequivocal good. We could think of a plethora of names to put before “is risen” and it would not be good news. To many Christians, what I am saying might appear so obvious it does not need to be stated.
I am increasingly convinced that the identity of Jesus cannot be taken for granted, even among Christians. There is a multitude of ways to answer the question “Who is Jesus?” I want to draw out two main aspects of Jesus’ identity. First, Jesus the Israelite is the fulfillment of Israel’s hope. Second, Jesus — in the words of the Nicene Creed — is “of one Being with the Father.”
The Old Testament is one long footnote to Genesis 12, when the Lord promises Abram that he will have many descendants, that they will become a great nation, and that his descendants will be a blessing to the nations. The Exodus and the covenant given at Mt. Sinai are the first concrete fulfillments of this promise, when the Israelites are delivered from Egypt and become a people before God.
The second concrete fulfillment of the promise is when Israel conquers the land in Joshua. What follows is the long undoing of Israel. The monarchy established in 1 Samuel does not achieve what the Israelites hoped it would. Israel splits into two kingdoms: the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Unfaithful kings follow, then exile.
First, Assyria conquered the northern kingdom. Then, Babylon conquered Assyria and the southern kingdom of Judah. In the aftermath of the exile, the prophets began to reformulate Israel’s hope. The Lord, they said, not the gods of Assyria or Babylon, exiled Israel. But now he is going to do a new thing. Israel finds herself in the position of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, living by hope in a promise.
The promise given to Abraham is reinterpreted in a new light. First, it has become clear that the Lord himself must vindicate Israel. Second, a human agent will be a part of God’s plan, a messiah. And third, the promise that Israel will be a blessing to the nations takes on connotations of universal peace — a universal peace that is only possible with the defeat of death. Israel is like the valley of dry bones of Ezekiel 37. The Israelites await the Lord’s call to rise from the dead.
When Jesus comes, he claims to be the fulfillment of Israel’s hope. He claims to be the “new thing” the prophets promised. On the one hand, Jesus said nothing new from the prophets. He called people to repentance. On the other hand, there was an urgency in his message unmatched by the prophets. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15).
The prophets proclaimed that God would do a new thing. Jesus proclaimed that God was doing it, now. In other words, there was no space between Jesus’ proclamation and the future he promised. There was no time to get ready. People could not put their hand on the plow and look back or even take the time to bury their dead. Now was the moment.
In the words of Robert Jenson, “When men heard Jesus’ call to the Kingdom, they either were thereby called into its citizenship, or found they had already rejected it.”[2] What emerges through the gospel narratives is that Jesus, who heals the sick, casts out demons, and teaches with authority, is the presence of the kingdom of God. The new thing is here, and it’s Jesus himself! Of course, the hope of Israel is crucified. It is as if, with the body of Jesus laid in a tomb, Israel finds herself back in the valley of dry bones. The Israelites say, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely” (Ezek. 37:11). It is as if death, once again, has the last word.
But the story continues; Jesus is risen. The hope of Israel is risen. The presence of the kingdom is risen. The promise of God is no longer conditioned by death because Jesus has put death behind him. The resurrection is good news because Israel’s hope, that she would become a blessing to the nations, universal peace, has come true in Jesus Christ the Israelite. And because Israel’s hope extends not just to Israel but the whole world, it is good news for you and me.
What does it matter that Jesus is “of one Being with the Father?” Why does that make the resurrection good news? To put it plainly, everything depends on Jesus being “of one Being with the Father.” In the words of Thomas Torrance, “God is not one thing in himself and another thing in Jesus Christ — what God is toward us in Jesus he is inherently and eternally in himself. That is the fiducial significance of the central clause in the Nicene Creed, that there is oneness in Being and agency between Jesus Christ the incarnate Son and God the Father.”[3]
When the Son of God assumes human existence, human existence is taken into the life of God. Jesus’ suffering is God the Son’s suffering; Jesus’ pain is God the Son’s pain; Jesus’ hunger is God the Son’s hunger; Jesus’ death is God the Son’s death. There is no ontological gap between Jesus and the Son. In fact, that sentence borders on absurdity; there is Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God. Because Jesus is one Being with the Father, he can say truly, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). It is good news that Jesus, who is one Being with the Father, is raised from the dead because “there is thus no God behind the back of Jesus Christ, but only this God whose face we see in the face of the Lord Jesus.”[4]
The resurrection is good news because of who Jesus is. He is the Israelite who is the fulfillment of Israel’s hope; he is the Son of God who is one Being with the Father. Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed.
[1] I am in debt to Robert Jenson for both the thought experiment and every piece of theology that follows.
[2] Robert Jenson, Story and Promise, 37.
[3] T.F. Torrance, The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being Three Persons, 243.
[4] Ibid., 243.
