This past Sunday was an Easter when something was brought to my attention I’d never noticed before.
We always talk of the day of Christ’s resurrection but less often of the timing of Christ’s resurrection.
When exactly did Jesus rise from the tomb?
And why does it matter?
The dark resurrection
In John’s Gospel we read that, “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance” (v. 20:1)
While it was still dark.
Mary Magdalene discovered the risen Christ before the Sun was up. This means Jesus rose while it was still dark. He rose in the middle of the night while the darkness of his Friday death still lingered in the hearts of his disciples.
Pausing on this reality, Priest and Author Fleming Rutledge reflects that before Easter Sunday,
The realm of darkness appears to be victorious. There is nothing left of the Messiah but the grave….Jesus has entered the realm of Death…..The Son of God, by his own permission, has been given over to the realm of night."
But that’s not the end of the story. It’s in the middle of the darkness of Death that Christ is resurrected.
Rutledge continues,
The resurrection happened at night.
No one was there when it happened. When the women and the disciples arrived, he was gone. He arose from the kingdom of Death and carried away its spoils. The rising sun revealed the victory already accomplished. And so the risen, living, reigning Christ says to us today as he said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).
Let our answer be hers: “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God”—and in believing, receive the gift of eternal light and life in his name (John 20:30-31).
So wherever you found yourself this Easter remember this.
It’s in the darkness that God works.
It’s out of the darkness that Christ works is resurrection power.