How Jesus' Resurrection Puts the Clock Forward
At Easter, we mark that the old age has finished and a new era has begun, yet we are still caught in the in-between.
After the long dark nights of winter, I love it when the clocks go forward.
The days have already been getting longer for a while. It’s no longer already dark when I leave work on the days I’m in the office, or when I arrive in the morning. And then with the changing clocks, we take a collective step forward. Boom! An extra hour of sunlight in the evening.
And even though officially Spring has only just begun, it’s clear that summer is coming. We’ve moved from one timezone to another, from GMT to BST, Greenwich Mean Time to British Summer Time.
This year Easter coincided with the changing of the clocks, and there’s something fitting about that. In the Bible, the apostle Paul wrote:
[Jesus] is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
– Colossians 3, v18-19 (NIV)
Jesus is the firstborn from the dead, the first to step into resurrection life. According to the Gospels, Jesus had miraculously raised to life a number of people, most famously Lazarus. But they were still subject to death and would one day die again. Jesus was the first human being to go through death and escape the other side forever, no longer subject to death’s rule.
That he was the firstborn has two key implications.
Firstly, that he is first means there will be others who follow in being born to new life. The Christian hope is that the reign of death is broken by Jesus’ victory, and everyone who trusts in Jesus will share in his resurrection life, ourselves being raised to new, eternal life when Jesus returns to the earth.
Secondly, firstborn carries the implication of inheritance rights – the King’s firstborn son inherits the Kingdom. Jesus’ resurrection marks the beginning of a new order over which he is the ruler – the Kingdom of God, where sin is forgiven, the sick are healed, the dead raised, and justice rules.
When God raised Jesus from the dead, he was “putting the clock forward” to this new age. We’ve entered a new time zone, that of the Kingdom of God.
As Tom Wright put it,
“Easter was when Hope in person surprised the whole world by coming forward from the future into the present”
– Tom Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (2007, SPCK), p 40
The key to this kingdom is reconciliation – humanity, having tried to live apart from God, ignoring and rejecting his rule, needs to be restored to relationship with him. Through Jesus’ blood shed on the Cross, God has chosen to pay the price so we can come back to him. And we then get to share in his inheritance: like the Pevensie children in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, who become kings and queens of Narnia when Aslan rises from the dead to defeat the White Witch.
But while the Kingdom of God starts with our individual forgvieness and reconciliation to God, it doesn’t end there. The clock hasn’t just gone forward for our personal lives, for our private faith. It doesn’t just mean getting up an hour early for a quiet time, or on a Sunday. When the clock goes forward, all of life shifts to the new pattern – school, work, community, business. So it is with God’s kingdom. As with the destruction of the Ring in The Lord of the Rings, one age of Middle-Earth has passed, and another has begun, and the whole world is changed.
Everything must change to fit the new rhythm of resurrection life. Jesus is reconciling all things to himself – bringing peace to warring countries, justice to unfair economies and societies, wholeness to broken families and communities.
Transitions are never easy: I’m still in the process of settling into my new home in Pontypridd, changing from one church to another, one job to another (more on that below!). It means new relationships, habits, a whole way of life to adjust to. How much more jarring is the change from living in the shadow of the fear of death, to one of hope that death itself will one day die.
Despite the new age of resurrection life having begun, we still see much oppression, suffering, injustice and pain. In the face of the news headlines, the violence and warfare going on in our world today, it seems hard to believe that anything has really changed. Like the dark storms that still gather in springtime and the tired mornings adjusting to a new rhythm, even for those who have turned the clocks forward and are trying to live in Jesus’ new timezone, the transition is not an easy one – and all around us, peoples and societies are still trying to live by the beat of the old clock.
But as dark and difficult as this world still is, we know that winter is passing. The light of Jesus’ kingdom is growing each day, and one day soon he will bring in the endless summer.
Happy Easter – He is risen indeed!
Job update
I'm excited to share that I will be returning to the world of publishing, as I take up the role of Publisher for University of Wales Press’s Calon Books imprint, starting in June!
I'll be commissioning and editing trade non-fiction (i.e. popular-level rather than academic), telling Wales's stories to the world. 'Calon' is the Welsh word for 'heart', and my new role will combine my love of Wales with my love of culture. I can't wait to get stuck in.
I'll be sad though to leave Media Cymru, who are a great team. I've got a couple of months left there as I finish up the maternity cover as Digital Communications Officer. It's been a great experience and I'll be making the most of my last couple of months there.
I'm particularly pleased that University of Wales Press are based in Cardiff. I'll be doing hybrid working, three days a week in their office in the civic area near City Hall and the Museum, two days working from home. Publishing remains quite London/SE orientated so I'm grateful to have found a publishing role that's here in Wales, where my heart is ❤️