Preparing for Easter: Week 6
April 13, 2025
Preparing for Easter: Week 7
Stained Glass Reflections on the Life of Christ
Recommended Reading: Matthew 28:1-10, Mark 16:1-8, Luke 24:1-12, John 20:1-23
Sometimes it takes a fresh perspective to help us see the resurrection with fresh eyes. Recently, after an event in Altizer Hall, I found my three-year-old daughter Charis staring up in wonder at one of the stained-glass pieces. So I walked her around to each one to see what she could see in each and explain the story as I could. When she came to the resurrection scene we’re looking at today, she astutely commented (after seeing the crucifixion scene right before), “Jesus has his shirt back on!”
Well, she isn’t wrong – but there’s a lot more going on than just a change of clothes! Jesus has more than just His clothes back – He has His very life back! As one songwriter puts it, “He rises, glorified in flesh, clothed in immortality, the firstborn from the dead.”
On this Easter day, let your eyes and your heart see this great reversal of death with new eyes:
Week 7: Jesus’ Resurrection
#1: RIGHT HAND: THE TRINITY IS AT WORK: First, notice the unique hand gesture Jesus is making with his right hand. If it looks familiar, it may be because you’ll find Jesus making this three-fingered hand gesture in a lot of ancient religious art. But I had never thought to wonder why until seeing it here. The most common explanation given is that it’s meant to depict the Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit[1]. This is appropriate symbolism given what’s going on here. Jesus is not at work alone in this resurrection. All three members of the Godhead are active! So who raised Jesus from the dead?
- God the Father did: “Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead…” (Gal. 1:1)
- God the Son did: “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” (John 10:18)
- God the Spirit did: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesusfrom the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Rom. 8:11)
Who raised Jesus from the dead? The Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all three as active in resurrection as they were in creation. Easter rightfully reminds us of Christ’s work, but we should not hesitate to praise all three members of the Trinity who worked this glorious redemption in unity! It’s not as if Jesus is the nice one, while the grumpy Father had to be persuaded to like us by Jesus’ death. No, all three members of the Triune God DELIGHTED to work through Jesus’ death and resurrection to bring us salvation!
#2: LEFT HAND: JESUS IS ON THE MOVE. But notice Jesus’ other hand – His left hand is raised as if in a “back off” gesture. As if He’s saying, “Whoa! Hold on! Stop!” What’s that all about?
Well, notice the woman in this scene, who we assume is Mary Magdalene.[2] Her own hands are upraised like she is in the midst of worshiping Him and about to wrap her arms around Him. Perhaps these gestures come from John 20:17 where Jesus tells Mary, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.”
This comment has always puzzled me. Jesus has just tenderly revealed to Mary that He is alive again. In the midst of her tears of confusion, He says one word: “Mary.” You can picture her turning around dumbfounded, hastily wiping the tears away to see Him there, the most delightful surprise in the history of the world! Picture her melting with joy and excitement and falling to her knees with the cry, “My Teacher!” To misquote my friend Samwise Gamgee, I picture Mary saying, “Jesus! I thought you were dead! But then I thought my own hope was dead! Is everything sad going to come untrue? What’s happened to the world?”
But Jesus responds to her joy with a strange command, “Do not cling to me!” Is Jesus just in a no-touchy phase, having just brought His body back to life? Is He an untouchable Savior who doesn’t want Mary too close? I can hardly picture the Jesus we’ve come to know in the Gospels being like that. Instead, I think He is saying something like: “Don’t hold me back, Mary!”
To quote the same song as earlier, “The Lamb of God slain for us is a Lion ready to roar!” Or another we sing today on Easter, “Out of the silence, the Roaring Lion declares, ‘The grave has no claim on Me!’”
Jesus comes back roaring, and the gates of hell have never stopped Him since! It’s as if He cries, like Aslan did, “And now to business! I feel I am going to roar. You had better put your fingers in your ears.” And His business is to rescue sinners and make all things new. He’s been doing that business and roaring against the forces of darkness ever since. Jesus is on the move! Who dares stop Him?
#3: THE GARDEN AND THE LILY: The Garden of Eden was where humanity first fell into sin, and the Garden of Gethsemane was where that sin came to full fruition in the arrest and binding of the Creator Himself! So, it is no surprise that the rebirth and renewal of all creation would start in another garden, where Jesus was briefly buried (John 19:41).[3]
It’s no surprise that in this garden, we see flowers growing – white flowers that look like Easter lilies in this painting. Why do we see lilies used at Eastertime? Because, like the bulb of a lily that lies dormant in the ground,[4] and then blooms in glory at just the right time, Jesus compared Himself to a “dying” seed that had to go down into the ground before bursting forth (John 12:24).
Whenever you see a flower, think of the Gardener who was cut down like a flower. If you feel your hope is buried deep, don’t fear – Jesus is in the business of raising what’s buried!
Luther said it well, “Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.”
One of the most encouraging truths about Easter for me is the fact that what is true of Christ is also true of us His people who are united to Christ. Just as Christ the “Lily of the Valley” burst forth from the grave like a spring flower, so certain are we to blossom to new life too after our death!
As Mr. Beaver triumphantly explains,
“Wrong shall be right, when Aslan comes in sight.
At the sound of his roar sorrow shall be no more.
When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death.
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.”
So look around this Easter. Do you see all that green? Let it remind you of Christ’s resurrection and your own! We can no more be un-resurrected, un-united to Christ, un-saved from our sin than we could take Christ out of heaven and plop Him back dead in the grave! His resurrection secures our own. Happy Easter indeed!
[1] With the two other fingers laying down representing Christ’s divine nature and human nature.
[2] She was the very first to see the Lord, as told in John 20. I love the scene of her tears turning to utter joy. But isn’t it interesting that a woman was the first to see Jesus? Women were terribly undervalued in this day, not being relied upon to give testimony. So if the disciples wanted to invent the story of Jesus’ resurrection, why would they make a woman the first to see Him, along with the other women who saw the empty tomb and ran? This is a powerful apologetic for the resurrection, and an encouragement for how Jesus treats women with dignity. This is a story too wonderful and amazing to be made up!
[3] There’s even a Jewish tradition that the Garden of Eden was originally in Jerusalem, and so perhaps all these gardens in the story are overlapping in geography. After all, Revelation 21 tells us that a new Jerusalem will descend from heaven as the eternal abode of God and His people, but the description of the city sounds more like a garden! So here we are at the resurrection in the “Garden between Gardens.”
[4] Sometimes for up to three years!
[SM3]Just had to add this here – it is my very favorite Narnia quote, and it fit so perfectly. J
