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Have you ever found yourself yelling yes! when something you wanted came to be? During sporting events I will yellyes! after my team has scored a touchdown or made a basket. Yes is an exuberant outburst of celebration, validation and at times vindication.
While in seminary, my professor, mentor and friend, David Buttick worked diligently to "drill into our heads" that first and foremost the resurrection of Jesus was God's yes! to Jesus' earthly life. I think he was so emphatic that first and foremost resurrection was God's vindication of Jesus' life because so much of the emphasis is placed on what the resurrection means to and for us. Yes, resurrection is for us, the atonement and the call to become the body of Christ, but first it is God's yes! to Jesus.
Writing about the Risen Christ, Buttrick says this; "Ask, now, what the resurrection of Christ might have meant to the first, frightened huddle of disciples. It was, if nothing else, a vindication. For in resurrection the life of Christ was lifted up and "enthroned" by God. Christ's life was not only declared worthy but was held up as a revealing of God's will for all humanity. The wisdom of priests, the judgment of Rome, the vote of the milling crowd-all these were suddenly reversed by God's judgment. Risen! The word means much more than to be sprung from a tomb; risen is to be exalted, to be lifted to the right hand of God. So Matthew has the risen Christ exclaim, "All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me." No wonder the resurrection material contain "creeds"; "The Lord is risen"; "My Lord and my God"; "He rose the third day in accordance with the scriptures." How can we respond to a disclosure of the risen, exalted Christ except by bowing down and acknowledging his true position; "Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here." The resurrection was a great sign that validated the rejected Jesus Christ; he was and is the Lord!"
He is risen!
He is risen indeed!
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