Resurrection: Interpreting the Easter Gospel
(1) Jesus fits believably into first-century Judaism, retelling its stories in new but thoroughly comprehensible ways. He speaks and acts, and is perceived to be speaking and acting, prophetically, challenging his hearers to recognize that in him the new thing for which they have longed is, however paradoxically, coming to pass. (2) He believes him
... See moreN. T. Wright • Jesus Victory of God V2: Christian Origins And The Question Of God
By confessing the resurrection, we insist also that we will live our lives as if death is not the last word, as if pain and evil cannot be the denouement of the story, as if death even for us is not an evil or a disaster but simply part of God’s gracious will for us and for our loved ones.
Dale B. Martin • Biblical Truths: The Meaning of Scripture in the Twenty-first Century
This, then, appears to be the Gospel’s final word upon the new life that is given at Easter: that with it comes the possibility of seemingly impossible reconciliation, the healing of wounds that normally could never be healed, and the hope of beginning anew precisely when all hope would seem to have been extinguished.