Resurrection Symbolism

And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. Matthew 28:2

No one saw the resurrection of Jesus, despite the paintings we have of a dazzling Jesus emerging from the tomb and terrified guards cringing at the sight. Let’s be clear, the angel does not roll away the stone so Jesus can get out of the tomb, unlike is necessary in the Lazarus story. Jesus is already raised and gone while the guards are outside and the stone in place.

The angel rolls away the stone from the mouth of the tomb so the women, and later the disciples, can see that he is not there. He arose in secret, unheralded and unnoticed. As in all things, we only recognize the work of God after it is already done. This is the pattern of grace.

Noticing this pattern matters because beyond the literal event there are spiritual meanings in the symbolism that we may miss. The symbolic connections add more layers and depth to the story of the resurrection, and reveal the divine providence and synergy in the whole of God’s story.

For instance, there are subtle and easily overlooked parallels between Jesus’ birth and resurrection, which is his rebirth as the glorified Son. None saw the birth except his parents, and only his Father is there to raise him.

As in his birth, Mary and Joseph are there at his burial, but this time it is Joseph of Arimethea. Angels announced both events, and he was wrapped in swaddling cloths the first time and burial clothes the second.

Perhaps most strikingly, Jesus was born from a virgin womb and was raised from an unused, and therefore virgin, tomb. While else would the gospel writers mention that Joseph’s tomb had never been used except because they want us to see the symbolism? The story of Jesus has come full circle, returning to where it began, birth to birth again.

Beyond the parallels to his birth, there are allusions to the creation story. Mary encounters Jesus in a garden, which should make us think of Eden. She meets Jesus as Adam, whom she supposes to be the gardener, as Adam was. Where life was lost, life has been regained though God’s gracious working.

In fact, we can understand the passion of Christ as the culmination to the creation week of Genesis. On the sixth day God said “let us make man” but that work was not completed with the forming of Adam and Eve. Only in the coming of the real Adam, Jesus, is humanity finally and fully created.

We may view the sixth day of creation as continuing until the true Adam, Jesus Christ, says “it is finished” on the cross. Only then is the humanity that God had begun to make in the beginning finally created in Christ on the cross.

With his creation work completed, God rests from all his work in the tomb. This is the seventh day. Jesus is raised on the first day of a new week, the week of creation having finally been completed.

Now we see that the spiritual meaning of the Jewish sabbath was always anticipating Holy Saturday and pointing to the death burial and resurrection, but no one knew it. As the Hebrew writer asserts, all those Jewish things were shadows, symbols, of what was coming (Hebrews 8:5 & 10:1).