“A new, and better, beginning” by Peter Leithart

“A crucified man, still bearing the scars of His execution, appears in a garden to Mary, walks through doors, eats fish with His disciples, claims to have inherited all authority in heaven and on earth.

When the angel descends from heaven, women become braver than soldiers; the dead more lively than the living; the cross more potent than all the weapons man can produce.

Men have always dreamed of a new beginning. They have always wished that time could be run in reverse and we could have a new start on the sorry spectacle of history.

Those who pursue that dream usually end up with more of the same, only worse. They end up entrenching Death’s power even more securely.

The old week of human history ended in a cross, and the dream of going back to Day One has ended with guillotines and Gulags.

But that sobering reality should not lead to despair.

We cannot reverse time, return to Eden, and make sure that this time round Adam stays clear of that tree until it is time.

Earth cannot start earth’s history over again.

We cannot turn the clock back and make a new, and better, beginning.

We cannot, but the God of heaven can, and Easter announces that He has.”

—Peter Leithart, The Gospel of Matthew Through New Eyes Volume Two: Jesus as Israel (West Monroe, LA: Athanasius Press, 2018) 2: 343. Leithart is commenting on Matthew 28:1-10.