John 20:19–23: The True Adam Releases New Adams

April 22, 2014

As a lot of folks have recognized, there are Edenic themes in the resurrection scenes of the Gospel. This should not be surprising; Jesus’ resurrection is the commencement of a new creation, and the resurrection in particular therefore marks out Jesus as the new and true Adam. He is taken to be “the gardener,” which is both a mistake by Mary—and at the same time, precisely the truth.

But the Genesis-new creation theme does not end in the garden where Jesus is entombed. The new creation is not so readily restricted.

Even as Jesus had been sealed up in a stone tomb, the disciples have also sealed themselves up in a sort of tomb, a self-made prison where they are hiding out for fear of “the Jews.” But just as the stone tomb couldn’t hold Jesus in, the locked doors can’t hold Jesus out.

He comes in a fashion reminiscent of Yahweh in Genesis 3:8, in the evening (so the LXX) or in the Spirit (so the Hebrew) of the Day. But here, He doesn’t come to grill Adam with questions. This time, He has not come to throw His new Adams, His new men, out of a garden, but to release them from their self-made prison. To send them out into a world made new by His resurrection.

Easter changes everything, including how creation and fall work. Jesus comes and says, “Peace to you,” and by speaking it, He effects it.

Jesus said that in “the world” (the old creation), we would have trouble. And we do. But we’re not just in “the world.” We are in the peace of the new creation, released to live within trouble in the power of the resurrection. The world is not what it was. Not for us. Because the true Adam has spoken peace, we are new Adams, and we are commissioned and equipped with the power of a new world.