So Easter also says something about God’s justice and God’s judgment. God is just: he did not allow the false verdict on Jesus to stand. But his justice restores relationships. We are the ones who deal death with our judgments. God’s judgment brings life.
And that’s the heart of Easter: God’s justice is trustworthy and life-giving. God sees all the judgments we pass on each other and ourselves; God sees all the death we deal to others and suffer ourselves, and God reaches through it all to restore us to friendship with him. In every place that seems bereft of hope, God can be found. The death and resurrection of Jesus show that God’s life is inexhaustible, and cannot be curbed by our arid and muddle-headed judgments.
The resurrection is an event that defines everything. It tells us that there is no relationship that cannot be restored by God, no judgment that cannot be reversed by God and that nothing we do can empty the world of the life and love of God.