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When life appears

There is a rhythm that runs through Scripture – quiet at first, but once you hear it, you begin to notice it everywhere. It is the rhythm of the third day. And it begins not at Easter, but at creation itself.

In Genesis 1, the third day is the first day when life appears. The waters are drawn back. Dry land emerges. And from that earth, something begins to grow. Green shoots. Seed-bearing plants. Life, where before there was none. And we are told, uniquely, that God sees this and calls it good – twice.

The third day, from the very beginning, is the day when life emerges from what seemed empty. The day when what was hidden is brought into the light. The day when creation begins to bear fruit.

When God provides, is revealed and hope breaks through

And that rhythm continues. Think of Abraham in Genesis 22. Three days he travels with Isaac toward the place of sacrifice. Three days of silence. Three days of dread.

And then: “On the third day Abraham looked up…” If you read on, the place of death becomes the place where God provides.

Think of Israel at Sinai in Exodus 19. They are told to wait, to prepare, to consecrate themselves. And then: “On the third day the Lord will come down…” The third day becomes the day of revelation – when God is made known.

Or the promise in Hosea 6:2: “On the third day he will raise us up.” Even here, deep in prophetic hope, the third day carries the whisper of resurrection.

Again and again, the third day is when life appears. The third day is when God provides. The third day is when God is revealed. The third day is when hope breaks through.

Fulfilment

And then we come to Easter morning.

The women go to the tomb. The stone is rolled away. The body is gone. And the message comes: “He is not here; he has been raised.” And we know this happened on the third day…

This is not coincidence. This is fulfilment. All those earlier third days were just echoes.

But this – this is the full song. Because on this third day, life does not simply emerge from the earth – it emerges from death itself. The grave, like the waters of creation, is broken open. And from it comes new life.

On the third day of creation, the earth begins to bear fruit. And here, on this third day, Christ becomes, as he himself said in the Gospel of John 12:24, like a seed that falls into the ground and dies, and then rises to bear much fruit.

This is not just a return to life. This is a new creation. The God who once said: “Let the earth bring forth life,” now brings forth life from the tomb.

Expect a third day

And that changes everything. Because we all know what the first and second days feel like. The first day: when something breaks; when loss comes; when the journey begins. The second day: when nothing seems to change; when silence lingers; when hope feels thin.

But Scripture teaches us to expect a third day. Not always quickly. Not always in the way we imagine. But, in the faithfulness of God, the third day comes. A day when what was hidden is revealed; when what was broken begins to heal; when what seemed dead begins to live.

So, today, Easter is not just a memory of something long ago. It is the declaration that this pattern still holds. That the God of creation is still bringing life out of what seems empty. That the God of resurrection is still at work in the places we have given up on.

So, if you find yourself today on what feels like the first day, or the second, then hear this: the story is not finished. Because in Christ, the third day has come. And the life that began when the earth first brought forth its fruit has now been made complete in the risen Christ.

Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia.

Some thoughts on Easter by Ian Banks, inspired by the ever-insightful Sarah E. Fisher and her three-part posts on ‘The Third Day’, which you can find by following this link to Hebrew Word Lessons.