The resurrection of Jesus was not the general resurrection, but the provision of a longer gentler way to the general resurrection. This resurrection, that is both commenced and delayed, is the mode of God’s hidden work of holding and training a people. By the resurrection, the crucifixion of Christ was lifted from Christ and placed instead on the many who had crucified him. Their act rebound to catch them. The many have been corralled by the death that his resurrection has imposed upon them. Their death is now not at all their death, but entirely his death, the death that holds, not him, but them on whom he has imposed it. Now they can be slowly supplied, by the Spirit, with the resurrection. It can be supplied by the one who has risen from them and is therefore able to be with them, without their sin and death. The resurrected one is the Lord, the Spirit, the true and faithful servant who will not waste his talents, or lose a single member of the flock he has gathered. He has worked, and his work is united with its harvest. He has paid with his labour, and he now receives the reward due to him.
