Risen from the Dead - Jesus!

 Such incredible news at the time. Is it now less so?

Jesus' (borrowed) tomb held only wrappings and spices..

(re above illustrative tomb, see note below*)

Jesus' mortal remains had been interred in Jerusalem in a borrowed rolling stone door tomb. I wonder if Joseph of Arimathaea later reused it for himself and any family. It might have survived the Roman destruction in 70 AD, but not likely the final onslaught of 135 AD. 

As has been observed, the closure stone was not rolled away to let Jesus out; it was rather to let the world in.

However, a tomb closure like the above does not really fit with the account, which involves the opened stone being sat upon! (Matthew 28:2). 

(This post is a re-publication of a previous post after editing and correction.)

Pre-Jesus Jerusalem multi-use tomb being modelled by excavators - roof collapsed long before

In John’s account following the execution of Jesus on the Roman cross we read:
Early on Sunday morning,[a] while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
Mary (and others - “we”) saw an emptied tomb. They naturally thought Jesus' remains had been "put" somewhere. (There was more to the story of the women. For example, John goes on to recount that this Mary was the first to speak with the risen Jesus.)

Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed— for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead (John 20:3-9 NLT). 

Inside that tomb, wrapping cloths remained, but not discarded in a tangle. Peter and the other disciple saw empty funeral wrappings - an empty tomb! Now they believed - but what? John says they had not understood and thus agrees with the other Gospels.  They had heard teaching from Jesus but, although it doubtless gave them some preparation, they had not taken in the reality of the impossible. How could they? They knew the Old Testament’s words but did not grasp actual application to the Christ (Jesus). “Jesus must rise from the dead”. Now they knew - at least in part. Their belief was embryonic at that moment.

Luke’s collection of truth about Jesus from the same first day of that week included these reminder lines spoken to the women:
Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to the hands of sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again.” Then they remembered his words (Luke 24:6-8 NRSVUE).
“Remember”, “remembered” - as we see in John, there was a gap between what had been heard and what was known, or understood, or believed. They had to recall what they had heard. "Oh... yes!"😄

The women. Evidently the women were present at one time (likely more), and had heard what Jesus had been teaching before the fatal visit to Jerusalem. We can turn back to hear one such, though it must exclude the women.:
Jesus took the twelve apostles aside and said:
We are now on our way to Jerusalem. Everything that the prophets wrote about the Son of Man will happen there. He will be handed over to foreigners,[a] who will make fun of him, mistreat him, and spit on him. They will beat him and kill him, but three days later he will rise to life.
The apostles did not understand what Jesus was talking about. They could not understand, because the meaning of what he said was hidden from them. (Luke 18:31-34, CEV)
The meaning was hidden from them. Maybe it sounds obvious to us, but it seems to me unsurprising that those first apostles did not grasp what Jesus was saying about what was to transpire. They had spent all those months with him, learning about the Kingdom and coming to recognise who he was(is). They looked forward to the King taking up his power and reigning. An execution by foreigners just did not fit. Rise to life! What is that? That did not compute!  Memorable words he spoke, right enough! Words not understandable by minds limited by what is known to be possible. Words as yet impenetrable to them. They needed the meaning of the words.

Matthew and Mark also record that moment of confusion or consternation. John wrote that they knew death was likely in Jerusalem.
So Thomas, called the Twin,[a] said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” (John 11:16, ESV). Not long after that decision John records a moment of conversation:
Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.” Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” (John 13:36-37, ESV) All four Gospels tell of Peter’s confidence. (Luke adds to the point of death.)

The above was close to the final week; there were earlier moments. All the synoptics also record these. John tells that the decision for Jesus’ death had been taken and the authorities were looking for him. Judea had become too dangerous.  Mark has this:
They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him. (Mark 9:30-32, NRSVUE). Why did Jesus not want it known where he was? Did he need time with the disciples? Would it have added to the danger if it was widely known?
Why would the disciples have been afraid to ask what they did not understand? Matthew adds that the disciples were distressed at his words. Perhaps we see here a form of denial? Did they fear what they might hear if they asked? Was it a case of not wanting to hear? A response going back to the initial announcement, which was this....

The first recorded time Jesus spoke in such terms came at a specially significant moment. Jesus and disciples were travelling north and he asked them about popular views of himself. The replies indicated Jesus was popularly seen as a prophetic figure. Then Peter (as spokesperson) revealed that, to them, the band of disciples, Jesus was the Christ. (However, that identification was not to be circulated.) Then there comes a record of a really strained moment which was the first recorded time Jesus spoke of his forthcoming death:
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord![a] This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance[b] to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (Matthew 16:21-23, ESV).
This interchange must have had an impact! Did the last bit of the dialogue overshadow all that came before? Peter the hindrance! What did Peter "do" with the rebuke he heard? Did the others perhaps realise what had happened during that period aside?

It was evident that the twelve (at least) grasped that Jerusalem had become risky. The record shows that they were courageously prepared to face action fraught with danger. John has it:
So Thomas, called the Twin,[b] said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” (John 11:16, ESV). This came as Jesus was going to Judea’s Bethany to restore his beloved Lazarus to life. Maybe Lazarus’ return to life could have been some preparation for what they would experience in Jerusalem? 

Once Jesus was killed, how else could they have any further hope? Death was the end.

Despite the teaching Jesus gave it was obviously hard (unthinkable) to grasp what was happening; to expect not only a death but now a resurrection. Luke reports a resurrection day moment which again shows how challenging it was to take hold of the facts. Two troubled, confused disciples, one named Cleopas, were  talking as they walked west to Emmaus (about 11 km). Unknowingly, they had a direct conversation with Jesus back from the dead. The things happening had them grieved and disturbed. Although they could have known in advance that Jesus would be alive again, they did not. They did not know it was him, but Jesus spoke with them about their problem.

So they said to him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet powerful in action and speech before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him. But we were hoping that he was the one who was about to redeem Israel. Besides all this, it’s the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women from our group astounded us. They arrived early at the tomb, and when they didn’t find his body, they came and reported that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they didn’t see him.”

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow[a] to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Wasn’t it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures (Luke 24:19-27 CSB). They had heard a report - second hand from women. The tomb had been verified by the men! They could have been better prepared, because they had "Moses and all the Prophets" to inform them. The rest of the pericope has Jesus letting them recognise him, and their rush back to tell the band in Jerusalem, and thus hear the news there...

“The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” (Luke 24:34 NRSVUE)

Not so long after these events we find Peter with others in Jerusalem itself boldly saying to an astounded crowd:
You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. And we are witnesses of this fact! (Acts 3:15, NLT) No apostolic doubts evident now - it was clear that it was Jesus they had misunderstood; they had not grasped what kind of a Saviour he is.
Paul gives this overall explanation of the vital significance of Jesus’ death and his taking back his life again:
For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son (Romans 5:10, NLT). 
Jesus, the author or source of life, had said much of life. His purpose was totally life-giving. He said:
I came so that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest (John 10:10, CEV).  

Paul took the good news of Jesus to Corinth (Acts 18:11). He had an ongoing complex relationship with the believers there, as seen in the Corinthian letters. What did he teach there in 18 months? His venerable creed-like summary statement covered the central facts and implied much:
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. (1 Corinthians 15:3-5, ESV). "Of first importance": That is the essential "view", the core or foundation to truly knowing Jesus. Is it reasonable to assume it was kept in the foreground over those months? That word "Christ" may be "unpacked", along with "for our sins".  (The summary expands as shown here and in previous posts.)

My camera has a “Pano” setting because it is not possible to view the full scene with an ordinary exposure. So it is with the tremendous panorama of salvation, which is nonetheless presented to us in what Jesus did. Compare, for instance the following words from Paul, each passage with its own emphasis. Does it seem too complex? We are dealing with the vast action of God to redeem humankind and resolve the age-long issues arising from human alienation in a broken world. No simple matter! 
Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live (Galatians 1:4 NLT).  A sadly messed up world, from which sinners may be rescued.
Jesus himself said this beforehand:
And if you want to be first, you must be the slave of the rest. The Son of Man did not come to be a slave master, but a slave who will give his life to rescue[a] many people. (Matthew 20:27-28, CEV)
So then, a slave who rescues at the cost of his life. Or, even a shepherd, whose service is to death:
I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,  just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. (John 10:14-15, NRSVUE) Does it seem plain now, but was this obscure before the resurrection? Probably - hard to see how it could be otherwise.
To make it possible for you (and me) to be delivered or rescued, it required Jesus’ life.

Consider a paragraph from Romans:
just as we read in the Scriptures. But these words were not written only for Abraham. They were written for us, since we will also be accepted because of our faith in God, who raised our Lord Jesus to life. God gave Jesus to die for our sins, and he raised him to life, so that we would be made acceptable to God.
By faith we have been made acceptable to God. And now, because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace[a] with God. Christ has also introduced us[b] to God’s undeserved kindness on which we take our stand. So we are happy, as we look forward to sharing in the glory of God. (Romans 4:23-5:2, CEV).

So God has extended undeserved kindness us-wards and achieved what we could not. God’s work stands and the opportunity is there now. Any who will, may humbly accept. God knows!

God, who raised our Lord Jesus to life.

God gave Jesus to die for our sins, and he raised him to life, so that we would be made acceptable to God!

 May you be blessed by God

Allen Hampton 

Note: The second image above shows a Jewish tomb site from centuries before Jesus.

There is also a highly embellished Jerusalem site claimed to be that of Jesus' burial, which Dr Rasmussen accepts as the location identified during the 326 AD visit to the ruins by Helena (mother of Constantine). Not everyone agrees she got it right!

(*Top tomb illustration: Originally located at Horvat Midras (Hebrew)/Khirbet Durusiya (Arabic), about 30 km SW of Jerusalem. Extensive cemetery. Best surviving example of rolling stone tomb. According to Holylandphotos.org, after destruction by vandals in late 1990s was reconstructed, in Adullam Park - which I have not definitely located. It may currently be restricted.) 

 

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Images courtesy Holy Land Photos. holylandphotos.org

Bible passages courtesy Bible Gateway and Blue Letter Bible

AL 13/05/25