As I compose this BLOG today, it is a 40 day period from our celebration of the resurrection of Jesus to His Ascension to the Father. I believe that it is day 26.
On the morning of the Resurrection, the stone that had sealed Jesus’ tomb had been rolled away; some of Jesus’ followers have seen the empty tomb and others have been told about it; and the word is, ‘He is Risen’.
Let’s revisit the story. How does one fathom the reality of what some have seen and others have been told.
A few days prior to the Resurrection, on Friday, Jesus had been nailed to a cross and died. Before sundown, Joseph of Arimathea had requested the body of Jesus from Pilate. Joseph had seen to it that Jesus was entombed in a grave prior to the keeping of the Sabbath. A stone had been rolled across the face of the entrance to the tomb, the sun had set, and the Sabbath began.
You would think that all would be quiet among the religious leaders. Jesus is dead and buried; end of story. But things were not tranquil. In fact, the Jewish leaders, on the Sabbath Day, went to Pilate to ask him to post a guard at the tomb. Why? What are they concerned about? What is so important that they defile themselves going to Pilate on the Sabbath?
The problem is something that Jesus said. The religious leaders knew that Jesus had said that He would rise from the dead on the third day.
They petitioned Pilate to secure the tomb, and Pilate denied their request. He tells them to post their own guard since they are so concerned about what Jesus had said.
What exactly is going on? Matthew 27:62-66 (NKJV) tells us, “On the next day, which followed the Day of Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember , while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, “After three days, I will rise”. Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away, and say to the people, “He has risen from the dead.” So the last deception will be greater than the first.” Pilate said unto them, “You have a guard, go your way, make it as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting the guard.”
The entrance to the tomb has been secured, the stone sealed, and the guard posted. The Sabbath comes and goes. No reported incidents. Now it’s early Sunday, the morning of the third day.
Jesus has spent the remainder of Friday in the grave; He has spent all of the Sabbath in the grave; and He has spent some amount of time on Sunday, the third day, in the grave.
It’s early Sunday morning, Matthew 28:1 (NKJV) records, “Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary came to see the tomb.”
Where are the guards? I assume that they had left prior to the women arriving. There orders were to make sure (Matthew 27:64 NKJV) the “…tomb be secure until the third day lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away and say to the people, He is risen from the dead. So that the last deception will be worse than the first.” ( I know these words have been repeated but they are important.) Evidently, they believed they had completed their task; maybe, they were told they could leave; or maybe they had been given instructions that at a designated time they could stop guarding the tomb. Whatever the reason, they appear to be gone.
Question: What was the first deception? The first deception claimed by the religious leaders was the one they ‘cried’ before Pilate to have Jesus crucified. Jesus had said that He was the Christ, the Son of God. He had also confirmed that He was a King. Whose king? the King of the Jews.
Matthew 26:33, Caiaphas the High Priest had directly asked Him, “I put you under oath by the Living God (my note: how ironic is this statement? God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.) Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God.” (NKJV) In the next verse, Matthew 26:34 (NKJV), “Jesus said to him. It is as you said, Nevertheless, I say unto you hereafter you will see the Son of Man, sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
The first deception in the eyes of the Jewish leaders is Christ’s affirmation that He is the Son of God. This response precipitated their accusation before Pilate that Jesus claimed that He was the King of the Jews. All of this led to Pilate relenting to the Jew’s demands that Jesus, the Christ, the King of the Jews, be crucified. Matthew 27:37 says that the following accusation was placed over His head. It read, “THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS”.
After His death, burial, and entombment, as I mentioned before, they became anxious and troubled over His claim that He would be resurrected. You, remember, that is why they had gone to Pilate on the Sabbath to have the tomb guarded. But now, the guards have left, and the women have arrived with their spices to anoint Jesus.
In Mark’s Gospel, it is recorded that the women pondered how the stone might be rolled away from the entrance of the tomb for them. (Mark 16:1,2)
Mark 16:3 says, “But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away –for it was very large.”
The women had come to the tomb.
The women had found the tomb open.
What did they experience? A composite of their experience can be gleaned from reading the Gospels: Matthew 28:1-8; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-8; plus John 20: 1=18. ( A personal observation, each of these references end with the number 8. I, personally, find that interesting because 8 is the number of resurrection. )
In each instance, Jesus has been declared Risen from the dead.
Now the religious leaders of the Jewish nation have to absorb what they feared. The second deception which they believed would be worse than the first.
The first deception was that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, who is the King of the Jews; the second deception is that He has Risen from the dead, just as He said He would in three days. What the Jewish leaders fear will soon be heralded all over “…Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
During the 40 days between Christ’s resurrection and His eventual Ascension to the Father, Jesus spends His time revealing Himself to His followers individually and collectively; but He does not reveal Himself to the world or to the religious leaders.
One thing is for sure, OLD things have passed away, and behold all things have become NEW.
Pentecost is coming. In fact it is less than 20 days away on our church calendar.
Shortly, Jesus will instruct His followers what to do in preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Then things will really change!
TBC
Living Words of Encouragement 