The Passion Week: Resurrection Sunday!!

This Easter season, I’ve made a series of posts addressing skeptics’ criticism surrounding the Resurrection.  As we close in on Easter, I wanted to do a day-by-day detail discussing the events happening during the Passion Week. 

Today is the day!  He is risen - He is risen indeed!!

Resurrection Sunday

Luke 24:1-6, Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen:

When the women found the tomb empty, Luke tells us they were “perplexed.”  Their first thought wasn’t that He rose from the dead but that maybe someone had moved the body.  It wasn’t until the angel reminded them of Jesus’ words that they remembered His promise that He would rise from the dead.

When they went to tell the disciples, verses 10-11 tell us that neither did the disciples believe.  It says, “their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.” Even after going to the tomb, finding it empty, and seeing the grave clothes cast aside, verse 12 says that Peter left, still wondering what had happened.

Later that same day, the disciples were gathered together - still in hiding and still unsure of what had happened - when Jesus appeared to them (John 20:19)!  John 20:20 says, “And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.”  

Thomas was not with the other disciples when Jesus appeared to them.  When they told Thomas that they had seen the Lord, Thomas refused to believe.  He insisted, “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25).  He sounded pretty firm in his unbelief.

Are you starting to see a pattern here?  Everyone knew that Jesus was dead because they watched Him die.  None of them would believe unless they saw Him alive again.  It’s as though they could believe only the things they witnessed themselves.  So the words that He had spoken to them and the promises that He made meant nothing compared to what they could judge with their own eyes!  How sad.  

This same attitude exists even today. Skeptics sometimes ask, “If God is real, why doesn’t He just show Himself?”  When answering this question, we must first remember that God is under no obligation to appear to us. He has already given us His revelation in the form of the Bible. There is nothing else we need in order to know how to be saved. The Bible itself attests that the Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation (2 Timothy 3:15). If someone wishes to ignore the written word of God and insist that God appear to him personally, then that is his loss.

However, even though God has no obligation to appear to us, He already has! John 1:14 says, And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.  While on earth, Jesus gave us many signs and miracles as evidence of who He was, He told us He was the only way to the Father, He promised eternal life to everyone who believed in Him, and we have the written record of His words, miracles, and His Resurrection. There is nothing more we need!

It is not possible to overstate the importance of the Resurrection. It is the lynchpin of Christianity. Without the Resurrection, there is no Christian faith. The Apostle Paul said, And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. (1 Corinthians 15:14).  The Resurrection secures our hope for eternal life. Christ promised that those who believe in Him will never perish (John 3:16). Yet what good is His promise if Jesus Himself is dead in the ground? If Jesus died and did not rise, then His promise for our eternal life died with Him.  But the real significance of the Resurrection goes far beyond our hope in the afterlife. Everything that Jesus said and did is validated by His Resurrection: Every promise He made, every commandment He gave, and every doctrine that He taught us were all proven true on that first Easter Sunday.

Read again of Thomas’s encounter with the Risen Savior:

John 20:26-29, And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

I’m sometimes jealous of the disciples who saw Jesus face to face.  It’s hard to imagine the wonder and amazement that Thomas felt, seeing Jesus alive again.  In his joy, he declared Jesus to be his Lord and God!  Yet I rejoice even more in Jesus’ response: Thomas believed because he saw Jesus alive again; yet we are even more blessed than Thomas because we believe without having seen!

Jesus said to Thomas, “Be not faithless, but believing.”  The words of Jesus to Thomas are my prayer now.  Consider the Risen Savior. Do not wait, hoping somehow you’ll see for yourself; you have heard the good news already.  Know that everything He said was proven true by His Resurrection and be not faithless, but believing!

The Passion Week: Saturday, the Sabbath

 This Easter season, I’ve made a series of posts addressing skeptics’ criticism surrounding the Resurrection.  As we close in on Easter, I want to do a day-by-day detail discussing the events happening during the Passion Week. 

Please keep checking back!

Saturday

Being the Jewish Sabbath, not much would have been done on this day.  The disciples, shocked and demoralized, were probably hiding for fear that they too would find themselves facing religious and political persecution.  The only record in the gospels of what happened on this day is found in Matthew 27:

Matthew 27:62-66, Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, [s]aying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.

For His entire public ministry, Jesus found Himself at odds with religious leaders.  His sincere and correct way of teaching the Law upset the hyper-literal and fruitless interpretation taught by the Pharisees.  Because He spoke as someone with authority, they wanted to see a sign from God, a miracle, to prove He had the authority to speak for God.  Jesus promised them one:

Matthew 12:38-40, Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The Pharisees seemed to understand His words because, in their conversation with Pilate, they said, “[W]e remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.”  I think it’s interesting that they understood His words even better than the disciples did!  

Anyway, even when Jesus hung on the cross, they mocked Him, saying, “He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him” (Matthew 27:42).  That’s curious.  Still today, I have heard unbelievers say that if God came down and appeared to them, then they would believe.  I know comments like this are never sincere but I’m not sure of the point of them.  Do people say things like this in order to be condescending?  Or are they trying to convince other people that they are being open minded, saying they would believe if they had enough evidence?  I don’t know.

What they said to Pilate next strikes at the heart of the issue: “Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.”

The Pharisees understood the power of the Resurrection.  They remembered that Jesus had promised the sign of Jonah to prove His authority.  If Jesus rose from the dead, then everything He said, did, and taught would be validated!  The Pharisees didn’t want that.  If Jesus remained dead in the tomb, then all of His promises would be there too, dead with Him.

Today, we have the full revelation of Scripture.  We have the written testimony of people who were eyewitnesses to His preaching, His miracles, and His Resurrection.  They are people who saw Him alive, saw Him die, and saw Him alive again!  If you believe in your heart He rose from the dead and accept Him as your Lord, you will be saved (Romans 10:9-10)!

But if people do not believe the Bible, if they do not believe the words written by the prophets and apostles as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, then no amount of “evidence” will convince them.  I’m reminded of the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.  In the parable, Jesus tells us of a conversation between Abraham and the rich man.  From Hell, the rich man pleaded with Abraham:

Luke 16:27-31, Then [the rich man] said, I pray thee therefore, father [Abraham], that thou wouldest send [Lazarus] to my father's house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

The Pharisees claimed to believe in Moses but they didn’t.  They claimed to be the sons of Abraham but they weren’t.  Had they believed in Moses and Abraham, then they would have believed in Jesus, but they didn’t - even though He rose from the dead!!