Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried. After the Lord’s death, his body would remain for only three days, after which he would rise again, but God the Father still carefully arranged the burial of His Son so that he would be buried in a new tomb purchased in advance by a rich man.
Jesus would take a new spiritual body after his resurrection and ascend to heaven after witnessing on earth for nearly 40 days. So why was a temporary burial for the physical body of Jesus so occupied the mind of God?
This was partly in fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy of the death of the Messiah, and partly to express the Father’s sympathy and honor for the form and ministry of His Son while in his earthly body.
Jesus is heavenly – from the heaven and returns to the heaven. What earthly glory can compare with the glory he already has? Not even the most magnificent crowns combined are worthy of a single bit of his glory in heaven, let alone a tomb on earth.
But just as the Lord Jesus took the initiative to enter the Jordan River to stand in place of sinners and be baptized in order to do all the righteousness, so here God the Father expressed His love for His Son through the respect of the righteous people on earth, including Joseph and the women.
His Son came to earth, gave up everything for sinners, and suffered in the end to be rejected and killed by sinners. If the occurrence of this event itself did not measure the depth of sin and depravity in this world, nothing would.
But none of these things was unexpected by God.
That the Messiah must first go through suffering and be killed, but rise again three days later, is God’s plan in eternity and for eternity. It is the central theme of the story of the entire universe. This is the central matter that the Holy Spirit wants people to believe and believers in Jesus to understand.
He is risen
On the morning of the first day of seven (week), at the rising of the sun, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jacob, and Salome came together to the tomb.
On the way, they remembered the large stone that stood in the way before the door of the tomb and asked one another, “Who will roll the stone away from the door of the tomb for us?”
The blessed ones, who had been waiting for the Sabbath to pass, set out as soon as the time came, and did not consider other obstacles. If they had begun to consider the possible difficulties beforehand, they might have given up, or at least delayed. Now that they were on their way, they began to worry, but they went ahead anyway.
In fact, if they had observed earlier, they seemed to have forgotten that there was another problem even bigger than the stone: who would give them the chance to move the Roman soldier guards out of the way?
But they found that the stone had rolled away. The guards were no longer there. In the gospels, it is written that there was a great shaking that night, and the stone was rolled away, and the soldiers were frightened away.
The Lord must have known that they were coming, and made this arrangement, for it clearly wasn’t for himself to come out from the tomb. As for himself, his resurrected body was no longer limited by time and space, and he did not need to roll the stone away in order to come out of the tomb.
When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side. This young man was not the Lord Himself. He was an angel. In the original text, the word “young man” emphasizes not that he was still tender in age, but that he was young and vigorous. This is a symbol of the resurrection. The Lord did not send a heavenly elder, a symbol of wisdom, to reveal the news of his resurrection. The resurrection is the new life, in vigor and power, and this is a straightforward message.
They were startled. The angel announced that Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified one, whom you seek, is risen and is not here.
The angels did not simply say that Jesus was risen. Did they not know the identity of Jesus and what had just happened to him? But the angel solemnly declared that Jesus of Nazareth was the one who had been crucified; and told them to examine the place where his body had been laid so that their message might carry with it the accuracy and certainty of witnesses.
Have we examined the important aspects of the good news of Jesus that we tell people today, so that we can speak to them with accuracy and assurance?
The angel told them to go and tell Jesus’ disciples and Peter. Notice here that they were not told to go and preach to the people everywhere, but only to tell the disciples and Peter. This was the Lord’s intention. He wanted the disciples to know first. One can sense that the risen Lord was so joyful that he was eager to tell his disciples the good news.
But the amazing thing is that the Lord did not go directly to the disciples before this. He knew that the women were coming to the tomb. He waited for them there. They went to the tomb, on the one hand, in sorrow, but on the other hand, because their hearts were driven by a “bond of love”. Their love was a simple and sincere love, with a deep sense of gratitude. The Lord Jesus died. They had no illusions or delusions about it, and the fact that they prepared the spices and went to the tomb showed that they were deeply hurt and had no hope. But even so, they went to anoint the body of the Lord.
This is the intuition and sensibility of women, which represents the most basic and beautiful human feelings in a person. Today, the church, as the bride of Christ, ought to have at least these basic feelings toward the Lord, if not far more complete revelations.
The Lord is there for them, not letting them miss the opportunity to express their love.
This is the connection of love, the lowest bottom line, and the truest reality between the saints of the Lord and the Church and the Lord today. Can you guarantee that your knowledge of the Lord will always be heavenly, spiritual, accurate, and comprehensive? In the lowest moments of your spiritual life, you may not see the risen and ascended Christ clearly, but if you have that life-giving relationship (bond of love) with the Lord, you will still love him, and even if your love is childish, you will only be surprised by his subsequent revelation.
Just as these women were going to the tomb in their natural love, the disciples were completely struck down, in grief, horror, and disappointment. They were men, so they lived in reason and ambition, but at this time, all reason pointed to despair, and all ambition had been crushed. Faith, at this time, was not to be found in their hearts.
Perhaps, the Lord’s letting these women go first and tell them about his resurrection was a proper transition, some kind of a buffer and preparation.
At the same time, why did the Lord say “the disciples and Peter”? Was Peter not among the disciples? It is true that Peter was the leader among the brothers, but remember that of the eleven disciples, it was Peter who was the saddest and most depressed at this time, for he had just experienced failure three times in denying his Lord. Jesus now had good news for them, and he was thinking of each of them, but especially of Peter, for he knew Peter and what he was going through. Peter did not know what Jesus was going through, but Jesus knew what Peter was going through. The Lord loved him, and he wanted Peter to know his heart for him quickly, and be restored quickly.
The Lord is risen, and we must believe. It is the nature of our flesh not only to disbelieve, but to think that “believing” is an obligation, a burden, a work that has to be performed. But let us not forget that this is the risen Lord that speaks to us. He is risen! What joy he is! He would not bear any of his disciples still not believing, thus having no part of his joy. His heart had mercy on even the donkey that fell into the pit on the Sabbath, let alone the disciples who stubbornly stayed in the pit of human nature. He wanted them to believe, to understand what was happening, and to go and tell all the nations, that is, the whole world (Mark 16:15).
The original text of Mark 16:15 says, “Preach the gospel to all creation,” i.e., the whole universe, including not only all people but also angels and all creatures.
“And we know that all creation sighs and labors together to this day.” (Romans 8:19)
We can tell all creation today that the Lord is risen, and all the sons of God will rise with him, and all creation will rejoice in the glory of the freedom of the sons of God.
Believing
Jesus is risen. Why is it so important to understand and believe in this matter of resurrection?
Because believing in what Christ has done is the way through which the Holy Spirit regenerates new life in us in His power.
We humans often think that this universe is just events taking place, and that our brain, including our mind’s intention, like an objective and independent being, observes these things as a spectator and can autonomously either choose to believe or choose not to believe, or choose to like or choose not to like, but our actions as an observer including our reactions and choices would have no essential effect on our human selves.
That is, we tend to think that we the observer of the universe is autonomous and independent, and our life itself and its eternal end is not essentially influenced by the object being observed.
But this is entirely a human illusion.
In reality, there is not an independent observer in all the creation of this universe, but only a participant.
For some critical matters, the reaction and decision of the observer not only affects the life of the observer, but even defines his life and its eternal end.
Of everything that has happened in the world, there’s one thing that is absolutely unique and has unique consequences among us who hear it, contemplate it, and make a decision about it.
This one thing is the story of the Man Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Every observer of this story is a witness. And every witness is meant to be a beneficiary because what happened to the Man Jesus is a gift to mankind. But every witness is also held accountable, because God the Creator of this universe did not prepare any other way to reach a final conclusion of a person’s life.
It was through the death and resurrection of His Son that God broke through the bondage of the old creation, and in turn allowed the Holy Spirit to recreate the hearts of men through their reaction and faith in this event. By the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit opens the tomb of the old life in the heart and creates and brings a new life out of it. This is the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead.
This power is real, not an idea or belief of man, but the power of God. But this power is manifested in the life of a person by the Holy Spirit through faith.
But the operative faith is the faith of Christ, the true quality of the Son of God, not faith in faith itself. People often say something like “the power of faith is unlimited” as an inspiration. But this is a misunderstanding. Faith does not have power in itself. The power resides in the One whom we believe (God Himself), not in the faith itself. Faith is only a channel, and if the channel is wrong, it will not only be powerless but will lead to destruction.
“For the law of the life-giving Spirit has freed me from the law of sin and death in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:2.
“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive again by the Spirit who dwells in you.” Romans 8:11.
Therefore, man needs to hear about the suffering and resurrection of Jesus, and must make a response to the report of this event. The nature of this response, i.e., belief or unbelief, in turn directly determines the attribute of this man’s life in eternity, whether it is on the side of life or on the side of death. It is not through our own work but the work of the Holy Spirit.
Put another way: man’s response to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the genesis of a new life being created, which is the creative mechanism for the birth of such a new life. This new life is not just another life of the same old kind. The new life is born from above and born of the Holy Spirit, and therefore is spiritual in nature, but it eventually brings newness to the soul and body as well (1 Peter 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:23). It is the way in which God works onto and in the new creation. It is the life-giving mechanism of the resurrection life.
It is a common misconception that, with respect to man’s hearing and responding to the gospel, there is no change in the constitution of the man himself, and God just takes the story of His Son as a demand insisting that man must involuntarily believe, or He will make a judgment about the man in God’s own interest, either to punish or to reward.
This is not true. The new life of man truly begins by believing that the Lord Jesus suffered for sinners, died, and rose again. This is the beginning of the new creation. This belief (faith) of man can be said to be a “Big Bang” in one’s life, which is the origin of the new life (i.e., the new creation) for each individual.
It is also for this reason that the Lord Jesus himself remained on earth for almost 40 days after his resurrection, appeared to his disciples many times and explained the fact that he had risen, and then sent the Holy Spirit to earth to explain this matter to all people, including us today.
Whether we believe or not will determine our end in eternity.
However, the Lord knows that we are still on earth today, even though only for a short time. The body of the Lord Jesus remained in the tomb for only three days after His death, but God the Father arranged in love for a decent burial for His Son, and at the same time arranged for him to continue to witness on earth for close to 40 days after his resurrection. Likewise, God has made an arrangement for all believers on earth today, with honor and work.
This earth is not our home, our glory is not on the earth, and all the splendor of this earth is not worthy of our glory, nor can it be compared to it, but the Lord does not leave his people on earth as orphans. He will cover and lead his people, who are still on earth, with his glory, through the days of their sojourning. His promise is not the riches on earth but the riches in the heavenlies and eternity, which are all in Christ.
Those who trust in him will not be ashamed (Romans 9:33; 10:11). This is the fate of all witnesses who correctly observe and respond to the resurrection of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.