It’s the week leading up to Pentecost, the giving of the Spirit and the birth of the Church.
Six weeks ago, our Lord Jesus bore our sins in His own body, hanging on the cross and dying in our place: the Crucifixion.
“After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, ‘I thirst!’ Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.”
John 19:28-30 (NKJV)
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8 (NKJV)
“. . . .who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness–by whose stripes you were healed.”
1 Peter 2:24 (NKJV)
The cross is a grisly scene of torment and torture. The writers of the New Testament do not describe too many details beyond the flogging and the piercing of hands and feet. Instead, they spend more time writing about the certain theological implications of the event itself. History, however, tells us how horrible this kind of death was. Suffice it to say, our Lord suffered greatly! Isaiah prophesies the scene: Just as many were astonished at you, so His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men (Isaiah 52:14).
The disciples who were present at the crucifixion looked on in agony, sadness and despair. One can only assume they believed each would suffer the same fate as their Master. Rome was quite good at thoroughly decimating opposition. The details we’re given following the crucifixion are fraught with fear and secrecy. Even the Jewish leaders are fearful, so they hire out Roman guards to defend against a probable grave robbery as a way of discouraging any resurrection theory.
“Now when evening had come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent council member, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, coming and taking courage, went into Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.”
Mark 15:42-43 (NKJV)
“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 worse than the first.’ Pilate said to 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.”
Matthew 27:62-66 (NKJV)
“Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews . . . .”
John 20:19a (NKJV)
Resurrection was not in the disciples’ plans. While the crucifixion for us serves as our hope of eternal salvation, for those who witnessed it and wrote about it in the New Testament, the crucifixion was a crushing blow to their plans for Israel’s redemption (see Luke 24:21). It did not make any sense to them, and there is no way they could ever have fathomed the story could now continue beyond their hopeless existence.
But yet, the story is not finished! The crucifixion is only the end of a new kind of Beginning . . . . one that continues emphatically and quite successfully into the 21st Century.
“For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again to their own homes.”
John 20:9-10 (NKJV)
Glorify. Train. Engage. 