The Glorious Ressurection

In the previous chapter we took a very detailed look at the facts surrounding and underlying the Christian doctrine of the crucifixion. In addition, we did a very basic study into a few of the many prophetic Scriptures of the Tanak, or “Old Testament,” which the crucifixion clearly served to fulfill.

Now it is time to take a look at the events immediately following the crucifixion and the culmination thereof in the glorious, bodily resurrection of the Savior. Remember that I have pointed out that the present trend within Christian circles to place the entire emphasis upon the resurrection is a fallacy, since the work of our salvation was completed upon Calvary’s cross, however, we must never forget that it is in the resurrection that we find the promise of eternal life.

Many people claim that the two go hand in hand, but I must beg to differ. Consider if you will that the two are as different as Heaven and Hell.

Jesus died to pay our sin debt and thereby to overcome death and give us the only possible means of escaping the flames of Hell. However, that did not guarantee us admittance into Heaven.

Before I go any farther, let me stress that I am in no way and by no means claiming that there is any other possible destination for a human soul than those two which I have here mentioned. The doctrine of Purgatory is as unbiblical as Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, reincarnation and infant baptism.

What I am saying is that just as much as He did not have to spare us from Hell, He did not have to admit us to Heaven. Both of these awesome and wonderful acts were independent of each other.

Some will surely counter by saying, “Then where else would one go if not to Heaven or Hell?” To this I can only say that God did not have to allow us to continue to exist at all.

Being spared from Hell is salvation enough. Getting to spend eternity with Him, despite our imperfections is just the wonderful icing on the cake.

With that said, let us take a look at what the Scripture has to say about the resurrection. We will begin in John 20: 1-18, three days after the Lord’s death, where we read “The first of the sabbaths Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, darkness still being on it, and she saw the stone taken away from the tomb. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him. Therefore Peter and that other disciple went forth and came to the tomb. So they both ran together. And the other disciple outran Peter and came first to the tomb. And stooping down he saw the linens lying, yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. And he saw the linens lying there. And the grave-cloth that was on His head was not lying with the linens, but was wrapped up in one place by itself. Therefore, then, that other disciple also went in, the one who came first to the tomb. And he saw and believed. For as yet they did not know the Scripture that He must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again to themselves. But Mary stood outside of the tomb, weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting there, the one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they said to her, Woman, why do you weep? She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him. And when she had said this, she turned backward and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, Woman, why do you weep? Whom do you seek? Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, Sir, if you have carried Him away from here, tell me where you have laid Him and I will take Him away. Jesus said to her, Mary! She turned herself and said to Him, Rabboni! (which is to say, Master!) Jesus said to her, Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father. But go to My brothers and say to them, I ascend to My Father and Your Father, and to My God and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that He had spoken these things to her."

This is a familiar passage to most, their having heard it preached once a year throughout the span of their life times. However, it is filled to the brim and near to running over with tiny details which I believe most Christians never notice and, many of which I have only seldom heard taught or preached.

The passage begins, “The first of the sabbaths Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, darkness still being on it, and she saw the stone taken away from the tomb.” The first thing most people fail to notice hear is the reference to the “first of the sabbaths.”

This is because many versions mistranslate this as “the first day of the week.” However, the word here in Greek literally means sabbatum, or Sabbaths.

While many scholars of the Word have acknowledged this, they have more often than not misunderstood the meaning of the word. Worse still, many have attempted to use this fact to reinforce two commonly held, but completely unbiblical doctrines which I intend to hereby prove erroneous.

First, many have claimed that the use of this word indicates that the disciples came to the tomb on a Sabbath day. They have said that this was permissible because the Lord’s followers were no longer under the Law and could thus approach a deceased body on the Sabbath day.

This cannot be true for several reasons. First of all, because the Messiah said in Matthew 5:18, “For truly I say to you, Till the heaven and the earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle shall in any way pass from the Law until all is fulfilled. Therefore whoever shall relax one of these commandments, the least, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven. But whoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven.”

Many to whom I have pointed this out, have claimed that Mary Magdelene is not great in the Kingdom of Heaven. But to this I have to respond, “Then why were Peter and John there too?”

If Christ’s followers were no longer under the Law, then He lied, thereby sinning, and could not be the Messiah. If Christ’s words were true, then the disciples would not have broken the commandment against approaching dead bodies on the Sabbath and so therefore, we must look deeper into the text.

Second, many claim that this was not the “Jewish Sabbath,” but the “Christian Sabbath” and that there is no such commandment concerning the latter. These people mistakenly fall into the belief that there is a difference between the Sabbath of the Jews and that of the Christians.

In fact, sabbatum has absolutely nothing to do with Jewish heritage or Christian belief. The first Sabbath day was established by God in Genesis, when He rested after creating all things.

Nowhere in Scripture are we commanded to change the Sabbath. While the early Church was commanded to come together on the first day of the week, this instruction, when read in context, clearly pertains to the business of the Church, not to a Sabbath rest.

So what then, we must ask, should a believer ascertain from this line of Scripture? Were the disciples violating Christ’s commandment?

Certainly not! This word is most often used to describe the Feast of Weeks, which lasted seven Sabbaths and which began the day following the weekly Sabbath immediately following Christ’s crucifixion.

With this bit of information in mind, let us take another look at the text. It says, “The first of the sabbaths Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, darkness still being on it, and she saw the stone taken away from the tomb.”

Now we can see that on the first day of the Feast of Weeks, Mary Magdelene came to the tomb. Many will point out that this is what most of modern Christianity determines from the other, mistranslated versions, but before you go jumping on that band wagon, let us consider another tidbit of biblical truth.

A Yum, that is a biblical day, does not run its course in accordance with either of the two concepts which most of the modern world consider a day. Biblically speaking, a day is neither from sunrise to sunrise, nor from midnight to midnight, but from sunset to sunset.

Considering this, we will look again at the verse in question. We read “The first of the sabbaths Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, darkness still being on it, and she saw the stone taken away from the tomb” and we realize that for her to have come “early” on the first of Sabbaths, and “darkness still being,” is a fairly clear indicator that she came soon after the sun had set on Saturday evening.

This is a most fitting thing, since the day in question is a special high day on the biblical calendar, called the “Feast of First Fruits.” After all, the apostle Paul would eventually proclaim to all believers that Christ is the “first fruit” of the resurrection from the dead.

So Mary came to the tomb just after the sun had set closing the weekly Sabbath and beginning the Feast of Weeks. She found that the stone had been taken away from the entrance and, most certainly being frightened, the Bible tells us “Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him. Therefore Peter and that other disciple went forth and came to the tomb. So they both ran together. And the other disciple outran Peter and came first to the tomb. And stooping down he saw the linens lying, yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. And he saw the linens lying there. And the grave-cloth that was on His head was not lying with the linens, but was wrapped up in one place by itself.”

Again, this passage is far too often passed over without much thought by the average Christian. We need to consider what happened when Mary realized that the Lord’s body was gone.

She believed that the body had been stolen. Her reaction was to become frantic and desperate, as she realized the void which existed in her life and that none but her Lord could ever fill it.

Often when I read this passage I am brought to ponder the situation in the average local church today. So many so-called pastors and elders have taken away the Way the Truth and the Life from their messages, leaving their churches void of the Word and yet, so few who claim to be followers of Christ become frantic over the missing body of the Word made Flesh.

I have to wonder if these complacent individuals are really fooled into believing that what they are hearing is the truth. It is interesting to note that the Gospel does not record Mary looking into the tomb, only that she saw it had been tampered with and she knew without looking that her Lord was not there.

In contrast, so many today know that many of the points of their church doctrines do not hold water when scrutinized against the Word of God, but continue to follow the man-made doctrines anyway. If you are one of these individuals, I hereby challenge you to take one, last hard look at the tomb where the stone is missing and then turn and run away, telling your fellow believers what you have seen.

That is to say, Christ is our Rock and if He has been removed from the place where we expect to find Him, then our only purpose there is to witness. To enter in and pretend that all is well is to share in abomination.

If Mary had entered into the tomb and pretended the Lord’s body was there, the disciples who followed after her would have discovered her and believed her to be mad. Why then do serious Christians pretend nothing is wrong in the churches which claim to be His, but where his presence in not?

It is also important to note that, although Mary reported what she had found to Peter and John, the two continued to the tomb and investigated for themselves. I have heard some self-righteous preachers claim that this was to provide a “legitimate” witness to the resurrection, since Mary was a woman.

In fact, it was to establish a legitimate witness to the resurrection, but not for the reason previously stated. The Bible says in Matthew 18: 16, “But if he will not hear you, take one or two more with you, so that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established,” a concept which is echoed at least four other times in Scripture.

Peter and John did not provide a legitimate witness to the resurrection. They corroborated the witness which had already been made.

In like fashion, as much as the modern church has become content with false teachings, many truly called preachers of the Word have been written off as cult leaders without the accusations against them ever having been fully and legitimately investigate. For instance, such accusations were leveled against me by an individual who I counseled against continuing a certain sin pattern in her life.

Most of the congregation at the time took her at her word and eventually I was forced to leave that church. Those few who stood by me were the ones who investigated the matter and saw that what I was telling her was the truth.

You see, she had claimed for some time to be a believer and yet she had decided to marry a man who had no use for the Lord or His Word. I advised her that II Corinthians 6: 14-18 says, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship does righteousness have with lawlessness? And what partnership does light have with darkness? And what agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what part does a believer have with an unbeliever? And what agreement does a temple of God have with idols? For you are the temple of the living God, as God has said, ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’ Therefore come out from among them and be separated, says the Lord, and do not touch the unclean thing. And I will receive you and I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

Most people who have studied this passage to any degree of depth have no problem grasping that God has forbidden His children to enter into a marriage covenant with non-believers. However, the woman in question claimed that I merely told her she could not marry this man, because I knew what God’s will was in her life.

It is not difficult to see how this could easily be misconstrued into my having attempted to “control” her. However, it is also not difficult to see how easily the whole mess could have been cleared up, had those “Christians” who heard what she said actually spoken to me about the matter.

Like Peter and John, they should have investigated for themselves. Instead, they took her at her word and believed a lie.

The last thing I want to point out about this part of the passage is that, while the two disciples ran together, John reached the tomb first, yet it was Peter who made the greater discovery. Where John raced ahead and, when he saw what he thought he was seeking, stopped as though the search was over, Peter looked deeper, going all the way in to the tomb to see the burial cloth which had been over Christ’s head.

Had John only ventured a few steps farther, he would have been the first to discover the glorious truth of the resurrection. To understand this, we have to look a bit more deeply, at the symbolism of what Peter found there.

First, we have to understand that in Jewish tradition, when the father of a family rises from the table, he gives a very important signal to his wife and children concerning the meal. If he drops his napkin on the table, it means the meal is over, but if he carefully folds the napkin and sets it aside, then the rest of the family may go on eating, being certain that he is coming back soon to finish what he has started.

Christ said earlier in John 6: 32-35, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses did not give you that bread from Heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from Heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes on Me shall never thirst.” Because Christ is the Bread of Life of which we are called to partake, we must consider that our Heavenly Father was telling us something very important by what was found in the tomb that day.

First, we must consider that the linen garments, the clothing of death was cast aside, telling us that if we are His children, then our concerns with death should be put aside like the remains of a finished meal. Second, because the burial cloth which is often translated napkin, which covered the head of the Bread of Life was neatly folded and placed aside, we know that our Father is in fact coming back soon to finish the work which He has begun in us.

The passage in John continues, saying “Therefore, then, that other disciple also went in, the one who came first to the tomb. And he saw and believed. For as yet they did not know the Scripture that He must rise again from the dead.” John overlooked the most important thing he had ever seen and had to learn it from the evidence found by Peter, because he was too quick to give up the search for the Savior.

I challenge the reader at this point to ask yourself, “Have I ever been guilty of that? Have I ever been complacent to stand outside the tomb and trust what others say and the superficial surface facts which I can see from a distance?" "Do I need to go into the tomb and see the napkin for my self?” When you have done this, then ask God what He thinks about the whole matter and, I warn you, do not be surprised if His answer is different than yours.

By the way, there is one more thing I need to stress before we move on. If your answer and His answer are different, go with His answer.

Many claim I over emphasize the importance of a personal grasp of the resurrection. However, it is my opinion that what they are really saying is, “I have not had that kind of personal discovery experience, I have just trusted the word of my pastor and Christian friends, so I do not want you challenging my position."

To these I can only say, if your faith in the resurrection is not personal, you have denied yourself the comfort of the most awesome promise in all of Scripture. You see, the Bible tells us that Christ is the First Fruits of the resurrection from the dead and that all of God’s children will one day share in that awesome experience.

I Thessalonians 4: 13-18 says, “But I would not have you ignorant, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, that you be not grieved, even as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will also bring with Him all those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. For we say this to you by the Word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall not go before those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall ever be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

“Comfort one another with these words,” the apostle says. Considering all of the terrible things promised as the end of the age comes upon us and the fact that many of the signs we are given can already be seen playing themselves out in the world today, I do not want to be lacking in my confidence of these words when I attempt to comfort a Brother or a Sister, nor to have them questioning the facts of the matter in their minds when they are comforting me.

John’s gospel gives us still further insight into just this sort of need. He continues, saying “Then the disciples went away again to themselves. But Mary stood outside of the tomb, weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting there, the one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they said to her, Woman, why do you weep? She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.”

Notice that Peter and John, fully believing though not fully understanding the resurrection, left convinced by the evidence they had seen. Mary however was left pondering, searching and needing comfort.

We read that she went alone then to search more deeply into what had already been investigated. That is when the splendors of the heavenly realm were opened before her and she saw the angels in the tomb, beholding the miraculous where others had seen only the basic, physical reality.

Notice also if you will that Mary’s search for truth brought her to a point at which she had to have “proof” from the only real source of truth. She made her petition to the Lord, via His angels, stating that she needed to know where the body had been taken.

So often I think this parallels my own personal journey to truth. When I became saved I went from church to church, seeking the truth and finding so little of it, until one night I had an encounter with God that led me to a little country Church, where the truth was being boldly and unashamedly preached.

Have you ever made that petition to God? Have you ever said, “God, I am tired of the lies, I just need You to to show me Your truth?”

John continues again, saying “And when she had said this, she turned backward and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, Woman, why do you weep? Whom do you seek? Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, Sir, if you have carried Him away from here, tell me where you have laid Him and I will take Him away.” Did you catch that?

She asked her petition, turned around and ran right into the very truth she sought. God is so wonderful!

But then something else happened that I wrestled with for a long time. She looked upon the risen Lord of Lords for whose body she had been so desperately seeking and she missed Him completely.

She thought He was the gardener, the caretaker of the tombs. She mistook the King of Kings for the lowest of servants.

I think there is an important lesson for us here too. Sometime we look for the things of the Lord with the eyes of the flesh and, in doing so, we mistake them for worldly things.

Also, note that she asked Him for the body. She was so busy trying to rationalize the disappearance of the body with her mind, that she failed to see it resurrected with her heart.

John tells us that the Lord cleared it all up for her. He wrote, “Jesus said to her, Mary! She turned herself and said to Him, Rabboni! (which is to say, Master!)”

At the very sound of the Master’s voice, the true servant hears and responds. Sadly, most people who claim to belong to Him, will also tell you that they have never heard the voice of the risen Son of God calling out to them.

I ask you to consider this question. Have you heard Him calling to you and, if so, how did you respond?

Did you fall on your knees in humility and beg to be a servant? Did you go on seeking the body that was before you?

John goes on to say, “Jesus said to her, Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father. But go to My brothers and say to them, I ascend to My Father and Your Father, and to My God and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that He had spoken these things to her.” So many Bible study programs use this event to teach that women are to be submissive and obedient and claim that Mary Magdelene was in fact merely a messenger whom Christ used to deliver His message to the more worthy male disciples.

I want to ask you to put aside for a moment all of the previous notions you have had of this event. Consider if you will that she had asked a petition of the Lord, she received her answer and that along with it came an instruction.

She was told to share the greatest news anyone could have brought to the upper room. She was sent to express the good news which the hymn writer would later record as “He is Lord! He is Lord! He is risen from the dead and He is Lord!”

I asked before if you had ever heard His voice calling out to you. Now I will ask you to ask yourself, “When He called out my name, what instructions did He give to me?”

Finally, praying that all of these things remain upon your heart, I will remind you of the core concept of this book, what I have called the three questions everyone must answer. First, do you believe this?

Second, does this offend you? Finally, what will you do with this Jesus who is called Christ?