Pontius Pilate was surprised at the death of Lord Jesus so early for he was aware of the physical fitness of the Son of God due to all those walking trips He made to various places. Only after confirming the fact of His death from the Centurian did Pilate permit handing over of the body to Joseph of Arimethea. The Jewish leaders had more faith in the words of the Lord about His resurrection on the third day that they sought Pilate to place a guard on His tomb. The death and resurrection from the dead of Lord Jesus is confirmed by not only the empty tomb, but also the Roman guards, the Jewish leaders and the angels from heaven. Thus the resurrection story is witnessed by heaven and the earth both.
Why crucifiction of Lord Jesus cited as His weakness? The Jews have been waiting for the coming of the Moshiach, the Messiah, since they were taken captive to Babylon and before. Their concept of the Messiah is of a conquering warrior who will come and defeat Israel’s enemies and establish His rule on earth for them. The prophecy of His battle and victory, which we believe is about His second coming, is perceived to be the basis for their belief (Zechariah 14:1-9). God did not create perfect human beings, though they were to reveal His glory in their very form. The reason for removal of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden was only this that they and mankind, through them, must not eternally live in their weakness but be restored to a level of strength. The Son of God put on our humanity to be part of our weak state to lead us to a place of strength in Him.
Since the basic purpose of our life is to glorify God, the very fault noticed by God was, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a suitable help-meet’ (Genesis 2:15). The Hebrew word ‘ezer-kenegdo’, however, implies more than being a helper. In its root ‘ezer’ means ‘to rescue, to save, to be strong’ and God has also been referred to as ‘Ezer’. Moses, in his last and final blessing to his people said, ‘There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to help (Ezer) you, and in His excellency on the clouds’ (Deuteronomy 33:26). Surely God cannot be termed as subordinate to the Israelites or to mankind.
Man and woman complete each other as equals and not by being one lower than the other. When God sent His Son to be our Ezer, He did not mean that He will be subject to us but be our Helper to lead us into our God-given full potential. He manifested His strength in such a way that the devil and everyone else presumed it to be His weakness. He came as our Redeemer to free us from the clutches of our weakness to overcome sin and the curse that pervaded our life. The thorns and thistles that appeared with the good produce of God, had to be taken out and crushed down on His head to set us free from their evil effect on our lives. He came to lead us back into the Garden from where we were expelled and give us ‘life, that they may have it more abundantly’ (John 10:10).
In our fallen state mankind started making the ‘golden calf’, a god of our choice whom we could control but the Creator of the universe desires to glorify Himself in His creation and not be subject to it. Lord Jesus in His only recorded prayer could pray to the Father, in anticipation of His work on the cross, ‘I have glorified You on the earth’ (John 17:4). He defined His ministry by quoting Prophet Isaiah, ‘The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD’ (Luke 4:18-21).
But was this related to physical or worldly matters only or to the spiritual also? The forgiveness of sins is more about spiritual freedom to be in the presence of God but certain aspects relate to the earthly life of humanity. The Israelites then and most people today also are blinded to the truth about God, are oppressed and held captive by the devil while others are rejected by their fellow human beings only. The biggest victim of this has been the woman who was considered inferior to man and even her witness was not accepted. Apostle Paul’s statement that ‘Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression’, is taken to blame a woman for all that afflicts humanity (1 Timothy 2:14). In the Israelite culture a man could divorce a woman even for not making tasty food of his choice but the woman had no recourse. The coming of the Lord as Son of Man was to break the spiritual bondage of mankind in fulfillment of the curse declared on the serpent. The fact that the ‘Seed of the woman’ will be the Redeemer is generally ignored.
The message of our Lord’s coming was given to a woman, His mother Mary (Luke 1:31). Certain women including Mary Magdalene supported The Saviour Lord’s ministry and they ‘provided for Him from their substance’ (Luke 8:2-3). The provider accepted this to help them realize their true potential and role. The identity of Mary Magdalene is linked to the seven demons that inflicted her and this fact has been used to brand her as a woman of ill-repute, while there is nothing in the Scripture to this end. Lord Jesus defined His role as a Saviour for all such people who were downtrodden due to their birth in a certain area, family or caste. It is not that the others are barred from the blessings that flow from His crucifiction, resurrection and ascension for God’s love displayed in His Son is for all those who believe in Him (John 3:16).
After sin entered the earth, Adam and Eve were hiding from God and mankind is still hiding or trying to please God with their good deeds, not realizing that God who came looking for them was never angry but loving. Nimrod was a mighty hunter of men to subdue them and ‘the beginning of his kingdom was Babylon’ (Genesis 10:9-10). This is the start of the rule of the Satan and evil and the people in Shinar decided to build ‘a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for themselves’ (Genesis 11:4). The efforts to reach heaven with self effort started and continues to this day (2 Corinthians 4:4) for all of humanity is blinded by the ‘god of this age’.
While distributing the Holy Bibles in a state legislative assembly, one of the security staff refused, with the comment ‘how can the hunger of a person be satisfied by the eating of food by another?’ People find it hard to believe that God can be so merciful to forgive their sins through faith and not through their good deeds. The Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Jewish leaders of Lord Jesus’ time did not and many still do not. Out of the two criminals on the cross, one believed and received instant forgiveness and eternal life, while the other refused and would have realized his fate just a few hours later. As per Scripture ‘it is appointed for men to die once, but after that the judgment’ (Hebrews 9:27). There is no second chance and the time to decide is now, for who can guarantee another day in any one’s life.
The real truth 0f the Empty Tomb – There are many lies spread by the people of that day to convince others and lead them away from the truth. When, ‘through the hands of the Apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people’, the Jewish High Priests and elders were alarmed (Acts 5:12 & 38-39). They put the Apostles in prison but an angel of the Lord set them free and the Jewish leaders ‘were furious and plotted to kill them’, just like they did to Lord Jesus. Rabbi Gamaliel, the great religious teacher of that time, warned them, ‘keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it – lest you even be found to fight against God’. The truth about the Redeemer’s finished work on the cross, His resurrection and ascension has spread to all parts of the world and those who oppose have perished.
As per Jewish custom a dead body is wrapped in strips of linen cloth from feet to the neck with various fragrant spices like myrrh and aloe tucked in (John 19:39-40). The head was then covered by a cloth piece separately. Since the Sabbath was to start, for the Jews count the start of a new day from sunset, Joseph of Arimethea and Nicodemus did the bare minimum preparation and laid the body in the tomb cut in the rock (Luke 23:54 & 55-56). A groove was cut at the entrance to the tomb which would be set in a slope and a large stone, weighing up to two tons, would be also prepared at the time of cutting the rock. Since this tomb was for Joseph’s family, who was a wealthy man, the stone would be heavy to prevent plundering. The stone could be rolled down easily in the groove to seal but would require a number of men to open and roll it back up the slope. The women followers noticed the tomb, ‘went home and prepared spices and perfumes’ to properly anoint the body of the Lord after Sabbath was over. When these women came to the tomb to anoint the body of the Lord after the Sabbath was over, the foremost concern they had was, ‘who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?’ (Mark 16:1-3).
When Mary Magdalene saw the stone rolled away and the body not being there she ran back to tell the Apostles (John 20:1-8). Apostles Peter and John came and ‘saw the linen cloths lying there’ and that ‘the handkerchief that had been around his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself’. The body had simply moved out of the wrapped cloths lying where the body was laid. The head cloth was folded deliberately and put on a side and Apostle John, who enjoyed the love of the Lord believed, whether about His resurrection or ascension. Hearing and obeying the command of Lord Jesus, even in his dead state, Lazarus ‘came out (of the tomb) bound hand and foot with grace cloths, and his face was wrapped with a cloth’ (John 11:44). The disciples had seen this and yet did not realize the full implication of what they saw in the empty tomb.
Mary Magdalene, like Apostle Peter, felt absolute emptiness in her soul, found it difficult to understand and believe what she saw and heard. In her grief she saw her Lord but did not recognize Him, because, first, due to her tear filled eyes and crying soul; second, the transformed body of the Lord after resurrection. And finally due to lack of adequate understanding of His words, which she like other women would have heard second-hand from other disciples, women then were not permitted to learn Scripture from a Rabbi directly. She heard and recognized His voice but was warned ‘do not cling to Me’ and even then the Lord fulfilled His ministry work by making a woman as the first Apostle, the messenger of God (John 20:17).
It can only be imagined what went through the minds of the followers of the Lord from Gethsemane Park arrest onwards. Apostle Peter had spoken for all the disciples to say to the Lord, ‘we have left all and followed You’, though they were then looking for rewards of following Him in His coming kingdom (Matthew 19:27). Also the disciples were busy trying to either lobby for best positions or dreaming up their own roles in the new dispensation of the Lord, to fully grasp His message of His resurrection told beforehand.
Importance of Easter for a non-believer – We have seen the details of Lord Jesus’ ministry already about lifting up the oppressed and the weak. Apostle Paul revealed the effect of believing in Lord Jesus on believers, as ‘you, who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled (you to God) in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, blameless, and above reproach in His (Father’s) sight’ (Colossians 1:21-22). Jacob while fleeing from his brother Esau, during his sleep at Bethel in the way, dreamt that ‘a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending in it’ (Genesis 28:12-13). And he saw the LORD God standing above that.
Almost every religion has identified a way to reach heaven through good deeds, recitations of some form of scripture, through penance or through living in seclusion like a monk by pleasing God. Easter sets us free from these efforts for it is the fulfillment of the love of God (John 3:16-17) revealed in His Son to provide sure salvation through forgiveness of sins to all who believe in Him and escape condemnation (Genesis 28:12-13). The only essential point is to believe in the love of God and thus surrender to His way and be filled with that love to love others also in like manner. The good works that one would do in that love are not to appease the angry God but to reveal His love to others; not to earn salvation but that becomes the starting point.
Easter, therefore, becomes a point of celebration, for the empty tomb provides an assurance that we shall be with Him one day. He assures us of salvation not in some distant future but now, the moment we believe in Him. In this, it is His work on the cross which He declared, ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30). We have been saved by the gift of grace of God and not of our works and God has ‘made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus’ (Ephesians 2:6-8). This has happened now and our place in heaven to be eternally in the presence of God is prepared and earmarked already.
Mary Magdalene was told, ‘go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God’ (John 20:17). In this one message the Redeemer firstly, blessed a woman to raise her status to make her the messenger of such wonderful news to the disciples. The other disciples did not believe her and the other women’s testimony for to them their ‘words seemed to them like idle tales’. Second, Our Lord connected to the disciples who had deserted Him during His most trying time, as ‘My brethren’. Thirdly, Lord Jesus connected them and all of us to God the Father in line with the prayer that He taught calling to ‘Our Father in heaven’ (Matthew 6:9). His message of ascension was about His move to His and our Father and His and our God, thus placing us at a closely joined relationship with Him and through Him with God the Father.
Humanity was hiding from God fearing His wrath but in this garden of the empty tomb, God calls out not to ask about our sin but to send us to those of His brothers who were hiding in a room for fear. There are only two ways in this, either hear, take it as a fable, keep on with your life but the second is let Him rewrite the script of your life. He can change your story from whatever darkness you are, into a great one of hope and joy!
Through the open door of His empty tomb, Lord Jesus has invited every human being into His heart to experience and live in His love. But He does not force His way into our hearts but knocks sat the door to be welcomed in to bless us with that abundant life in Him. The time of decision is now for who knows about the next moment or day in our life for this moment will decide our future till eternity!
