Life Out of Death, Light Out of Darkness
Epilogue to Tragedy
Mat. 28:1-8; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-11; John 20:1, 2
Jesus’ body lay entombed over the Sabbath. At the end of the Sabbath (Saturday evening easing into the first day of the Jewish week), Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Joses, Salome and other women bought spices with which they intended to anoint the body of Jesus. It is possible that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had not been able to properly prepare the body of Jesus because of the nearness of the Sabbath, which of course started Friday evening at sunset.
Text Ref. 37
| Before the women could reach the tomb, something wonderful and miraculous happened. To start off the chain of events, there was a great earthquake and an angel descended and rolled the stone away from the door of the sepulcher. His appearance was striking: his face shone like lightning and his clothes were a brilliant white. The members of the guard that had been posted there quaked with fear and became like corpses. Small wonder: the glory of God was roundabout them and they all were painfully aware that they were more than a little out of divine favor. |
The fact that the women remained loyal to Jesus when He had disappointed them so greatly presented a striking tableau. Jesus had shown His followers abundant evidence of His power over affliction and even death. He was God to them although they might not have been able to explain it. He was the imperturbable, unflappable one on whom they depended for their very existence. But now He had been cruelly humiliated and slain. They were grievously disappointed, but there was something about this Man that claimed their loyalty even in His fall from divine favor.
They would not have been able to explain it. I imagine all they could have said was, “No one ever performed miracles like Jesus and no one ever spoke like Him.” How could they forget the many wonderful miracles? How could they dismiss the words of life and love that flowed from His mouth? They could not; and they did not attempt to resist the love they still had for the greatest Man the earth has ever known.
It is not recorded just how Jesus left the tomb, but He had no need for the angel to roll the stone out of His way. His body was now glorified and He could be on one side or the other of the stone with just a thought. The stone had been rolled away so that Jesus’ followers might know that He was risen. Jesus had already quit the grave before the angel appeared.
Meanwhile, the women bringing their spices were wondering how they would get into the tomb. The stone was more than they could handle. But, as so often happens, God in His own way had taken care of their immovable obstacle. Arriving at the sepulcher, they were amazed to see that the stone had been moved in anticipation of their coming.
Apprehensive, they neared the open sepulcher and eased their way inside. Jesus’ body was not there! Before they could ponder the meaning of this turn of events, they saw two men standing to one side. The clothing of the two men glowed with a mysterious light. Frightened speechless, the women hastily bowed down to the ground.
“Why seek ye the living among the dead?” the angels asked; and that is a significant question. We certainly need to know that Jesus suffered and died for us and that He lay in the steely grip of Death for the time He Himself had predetermined. But Jesus had also predetermined the day and the hour and the second of His glorious victory over death and carnality and sin. It was now time for His unquenchable glory to burst forth, burning its way through the tatters of mortality binding Him.
“He is not here, but is risen: remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ Go…tell His disciples and Peter…lo, He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see Him.”
(The account of this event and the subsequent account of all the happenings up to Jesus’ ascent into heaven are a composite of the four accounts as given by the four Gospel writers. Of course, this entire work is a composite or harmonizing of the four Gospels.)
Naturally the joy of the women was boundless. They were ecstatic. Quickly leaving the tomb, they went to tell the apostles the good news. Mary Magdalene went ahead of the others, perhaps by a shorter route, and reached the house where the apostles were before the other three could get there. She did not tell the eleven disciples that Jesus was arisen, but, rather, that His body had been taken away. Why did she not tell them? It might have been that since such astounding news was almost unbelievable to her, she feared that the apostles would never accept it from her. If that was her reason, she was right: they could not even accept the news that Jesus’ body was gone from the tomb.
Luke 24:12; John 20:3-10
Peter and John, their curiosity aroused, ran to the tomb to see for themselves. Outrunning Peter, John came to the open sepulcher, looked in and saw the grave clothes lying to one side neatly folded, but did not go in. When Peter reached the scene he had no hesitation in entering the grave site. John went in after Peter and saw the evidence of Jesus’ having arisen, and he knew in his heart that it must be so.
“Then went in…that other disciple [John himself], which came first to the sepulcher, and he saw, and believed.”
Jesus’ Appearance to Mary Magdalene
Mat. 28:9, 10; Mark 16:9-11; John 20:11-18
Text Ref. 38
| After telling the apostles that Jesus’ body had disappeared, Mary Magdalene returned to the sepulcher, reaching it after Peter and John had left. Standing outside the tomb, Mary was a forlorn figure, weeping and confused, unsure at this time just what had happened to Jesus. A short time previously her joy had been boundless. Angels sent from God had assured Mary that her Lord was alive … or had she been betrayed by her own wishful thinking? Even the eleven Disciples were confused.Mary ventured a look inside the tomb. There she saw two angels who she must have thought were two men sitting, one at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had lain.
“Why are you weeping?” they asked. “They have taken my Lord away and I don’t know where they have laid Him,” she replied,still weeping. |
She then turned about and saw a man she thought was the gardener. He repeated the question to her: “Why are you weeping?”
“Sir,” she pleaded tearfully, “if you have taken him somewhere else, tell me where He is and I will take Him away.”
He said simply, “Mary!” and the old love and concern were evident in His voice: It was Jesus!
Mary had turned halfway away from Him with her head lowered. When she heard her name so spoken, she could not fail to catch the affection behind the word. Turning quickly to Him, she cried out, “Master!” and fell at His feet, weeping. The tears this time were not in sorrow, but in joy and relief.
“Don’t cling so to me,” Jesus assured her, “for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brethren and say to them that I shall ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
Jesus makes it a point here to include them all in the family of God with Himself. Mary went and did as she was instructed.
Jesus’ Appearance to the Other Women
During this time the other women whom Mary Magdalene had left arrived at the house of the apostles. This was shortly after Mary had followed Peter and John back to the tomb. The women told the apostles what they had seen and heard, then they started back to the sepulcher. Why did they want to go back to a dank, gloomy tomb where there was no Jesus — only a reminder of former more pleasurable days? Only God can fathom the mind of a woman.
On their way, Jesus Himself appeared to them.
“Hail!” He greeted them; and they fell at His feet as Mary had done, overwhelmed with gladness. Their Lord was indeed very much alive and now glorified.
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