Good News from the Graveyard
On the first day of the week, at early dawn, [the women] went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words.[1]
It is cold in the tomb, and hope perishes in the gloom! The smell of myrrh and aloes, so intimately associated with death, permeates the atmosphere. The dampness of the dark grave penetrates to the soul; in the tomb there is no warmth, no light, no life. Hewn out of rock, His tomb is no different from any other tomb. The race is infected with the universal malady of sin, and death is ensured by our sin. A tomb is the only real estate to which any of us can at the last aspire.
In the end, He was no different from anyone else. We thought He was different. We convinced ourselves that He would never die. His words … how shall I describe the words He spoke? His words thrilled our souls; they were words like no man ever spoke before. Even His enemies admitted this.
One of our own tells of a time when religious leaders conspired to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”
The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
…The officers … came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man” [John 7:30-32, 45, 46]!
Clearly, there had been something different about Him. He claimed to be the Son of God and He convincingly gave healing, health and hope to the most needy among us. His claim of divine parentage had brought down on Him the wrath of religious and civic leaders; and by twisting Roman law they crucified Him. Crucified as a common criminal, He was pinioned on that cross and died far too soon. Others lingered, sometimes even for weeks, but He was dead within a matter of hours.
Strange. His death and the words He spoke as He hung there are unlike any words ever witnessed before … or since. Deserted by those who professed to love Him and forsaken by those who claimed to be His followers, He died alone. Save for a few women and one young man near the cross, He died desolate and alone in that final hour.
The Romans posted guards near the cross to ensure that no one would free Him. The religious leaders taunted Him mercilessly. Parading before the cross they slandered Him and made a profane mockery of His death. Yet, even in the face of such insults His words were gracious, different from any other man ever crucified unjustly.
Years later one of the disciples who had been closest to Him would write of His death: He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly [1 Peter 2:22, 23].
The words He uttered that last awful day are indelibly stamped in each mind. His first words were so unexpected. Unlike others who died on a cross He did not curse or call down imprecations on the heads of those who tormented Him. Instead, He prayed. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do [Luke 23:34].
He was concerned for His own small family. He spoke first to His mother: Woman, behold, your son… Then, to His cousin he said, Behold, your mother [John 19:26, 27].
Even in death He was reaching out to people, especially to those who were powerless and most in need of a friend. Throughout His brief service before the Lord He was compassionate, and one thing He said again revealed the compassion that had always marked His life. He said such a strange thing to one who was crucified with Him. That is, His words are strange if He was not who He said He was, for He was powerless and incapable of doing anything. Nevertheless, I am a witness to those words that He spoke. Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise [Luke 23:43].
As His agonising torture neared an end He lifted His head to Heaven and cried out. Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani—the words mean, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me [Matthew 27:46]?
As He hung there He revealed something frightening, something which though we all recognised, we had yet never really understood. He had said He was the Son of God. He had also said He was fully man. We never really believed it, but in His death we saw something we didn’t want to admit—He was one of us! He was just like us … frail, mortal, fragile, susceptible, vulnerable. As death neared, He pled for relief from raging thirst; I thirst [John 19:28]. Those pathetic words betrayed His humanity. Perhaps it was only the pain that inspired His next words that now appear so surreal. His words seemed calm, even tranquil. He said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit [Luke 23:46].
He rallied, and pushing up He uttered the strangest word. Uttered isn’t the correct way of saying it. That word pierced our ears and penetrated the inner recesses of our minds. No one who heard could escape that awful word that broke over our heads and penetrated our hearts. Tetélestai—It is finished [John 19:30]! That word broke over our heads like a great wave washing away whatever courage or bravado we may have possessed. We were each left before that cross with souls bared, exposed as cowards before a divine scene. Our souls were naked before a dead man and each person there felt as though he were actually in the presence of the True God.
The moment that awful word broke from His lips He bowed His head and died … and we trembled. Together with the earth, we trembled. The moment His cross was dropped into the hole prepared for it the sky had mysteriously darkened. Though it had been a cloudless day, it seemed that God’s sun could not look upon what was happening. An air of unreality pervaded the entire extended ordeal; and at the moment of His death the earth heaved with great, convulsive sobs as though the whole creation mourned what was taking place. Later we would learn that the great curtain that shielded the Holy Place from the vulgar gaze of worshippers had ripped … torn in two from top to bottom. Tombs in Jerusalem had broken open and there were reports of holy men and women long since dead walking in the streets.
Everyone who claimed to have known Him ran. If the events of the day were not enough to frighten them, there was the threat posed by the Jewish leaders. Those same Jewish leaders could yet retaliate against His followers. Perhaps the leaders of the nation wouldn’t have done anything in any case, but those who had been His closest votaries nevertheless fled in fear. I can’t imagine that anyone can blame them; the political and religious leaders had hated Him with unreasoning bitterness. Theirs was that strange, religious malice which doesn’t reason but only seeks to destroy. So often our world has witnessed that bitter wrath arising from a group that cannot stand up to the truth, so they resort to slander and physical attack in a cowardly display of malicious destruction.
The ultimate humiliation we each feared and anticipated was that His body would be left on the cross and He would be denied the dignity of a respectful burial. We were therefore surprised when Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, members of the Sanhedrin, requested permission to bury Him. At the injustice of His death they were emboldened by their common love for Him, that until then had been hidden. They risked their standing as religious leaders for a man who was executed as a criminal. They had a great deal at stake if they permitted themselves to be identified as His followers. Yet, somehow—prompted by the words He had spoken prior to His death, motivated by the life they had witnessed during the previous three years, impelled by the words He had spoken from the cross—they went to Pilate to ask that His body be given to them.
Pilate was astonished. Could this man be dead already! He sent soldiers to verify that Jesus was truly dead. Spearing Him in the side, they pierced His heart. Crude Roman soldiers that they were, they laughed. “If he wasn’t dead before, he is now.” A centurion who had stood near the cross when He died, arrested their crude humour. “Men, I’ve never seen anyone die like this man. Surely He was the Son of God,” and the remainder of the guard agreed with him. Sobered by the words of their fellow legionnaires, the soldiers reported back to Pilate. Jesus was dead.
The Roman governor granted Joseph and Nicodemus permission to take His body. They gently lowered His broken body from the cross and hurried to the tomb in order to prepare it for burial. The Passover was almost upon them and they did not want His body to be cursed without burial at that holy season. They carried Him to Joseph’s new tomb and gently laid Him in the niche that had been prepared for Joseph himself.
Alternating tight layers of linen with myrrh and aloes they wrapped His body from foot to neck and tenderly prepared Him for His final rest. Were He alive, He could not have moved by reason of the tightly wrapped linen and the weight of spices. After covering His face with the napkin, they stood silently for a brief moment, their individual thoughts unvoiced and unshared. Joseph thought he saw tears in Nicodemus’ eyes, but he couldn’t be certain in the flickering light of the torch that weakly pierced the darkness of the grotto. After a moment, Joseph gently placed his hand on Nicodemus’ shoulder and said, “Let’s go. There is nothing more we can do.”
And so they left. They left and returned to the world of the living where life goes on no matter how unfair, no matter how cruel; they left Him alone in the grave. The tomb was sealed with the customary rock closure. More than that, at the insistence of the Jewish leaders the Romans had placed the seal of the Empire on the tomb. One dared open this grave only at the risk of incurring the wrath of the mightiest nation in the world. To ensure that no intruder would tamper with the body, and at the insistence of the Jewish leaders, a guard of Roman soldiers was placed in front of the grave.
The soldiers had laughed and joked with one another. “Have you ever heard of anything so stupid? These Jews are crazy! No one guards a corpse, and a Jewish corpse at that! Where would a dead man go? This is insane.” Nevertheless, four soldiers at a time stood watch while twelve others were nearby sleeping or carrying out the routine of a soldier’s life. These Roman soldiers provided a profane honour guard before the tomb of a man they had just crucified. How very strange to witness such a scene as that of soldiers guarding the body of a criminal—a Jew at that!
In the tomb, all is dark—as dark as death itself. The air is foetid, permeated with the sickening odour of death. You can smell it—sweet and bitter at once. The walls are cold—so cold the chill seems to penetrate to one’s very soul. The One in this tomb is dead—cold, stiff, lifeless. All that remains are memories and the words inscribed over every soul that exits this world—Hic Jacet. His failure has disappointed each of us. Despite His brave words He failed, and that is the bitterest thought of all.
But wait! It is the third day. Something is happening in the tomb. The chill that penetrates deeply to the soul is yielding to warmth. Can you feel it? It is as though life itself is entering where it is forbidden to enter. There is a sense of expectation that cannot be explained. Wait! Is it my imagination, or is the darkness receding? Do I see a glow in the tomb? What is happening? The cold is transformed into the warmth of life and the darkness yields to the light. Can it be? Is it true?
It is true! Jesus Christ is alive! He is no longer dead! He has conquered death! Just as He promised, He has invaded the realm of the dead and set the captives free. Jesus told us that He would rise again, and now He has fulfilled His promise. He is alive! Glory to God, Jesus is alive! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen.
Outside the tomb the soldiers are disquieted. They urgently call their companions to rouse themselves and to come quickly. A nameless dread has seized them all and they are terrified. Battle hardened soldiers tremble and cry out in fear. Fully alert, they are looking about terrified. Suddenly one screams in terror. Startled, they each drop their weapons and these battled-hardened warriors fall to the ground as if they were dead. What can cause such terror in men trained for war? What can turn hardened muscle to water and cause disciplined soldiers to faint?
There, by the stone that they had sealed, is an angel. Powerful messenger of the Living God, he has come to roll back the stone. Christ the Lord is risen today. The angel rolls the stone away from the entrance so that the entire world may see and testify that the tomb is empty. Let everyone witness the power and the glory and the might as the Son of God conquers death and brings light and life to all. He alone has gone into the grave and returned. He alone has power over death, hell and the grave. He alone was dead and is now alive forevermore. The Son of God is alive. The first Easter has dawned. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Glory and praise to the Risen Son of God! Amen.
Women courageously came intent on imploring the guards to permit them to attend the body, but they encountered a strange (I suppose it could even be called weird) scene. There is the tomb, but everything about that rough-hewn cave is oddly wrong. The stone no longer covers the mouth of the grave and sitting on the stone is an angel—resplendent in shining, white robes. Whatever can this mean? Listen! He is speaking to the women. Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise [Luke 24:5-7].
What wonder his words inspire! Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember… His words all flood back, filling them with hope. They remember His words. Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised [Matthew 16:21].
Taking the twelve, [Jesus] said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said [Luke 18:31-34].
Where do we find the living? We find the Living One walking in the midst of His living people—the church. The Living Christ will not—indeed He cannot—remain among the dead. We find the Living Saviour exactly where He promised He would be. Wherever the Risen Christ is, there we find His people alive and rejoicing in His life. Wherever Christ the Lord walks, there we find His living people—the church—walking with Him. Wherever Christ the Living Lord of Glory speaks, there we find people who have discovered life in Him speaking for Him and speaking with Him. Where do we find the living? We find the living rejoicing in the life of Him who conquered death.
There is no life except that which is found in Christ. We may exist, but we shall never live until we are alive in Him. Jesus once spoke to Nicodemus about eternal life. Arising from that conversation with Nicodemus is the best known of all Bible verses, John 3:16. God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Did you think that the offer of eternal life was restricted by chronological dimensions? That life which is offered in Christ the Lord is multifaceted. It ensures that we are made alive to God—adopted into His family with all the privilege of His children. Believing in Him, we are now called by His Name and received by Him.
That eternal life was secured by this Jesus of Nazareth by the resurrection from the grave. He was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead [Romans 1:4]. With His blood He ransomed people for God [Revelation 5:9], and those whom He bought are now known as His church [Acts 20:28]. We have been made alive with Christ through faith in Him [Ephesians 2:5]. Therefore, in order to find the living I must look in that place where the living is found—the church that He purchased with His blood. Though it may not be immediately obvious, when I unite with the church I come to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. I will have come to the spirits of the righteous made perfect and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant [Hebrews 12:23, 24]. These who gather to worship week-by-week, these who seek to walk humbly before God, these who live that He may be glorified—they are the living. They have received the forgiveness of sin and the hope of the resurrection and have been made alive in the Living Christ.
No wonder, then, that this singular event—the resurrection of the Christ—became the foundation for the Faith. Crucified, the Son of God was no different from thousands of other condemned Jews. Buried, He was no different from the whole of the race, which is under sentence of death. Risen from the dead, He demonstrates power over death. Therefore, we who look to Him anticipate that we also shall be transformed and we expect that even now we shall see evidence of that transformation.
The message of Easter is the victorious message of life for the Lord’s holy people. You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them [Ephesians 2:1-10].
That is the Good News from the graveyard! Though once dead in our sins, we (you and I) now have life in Christ. Appearing to John on the Isle of Patmos the risen Son of God identified Himself as the Living One. Jesus is alive and He now walks among those who also are alive. On that Lord’s Day He appeared to John and He announced, I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades [Revelation 1:18]. Since this is true, we need to think carefully about what we celebrate at Easter rather than treating the celebration casually or merely considering the day as another holiday. We Christians celebrate the foundation for our Faith and the basis for our hope.
This is the message His people celebrate at Easter—the hope of the resurrection. Christ the Lord has conquered death. Together with God’s people wherever they may be found throughout the whole of the world, we exult in the knowledge that our God lives. Death no longer holds us in thraldom and we are no longer terrified at the threats of the evil one. In the Hebrews letter is recorded a wonderfully powerful statement concerning Jesus and all that He has accomplished. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery [Hebrews 2:14, 15]. Those words apply to each of us, if we accept His sacrifice in our place and if we believe that He now receives us.
He is alive and because He lives we need not fear death. Were this all that His victory meant, it would be glorious. There is so much more to give us hope, though. Because He lives we have access to Him. He is our help in time of need. We may experience life—real life—now. That life becomes reality through the New Birth. You may be born again into the Family of God enjoying the full life that God provides. That life begins when you trust this Risen, Living Jesus as Master of your life. When we believe that this Son of God died because of our sin, and when we confidently rest in Him as the Risen Master of our life, we are born from above and into the Family of God. Born again, all our sins are forgiven. As twice-born people, we are set free from the power of sin. We are freed from the persistent presence of sin. We are unshackled from the bondage of fear of the penalty of sin. We are adopted into God’s family. This is our heritage when we are born from above. This is Good News indeed!
“Pastor, I am confused. How can faith in a dead man give me a new kind of life?” Don’t you understand? It is not a dead man whom we Christians proclaim and present today. The one we urge you to receive is Christ the Living Lord. He is alive.
“How may I know Him? What must I do in order to have this life of which you speak? How can I know freedom and forgiveness of sin?”
Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself [Acts 2:38, 39].
Even though the Jewish leaders had heinously called for the death of this Jesus, they could be forgiven and made alive with Him. To those same Jews, Peter declared, You killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.
And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago [Acts 3:15-21].
Haled before the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court of the nation, that same disciple called for faith in the Living Son of God. Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved [Acts 4:8-12].
This, then, is the promise of God to all who willingly receive this message of life. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God [2 Corinthians 5:17-21].
I frequently conclude the messages preached in this place with a particular citation from the Word of God. That passage promises life to all who will receive the Risen Son of God as Master of life, believing that He died because of their sin and that He rose for their justification. This is the faith to which I call you now. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” [Romans 10:9-13].
Today, who stands with Christ? Who says, “I’ll live with Him”? Who today takes this Jesus, risen from the dead and victorious over death, as Lord of life? Amen.
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[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers, 2001. Used by permission. All rights reserved.