Rolling Stone
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Scripture
Scripture
But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.
They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.
So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus.
As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes.
The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive?
He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee,
that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.”
Then they remembered that he had said this.
So they rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples—and everyone else—what had happened.
It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened.
But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it.
However, Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look. Stooping, he peered in and saw the empty linen wrappings; then he went home again, wondering what had happened.
Introduction
Introduction
All 4 gospels tell the story of Jesus resurrection a little differently. However, they are all similar in that it is discovered at dawn by the women. In Mark all we have is an empty tomb, in the other three gospels there are encounters with the risen Christ. All 4 gospels are witnesses to the fact that Jesus rose from the dead.
Undoubtedly, something huge happened that day. For the disciples to have been in hiding not wanting to be associated with a criminal who suffered capital punishment from the charge and guilty verdict of being an insurrectionist. They feared of the association the Romans might make. If the disciples were following an insurrectionist well then what does that make them, right? No wonder they hid.
Furthermore,
When someone is convicted of a crime punishable by death and is executed, and you hang him on a tree,
his corpse must not remain all night upon the tree; you shall bury him that same day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the Lord your God is giving you for possession.
When someone is convicted of a crime punishable by death and is executed, and you hang him on a tree,
Here the scripture says that anyone who suffers capital punishment is under God’s curse! They didn't want to be associated with someone who has been cursed by God! For them this Jesus whom they thought was the Messiah had gone from Messiah to cursed in less than 24 hours after their last meal with him. Emotionally don’t you know their heads were spinning to make sense of all this.
Deuteronomy
Then to hear he has risen from the dead? No wonder they thought what the women told them was non-sense.
Exegesis
Exegesis
Let’s take a look at how Luke tells this story. Please try not to combine Luke’s story with the other 3. Let’s let Luke’s story stand on its on. And we are going to closely examine the empty tomb part of the story.
Context
Context
Let’s set this story in Luke’s context. Jesus dies on the cross and Luke makes the comment that Jesus’ friends, including the women, who had come with him from Galilee stood at a distance watching.
A Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin named Joseph from Arimathea (whom Luke calls a good and righteous man), has the audacity to go to Pilate and ask for the body. This was an unusual request, for normally the Romans would not release the body of an executed criminal to the family, much less someone else. Even more unusual was Pilate in granting this request. Crucified criminals were left on the cross to fully decay. Besides, Jewish law prevented the family from putting an executed family member in the family tomb until the body had completely rotted. They believed that the sin left with the rot of the flesh! In other words there was atonement in the decay of the flesh!
Joseph has to hurry to get Jesus in the tomb before sundown, so the body was probably not prepared properly. He places Jesus’ body in a new tomb, this is slightly ironic that Jesus leaves in a new tomb after arriving a week earlier on a donkey that had never been ridden.
Exegesis
Exegesis
Somehow the women obtain burial spices before sundown. The next morning as soon as the Sabbath was over, the first break of daylight, they go to the tomb and find it open. They enter the tomb and see that Jesus body is not there!
What could have gone through their minds!? This is misery upon misery. Not only had their beloved teacher been executed someone has stolen the body! Luke says they were puzzled, that’s probably an understatement.
My sisters and I go a couple of times a year to put flowers on our parent’s graves. I wonder how I would feel if we show up one day with flowers and no grave? Puzzled, you better believe I would be puzzled. Puzzled and angry. I would grieve again because not only did I lose my parents once I have now lost them twice! I would go directly to the Arlington Cemetary offices and let my displeasure and hurt be known.
The ladies had no where to turn! So, in God’s wonderful grace, God sends messengers. Two men in clothes that, in the literal Greek, flash like lightening! And what do they do? They remind them of what Jesus told them! This is important because from this exchange we can see:
The women were included in the inner circle with the disciples!
There were a lot more than 12 men who followed Jesus.
Jesus included the women in his teaching, highly scandalous for a Rabbi to do so. They were included in everything he did. We need to consider this when we try to exclude people from certain things in our community.
Women become the first Christian preachers even before Pentecost.
Luke says they then remember everything and rush back to tell the others. But their story is considered non-sense. Yes, some of this results from cultural attitudes toward women, but the story itself is hard to believe. I think that if John and Peter had come back and told the group, there would have been skepticism.
Peter then runs to the tomb and finds the burial linens and goes home wondering what had happened. He makes the same mistake the women do, he goes looking for a dead body. Don’t try to psychoanalyze Peter here. It does no good to try to figure out if he believed Jesus rose from the dead or not. We only have what Luke says here: “he wondered at what had happened.”
This occurs when Cleopas and his companion go to tell the others what had happened on the road to Emmaus.
That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together.
They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!”
That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together.
Luke
Application
Application
Christians today still wonder about the resurrection and I think that is OK. It is difficult to get your head around. None of the gospels explain how it occured. It might have been nice to put a go pro in the tomb. But we don’t know how it actually happened. The resurrection sightings are weird, or I should say what Jesus appeared like is odd. The fact that he kind of teleports around is odd as well. It is understandable how people can be skeptical about this.
People have said his body was stolen, or he only appeared to die. (We have all heard the stories of the dead ringers.) Or the women went to the wrong tomb. There are a number things here that convince me of the resurrection:
There are a number things here that convince me of the resurrection:
The fact that women were the first to witness that Jesus had been raised, culturally makes no sense. Women were not even allowed to testify in legal proceedings. Don’t you think if the disciples were going to make this up they would have chosen the most prominent among them to be the first to proclaim Jesus is risen?
It couldn't be the wrong tomb Luke states they watched him be put into the tomb.
If the body was stolen the linen cloths would have gone with the body. They wouldn’t have taken the time to unwrap it.
The two messengers confirm that Jesus has died and has been resurrected. The testimony of two men is true. This is why Luke calls them men instead of angels. This law is found twice in Deut. In fact a criminal can only be executed on the testimony of at least two men.
The honest doubt that the others have about Jesus being raised. It makes their proclamation Jesus is risen more believable because they were so hard to convince.
The law from Deuteronomy and the charge of insurrection. Why would they have gone from hiding and doubt to all proclaiming “Jesus is risen” in a couple of days?
Finally, it had to be a physical resurrection and not a warm fuzzy feeling of Jesus with them. I can’t see a warm fuzzy feeling bringing them from doubt and fear so quickly. Also, if Jesus was not physically resurrected there is no victory over death. With death comes decay and you must have victory over decay to have victory over death. Jesus body was resurrected, not just his”spirit.” Jesus has a body of new creation that is created to last for an eternity defeating death and decay.
Our times are not much different from the first century. We still have folks that are skeptical about the resurrection. It is a doctrine, a truth of Christianity that is hard to believe, that is why faith is a gift. We must respond to the gift that is being offered. That is why you can refer to faith as a journey or a gradual awakening.
We learn from this story that God makes good on all God’s promises. We are to remember these just as the angels instructed the women to remember.
According to the Christian hope, God gives everlasting life to his children in a world that he will remake and renew . If such a world is to come and if God keeps his promises, then preparing for it is one of the most basic tasks of life. We are told to be visionary in what we do. There is nothing more visionary than thinking about your long term relationship with God.
Our citizenship in the Kingdom of God comes to us out of the future.
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.
For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being;
for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.
But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power.
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
1 Corinthians 15:20
Resurrection changes everything. This means we seek a living Christ not a dead one as Peter and the women did. We come this morning and every Sunday morning seeking the risen Christ. It is reassuring to note, that in all the resurrection stories Jesus seeks out those he reveals himself too! And he does that today! The risen Christ is seeking you!
What the world wants to see today is a Christ that is alive and making a difference in the lives of believers. The resurrection has a power today to bring new life to us and our communities.
I have a friend who was going through a very hard time in her life at a very early age. I think she was 5 or 6 years old. One night, lying in bed as she was at her wits end she looked up to see two men dressed in suits and tie carrying briefcases. One of them told her that everything was going to be all right.
According to the Christian hope, God gives everlasting life to his children in a world that he will remake and renew (cf. ). If such a world is to come and if God keeps his promises, then preparing for it is one of the most basic tasks of life.
She asked them innocently, "Who are you?" The one who was speaking spoke again, "I am Jesus and this is my Father." She replied, "No you can't be Jesus or God because of the way you look."
Jesus replied to her, “Lynn we can look any way we want too and we have come to tell you everything is going to be all right.”
And everything was alright. The promises of God. A risen Jesus. Like the women we need to remember these things. If you will, those promises come to us out of the future, not of the past. We remember a stone rolled away and the Son of God risen from the dead. We remember that he will return, for victory is his. he has beaten the ultimate evil death.
For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised.
If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
Then those also who have died in Christ have perished.
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
1 Corinthians 15:16-
No resurrection no faith says Paul. If Jesus has not been raised why are we here?
The resurrection changes everything. Do you remember what he said?