Resurrection

During the first pre-Christian century a famous letter was written by Sulpicius Severus, a Roman, to Cicero, the great orator, on the occasion of the death of Cicero’s beloved daughter Tullia. The letter expresses deep sympathy and reminds the orator that his daughter had only experienced the common lot of mankind and had only passed away when the freedom of the republic itself was failing. It is warm and moving, but it contains nothing of a sure hope of life beyond the grave. In reply, Cicero thanks his friend for his sympathy and enlarges upon the magnitude of his loss.

Now trouble came into the family of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, and Jesus was not there to help them. He had been there a few days previously, but He had gone away, telling them where he was going. While He was gone Lazarus took sick, and the sickness was serious enough for the sisters to send for Jesus. The messenger who bore the report told Jesus, “Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.” There is a lesson at this point, and we should acknowledge it before we go further.

In yesterday’s study, we noted that Jesus returned to Bethany after a delay of two days. Upon arriving, He was told that Lazarus had been dead four days. This meant that Lazarus must have died before Jesus had even received the message that Lazarus was sick. And this means that Jesus knew of Lazarus’ death from the beginning and delayed His return for a specific purpose.

The story continues with Christ’s return to Bethany. Jesus does not go right into the city since the rulers of the Jews had determined to kill Him and He did not wish His presence known. Instead He waits outside. As He waits Martha hears that He has come and goes to meet Him. Mary waits in the home.

Now what did Jesus teach these women? He taught that He is the resurrection and the life. The statement is in John 11:25, and it contains two thoughts. First, in Jesus the resurrection is present, for Jesus Himself is life. Martha was thinking in terms of a resurrection at the end of time, a bodily resurrection. Jesus taught that the real resurrection, the one that makes all the difference between real life and real death, is the resurrection that takes place in the individual when he comes face to face with Himself. He is the resurrection. Where He is, there is life.

One of the great historical evidences of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the fact of the empty tomb. But the remarkable and quite startling fact is that when Peter and John arrived at the tomb on the first Easter morning it was not quite empty. That’s right, the tomb on Easter morning was not quite empty. The body of Jesus was gone, but something was still there. The graveclothes remained behind. And the Bible suggests that there was something about them so striking that John at least saw them and believed in Jesus’ resurrection.

Mary meanwhile found the two chief disciples Peter and John, presumably in John’s house where the beloved disciple had taken Mary, Jesus’ mother. The two disciples immediately started for the tomb, running and leaving Mary far behind. John was the younger man. Consequently, he arrived at the tomb first, stooped to look through the narrow aperture, and saw the graveclothes.

Now what would we have seen had we been there at the moment at which Jesus was raised from the dead? Would we have seen Jesus stir, open His eyes, sit up, and begin to struggle out of the bandages? Is this what we would have seen? Not at all. That would have been a resuscitation, not a resurrection. It would have been the same as if He had recovered from a swoon. Jesus would have been raised in a natural body rather than a spiritual body, and that was not the case at all.

At this point Peter arrived and went into the sepulchre. Undoubtedly Peter saw what John had seen, but in addition he was struck by something else. The cloth that had been around the head was not with the other clothes, it was lying in a place by itself (v. 7).

The second lesson from this story is this. The experiences of Peter and John at the tomb also indicate that the body of the Lord was glorified. It was sown a natural body and was raised a spiritual body. And in this body Jesus lives, seated at the right hand of God where He waits in glory, interceding for His own until the moment when He will return again in judgment.

When Jesus died, the faith of His disciples died. There was much about Jesus that they didn’t understand, but what they did understand, they believed and they followed Him because of this. For the three years they were with Him, He was their life. Where He went, they went. What He said, they heard. What He instructed, they tried to obey. Then all of a sudden, even though He had warned them of it, He was taken away, tried and crucified. And they were utterly despondent. So you see, in a sense we can say that when Jesus died, His disciples died too.

Now if Thomas is a great example of the death of faith, the Emmaus disciples, whom I identify as Cleopas and his wife Mary, are great examples of the death of hope. They had been in Jerusalem during the days of the Passover and had hoped that Jesus was the Messiah who would usher in His kingdom. They had heard that certain women whom they knew had gone to the tomb and had returned saying that Jesus had risen from the dead. Yet so far were they from believing in a resurrection, so far were they from having any Christian hope whatsoever, that they didn’t even bother to go to the tomb to investigate themselves. It was done, and so they started out for their home in Emmaus.

We don’t know a whole lot about Mary Magdalene. We’re told in Luke 8 that Jesus had done a mighty work of grace in her life by casting out seven demons. We know that she was one of the women who ministered to Jesus and the disciples. But that’s about all we know until we come to the activities during this last week of Christ’s life.

Now when the women arrived at the tomb with their spices, it suited their purpose to have the stone removed, but it wasn’t what they were expecting. They were confused and asked each other what they should do. And they decided that Peter and John should be told. Either they appointed Mary to the task, or Mary volunteered. So she’s the one who started off to find the disciples to give them the message.

What happened in that instance was the resurrection of Mary. She, no less than the others, had experienced the death of faith and the death of hope. But when the living Lord spoke her name and thereby revealed Himself to her, her faith, which had died, came leaping from its grave, and her hope, which had evaporated, gathered again around the person of her Lord.