And then the religious leaders came to the point in time not far from Jesus’ arrest, and Christ did this stupendous miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus. It was the talk of the town and isn’t it true that somewhere in their thinking there was the idea that perhaps, although they would have liked to arrest Him, they just might not be able to do it. And that explains the use of Judas, because Judas came to them and said, “You know, I have been with Him in the Upper Room and He’s talking about death. He’s not talking about anything triumphant. He’s not talking about driving out the Romans, or bringing in the kingdom. He’s talking about dying, and I think the mood of surrender is on Him. I think if you would go now suddenly, quickly, and seize Him, that He’d submit to your arresting party.”
And so on the basis of that information from Judas, the informer and betrayer, they set in motion all of the machinery of this very quick trial in which they almost failed, were it not for the brilliance of Caiaphas who asked the question that was interpreted in Christ’s answer as blasphemy.
You see, they were afraid and they were afraid right up to the end and even beyond the end. Because isn’t it true as we read these verses—even though they wouldn’t have admitted it, even though they don’t articulate it for anybody to pick up on it for a witness to record it and put it down in the pages of the four gospels—that they really were afraid that He might do something? He just might raise Himself from the dead, or some kind of miracle would take place. That would be absolutely shattering, and of course that is exactly what He did.
They set their seal and they posted their soldiers, but this one who is more than a man, this one who had said of Himself, “I am the resurrection and the life,” simply broke their seal, scattered their guards, and rose triumphant on that first Easter morning. As we sing in that great Easter hymn:
Vainly they watch his bed—Jesus my Savior;
Vainly they seal the dead—Jesus my Lord.
Up from the grave he arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes.
He arose a victor from the dark domain,
And he lives forever with his saints to reign.
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!
He did something else too. He established that day not as the day of mourning, which it would have been otherwise, but as that great day of Christian worship, activity, and joyful celebration which has characterized the Church down through all the ages of church history. Have you ever noticed that every great event connected with the founding of the Christian Church took place on the first day of the week?
In Lewis Sperry Chafer’s book entitled Grace, he talks about eleven events that took place on the first day of the week.1
1. The first and most obvious, Jesus arose from the dead on Easter Sunday, and that became the basis of the Church’s faith and practice.
2. Jesus ascended into heaven for the first time on that first Easter Sunday. We have a record of that in John 20:17. Mary Magdalene was there in the garden. She had sought to hold Him and Jesus said, “Don’t hold me now because I’m not yet ascended to my Father. But I’m ascending to Him; in the meantime, you run and tell His disciples that I’m risen from the dead.”
We mustn’t think that Jesus was hiding out during those forty days in between His resurrection and His ascension into heaven, merely appearing now and then before the disciples and others. He was the resurrected Christ. He ascended into heaven for the first time since the incarnation on that day, and passed freely between earth and heaven.
Tomorrow we will continue with the rest of Chafer’s list.
1Lewis Sperry Chafer, Grace (Chicago, IL: The Bible Institute Colportage Association, 1939), 272-276.
