Was It a Morning Like This?

Happy Resurrection Day!

Since Passover was this Saturday, and Jesus died on Passover, he would have lain in the grave three days and three nights and rose again sometime after sundown (see previous posts). That sundown was last night, and today is the actual anniversary (on the Hebrew Calendar) of the resurrection.

Of course, Firstfruits was Sunday; and April 29 is the actual resurrection date on our modern calendar, but today is the day!

Early in the morning, on the First Day of the Week before the sun had risen, certain women who had followed Jesus walked down from Jerusalem with spices they had prepared to anoint his body, but they wondered among themselves who would roll back the stone for them. What a surprise they had waiting for them in the burial garden, for about then an earthquake shook Jerusalem and a great angel appeared at the tomb. He pushed back the stone and was waiting there for the women when they arrived.

"Do not be afraid," the angel said, "For I know that you seek Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell his disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed he is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you."

Alarmed, the women ducked into the tomb and found a young man sitting there to the right of where Jesus' body had been. Some scholars believe this is a record of Mark himself, and he had apparently arrived at the tomb before the women and was therefore the first to witness the empty tomb. As the women enter, he looks up and gives them this message: “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as he said to you.”

Then to clarify the situation even further to the bewildered women, two other men dressed in shining white garments appeared, one at the head and the other at the foot of the low shelf where Jesus had lain, and they declared, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still 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.’” These were apparently two of the righteous dead who had come out of their tombs and would later ascend with Christ into heaven.

With those three exhortations, the women ran from the tomb, separating in different directions to report what they had seen to various of the disciples.

Mary Magdalene reached her destination first, rousing Peter and John from their slumber and racing with them back to the tomb. These two apostles saw the empty tomb and the abandoned grave cloths but departed in uncertainty. While Mary lingered in the garden, the Lord made his first appearance after his resurrection.

The other women must have had further to go, perhaps to Emmaus, as they were still running to tell the disciples when Jesus appeared to them on the road.

That afternoon, two disciples were walking to their home in Emmaus when Christ joined them on the road and joined in the discussion of the momentous weekend events. At dinner he broke the bread and as they recognized him, he disappeared.

At some point that day, he also appeared to Simon Peter to personally restore the fallen apostle.

That night, ten of the disciples were gathered together in the upper room and he appeared in their midst there.

Eight days later, he appeared to all eleven disciples and commanded them to go to Galilee.

And somewhere during the forty days between resurrection and ascension, he appeared to his brother James, and to a crowd of five hundred people at once.

These all bore witness that remains irrefutable to this day that Christ the Lord is risen from the dead!

HALLELUJAH!