(All quotations
used in this article come from the NKJV)
The resurrection of Jesus Christ has always challenged the
greatest minds in the world. The mocking laughter of the
Athenian philosophers two thousand years ago has been echoed
regularly down through the centuries by expressions of disbelief,
even of contempt.
In the face of such scorn we respond with the question Paul asked
King Agrippa: 'Why should it be thought incredible by you that God
raises the dead?’1 It is true that a group of
women, some of them from Galilee, went to the tomb early in the
morning on the day we now call Sunday for the purpose of anointing
the dead body of the Lord Jesus. They not only found the tomb
empty, but there were other, worldly messengers present who spoke
to them, saying, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead. He is
not here, but is risen!’ With far less reason than had the women
who went to the empty tomb that wonderful morning, some of the
greatest, most influential minds have persisted down through the
centuries to look for Jesus in the graveyard of world history. God
sent angelic heralds to tell the whole world through those devoted
women: He is risen!
The story of Lazarus is placed in John’s Gospel as a preview to
what was about to happen in Jerusalem. Before the miracle, the
Lord Jesus groaned and was troubled in His spirit. Why did He
groan? What troubled Him? Some affirm that it was the expression
of sorrow that Mary and Martha, who believed He could heal, had
not yet understood that He had power over death. Leon Morris
notes: 'John brings out the point that nobody expected an act of
resurrection’.2 Others see the groan as a strong
expression of dislike for the 'wailing' of Mary and her Jewish
friends from Jerusalem. A loud, noisy, unrestrained wailing was
the expected way to express deep sorrow. Still other scholars
believe there was a deeper motive that led the Lord Jesus to groan
and to be troubled in His spirit.
This can be noted in some modern translations. 'When Jesus saw her
(Mary) weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, he was
moved with indignation and was deeply troubled’.3
It has been suggested that the groaning and the troubling
expressed by the Lord Jesus is not expressed against Mary, one of
His closest friends, or against the friends who were mourning the
loss of a respected and beloved friend. Rather, the groaning and
the troubling expressed by the Lord Jesus is a deep, personal
recognition that the tragedy
of death is not what God intended for human beings.
One hundred years ago, the American Presbyterian theologian and
educator B. B. Warfield (1851-1920) expanded powerfully on the
indignation expressed so forcefully by the Lord Jesus. He wrote:
‘It is death that is the object of His wrath, and behind death him
who has the power of death, and whom He has come into the world to
destroy. Tears of sympathy may fill His eyes, but this is
incidental. His soul is held by (holy4) rage: and
He advances to the tomb, in Calvin's words, ‘as a champion who
prepares for conflict’. The raising of
Lazarus thus becomes, not an isolated marvel, but - as indeed it
is presented throughout the whole narrative - a decisive instance
and open symbol of Jesus' conquest of death and hell. What John
does for us in this particular statement is to uncover to us the
heart of Jesus, as He wins for us our salvation. Not in cold
unconcern, but in flaming wrath against the foe, Jesus smites on
our behalf'.5
By His death and resurrection, the Lord Jesus vanquished death.
This was not just for Himself, but for all members of the human
race who believe in Him. The raising of Lazarus is a vibrant
viewing beforehand of the great act of emancipation for human
beings made possible by His death and resurrection. Paul speaks of
'the working of God, who raised Him (the Lord Jesus) from the
dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses . . . He has made
alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses'.
Death has been dealt the mortal
blow once and for all.
By resurrection the Lord Jesus moved beyond death. His body in
resurrection was now part of the eternal realm. The Bible
differentiates between the visible and the invisible, earth and
heaven, this age and the age to come, mortality and immortality.
In resurrection, the body of the Lord Jesus belongs to the
invisible realm, to heaven, to the age to come, to immortality.
How did the Lord Jesus appear to His friends after the
resurrection? From that spiritual realm of eternity, it has
been suggested that the Lord Jesus passed through the veil that
separates heaven from earth, the invisible from the visible, the
coming age from this age, immortality from mortality and appeared
to the disciples in ways with which they were familiar.
When the angelic messengers, who also passed through that veil,
appeared at the empty tomb Luke says they were dressed in 'shining
garments', that is, surrounded by light they projected a dazzling
effect on those who saw them. Mark writes of one dressed 'in a
long white robe'. We should not think of this as a white summer
suit, for those who saw him, in the words of J. B. Phillips, were
'simply astonished', that is, they were amazed, dismayed,
galvanized! Matthew describes the apparel as 'clothing as white as
snow', a glistening whiteness. He also states that the countenance
was 'like lightning' that he was, the source of flashes of light
that moved outward from his person. Had the Lord Jesus appeared in
that way to His friends, would they not have been even more
confused?
Instead, the Lord Jesus appeared in more ordinary ways with which
they could easily identify. They saw Him sitting at a fire on the
shore of the Sea of Galilee. Significant is the following comment:
'Ghosts, apparitions and various psychological hallucinations may
do a lot of things, but they don’t fire up the charcoal grill and
cook fish for breakfast'.6
On the first occasion He was like a gardener in a cemetery. We
wonder why Mary did not recognize Him. Some suggest that she was
supernaturally restrained from knowing who He was. Others wonder
if she was so overcome with grief that she never recognized Him
through her tears. This may be true. It is also possible that He
appeared in such an ordinary way that Mary did not look at Him
twice and failed to recognize who He was! As a traveller He joined
two individuals who were walking to their home in Emmaus.
In these ordinary ways, He stepped back into the world the
disciples understood, walking with them, eating and drinking with
them and talking with them. When Peter met Cornelius in Caesarea,
he declared: 'Him (the Lord Jesus) God raised up on the third day,
and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses
chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after
He rose from the dead'.
After the ascension, He appears surrounded by transcendent glory.
Paul’s experience outside Damascus is an example. From the outside
we watch this event as it is recorded three times in Acts. A great
light from heaven, brighter than the sun at noon, shone around
Paul and his companions. Years later, Paul defines the inward
meaning of this experience when he writes to his friends in
Corinth, 'For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of
darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ'. The experience was so overwhelming
that Paul and his companions fell to the ground. Paul, who
received the full impact of this resplendent glory, was blinded.
On Patmos, the Lord Jesus appeared to John in stunning glory. John
tells us about it. 'Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with
me. And having turned I saw One like the Son of Man' The
description of this person is closely linked to ‘One like the Son
of Man' who, in Daniel chapter 7, appears enveloped in divine
glory. This awesome individual enters
unimpeded right into the presence of God, the Ancient of Days. He
is not an intruder, rather He is escorted by great angelic beings.
John describes the person he saw in apocalyptic language. This
type of description, written under the guidance of God's Spirit,
can ignite the imagination in a way not really possible in
ordinary writing styles. In this case, the Lord Jesus in his
present glory is the subject, a matter we are incapable of fully
understanding at the present time in our usual language.
John writes: he was 'clothed with a garment down to the feet and
girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were
white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of
fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace,
and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right
hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword,
and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength'.
Bible teachers suggest special significance to each item mentioned
in this description of the Lord Jesus in glory. But it is the
effect of the overall accumulation of details that project to the
reader a display of majesty, authority, stature, exaltation, and
transcendence. This is the Lord of glory at home in the eternal
realm. No wonder John, still locked into this world and a prisoner
on the bleak island of Patmos, states, 'And when I saw Him, I fell
at His feet as dead'. The contrast between John’s limited,
frustrating world and the sphere to which the
Lord now belongs is truly mind-boggling.
The Lord Jesus displayed genuine kindness and surpassing grace
by the way He appeared to His friends immediately after His
resurrection. Coming back into their world in situations they
could understand, He convinced the disciples that He really had
risen from the dead!
There is no doubt that eventually the followers of the Lord Jesus
were absolutely convinced that He had risen from the dead. Peter's
statement on Pentecost sums up the universal belief of His
followers. 'Him (Jesus of Nazareth) God raised up, having loosed
the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be
held by it. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly
that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and
Christ', Acts 2. 24, 36.
The resurrection of the Lord Jesus is something to get excited
about. It fills you with wonder, joy and hope! Some of the
paintings by the great masters depict the risen Christ as
standing, stationary, hands held out in blessing, passive almost
to the point of being incapable of movement. In contrast, the
genius Michelangelo in his Study in black chalk7
sketched the risen Saviour literally jumping from the grave,
Conqueror over death and its environment, and, with energy and
purpose, leaping into a new realm of unending life and
immortal glory.
Among the disciples of the Lord Jesus, there was nothing academic
about their initial reaction to the resurrection. These men were
not seasoned theologians. The initial shock together with the very
real fear of the unknown profoundly alarmed them. Yet the evidence
provided by the Lord Jesus was so overwhelming that they soon knew
He had indeed risen from the dead. The joy that then filled their
minds and hearts dispelled immediately and permanently the fear
and uncertainty they initially experienced when He appeared among
them. He had risen from the dead! He had conquered death! He was
gloriously alive!
In that same spirit, John Wesley wrote:
Jesus is risen!
He shall the world restore!
Awake, ye dead!
Dull sinners, sleep no more!8
REFERENCES
1 Scripture references in order of appearance:
Acts 26. 8; Luke 24. 4ff; John 11. 33; Col. 2. 12f; Mark 16. 5;
Matt. 28. 3; cf. John 21; cf. John 20; cf. Luke 24; Acts 10. 40f;
2 Cor. 4. 6; cf. Acts 9. 3f; 22. 6f; 26. 13f; Rev. 1. 12-17;
Unless otherwise stated, quotations are from The Holy Bible, New
King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Copyright © 1992.
2 Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John, New
London Commentaries (London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1971), p.
555.
3 John 11:33, Holy Bible, New Living Translation,
copyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust.
4 Warfield wrote these words a hundred years ago.
Over the last century, 'rage' has taken on a sinister meaning. We
speak of 'flying into a rage,' of 'road rage,' etc., It is often
used in the sense of violent, explosive bitterness. I have
inserted in brackets the adjective 'holy' to indicate that this is
righteous wrath, responsible indignation, just anger against
death.
5 B. B. Warfield, The Person and Work of Christ,
Philadelphia, 1950, p. 117.
6 Pheme Perkins, The Westminster Collection of
Christian Quotations, complied by Martin H. Manser (Louisville:
Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), p. 208.
7 This work by Michelangelo is part of the
impressive collection of art at Windsor Castle, England.
8 John Wesley (1703 - 1791) in Draper's book of
Quotations for the Christian World, Edythe Draper, (Wheaton,
Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.), No. 9692.
James Cochrane was commended to the Lord’s work in the
Dominican Republic in 1950 and still visits there annually. He is
well known throughout N. America for his oral and written ministry
and comes to the UK for meetings every other year. He is a regular
contributor to Precious Seed.
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