The Death and Resurrection of Jesus
The Death and Resurrection of Jesus
The Thursday of this last week was by one reckoning the eve of the Passover and by another the Passover itself. Jesus knew that his “hour,” which he had repeatedly said was “not yet,” had at last come. It was to be an hour of unparalleled suffering, and yet also the hour of his “glorification” by which he would be most fully revealed and the salvation even of the Gentiles would be accomplished (John 12:20–33).
He spent his final hours of liberty privately with the Twelve in a furnished, first-floor room lent him by a friend. Here they ate the Passover meal together. During supper he performed a slave’s work, which evidently none of them had been willing to do, for he went round washing their feet. He told them that they must humble themselves and love one another like that. During and after supper he also gave them bread and wine as emblems of his body and blood which were to be offered for their salvation, and commanded them to eat and drink in his memory. Then he strengthened and encouraged them by profound instruction about the new and intimate relationship with him which the coming Holy Spirit would make possible, and he prayed for them that the Father would keep them what they were, a distinct people, who no longer belonged to the world but were to continue living in it as his representatives.
It must have been late when they left the Upper Room, walked through the deserted city streets, crossed the Kidron Valley and began to climb the Mount of Olives. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed with an agony of desire that he might be spared having to drink “this cup,” an Old Testament symbol of God’s wrath upon sin. But he ended each prayer with a fresh surrender of his will, and emerged with a quiet, unshakable resolve to drink it. At that very moment the temple soldiers arrived to arrest him, carrying torches and weapons, and Judas betrayed him to them.
There now followed a grueling series (that night and the following morning) of six separate trials, three in Jewish courts, one before Herod and two before Pontius Pilate. When false witnesses accused him, Jesus was silent, but when the high priest challenged him whether he was “the Christ, the Son of God,” he boldly acknowledged that he was and was immediately condemned to death for blasphemy. This travesty of justice was made the more bitter for him by the brutality of those who struck him and spat in his face, and by the cowardly denials of Peter in the courtyard outside.
Since by Roman law the Jews were not permitted to carry out the death sentence, it was necessary for them to get it ratified by the procurator. Pontius Pilate is known to have been an efficient administrator, but ruthless. He quickly saw through the political charge of which the Jews accused Jesus, namely that he had forbidden the payment of tribute to Caesar and had made claims to be a king himself. A few questions about Jesus’ kingship satisfied him that the prisoner was no revolutionary agitator. But Pilate was a man ruled more by expedience than by principle. He wanted both to release Jesus and to satisfy the Jews simultaneously. So he tried various compromise arrangements. Would they be content if Jesus received a scourging, or a trial by Herod, or the customary Passover clemency? But the Jews would not allow him to escape a decision. When they hinted that if Pilate released Jesus he would forfeit Caesar’s favor, his mind was made up. He washed his hands publicly in feigned innocence and handed Jesus over to them to be mocked, flogged and crucified.
Crucifixion was a horrible form of execution. To the Romans it was a shameful thing; they reserved it for slaves and the worst criminals. It was a sadistic kind of torture too, for it deliberately prolonged the pain and postponed death sometimes even for days.
How Jesus viewed and endured his ordeal is shown by the seven “words” which he spoke from the cross. The first three indicate that he was able so to forget his own suffering as to concern himself entirely with the welfare of others. He prayed that his tormentors might be forgiven; he commended his mother to John’s care, and John to his mother’s; and he assured the penitent brigand who was being crucified at his side that he would be with him that very day in paradise (Luke 23:34; John 19:26–27; Luke 23:43). After this Jesus seems to have been silent for several hours, while a strange darkness overshadowed the land. Then he uttered four cries, perhaps in quick succession, which give us some idea of the nature and purpose of his sufferings (John 19:28; Mark 15:33–34; John 19:30; Luke 23:46). First, “I am thirsty,” betraying his physical anguish. Then “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This cry of dereliction was framed as a question not because he did not know the answer, but because he was quoting Psalm 22:1. And he quoted it (as he always quoted Scripture) because he believed he was fulfilling it.
The God-forsakenness which he experienced was the divine judgment which our sins deserved. He was drinking the “cup” of God’s wrath. Almost immediately came a loud cry of triumph, the single word “Finished,” expressing his accomplishment of the sin-bearing work he had come to do. Finally, he commended his spirit to the Father, to show that his death was a voluntary, self-determined act:
Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. (Luke 23:46)
About thirty-six hours later God raised him from the dead, as a decisive proof that he had not died in vain. At first light of dawn on Easter Day, Mary Magdalene and some other women came to Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb, in order to complete the burial rites which the onset of the Sabbath had interrupted. But they found that the stone had been rolled aside from the mouth of the tomb and that the tomb itself was empty. Hearing the news, Peter and John raced to the sepulchre. Looking in, they discovered not only that the Lord’s body was gone, but that his graveclothes were still there, lying in an undisturbed condition. It was clear circumstantial evidence that the body had not been touched by human hands but raised from death by God. They “saw and believed.”
Then the risen Lord began to appear to people. First individually to Mary Magdalene and to Peter. Then to two disciples on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Then to the apostles the same evening, and again the following Sunday when Thomas (absent the previous week) was with them. Next, when they had returned to Galilee, he appeared to them there also, both on a mountain and on the lakeshore. At every appearance he gave them evidence that it was he himself, the same person as before his death, though now marvelously changed, and he commissioned them to go into the whole world and to make all nations his disciples.
These appearances continued for forty days. The last one took place on the Mount of Olives. Having promised them power to be his witnesses once the Holy Spirit had come upon them, and having blessed them, he was “taken up … into heaven.” There is no need to doubt the literal nature of his ascension, so long as we realize its purpose. It was not necessary as a mode of departure, for “going to the Father” did not involve a journey in space and presumably he could simply have vanished as on previous occasions. The reason he ascended before their eyes was rather to show them that this departure was final. He had now gone for good, or at least until his coming in glory. So they returned to Jerusalem with great joy and waited—not for Jesus to make another resurrection appearance, but for the Holy Spirit to come in power, as had been promised.