Rev Gav

Why was Jesus resurrected?

There are so many unanswered questions about the death and resurrection of Jesus, and if I’m honest, I can quite easily tie myself up in knots trying to answer them, because for many of them, we just don’t know.

For example, where was Jesus on Holy Saturday, between his last gasp on the cross and his resurrection on the early morning of the first day of the week? His body was removed from the cross and placed in a guarded tomb, we know that much, and we have poetic allusions to Jesus being in Sheol (Hebrew) or Hades (Greek) the resting place for the dead, often referred to as the ‘Abyss’ or the ‘Pit’. And why did there have to be a gap of a whole two nights before he was resurrected? Would five minutes of death not been enough? Or would a gap of three months been better? We can only speculate.

Personally, I wonder if the gap between death and resurrection was simply a symbolic time, happening on the very last day of the week, the Sabbath day of rest, symbolising the death and rest that we all experience at the end of our lives. By entering and staying in death, even just for one day, Jesus was empathising and identifying with all humanity who endure death and bereavement, therefore we cannot say we have a God who does not know the fullness of human experience. God knows.

Whether Jesus was conscious or unconscious (and I lean towards the latter), I wonder if in his humanity, he knew he would be resurrected? When Jesus woke up in that tomb, wrapped in cloths, did he try and gasp to find his mouth wrapped in linen? Did he unbind his head and take a deep breath, allowing the musty air to fill his lungs, feeling as if he had just woken from a deep sleep? Did the memories of the trauma — the trial, the torture, and the execution suddenly come flooding back? Did he vomit, wipe his mouth, then feel a surge of adrenaline as he began to unwrap the rest of the cloths and fold them neatly to be left behind? Did he wonder at how the wounds in his hands, feet, and side had healed leaving scars, and how he could now see and feel the world differently, being the first born of a new creation? Did he fall on his knees and weep and laugh, sobbing until there were no tears left, as he turned his face upwards in the dark towards heaven to give thanks to his Father?

Like a buoyant rubber ball dropped from a great height into a swimming pool, after plunging down it could only inevitably rise to the surface again, in the same way Jesus had been dragged back into the land of the living for one reason only, and that was because death could not hold him. God’s holy law had been kept and sin and death had been conquered.

The disciples of Jesus were bereft, in shock, and mourning. Worse, they were insurrectionists by association, in fear that they too would be made an example of by the Roman authorities. With no leader to protect them and no hope of seeing Jesus rise up to be the Jerusalem king they hoped he would become, all was lost.

Until those women.

The gospels tell us that they held vigil opposite the tomb and were the ones who went to anoint the body after the Sabbath. Two broken but faithful women, respecting and honouring Jesus in his death as only a mother and adopted daughter could, and then the resurrected Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene and then to the other disciples.

But the story didn’t end there, not by a long shot. The resurrected Jesus not only gave hope to every human that had ever lived, was then living, and would live in the future, but he now had a mandate or command to give them. A bigger and better story was going to unfold, and it included them and all who would make Christ their Lord and Saviour.

“I am going to send you what my Father has promised so stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high,” (Luke 24.49) said Jesus to his disciples. “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1.4-5).

The foundation had been laid, humanity could now be made clean and holy, and so the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit could now come and make home in his disciples. One week had finished and now a new week had begun. One work had finished and now a new work had begun.

If those first disciples had not witnessed the resurrected Jesus and if they had not obeyed his command to wait for the Holy Spirit then we would not be here today, and their work is now our work. The baton has been handed down to us and it is our turn to run our leg of the race. We too have repented — recognised that we cannot do this thing called life and be righteous on our own — and turned to Jesus and been made holy and clean. We have asked the Holy Spirit of God to fill us and we can be filled with confidence to proclaim Jesus Christ is our Lord, and be empowered to be witnesses to God’s love in the world.

The power of God lives in us to bring about justice, peace, grace, and mercy in the world, and this is why, on Easter Day, we gather and proclaim, “He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!”

Amen.