April 2011

"Since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there."

After these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus and Pilate granted permission. So he came and took away His body.  Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight.  So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.  Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.  Therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.  John 19:38-42

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The sun set yesterday in Jerusalem at 7:13 p.m. meaning that the Sabbath began at 6:42 p.m., one-half hour before sunset. The Sabbath will end tonight at the end of sunset creating a day of approximately 25 hours.  The Torah, in the book of Genesis, describe the days of creation as an “evening and a morning” dictating the beginning and the end of the Old Testament day.

The abused body of Jesus, absent of all life and all pain, was taken down from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus around 5 p.m., washed, bound in clothe with embalming spices and placed in a hand-hewed tomb near the Hill of the Skull.  This all took place in less than two hours so as to not offend the Sabbath, the most important of the moedim, the God appointed times.

Today is the Sabbath, friend.  The body of Jesus lays resting in the dark margins of the earth He created, behind a stone guarded by angels that no one man could move and only those who loved would dare to breech.  The rose in the midst of the thorns?  God had prepared this place eons before.

They made His grave with the wicked –
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.  Isaiah 53:9

Only a family member who was a Roman citizen could claim the body of a crucified criminal for burial.  The unclaimed body would be left to the elements or thrown into Gehenna, the garbage dump of Jerusalem, where “the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” By divine appointment and as the first sign that the price had been fully paid, the sacrificial body of the Messiah was petitioned for by a leading Jewish citizen directly from Pilate and laid in his personal grave carved into the limestone inside a kept garden nearby.  No greater honor could be given to the abused body of the Lord.

All that had happened… the demonic accusations, mankind’s complicity, the unmeasurable torture, the final turning away of the Father… Jesus submitted to without reservation.  For one final Sabbath, the eternally scarred body of the second Adam rests while the disciples grieve… never moving, never changing, honoring the Old Covenant even while His body lay breathless and cold in the tomb.

And so God honored the final Sabbath.

• He rested in the sleep of death while shattered women wept.
• He rested from His labors while faithless men hid.
• He rested in sight of a new day while hopeless mankind cowered in the fear of reprisal.

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But then came Sunday…

• He arose at first light and declared, “Arise and Shine for your Light has come!” Isaiah 60:1
• He began the new and ended the old, turning the pages to the new covenant that reigns supreme.
• He began the week with new life instead of ending it with Sabbath rest.
• He began the week with hope and a reason to worship instead of ending the week in darkness and quiet.
• He greeted those who loved Him most with instructions for service instead of a command to do nothing.  (see Matthew 28:10)

Tomorrow, at first light, we celebrate because Jesus was raised from the dead!  He chose to declare a New Day, a New Covenant and a New Worship in the first hours of the first day of the week.  Sunday was forever declared holy because the Resurrection righted the earth on it’s axis.  Sin and death were defeated and now man could be righted as well.

And that is why tomorrow is the best day of the year to be with as many believers as possible.  That is why tomorrow is the best day of the year to celebrate!  HE IS RISEN, my friend! He is risen, I am forgiven, and the Son will never go down into the grave of darkness again.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

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