
Obviously, to resurrect from the dead, Jesus first had to die. In fact, the eternal Son of God came to Earth to give His life and shed His Human blood for the remission of our sins. In truth, no one took His life – He willingly laid it down for us. After triumphantly shouting, “It is finished,” speaking of His atonement work, He royally bowed His head and dismissed His own spirit, as a King dismisses a servant. The time was precisely 3:00 p.m. Passover day, exactly when the Jewish priests began slaying the Passover lambs in the Temple, all of which pictured Him, the once-for-all Passover Lamb. Jesus, the Sovereign Saviour, was in absolute control of everything even as He hung supposedly helpless from a Roman cross!
At the same moment He dismissed His spirit, the earth quaked, select graves of believers were opened, and the 6”-thick massive Temple Veil was supernaturally torn from top to bottom. The Way into God’s Holy Presence was finally open for all who placed their faith in Christ – both Old and New Testament saints. The flow of blood and water from His pierced side by a Roman spear serves as one of many reliable evidences of His literal death. There is also spiritual significance in the flow of that blood/water mixture. The two liquids symbolize the benefits believers receive in Christ: salvation (blood) and sanctification (water). The blood pictures His Work and the water pictures His Word. The two (blood & water; justification and sanctification) must always go together.
As when the first Adam was put to sleep before the LORD God brought forth from his side his bride, so from the side of the “sleeping” Second Adam came forth the evangelical Eve, Christ’s Bride, the Church, who is bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh because she is His Body. The Rock (Christ) was smitten so the flowing water of life could gush forth! Why was Moses punished for smiting the Rock of Horeb twice? Because his disobedience muddied the God’s perfect picture of Christ’s suffering on the cross. His Son, our spiritual Rock, was only “smitten” once! He will never be smitten again.

When the Roman soldiers finished their horrendous task of crucifying three men, One of Whom was totally innocent, the Lord’s friends took over in making proper provision for His body. From this point, no unbeliever ever touched the body of Jesus.
Unlike Christ’s original disciples, who had openly identified with Him for 3 years, but fled in fear when He was arrested and were no where to be seen during His entire ordeal on the cross (except young John), two formerly secret disciples emerged to boldly identify with Jesus in His death (which took more courage than during His life). Joseph of Arimathea stepped out of the secrecy of his discipleship to Jesus when he went before Pontius Pilate to request permission to remove His body from the cross and bury Him. God’s sovereignty was on display in one more of hundreds of ways to make sure every Messianic prophecy was fulfilled in Christ. Joseph, a rich man, had purchased a new tomb conveniently located near Calvary (John 19:41). He was likely unaware that Isaiah 53:9 predicted the Messiah would have His grave with the rich!
If Joseph had not done this, Jesus’ body would have been discarded in a place of great indignity called “The Valley of Corpses” (Gehenna). It was the Roman custom to toss the bodies of crucifixion victims and dead beggars into that place outside the city walls. It was the unclean “garbage pit” of Jerusalem. If Jesus’ body was dumped there, He would disqualify to be the Messiah; the Isaiah 53:9 prophecy would not have been fulfilled. Also, we would not have either the empty grave or empty grave clothes to prove His resurrection.
I don’t know if you ever thought of this before, but if we compare the beginning and end of Christ’s post-resurrection life, we realize God appointed one Joseph to serve as “guardian” over Jesus’ body while He was in a virgin womb and another Joseph to serve as “guardian” over His body in a virgin tomb! The Holy Spirit even made a point to tell us that each of those two Josephs were “just” men (Matthew 1:19; Luke 23:50). Is it not fascinating to realize that the first man to ever touch the body of Jesus — perhaps even pulling Him from the virgin womb — and the last man to touch the body of Jesus, putting Him into the virgin tomb, were both just men named Joseph?
If you like that comparison, here is another one. The first woman to see the incarnate Jesus was named Mary, and the two last women to see the earthly body of Jesus were also both named Mary! After the crowds left the crucifixion site, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James (the less) and John, remained at the cross to see what would happen to His body. When, to their utter amazement, two prominent Jews came forward to reverently remove Jesus’ body from the cross, the two Mary’s followed the men to the nearby garden tomb (Matthew 27:61)

Although Luke tells us about another group of Galilean women who followed the small funeral procession to the tomb, those women did not remain there. So, the last women to see Jesus’ body were both Mary’s. All the women – now knowing the tomb location – made plans to return after the two back-to-back Sabbath days to further prepare Jesus’ body with additional spices and ointments.
Those additional spices were not necessary, but the women wanted to do something to show their respect for Jesus. They were not necessary because Nicodemus brought a 100-pound mixture of myrrh and aloes (today’s value – $150,000 to $200,00), which was an amount fit for a King (the usual amount was 5 to 20 pounds). Together the two men washed the Lord’s body and then bound it in strips torn from the fine, expensive linen cloth provided by Joseph. The cloth strips were layered with the costly spices – not for the purpose of embalming, but to cover the odor of decay. The Lord’s head was wrapped (turban style) in a napkin (John 20:7), to be discussed further in this series.
A few nights earlier, God had made certain His Son, while yet living, was anointed for burial with very expensive perfume fit for the finest king. That honorable task was performed by the loving hands of Mary of Bethany, who lavished her luxurious spikenard on her beloved Saviour (Mark 14:8; John 12:1-8). So, Mary, Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus all lavished wealth on Jesus. Now compare that with other wise and wealthy believers in Christ (the Magi), who had also lavished expensive “gifts” on Him early in His life. Beginning and end, God’s Son was honored by His people.
It is significant that the new sepulchre Joseph of Arimathea had purchased, either for his own burial or in anticipation of the Lord’s death, was located in a garden. Why? Because it was in another garden the first Adam sowed the seed of sin that brought forth the horrible fruit of death. Thus, it was appropriate that it was in another garden the Second Adam was buried. He is the Promised Seed of the woman, Who crushed Satan by defeating sin and death (Genesis 3:15). He is the Seed of life Who was “sown” into “the ground” of a peaceful garden tomb from whence He brought forth the happy fruit of eternal life!
While Christ’s body lay in the tomb, the Jewish Sanhedrin Council members held an “emergency session” (illegally on a High Sabbath) as they felt it mandatory to further enlist the help of Pontius Pilate to protect Jesus’ tomb with a Roman seal and a Roman guard. It was definitely not to honor Jesus, but to prevent His disciples from stealing His body and then claiming He resurrected!

The Roman guard consisted of a 12 to 16-man unit and they were governed by very strict rules. The guard members could not sit or lean against anything while on duty. If a soldier fell asleep on duty, he was severely beaten and burned to death. But he was not the only one executed, the entire unit was executed with him. Thus, the soldiers kept each other awake!
The Roman seal sent a clear message that the occupied tomb was not to be tampered with. To seal the tomb, the soldiers stretched a cord across the closed stone, fastened the rope ends with sealing clay that was then stamped with Pilate’s official signet. The power and authority of Rome stood behind the seal. Anyone found breaking it died.
NOTE: Ironically, the fear of the Council was totally unfounded, yet it was providentially used to help prove Jesus’ resurrection! You see, although the disciples heard the Lord predict His third-day resurrection on at least SEVEN occasions, they were now scattered and hiding in various locations in Jerusalem for fear the religious rulers were looking for them – to do to them what they did to Jesus. They were NOT EVEN THINKING about His possible resurrection, much less planning to do something to make it LOOK like He resurrected. They were crushed to the depths of their souls and not a single thought entered their minds about perpetrating a hoax by stealing His body. In fact, they were full of doubts about everything – thinking perhaps they had been wrong about Jesus all along. Thus, mixed with their tremendous sorrow was their weak faith – as well as their shame for having deserted Him. To steal and hide His body would have done nothing to lift their spirits; to deceive others would not have removed their tears.
So, the Jews, who did remember what the disciples forgot – which was “the sign of Jonah,” took every precaution to make sure that “sign” would NOT be fulfilled or that His men would not make it look like it was fulfilled. It was all so foolish from God’s perspective! It was like using a tiny cork to prevent a massive volcanic eruption!
Okay, so let’s jump to Sunday morning . . . before the first group of women arrived at the tomb, there was another earthquake (second in 3 days). The first one (simultaneous with Christ’s last breath, torn Temple Veil, opened graves) served as Heaven’s “sign” of His completed atonement work and great victory over sin (Matthew 27:51). The Sunday morning earthquake was Heaven’s “sign” of Jesus’ great victory over death as He came bursting out of 100 pounds of grave clothes and a sealed tomb in His glorified, resurrected Human body! NOTE: He did not make Himself visible to the soldiers!
However, an angel with a countenance “like lightning, and . . . raiment white as snow” did make himself visible to the soldiers. And when he did, those rough-tough warriors were so frightened, Matthew 28:4 says they “did shake, and became as dead men”. They either fainted or became so paralyzed with fear, they went into a state of shock, completely traumatized by what they saw.
After removing the 2-ton stone from the tomb entrance, the angel then casually sat on it (28:2), which is why I call him the tomb stone angel. He did NOT remove the stone so Jesus could get out because He was already gone. Rather, he rolled it away so people could look in and see both the empty tomb and the mysteriously empty grave clothes!

When the soldiers recovered enough to move, they quickly scattered from the site. Some of them (not all) went to the chief priests and told them everything that happened at the garden tomb, which was now empty – but not because of Jesus’ disciples! Another great irony in this narrative is that the very men sent to prevent anything strange happening at Jesus’ tomb were the ones to give firsthand objective evidence of His resurrection to the Jewish religious leaders! Caiaphas and the other Sadducees must have been livid since they did not believe in either resurrection or angels – both of which were part of the soldiers’ testimony! The men were visibly shaken, and there was no reason not to believe what they reported.
Instead of going out to the tomb themselves to investigate the matter – or better yet falling on their faces in utter repentance for having killed their true Messiah, the Jesus-hating hypocrites bribed the soldiers to lie. They were to spread the rumor that Jesus’ disciples stolen His body while they had been sleeping. They assured the soldiers of their protection from Pilate and the death penalty.
The lie circulated for a while, but it was so unreasonable, it could not survive long. First, if the soldiers were all sleeping (inconceivable in light of the death penalty), they would not know what happened. Second, the scraping noise to roll the huge stone, the time it would take to strip off the grave clothes (why?) and then sneak off carrying a naked body (why?) would have awakened any sleeping soldier. Third, the disciples would not have persisted in preaching Christ resurrected if it was a lie that began to cost them everything, including their own lives.
We jump scenes now from the Roman soldiers to a group of faithful female disciples. John 20:1 tells us that early Sunday morning while it was yet dark, Mary Magdalene, Mary (mother of James and Joses) and Salome (Jesus’ aunt) headed out to the Lord’s tomb. Another group of Galilean women, which included Joanna (Luke 24:10), also set out for the tomb; perhaps they left a little later or traveled a further distance, for they arrived after the first group of women had already left.
From Mark we learn of the concern the women had as they headed to the garden tomb and it was how they would physically move the great two-ton stone. They obviously knew nothing about the Roman seal or the guard stationed there, or they would have had even bigger concerns! But, also unknown to them was that Almighty God already took care of the “obstacles” – the one they knew about (the stone), and the ones they did not know about (seal/guard). They likely felt the earthquake and must have wondered about experiencing two quakes in three days, but one thing is evident – these women, carrying their jars of burial spices and ointments, were not anticipating the resurrection of Jesus!
When the first group of women arrived at the tomb, they immediately would note something amiss. The entrance to the tomb was open – the great stone was rolled away (Mark 16:4). They did not encounter the Roman soldiers, but there was evidence of their earlier presence (i.e., a fire, footprints, broken seal).
Many Bible expositors believe that Mary Magdalene (out of whom Jesus cast 7 demons) was younger than the other women (who were old enough to have grown sons), so she ran ahead in her hurry to get to Jesus and got to the tomb slightly before them. When she saw the opened entrance to the tomb, Mary jumped to the wrong conclusion that her beloved Lord’s body had been taken. Without lingering or looking around – especially in the tomb, she ran off to give Peter and John a very false message. The words she blurted out to the two men revealed her impetuously made wrong conclusion. They also revealed that she had no thought whatsoever that Christ resurrected from the dead.
Mary Magdalene missed the supernatural (the angel; empty grave clothes) because she was too focused on her despair to take the time to investigate the evidence of the resurrection. She jumped to a wrong conclusion because she did not remember Jesus’ promise to rise the third day. Therefore, she brought men who already had extremely heavy hearts . . . men who very much needed the glorious, victorious message of the Resurrection of the Saviour of mankind . . . a message that only further deepened their despair. She said, “They have taken the Lord”. THINK ABOUT THAT! It is not only a message of disbelief, it is an oxymoron! Why? Because it contains a mixture of two things that cannot go together. She said, “They have taken away the Lord,” and that is a weird combination of spiritual faith and spiritual blindness. If Jesus is Lord, no one could do anything He does not permit! If He is truly Lord, He is in control! If He is Lord, why did Mary not trust His oft-repeated promise to rise from the dead on the third day?!
But, how often do we do the exact same thing? We call Him “Lord,” but do not the things He commands! We call Him “Lord,” but doubt His words and waver at His promises! We call Him “Lord,” but bow to other masters! We call Him “Lord,” but run to others for help or advice instead of to Him – and on and on we could go!
In using the pronoun “they” (John 20:2), Mary was likely referring to the chief priests, who she would suspect to be the thief culprits. Perhaps they dumped Him in that awful “Valley of Corpses” to disgrace Him even further, or maybe they hid Him so His followers could not continue to show respect for Him by coming to His tomb and mourning for Him.
Well, while Mary Magdalene was off reporting her false message to Peter and John, the other women (Mary, mother of James/Joses, and Salome) got to the tomb, and the angel whose appearance traumatized the soldiers spoke to them from his “perch” on the removed tomb stone (Matthew 28:2b). Like the soldiers, the women were frightened (not as much), but the angel quickly spoke calming words: “Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified” (28:5). Those who seek Jesus have no reason to be afraid! The women sought Jesus to continue ministering to Him in death, as they had in life.
But the angel was not finished with his God-sent message. He then gave the first proclamation of Christ’s resurrection – and it was to women! (First proclamation of Christ’s birth was to men – shepherds). The angel said to Jesus’ faithful female disciples, “He is not here; for He is risen, as He said!” What glorious words to hear outside a tomb! What fantastic words to hear any time about a deceased loved one! But they are especially beautiful to hear about the One in Whom you placed your faith as Lord! Aren’t you glad the angel did not just relay the first part of that message? If he merely said, “He is not here,” his words would have brought no comfort to the souls of the grieving women, or to us. That was what Mary Magdalene had understood, but His missing body certainly did not bring her comfort or joy.

But the angel did not end his message with, “He is not here”; he went on to say, “for He is risen, as He said”! This greatest news of all time caught the women by total surprise! It must have made their minds spin and their hearts pump wildly! In the seconds it took to register that short God-sent message, the overwhelming despair of the past three days and nights was instantly exchanged with an ecstatic joy. The jars of spices and ointments, symbols of death and sadness, may have slipped from their hands, crashing to the ground and emitting their wonderful fragrance.
And we must take note of the three little words the angel added to the end of his important message: ” . . . He is risen, as He said“. He was saying to them, “Why are you seeking the crucified Jesus? Did He not tell you He would rise on the third day! How could you forget such a great promise?” You know, when we either forget or put the Lord’s promises in an allegorical setting, we will waste a lot of time doing needless things (preparing unnecessary spices and ointments), and we will spend a lot of time in needless worrying (how to remove great stones). We will also experience a lot of needless sorrow! Give attention to the promises of Scripture. His Word does not fail nor return void! It was the third day; so, He was not there because, as He said at least seven times, He arose triumphant over death!
The angel then gave the women an invitation into the tomb to witness the evidence of Jesus’ resurrection, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay” (Matthew 28:6b). They were to analyze what they SAW in the tomb with what they had HEARD from the Lord’s own mouth. The angel knew if they put those two together (see and hearing), they would BELIEVE.
He then gave them instructions to quickly tell the disciples that Jesus was risen from the dead. It was the day of good tidings! It was the day of joy the Lord promised when He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you . . . ye shall weep and lament . . . and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20).
It is interesting that the first commissioned “proclaimers” of the Resurrection message, the heart of our Christian faith, were women! Why is this? Why weren’t the first proclaimers of the competed Gospel (death, burial, resurrection) the Apostles? Men? Well, perhaps the best reason is because, long before, in another garden, death entered the world when a woman conversed with an angel; a fallen angel. Unlike the holy tombstone angel, Lucifer did not remind Eve of God’s Word (“as He said”); rather, he caused her to doubt God’s Word (“Yea, hath God said?”). The evil angel’s message was not “Come and see” (Matthew 28:6); it was “Doubt and disobey”!
It was typical of God’s grace for women to be given the opportunity to counteract Eve’s sad part in the Fall by giving them the privilege to be the first proclaimers of new life and victory over sin and death to the “sons of Adam”!
Before the women obeyed the “tomb stone” angel by quickly reporting to the disciples they accepted his invitation to go into the tomb to see where Jesus had laid. Once inside, they were “affrighted” to see “a young man sitting on the right side” (Mk 16:5). Because he was clothed in “a long white garment” and gave an almost identical message as the “tomb stone” angel, we conclude he was another holy messenger (tomb shelf angel). He also quickly comforted the women by saying, “Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: He is risen; He is not here.” He then pointed to the shelf upon which he sat (on the right side), and said, ” . . . behold the place where they laid Him” (Mark 16:6). They saw the empty grave clothes – no body inside (discussed in part two of this series). They did not need to wrap a dead Jesus; they would forever more worship a living Saviour! The crucified Jesus was not there! He had risen, just as He said! The tomb shelf angel instructed the women to go tell the Lord’s disciples “and Peter” the good news.
Shortly after those women left, the second group of women arrived at the tomb, found the stone rolled away, and went inside. Perplexed by what they saw, suddenly two men in shining garments stood by them, causing them to be greatly afraid. They fell down on the ground before the heavenly creatures. Evidently, the tomb stone and tomb shelf angels who spoke with the first group of women had both moved inside the tomb. To the women, they then asked, “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5b). The question was really an announcement that the dead One they sought was alive! You don’t look for living people in a tomb! They then said, “He is not here, but is risen. “Remember how He spake unto you when He was yet 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” (24:6b, 7).
Now that they were reminded, the women did remember the Lord’s third day resurrection prophecy and suddenly everything came together! Lightbulbs clicked! Their sorrow was turned to joy! And it was no longer dark outside! The sun had risen in full blazing glory! It was a brand-new day! They had wrongly thought the Son was gone from them forever when He was shining brighter than ever*!
The second group of women (like the first) left to give the Apostles the completed Gospel message, as commanded. Now that they knew the truth, they were responsible to share it! This is a basic principle of Christianity: revelation begets responsibility!
Shortly thereafter, Peter and John arrived at the tomb. There is no mention of angels appearing or speaking to them, either outside or inside the tomb. The two men did not stay long at the tomb. John left believing in the resurrection of Jesus because of what he saw inside the tomb. Peter left perplexed; his shame at having denied the Lord likely prevented him from having clear vision.
What Peter and John saw inside the tomb was: 1. the linen wrappings with the 100 pounds of spices lying empty like a cocoon shell, but still intact (not having been unwrapped), and 2 the linen napkin used to wrap around the Lord’s head (they would twirl it around the head as a turban and interlace its ends) was seen “wrapped together in a place by itself” (John 20:7). “Wrapped together” literally means “rolled up,” which suggests the napkin was lying in its condition as it had been twirled around the Lord’s head. It was “by itself,” obviously having been removed by hands that then put it down.
Everything was neat and precise; there just was no body. The only way the linen grave wrappings could be left in that condition was if Jesus passed right through them as He resurrected from the dead in a glorified body! If friends took the body, they would have taken the clothes with the body to not dishonor the corpse. If foes took the body, they would not have gone to all the trouble to unwrap it. However, if friends or foes had decided to first unwrap the body, there was no way they could leave the wrappings intact! They would have been torn and scattered and certainly not in their original convolutions as when a body was beneath them. Likewise, the headpiece would not have been in its original wrapped-up condition.
The language of the Scripture is that the grave clothes were laying in a very neat and orderly fashion. No grave robber could unwrap the body and then rewind the grave clothes in such a way that they looked exactly as they had while the body was inside them. The gummy myrrh mixture inside the folds of the linen strips would make it impossible to unwrap the corpse without tearing and damaging the wrappings and leaving much evidence of vandalism behind. Everything pointed to the fact Christ had risen right out of His grave clothing!
Then there is this to consider – no one, after having snuck past a Roman guard and pushed away a heavy stone, breaking the Roman seal (punishable by death), would have taken the time to unwrap the body and then leave the grave wrappings back together in a neat, orderly fashion.
What John saw told him it was not a body robbery, but a body resurrection. The empirical evidence caused him to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So what we have is a testimony from a man not anticipating a resurrection at all. He ran frantically to the tomb thinking the body of Jesus had been stolen, but when he looked in the tomb, he saw something utterly unexpected. John tells us it was at that moment . . . without knowing any Old Testament Scriptures about the Messiah rising from the dead (which he confessed in John 20:9) . . . he believed.

We will stop here and continue with “The Resurrection Reality Part II” in our next blog.
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