A Walk in aGrave Yard
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EASTER 2021
EASTER 2021
If you have never visited Arlington Cemetery in Washington DC put it on your bucket list of places to visit. Walking through the burial grounds of so many valiant and brave men and women who served our country is a moving and memorable experience.
If you are a fan of law enforcement dramas on TV or in your reading you occasionally read of the need to exhume a body for some evidence. You’ve probably heard of grave-robbers – people who actually dig up graves to recover valuable items – gold, diamonds and etc
. All four gospels – early first century writings covering the life of Jesus – record an early morning graveyard visit by some women who had been following Jesus.
When they arrived, they were confused. It didn’t appear as if someone broke in, rather it seems that someone broke out of the grave!
. As soon as they women heard the question and answer provided by the angel, they ‘remembered’ the words Jesus Himself had spoken on their journey to Jerusalem.
The act of remembering may be the most important virtue in Judaism. In the OT, and especially in Deuteronomy, Israel is exhorted to “remember” the mercy and faithfulness of God as the essential first step in faith, and the all-important step in maintaining faith (22:61!). The angels remind the women of Jesus’ prediction of his suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection on the third day (v. 7).[1]
[1] Edwards, J. R. (2015). The Gospel according to Luke. (D. A. Carson, Ed.) (p. 711). Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos.
Upon remembering the words of Jesus they went back to where the disciples were hiding and shared their findings. In vs 11 those hearing the report of the women considered their words ‘nonsense.’ The Greek word translated ‘nonsense’ was often used by first century doctors to describe those in a state of delirium!
The knowledge of a living Jesus, proclaimed by the angels, transformed these terrified women into powerful witnesses of something that had never happened before!
“Didn’t the Messiah have to suffer these things and enter into His glory?”” (Luke 24:26, HCSB)
. The Greek of the NT used by Luke could be translated like this: “Wasn’t it inevitable that the Messiah would suffer and enter into His original state of eternal glory?”
After arriving at their home and sitting for a meal the eyes of Cleopas and his companion were opened. They recognized that they had been walking and talking with Jesus. He was certainly not dead but very much alive! “So they said to each other, “Weren’t our hearts ablaze within us while He was talking with us on the road and explaining the Scriptures to us?”” (Luke 24:32, HCSB)
. Though not stated as a question in many of our translations, the New Century Version translates vs 44 like this: “He said to them, “Remember when I was with you before? I said that everything written about me must happen—everything in the law of Moses, the books of the prophets, and the Psalms.”” (Luke 24:44, NCV)
. Remembering was an act of worship as God’s people recalled the events like crossing the Red Sea just ahead of Pharaoh’s army, or spending an entire week walking around the city walls of Jericho until on the last day they walked around seven times and the walls literally fell in on themselves. Perhaps they were remembering the Exile as both the Northern and Southern Kingdom eventually fell and God’s people were transported to Babylon. Maybe they remembered the decree of an unbelieving, non-Jewish king named Cyrus who allowed God’s people to return to Jerusalem and rebuild. So much of what the Jews did weekly in the synagogue was to remember – much like we are to remember the resurrection as we gather for worship on the first day of the week.
As He spoke, as He was present among them as the Living and Eternally Living Lord, they heard Him and all that He had taught them all they had learned from their parents and their synagogue leaders finally began to make sense.
This trip to a graveyard has proved intriguing. Instead of gathering at a tomb and mourning the loss of Jesus, this trip to the graveyard transformed everyone involved!
The women...
Peter....
Cleopas
Listen to the questions posed in Luke 24 again:
Why look for life among a place of death?
Wasn’t it necessary?
Don’t you remember?
Look for Jesus not in the graveyard of history but in the lives of those who have been changed by His presence;
Look for Jesus to make sense of hopelessness and discouragement. Like Cleopas and his companion we may not see clearly at first, but keep listening and you to can discover what it means to have a hear on fire!
Look for Jesus by remembering His life, death, and resurrection. Those are the themes we discover again and again in reading the Word of God, in singing songs celebrating Him, as we gather together to encourage and build up one another in the knowledge and confidence of Jesus – who promises His presence for eternity!