#15 - Easter Gospel Victory?
COMMENTS
by J Neil Evans:
The events of the last week of the life of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, as recorded in the Gospels of the New Testament, are accurate history of ancient human events. It seems common for people to reinterpret (and even rewrite to correct) historical documents to conform to contemporary personal preferences and prejudices. But it seems both right and appropriate to treat the Gospels with the same honesty and respect we expect our own writing to be treated.
Regarding that honesty, I recently watched a PBS documentary on the last week of Jesus Christ. They “investigated” to determine “why and by whom” Jesus was killed. They concluded that Jesus was killed by a collusion between the Roman Governor Pilate, the Jewish High Priest Caiaphas, and their associates. They concluded that Jesus was killed in order to avoid disruptive riots in the streets of Jerusalem that would prompt intervention by Rome. Their investigations focused solely on the secular sources of the Gospel records. This limited investigation resulted in a misrepresentation of the monumental significance of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus came to Jerusalem with a firmly established relationship with the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus’ clear declarations and demonstrations of His identity and purpose both threatened and angered those leaders. They saw Jesus as a blasphemy of what they believed and a threat to their prestigious position among the Jews. Those leaders had been contemplating and planning to kill Jesus for many months.
Jesus was not ignorant of their opposition and of their intentions. In fact He, repeatedly told His followers that His own intention and plan was to go to Jerusalem and be killed, to "give His life a ransom for many". Everything Jesus was, said and did was clear fulfillment of many Old Testament predictions, as were the events of this Easter week.
Sunday - Triumphal entry
For centuries, the Jews had expected the promised Messiah to come in triumph to set up the revived Kingdom of David. The people hoped Jesus was their Messiah and their cheers for Jesus “The Son of David” both excited the crowds and angered the jealous Religious leaders. But Jesus was not misled by either the misunderstood acclaim or by the blind opposition. He "pressed on."
Monday - Cleansing Temple
Jesus proceeded as a King deeply concerned about the spiritual condition of His Kingdom. Seeing the blind and brazen abuses of the Temple, Jesus, for the second time, physically disrupted the money-changers who were profiteering there. This was an affront not just to the men who worked at the tables but to the Religious Leaders who allowed it. The war was breaking out into the open. The Religious Powers would do whatever it took to maintain their power and their prestige. Jesus would not back down from faithfully representing the God Israel had long forsaken. Jesus "pressed on."
Tuesday / Wednesday - Teaching and confrontation
Going in and out of Jerusalem to nearby Bethany, Jesus continued to teach His close followers about the nature and future of the Kingdom He represented. As was usual, various groups of Jewish Religious Leaders were near at hand and challenged Jesus to answer their questions, in the hope that they would catch Jesus in some self-incriminating statement that would turn His followers against Him. Instead, Jesus, answered each confrontation with truthful wisdom that both stymied and embarrassed the attackers. More fearful of the crowds who admired Jesus than of the God they claimed to serve, the Leaders sought to find a way to kill Jesus without creating an uproar in Jerusalem. It was at this time that Judas, yielding to the prompting of the Devil, approached the Leaders with an offer to turn Jesus over to them. The cosmic spiritual nature of the warfare was being exposed. Knowing exactly what was happening, and why, Jesus "pressed on."
Thursday - Passover and Garden
Jesus and his disciples had shared several Passovers together. The meal and it’s Old Testament significance was well know to all of them. It was primarily a remembrance and celebration of God’s rescue of His people from bondage in Egypt. The meanings of the sacrificed lamb and the unleavened bread were familiar to all Jews. The necessity of personal purity and the sacrifice of a perfect lamb had been demonstrated in the Temple and in Jewish homes for centuries. As Jesus shared this meal with His Twelve Apostles He gradually unfolded the real meaning of The Passover. The Messiah, God With Us, came as a Servant washing feet, and presenting Himself as the sinless Lamb of God Who would give His own body and life’s blood to completely pay for the redemption of all who would accept it. The Twelve Apostles, except Judas who left to prepare for his betrayal, shared the meal that they would not fully understand for many days.
Seeking a quiet place to be alone Jesus and the Eleven crossed the valley to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was left alone by His tired and unaware companions. Communing with the Only One Who understood, Jesus began to be “sorrowful and troubled.” Fully aware of the physical, and most significantly spiritual, agony that was ahead, Jesus submitted fully to The Father’s will. This submission demonstrated Jesus’ humble ability to submit to the undeserved, but necessary, pent-up violence of sinful men and the evil scheme of the Devil.
Jesus’ tired and sleepy disciples were oblivious to the gathering legions of demons and of angels. The demons were gathered to participate and witness their final victory over God’s plan to redeem His fallen world. The angels were gathered ready to defend The “Holy, Holy, Holy” One they served. The battle was cosmic, yet to all earthly appearances it was carried on by One Man against a former friend and the crowd of solders sent by the High Priest. Unbeknownst to the evil minions, the outcome of the battle had been settled from eternity past. Undeterred, Jesus humbly "pressed on."
Friday - trial, crucifixion, burial
The Religious hierarchy, all accountable to the High Priest Caiaphas, had a well established religious system that had developed over the centuries. They had used the basic elements of the Laws of Moses to build a system of detailed laws and rules, perhaps hoping to earn the favor of both God and men. But in fact it blinded them to the true character of God and His plan to rescue humanity from their idolatrous guilt. They were so blinded that they missed the Messiah clearly predicted in the Scriptures they proudly thought they understood so well.
Hating Jesus for the things He publicly said about them, and arrogantly believing He misrepresented God, the Jewish Leaders, could endure Jesus no longer. It didn’t take much to convince the Roman Governor, Pilate, to cooperate in stopping the building tension in Jerusalem. Together they had a sham trial and Jesus was condemned to be crucified. The problem of “Jesus the Nazarene” was solved.
But in reality, while the enemy of self-righteousness was suffering on a cross, sin and death, the enemy of all mankind, was being defeated by “Emmanuel - God with us;” by the “Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.”
On Passover, the Jews had for centuries sacrificed unblemished lambs, or what ever animal they could afford. The life blood was sacrificed as a substitute for the sin of the people. This most holy ceremony was repeated year after year after year, because people continued to sin and the blood of animals, while illustrative, was incomparable to the life blood of a human.
While the Priests and people of Jerusalem were preparing for tomorrows Passover, “The Lamb of God,” The “Messiah” was being most cruelly killed on a cross. The Atonement for our sin was not accomplished by the severe suffering of Jesus. It was His death that was and is the satisfactory payment for our sin. This does not diminish the significance of His suffering, for it demonstrates the total depravity of our human nature that would so treat the One Who came to Redeem us.
In reality men did not kill or take the life of the Son of God. No one had the power to do that. The Bible says that Jesus “yielded up His spirit,” He “laid down his life.” And of course the fullness of the story is that He “took up” His life again on the third day just as the Old Testament and Jesus Himself had foretold. But the people had forgotten those predictions, and their hopes of The Messiah lay defeated.
Saturday - Tomb, confusion,
The sun came up on Saturday, The Sabbath, The Passover. Jesus was dead, buried, securely guarded by Roman soldiers in a sealed tomb. But all was not settled as the Rulers of this world had hoped and planned. The Temple and the city was severely damaged by yesterdays earthquake. Uncertainty and confusion surrounded all the Passover plans. Utter grief, fear, anger, uncertainty, mixed together in the crowded city. Even the Religious and Political leaders, who felt their moments of triumph, were given pause by the destruction they saw in the Temple, the ruptured streets, and the alarming reports of dead people coming out of broken tombs fully alive. It was certainly a day of confusion.
But what of Jesus? Much is speculated about His day. Some believe that when 1 Peter says Jesus “proclaimed to the spirits in prison” it is describing what Jesus was doing on this Saturday. Peter does not tell us exactly what Jesus proclaimed, but that does not stop people from making confident assertions or claiming to have clarifying revelations about the text. Like more than we like to admit, God does not tell us more than that Jesus was dead and buried.
The enemies of Jesus thought “He” was finished. But knowing the Eternal significance of what took place on the Cross, Jesus had said “IT is finished.” Certainly His suffering was finished; the Redemption was finished; The Atonement was finished; and Heaven paused in a silence not yet revealed. Perhaps they were planning for tomorrows grand party.
Sunday - Resurrection, Victory
Jesus’ followers retreated to the place they had planned to spend their Sabbath day. We don’t know what, if anything, was discussed. We only know that they were broken hearted and defeated. From the highest of expectations to the lowest of stark reality, Jesus was dead and gone and they were alone.
Typical of the special heart given to women, two of them couldn’t wait for daylight, got up and went to the tomb to tenderly care for the body of their dearest friend. I suspect it is not possible for words to adequately express the despair of believing someone had compounded the cynical cruelty by stealing Jesus’ broken body. Likewise, there are no words fit to describe the angels’ awakening declaration: “He is not here for He is risen;” and Jesus’ gentle, eye-opening greeting of: “Mary.”
The news of Jesus’ victory over death spread like wildfire through Jerusalem and beyond. Impossible to believe, yet undeniably proven by hundreds of personal encounters, Jesus conquered both death and sin. He did what the whole of the Old testament said He would do. He accomplished what He had publicly said He would do. He fulfilled the Old Testament Law; He called not the righteous, but sinners; He came to judge; He came to Jerusalem to die; He gave His life as a ransom for many; He came as the Just for the unjust; He came that we may have Life and have it abundantly. For those who accept what Jesus has done in their place the sting of death is gone, death is swallowed up in victory.
Romans 8:1–4
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
No wonder, “Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2
No wonder we can say “Happy Easter!”
by J Neil Evans:
The events of the last week of the life of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, as recorded in the Gospels of the New Testament, are accurate history of ancient human events. It seems common for people to reinterpret (and even rewrite to correct) historical documents to conform to contemporary personal preferences and prejudices. But it seems both right and appropriate to treat the Gospels with the same honesty and respect we expect our own writing to be treated.
Regarding that honesty, I recently watched a PBS documentary on the last week of Jesus Christ. They “investigated” to determine “why and by whom” Jesus was killed. They concluded that Jesus was killed by a collusion between the Roman Governor Pilate, the Jewish High Priest Caiaphas, and their associates. They concluded that Jesus was killed in order to avoid disruptive riots in the streets of Jerusalem that would prompt intervention by Rome. Their investigations focused solely on the secular sources of the Gospel records. This limited investigation resulted in a misrepresentation of the monumental significance of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus came to Jerusalem with a firmly established relationship with the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus’ clear declarations and demonstrations of His identity and purpose both threatened and angered those leaders. They saw Jesus as a blasphemy of what they believed and a threat to their prestigious position among the Jews. Those leaders had been contemplating and planning to kill Jesus for many months.
Jesus was not ignorant of their opposition and of their intentions. In fact He, repeatedly told His followers that His own intention and plan was to go to Jerusalem and be killed, to "give His life a ransom for many". Everything Jesus was, said and did was clear fulfillment of many Old Testament predictions, as were the events of this Easter week.
Sunday - Triumphal entry
For centuries, the Jews had expected the promised Messiah to come in triumph to set up the revived Kingdom of David. The people hoped Jesus was their Messiah and their cheers for Jesus “The Son of David” both excited the crowds and angered the jealous Religious leaders. But Jesus was not misled by either the misunderstood acclaim or by the blind opposition. He "pressed on."
Monday - Cleansing Temple
Jesus proceeded as a King deeply concerned about the spiritual condition of His Kingdom. Seeing the blind and brazen abuses of the Temple, Jesus, for the second time, physically disrupted the money-changers who were profiteering there. This was an affront not just to the men who worked at the tables but to the Religious Leaders who allowed it. The war was breaking out into the open. The Religious Powers would do whatever it took to maintain their power and their prestige. Jesus would not back down from faithfully representing the God Israel had long forsaken. Jesus "pressed on."
Tuesday / Wednesday - Teaching and confrontation
Going in and out of Jerusalem to nearby Bethany, Jesus continued to teach His close followers about the nature and future of the Kingdom He represented. As was usual, various groups of Jewish Religious Leaders were near at hand and challenged Jesus to answer their questions, in the hope that they would catch Jesus in some self-incriminating statement that would turn His followers against Him. Instead, Jesus, answered each confrontation with truthful wisdom that both stymied and embarrassed the attackers. More fearful of the crowds who admired Jesus than of the God they claimed to serve, the Leaders sought to find a way to kill Jesus without creating an uproar in Jerusalem. It was at this time that Judas, yielding to the prompting of the Devil, approached the Leaders with an offer to turn Jesus over to them. The cosmic spiritual nature of the warfare was being exposed. Knowing exactly what was happening, and why, Jesus "pressed on."
Thursday - Passover and Garden
Jesus and his disciples had shared several Passovers together. The meal and it’s Old Testament significance was well know to all of them. It was primarily a remembrance and celebration of God’s rescue of His people from bondage in Egypt. The meanings of the sacrificed lamb and the unleavened bread were familiar to all Jews. The necessity of personal purity and the sacrifice of a perfect lamb had been demonstrated in the Temple and in Jewish homes for centuries. As Jesus shared this meal with His Twelve Apostles He gradually unfolded the real meaning of The Passover. The Messiah, God With Us, came as a Servant washing feet, and presenting Himself as the sinless Lamb of God Who would give His own body and life’s blood to completely pay for the redemption of all who would accept it. The Twelve Apostles, except Judas who left to prepare for his betrayal, shared the meal that they would not fully understand for many days.
Seeking a quiet place to be alone Jesus and the Eleven crossed the valley to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was left alone by His tired and unaware companions. Communing with the Only One Who understood, Jesus began to be “sorrowful and troubled.” Fully aware of the physical, and most significantly spiritual, agony that was ahead, Jesus submitted fully to The Father’s will. This submission demonstrated Jesus’ humble ability to submit to the undeserved, but necessary, pent-up violence of sinful men and the evil scheme of the Devil.
Jesus’ tired and sleepy disciples were oblivious to the gathering legions of demons and of angels. The demons were gathered to participate and witness their final victory over God’s plan to redeem His fallen world. The angels were gathered ready to defend The “Holy, Holy, Holy” One they served. The battle was cosmic, yet to all earthly appearances it was carried on by One Man against a former friend and the crowd of solders sent by the High Priest. Unbeknownst to the evil minions, the outcome of the battle had been settled from eternity past. Undeterred, Jesus humbly "pressed on."
Friday - trial, crucifixion, burial
The Religious hierarchy, all accountable to the High Priest Caiaphas, had a well established religious system that had developed over the centuries. They had used the basic elements of the Laws of Moses to build a system of detailed laws and rules, perhaps hoping to earn the favor of both God and men. But in fact it blinded them to the true character of God and His plan to rescue humanity from their idolatrous guilt. They were so blinded that they missed the Messiah clearly predicted in the Scriptures they proudly thought they understood so well.
Hating Jesus for the things He publicly said about them, and arrogantly believing He misrepresented God, the Jewish Leaders, could endure Jesus no longer. It didn’t take much to convince the Roman Governor, Pilate, to cooperate in stopping the building tension in Jerusalem. Together they had a sham trial and Jesus was condemned to be crucified. The problem of “Jesus the Nazarene” was solved.
But in reality, while the enemy of self-righteousness was suffering on a cross, sin and death, the enemy of all mankind, was being defeated by “Emmanuel - God with us;” by the “Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.”
On Passover, the Jews had for centuries sacrificed unblemished lambs, or what ever animal they could afford. The life blood was sacrificed as a substitute for the sin of the people. This most holy ceremony was repeated year after year after year, because people continued to sin and the blood of animals, while illustrative, was incomparable to the life blood of a human.
While the Priests and people of Jerusalem were preparing for tomorrows Passover, “The Lamb of God,” The “Messiah” was being most cruelly killed on a cross. The Atonement for our sin was not accomplished by the severe suffering of Jesus. It was His death that was and is the satisfactory payment for our sin. This does not diminish the significance of His suffering, for it demonstrates the total depravity of our human nature that would so treat the One Who came to Redeem us.
In reality men did not kill or take the life of the Son of God. No one had the power to do that. The Bible says that Jesus “yielded up His spirit,” He “laid down his life.” And of course the fullness of the story is that He “took up” His life again on the third day just as the Old Testament and Jesus Himself had foretold. But the people had forgotten those predictions, and their hopes of The Messiah lay defeated.
Saturday - Tomb, confusion,
The sun came up on Saturday, The Sabbath, The Passover. Jesus was dead, buried, securely guarded by Roman soldiers in a sealed tomb. But all was not settled as the Rulers of this world had hoped and planned. The Temple and the city was severely damaged by yesterdays earthquake. Uncertainty and confusion surrounded all the Passover plans. Utter grief, fear, anger, uncertainty, mixed together in the crowded city. Even the Religious and Political leaders, who felt their moments of triumph, were given pause by the destruction they saw in the Temple, the ruptured streets, and the alarming reports of dead people coming out of broken tombs fully alive. It was certainly a day of confusion.
But what of Jesus? Much is speculated about His day. Some believe that when 1 Peter says Jesus “proclaimed to the spirits in prison” it is describing what Jesus was doing on this Saturday. Peter does not tell us exactly what Jesus proclaimed, but that does not stop people from making confident assertions or claiming to have clarifying revelations about the text. Like more than we like to admit, God does not tell us more than that Jesus was dead and buried.
The enemies of Jesus thought “He” was finished. But knowing the Eternal significance of what took place on the Cross, Jesus had said “IT is finished.” Certainly His suffering was finished; the Redemption was finished; The Atonement was finished; and Heaven paused in a silence not yet revealed. Perhaps they were planning for tomorrows grand party.
Sunday - Resurrection, Victory
Jesus’ followers retreated to the place they had planned to spend their Sabbath day. We don’t know what, if anything, was discussed. We only know that they were broken hearted and defeated. From the highest of expectations to the lowest of stark reality, Jesus was dead and gone and they were alone.
Typical of the special heart given to women, two of them couldn’t wait for daylight, got up and went to the tomb to tenderly care for the body of their dearest friend. I suspect it is not possible for words to adequately express the despair of believing someone had compounded the cynical cruelty by stealing Jesus’ broken body. Likewise, there are no words fit to describe the angels’ awakening declaration: “He is not here for He is risen;” and Jesus’ gentle, eye-opening greeting of: “Mary.”
The news of Jesus’ victory over death spread like wildfire through Jerusalem and beyond. Impossible to believe, yet undeniably proven by hundreds of personal encounters, Jesus conquered both death and sin. He did what the whole of the Old testament said He would do. He accomplished what He had publicly said He would do. He fulfilled the Old Testament Law; He called not the righteous, but sinners; He came to judge; He came to Jerusalem to die; He gave His life as a ransom for many; He came as the Just for the unjust; He came that we may have Life and have it abundantly. For those who accept what Jesus has done in their place the sting of death is gone, death is swallowed up in victory.
Romans 8:1–4
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
No wonder, “Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2
No wonder we can say “Happy Easter!”
Check out these LINKS:
Watch Bible Project video about Matthew
Watch Bible Project video about Mark
Watch Bible Project video about Luke
Watch Bible Project video about John
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