The Resurrection of Sunday Without the Crucifixion of Friday
(Read Luke 24)
The crescendo from “Christ the Lord Has Risen Today” still brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it. It’s not just the melody, the trumpets, or the words of the Hymn that creates the emotional experience within me, it’s the power of it all. My Mom was not a big churchgoer and yet she used to look forward to hearing the song at Easter. I will look around to make sure no one is looking because I’m often too overwhelmed to sing along. The church arrangements, full choir, flowers, and packed house all feed into the atmosphere, but as intensely positive as these feelings are, I am always reminded that you can’t have the resurrection of Sunday without the crucifixion of Friday.
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.
Luke 23:44-46
People worship and reflect during Holy Week in a variety of different ways. Some attend services throughout the week, some spend more time reading the Bible, and some people spend more time in prayer. I try a combination of the above in my efforts being more mindful of what all of this means. My wife and I used to attend every single service of Holy Week at our last church. Some years, there were at least four services.
Our most solemn service was the Good Friday Tenebrae service. A Tenebrae service commemorates the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ. We would alternate between singing a few verses of quiet Hymns and then someone would read Scripture leading up to Christ’s death on the cross.
“Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble, tremble”
It wasn’t a Christian-lite service. It wasn’t a child-friendly service. The service would always end with an ominous boom to symbolize the stone closing the tomb. It always created real feelings of guilt in me. Evangelist Franklin Graham once said, “It was Christ who willingly went to the cross, and it was our sins that took him there.” This one strikes deep and I feel it more clearly this time of the year. I’ve heard some argue why God can’t just forgive our sins. He’s God after all. But with true forgiveness, a price has to be paid.
The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
Luke 23:47-49
Imagine the shock of the centurion seeing this beaten, crucified man giving up his spirit for someone else. Before the execution, Jesus was just some troublemaker the Jews felt threatened by. After the crucifixion, the centurion recognized Christ for who He really was. Jesus converted souls He came into contact with 2,000 years ago, and He’s still doing it today.
Jesus didn’t just die for us. He died instead of us. The cross was more than just the place where Jesus took His last breath, it was a turning point from past to present. It was once a humiliating form of torture invented by the Persians and perfected by the Romans. With Christ nailed to it, the cross became a present source of power, strength, hope, and peace for our troubled hearts.
Christ’s crucifixion means nothing without His resurrection three days later and His resurrection is empty if there was no sacrifice. You can’t have Easter without Good Friday. Jesus’ horrible death on the cross isn’t the end of the story, rather, it’s the point.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
John 11:25-26
Jesus’ famous declaration to a grief-stricken mother was a foretaste of the hope we gain from Easter. Martha was devastated by the death of her son Lazarus and blasted Jesus for not preventing it. Jesus countered with something no one else on earth can claim, “I am the resurrection and the life.” “I am” meant I am God. God referred to Himself this way in the Old Testament. Jesus was not offering false hope to Martha to gloss over her pain. He was offering the promise of God, a real life, present God. That’s what we get at Easter.
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” Then they remembered his words.
Luke 24:1-8
Women were not highly sought after influencers in 1st century Judea. They didn’t have 100,000 followers and a blue seal next to their names. Their statements couldn’t even be used in a court of law. Yet, the cornerstone of the Christian faith is based on eyewitness accounts of a few uneducated country women. If you wanted to fabricate a religion, wouldn’t you craft it upon the statements of more “reliable witnesses?” Instead, the early Christian writers chose to follow the truth. They documented what happened and what was there in the tomb. Nothing. The coolest part of this passage is not the rolled stone, the two men in dazzling clothes, or even the empty tomb, to me, it’s what they said to the women and how they said it. You won’t find Jesus here because He “IS” not here.
Clarence W. Hall once wrote, “Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won’t stay there.” The Romans may have crucified a poor Jewish carpenter on a desolate, rocky hill in Jerusalem more than 2 millenia ago, but they didn’t prevent a Savior’s rise from the dead. They didn’t prevent His followers from changing world history. It’s easy to celebrate the grandeur of Easter, just remember the price that was paid for it. The crucifixion was a one time sacrifice and the resurrection turned on the light that illuminates all believers for all eternity. Easter reminds us that we have the hope of a living, loving God. We see signs of His work everywhere. Jesus is alive. He Is RISEN! He is Risen indeed!
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
– C.S. Lewis
Key Applications:
- Read Luke 24
- Do you see signs that Jesus is alive? What can you do in your circle of influence to help make this more obvious?
- What do you get out of worship in church? If you don’t go, consider that fellowship with other believers is encouraged by Jesus. If you do worship in church, invite someone you know or a stranger to church with you. Grow the body.
Where else in your life can you live out the teachings of Christ? Look for next week’s Devotion.