Tomb: Day 7

"When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb."

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We must never forget that before the resurrection occurred, the cross was everything but victorious. Friday was everything but Good Friday. What sickness must have been in the hearts of these two women as they watched the limp body of Jesus laid in the tomb! What wind must have been knocked out of the disciples as the stone was rolled in front of the tomb! They had placed every last ounce of hope in Christ and the kingdom that he promised to establish. They had entered into Jerusalem just five days ago with their heads held high as their Master was praised with palm branches as King. And now those same heads wagged with shame over the complete humiliation of that King.  

What happened? Where did things go wrong? Did evil / sin / the devil win? Why didn’t God protect his Holy One from corruption? Why didn’t God preserve the honor of his Son? Maybe Jesus wasn’t the Holy One after all. Maybe he wasn’t the Son. Maybe all this religion stuff really is just a load of bull after all.

Doubts of this nature surely passed through some, if not all, of the disciples’ minds. The overwhelming mood of the disciples before the news of the resurrection is one of complete shock. They can’t remember a thing Jesus said about coming back from the dead (Jn 20:9). All they know is that the person they had come to love above all things was gone.

We have all felt it in some measure, that void that is left when a loved one dies. The thought, “But you were just here.” The thought that just yesterday there was life in that body that is now so cold. The disciples had left everything and followed Christ. He had become their everything. And now – he was simply gone.

But there is always that disbelief, that strange hope when we lose a loved one, that we will find them still sitting in their favorite recliner when we return home, that we will see them pulling up in the driveway for a visit when we look out the window. But then, of course, we realize such hope is in vain – we’ve forgotten that our beloved is no longer there. And what grief when the realization comes!

Perhaps the disciples were experiencing the same strange “foolish” hope concerning Jesus, thinking that they would find him just around the corner chewing out a Pharisee or see him reclining at the dinner table at Lazarus’ house in Bethany. For the disciples, however, that hope wasn’t so foolish. In just another couple of days, their Beloved would, indeed, be just around the corner. He would actually be eating and drinking with them again.

Now behold, I tell you a mystery – because Jesus came back from the dead, so too may your loved one.

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1. What was the initial response of the disciples when Jesus was crucified? What do you think Mary and Martha thought as they sat opposite the sealed tomb?
2. Did Jesus expect to die? Resurrect? How do you know?
3. Why is the work of the cross incomplete if Jesus stays dead in the tomb?
4. Why does Jesus’ resurrection from the dead give us hope that we and our loved ones may rise from the dead? What verses support that belief?

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