Jump Start # 86

Matthew 28:1 “Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.”

  Resurrection day—this is the setting of our passage today. It’s early in the morning, the ground is wet, and it is just getting light outside. The women have been busy. They have gathered spices to anoint the body of Jesus. His rapid burial did not allow Joseph and Nicodemus time to take care of the body as it is generally done. The women came to do that. They expected to find Jesus there. In one of the Gospels they even ask, “who will roll the stone for us?”

  They will be surprised, as all the world will be, and especially Satan, to learn that Jesus has risen from the dead. He is simply not there. This is God’s exclamation point! Paul said Jesus was “declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection” (Rom. 1:4). This is why Sunday is special. This is why we call it “the Lord’s Day.” It is His day. This is when the disciples took the Lord’s Supper (Acts 20:7). Taking the Lord’s Supper on Saturday has no meaning. On Saturday Jesus is still in the grave. But things are different on Sunday. Up from the grave He arose.

  And who saw the risen Jesus first? It was a group of women. Women! Women, who were not permitted to testify in court. Women who have very few rights and privileges. Women whose thoughts and opinions were not sought after. Yet Jesus did not feel this way. The Samaritan at the well was a woman. The adulterous person that Jesus offered grace to was a woman. If this story was made up, women would have been excluded. What they saw and what they knew didn’t matter. If man who had written the story, credible doctors, lawyers would be seen showing up at the tomb. They would have a host of “important people” not someone like Mary, who once was possessed with seven demons. This shows that the story was not written by man, nor made up by man. This has a sense of rawness and genuineness about it. As we sometimes say, “We couldn’t make something up this good.”

  John tells us that Mary ran to tell Peter. She thought the Jews or the Romans had stolen the body. Luke tells us that two angels appeared to the women and declared “He is not here.” In Mark, the women were told “that He is risen.” Matthew shows the angels telling the women to “go quickly and tell the disciples that He is risen.” What a journey they took. Don’t you wish you could have witnessed the excitement as they told the disciples what had just happened?

  Sadly, most of the world has pushed all thoughts about the resurrection to what they call “Easter Sunday.” Other than that day, not much attention is made to Jesus’ resurrection. But for believers it changes everything. Death is not so painful because of the resurrection of Jesus. We know Christ wins and Satan is doomed because of the resurrection. Forgiveness that has been promised is realized in the resurrection. And most of all, because of the resurrection, we know that we will live on. Death is not the worst thing that can happen to a person. Living forever away from God is. The resurrection is our hope and assurance that we can spend forever with God. What a glorious thought. The women came to that grave, uncertain, maybe even scared, they left running to tell the good news! Resurrection has a way of doing that, even to us 

Roger