This is part of a series of meditations on what Scripture teaches about each day of Holy Week, which goes from Palm Sunday until Easter, in which Christians everywhere mark the culmination of Jesus Christ’s ministry, His death on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead.

Previous posts:

• Prelude
• Palm Sunday
• Holy Monday
• Holy Tuesday Part 1
• Holy Tuesday Part 2
• Holy Wednesday
• Maundy Thursday
• Good Friday
• Holy Saturday

“I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol; I shall redeem them from Death. O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes.”

-Hosea 13:14, ESV

“On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.  And he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.  He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.  It will be said on that day, ‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.’”

-Isaiah 25:6-9, ESV

“I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.  Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.  For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.  You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

-Psalms 16:8-11, ESV

Easter Sunday began like any other day for the Jews, but it was unlike any other day.  Before dawn, while the disciples were still cowering in fear, the tomb of Jesus became no longer occupied.  The guards and seal that were more than adequate to prevent any human efforts to remove Jesus from the tomb were powerless against Jesus Himself.  The world changed when Jesus Christ rose from the dead, walking out of His own grave under His own power.  This had to happen, since it would have been unjust for the righteous Jesus to remain dead, just as David prophesied a thousand years prior: “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption” (Psalm 16:10).  Jesus had always obeyed God (Psalm 16:8) and so God justly raised Him and welcomed Him back to His Right Hand (Psalm 16:11, 110:1).  The doom that overshadows everyone had swallowed Jesus, but Jesus had slain death from the inside and emerged victorious to turn the tables and swallow death instead (Isaiah 25:6-7) by proving His dominion over death.  So by rising from the dead, Jesus redeems people from the power and fear of death (Hosea 13:14a, Hebrews 2:14-15).  As a result, those who are in Christ are not doomed to fear death but can instead taunt death: “O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting?” (Hosea 13:14b).  After the resurrection, death while still potent is defanged and defeated.  Subservient to Christ, death becomes for the believer the usher that will one day guide us into the presence of God, who will wipe away every tear (Isaiah 25:8). 

The Tomb is Empty

But the women were unaware of this as they walked to the tomb early that morning.  For the women, it made perfect sense to go on Sunday morning to the place they had left the body of Jesus on Friday evening and continue the work of burial that they had begun at that time.  I’m not sure if it was out of immense dedication or distraction from fear of the Jews that they made this journey without figuring out how they would move the large stone.  But as soon as they arrived, they found a scene very different from the one they had left less than 48 hours prior.  Instead of a sealed tomb, the stone was rolled aside and the tomb was empty.  Instead of standing guard, the soldiers were lying on the ground unconscious with two angels standing there instead.  One of those angels then told them their search for the body of Jesus was futile.  Jesus had to rise from the dead on Easter Sunday, so the angel pointed out the absurdity of women’s quest by rhetorically asking why they were seeking the living among the dead.  They still didn’t fully grasp it, since the women ask where the body of Jesus has been moved to.  Even with the empty tomb, they did not immediately realize that Jesus had to rise from the dead, so it was not their immediate and obvious conclusion.  But He had to rise, and it had to be on the third day, not logically but biblically.  Since the prophets and Jesus Himself had said that He would rise on the third day, it was absurd to think that the tomb would not be empty on the third day. 

Still, it is surprising that the Easter Sunday narrative begins this way in all four Gospels.  There have been many comments as to why God chose to reveal the resurrection to these women first, but we often forget about what is not being described in this narrative: the resurrection itself.  Every other resurrection in Scripture is described as it happens, but we have no description of the actual resurrection of Jesus.  All we have is an occupied tomb on Saturday that is empty by Sunday morning, with angels declaring that the tomb was empty because of the resurrection.  No one witnessed this resurrection, expect perhaps the soldiers.  However, since the soldiers became unconscious, it is safe to say that if they did witness it, they only saw the first split second of it, so no one witnessed the full event.  Was there a bright and dazzling light as the spirit of Jesus was reunited with His body?  How was the stone rolled away?  Did the Holy Spirit descend into the open tomb as a dove and rest on the body of Jesus there?  Did Jesus walk out of the tomb physically or did He just disappear?  If He walked out, did He strut victoriously then stand for bit to savor this moment of triumph?  We don’t know because no one saw it.  Since God orchestrated all of the events of Holy Week, we can conclude that for whatever reason God meant for no one to see the resurrection itself.  Thus, the actual event of the resurrection will remain a mystery to us just as our ultimate resurrection is mysterious (1 Corinthians 15:35-56).

Go and Tell

While we cannot know the reason why God chose that the resurrection of Jesus would be witnessed by no one, one major reason may be so that we would rely not on testimony of a certain event but on Scripture itself.  If anyone had seen the resurrection happen, it would have been valuable for that person but no one else.  Everyone else would have had to depend on their testimony.  Instead, we must depend on Scripture and then tell others what Scripture says, since God promises that Scripture will be effective for everyone (2 Timothy 3:16-17, Hebrews 4:12-13).  Therefore, as soon as the angel told the women that Jesus had risen, he gave them a mission: go and tell.  Jesus Himself didn’t appear to any of them until they had already told the disciples, and even then He only appeared to Mary Magdalene.  This means that Jesus chose to use their testimony rather than physical appearance to spread the good news of the resurrection.  That in essence is the Gospel, going and telling people that Jesus has risen from the dead, so we should obey the angels and follow the example of these women: we should go and tell.

The Resurrection IS the Gospel

So often we reduce the Gospel to “Jesus died for our sins”.  This both ignores the necessity of Christ’s life of active obedience and downplays the fact that Jesus didn’t stay dead.  The resurrection is so crucial to the Gospel that Paul says if it didn’t occur our faith is futile and we are still dead in sin (1 Corinthians 15:17), making us worthy of utmost pity for betting our eternity on false hope (1 Corinthians 15:19).  But since Christ has been raised as the firstfruits of the dead, we have assurance not only of our salvation—since the resurrection is a symbol of God’s acceptance of Christ’s redeeming work—but also of our eventual resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20-22).  Just as Adam’s death was imputed to all in the human race, Jesus’ resurrection is imputed to all who by faith are welcomed into His regenerated human race.  Because our resurrection is assured in Christ, our mortal bodies must put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:53), giving us the confidence to taunt death with Isaiah 25:8 and Hosea 13:14—which Paul quotes in 1 Corinthians 15:54-55.  Where is death’s victory?  Swallowed up by the fact that we are hidden in Christ and thus died with Him and rose with Him (Colossians 3:2-4).  Where is death’s sting?  “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:56-57).  Death is dead because Jesus is alive, so we say “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation” (Isaiah 25:9).

CHRIST IS RISEN…HE IS RISEN INDEED!