Reflection: What happened to Jesus that first Easter?
The authority of Jesus’ teaching and the miracles he performed caused the Jewish religious leaders to feel threatened, so they plotted to kill him. One of the disciples, Judas, betrayed Jesus into the hands of the authorities. Jesus was arrested, tried in a Jewish court, then taken to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent and did not deserve death, so he had him whipped and beaten in the hope that this would satisfy the Jewish leaders. However, the leaders still insisted that Jesus be crucified. To keep the peace, Pilate agreed. Jesus was then paraded through the city to the place of execution outside the city walls. There, he was impaled on a wooden cross and left to die.
At the precise moment when Jesus died, the curtain that separated people from the presence of God in the temple was ripped from top to bottom. This was how God signified that the way was now open for people to come to him. Jesus had paid the price for everyone’s sins on a cross. Two influential men from the Jewish council then wrapped Jesus’ body in strips of cloth and laid him in a freshly cut tomb. When they had finished, they rolled a heavy stone over the entrance. This occurred on a Friday evening.
Nothing happened during the next day, as the religious feast of Passover was being celebrated.
On Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene and some other women went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body more thoroughly in preparation for his permanent burial. When they arrived, however, they found that the stone covering the tomb had been rolled away. An angel of God told Mary that Jesus had been raised from death! She was amazed and ran back to tell the disciples. Very reasonably, they didn’t believe her, but two of them (Peter and John) ran to the tomb and saw that it was empty – except for the folded grave clothes.
Over the next forty days, Jesus appeared to his followers a number of times – on one occasion to over 500 of them! As he met with the disciples, he commissioned them to go into the world and tell people about him so that everyone could put their faith in him and be saved. Before the disciples went on mission, however, Jesus asked them to remain in Jerusalem until they had been empowered by God’s Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit would remind them of everything Jesus had taught them and give them the spiritual gifts (abilities) they needed to be effective missionaries.
Finally, the time came for Jesus to leave his disciples so that they could get on with their ministry. Jesus met with them just east of Jerusalem. After reminding them of their mandate to be his missionaries, he was taken up from the earth before their very eyes – up into the sky until a cloud obscured him from their sight. The disciples didn’t know what to make of this until two angels spoke to them. The angels assured them that Jesus would come back in a similar fashion at the end of time to begin God’s eternal kingdom.
Prayer:
How amazing, Jesus, that you invaded human history in order to show us what our Father God is like. I am so overwhelmed and grateful that you died on the cross, Jesus, to pay the price for my sins that would otherwise keep me from you.