The Murder of Jesus - Conclusion

Jesus’ body was wrapped like a mummy and laid in a tomb with a large rock over the entrance. 

At the prompting of the Jewish leaders, Pilate sent Roman soldiers to seal the tomb and to stand guard for three days.  They remembered Jesus’ prediction of rising from the dead, and they thought the disciples might steal the body then claim that he was alive.

Meanwhile some women hoped to anoint Jesus’ body with spices and perfume.  They didn’t have time earlier due to his hasty entombment, plus the arrival of the Sabbath on which they did no work.

Now it was dawn on the first day of the week.  Suddenly there was a violent earthquake as an angel of the Lord came down from heaven.  His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were bright white.  The guards were so afraid that they dropped like dead men.  The angel went to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.

Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome got up early to go to the tomb.  They wanted to anoint Jesus’ body, but they wondered how they would get the stone moved from the entrance.  Upon their arrival they saw that the stone was already moved.

When they looked inside, instead of Jesus’ body they saw a young man dressed in a white robe.

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said.  “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  Look, he is not here!  He has risen!  Now go, tell his disciples, and Peter, that he will meet them in Galilee.”

They were still in shock when suddenly two men in clothes bright as lightning stood beside them.  The women bowed with their faces to the ground, but the men said, “Why do you look for the living among the dead.  He is not here; he has risen!  Remember, he told you all this beforehand, how he would be crucified, then resurrected on the third day.”

Yes, they remembered, and they were overwhelmed.  They ran from the tomb and said nothing at first.  What could they say?  It was unbelievable.

Meanwhile, Mary Magdalene ran to tell Peter and John.  She said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

So they sprinted to the tomb.  What they found instead of Jesus’ mummy-wrapped body was strips of linen lying there.  And there was the burial cloth from his head, folded up by itself. 

Peter and John went back home, but Mary stood outside the tomb, crying.  As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb – and saw two angels seated where Jesus’ body had been.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away, and I don’t know where they have put him.”

At this point she turned around and saw a man standing there, who looked like the gardener.  He said, “Woman, why are you crying?  Who are you looking for?”

“Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

Then he called her by name, “Mary.”

Suddenly she realized it was Jesus, alive and well!  She shouted, “Rabboni!” (which means teacher).

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father.  Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Jesus also appeared to a group of women who had come to the tomb and found it empty.  They knelt before him and worshiped him.  He said, “Do not be afraid.  Go and tell my brothers I will meet them in Galilee.”

Meanwhile the Roman guards went back into Jerusalem and told the Jewish leaders the whole story about the angel rolling the stone away.  The chief priests and the elders came up with a plan.  They gave the soldiers a large bribe and a story to tell. 

“You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.”

“But we’ll be in trouble for sleeping on duty.”

“Don’t worry.  If this makes it back to the governor, we’ll take care of it.”

The word was spreading now, and the women reported what they saw to the disciples, who found it all hard to believe.

Later that day a man named Cleopas and a friend were walking to the village of Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.  As they discussed what had been going on, Jesus himself came up and joined them, but did not reveal who he was.

Jesus asked what they were talking about, and Cleopas was shocked.  “You don’t know what’s been going on there, all this with Jesus of Nazareth?”

Jesus said, “Isn’t this exactly what the prophets foretold?”  And as they walked along Jesus revealed to them all the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah.

At Emmaus they urged the stranger to eat with them.  At the table Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, and broke it.  At this point their eyes were opened and they suddenly recognized – it was Jesus!  And just as suddenly, he disappeared.

They were so excited!  They said, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us on the road as he opened the Scriptures to us?”

They immediately returned to Jerusalem and found the disciples.  They told the whole story, but the disciples didn’t believe it.

While they were still talking about it, suddenly Jesus appeared in the room with them.  They thought he was a ghost, so he said, “Touch me and see.  A ghost does not have flesh and bones like this.”

He rebuked them for not believing that he was alive, and pointed out how everything had happened just as the Old Testament prophecies foretold.  Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.

They still had doubts, so he asked for something to eat.  They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he ate it right there in front of them.

Now Thomas was not in the room that evening, and he doubted their story.  He said, “Unless I touch the nail marks in his hands and the wound in his side, I won’t believe it.”

A week later they were all together behind locked doors once again, and Jesus appeared.  He said to Thomas, “See my hands?  Put your finger here.  Reach out your hand and put it in my side.  Stop doubting and believe.”

Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Then Jesus said, “Because you have seen me, you have believed.  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

After his resurrection Jesus appeared to hundreds of people over a period of 40 days, offering many convincing proofs that he was indeed alive.  He restored Peter.  He delivered the Great Commission, and told them to go to Jerusalem to wait for the Holy Spirit.

Finally one day he led them out near the village of Bethany.  He taught them, then lifted his hands and blessed them.  While he was blessing them, he was taken up before their very eyes until a cloud hid him from their sight.

As they looked intently up into the sky, suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.  “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky?  This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

(As heard on Wave 94.1 FM)

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The timeline of these events was taken from “The Narrated Bible in Chronological Order” with narration by F. LaGard Smith, published by Harvest House.

Interesting point:  Some people ask why Jesus didn’t appear to the Jewish leaders, or even the Roman leaders.  I don’t know, but I like what it says in Acts 10:41, that Jesus was seen “by witnesses whom God had already chosen.”  So whoever Jesus appeared to, we know one thing.  They were exactly the people God had chosen to see the risen Christ.