ANOTHER LOOK AT TROUBLING SCRIPTURES SURROUNDING JESUS’ DEATH AND RESURRECTION
By: Frank Tunstall, D. Min.
How do you think you would feel, dear reader, if you were commissioned by the Heavenly Father to witness Jesus on the cross as He breathed His last breaths? And that meant you and “many” others came out of your graves and were given opportunity to walk into Jerusalem? What if you recognized some of your old friends and acquaintances while in Jerusalem, and they recognized you?
Would you have wanted to go back to heaven and share your experience? Did you started saying, “Jesus did it; He really did it! He died on the cross to save anyone who will repent and accept Him as the Son of God! And mark my word! He’ll come out of His grave in three days too; the grave cannot hold Him. Not Him! Not the Jewel of heaven!”
“After his suffering, [Jesus] showed himself to [His disciples] and gave many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:1-3). Over the years I have wondered exactly what those “convincing proofs” were, but the Holy Spirit did not inspire Dr. Luke to record them. In the forty days between Jesus’ resurrection and His ascension, however, Dr. Luke did share that Jesus gave the disciples orders “by the Holy Spirit.” One of the roles of the Spirit is to teach people all things about Jesus.
Luke wrote Jesus taught “many things about the kingdom of God.” Many of us have wondered why the Holy Spirit did not place that teaching in the Holy Scriptures. I admit for a season of my life it bothered me. My conclusion now is the Lord gave that teaching to us indirectly, “by the Holy Spirit,” through the ministry of the apostles.
“Many holy people” were “raised to life” and came out of their graves when Jesus died. They walked into Jerusalem and “appeared to many people.” Of this we can be sure: resurrection power was already all over Jerusalem when Jesus took His last breath. We are not told what they said, but we do know what they did.
We don’t know anything Lazarus said either when he came out of the grave. But in his silence Lazarus was a forerunner of Jesus’s own resurrection, and so were these saints.
Consider the Lord’s conversation with Peter three days later, on resurrection morning. The Scriptures are silent about that visit. It follows we must love Jesus as much as ever and trust Him too if we never learn in this life the meaning of their discussion.
I am sure the gospel is deeper than my comprehension and wonder if the Holy Spirit put these episodes in the record so that they test our faith. Will we believe our Lord just as much and trust Him implicitly if in this life we never get the answer?
When I was a professor I taught my students the Bible has some mysteries (revelation not given to us yet). We must be willing to wait in faith, and even die in faith. I also shared with my classes that for me personally, I want to major in what the Bible majors and minor in what the Bible minors and have the wisdom to know the difference. And I told them there are times to learn from Jesus’ silence. Yes, silence can have meaning, too.
If I were teaching them today I would tell them it is possible we learn the Lord’s teaching indirectly, through the teaching and preaching of the apostles.
Pastors would do well to preach on these subjects showing them as tests of faith, i.e., we will love Jesus and trust Him if we never learn in this life the full meaning of those stories.
The saints coming out of their graves and going into Jerusalem on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion certainly point to the joy and excitement three days later when Jesus was raised from the dead. Resurrection power was all over Jerusalem that morning and no doubt lingered those three days, “waiting for the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). To appreciate what was happening we must embrace the Scripture, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9 KJV). This passage motivated me to say many times to my students, ‘What is ahead for us as the people of God is better than the best of anything in our past!’
I ask you again, what if you, dear reader, had been given the opportunity, like those saints, to come out of their graves and serve as silent witnesses of the awful price Jesus paid for our redemption? Then you went back to heaven and started sharing with all the saints who died in Christ that Jesus had made the sacrifice that would cover the sins of all people worldwide who repent and accept Him as the Son of God.
WOW! what a message you would have to share. “We were there; we saw Him on the cross. He has paid the ransom for all sin. And in three days He will be resurrected!’
