The Death and Resurrection of Jesus
This coming Sunday is Easter. Easter is the day we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, which is the basis for our faith in Jesus.
Last Sunday was Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into the city on a donkey to fulfill Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah. The people were waving palm branches and shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” They treated Jesus like he was a king.
During the time between Palm Sunday and Jesus’ resurrection a lot happened. He spent the week both teaching and healing people. Then on Thursday he had his disciples gather together to celebrate an important Jewish holiday, the Passover.
The Passover
The Passover celebrates God freeing Israel from slavery in Egypt. It is a reminder that the death angel passed over the homes of the Israelites because their doorframes were painted with the blood of a perfect lamb that had been sacrificed for their protection.
The Passover is also an illustration of how Jesus delivers us from slavery to our sin. The last day of his life Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples. We refer to this as the Last Supper. During the Last Supper he told them things that were going to happen. Afterwards they went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, and it was there that Jesus was arrested.
Jesus told the disciples that one of them was going to betray him. Judas was the one who betrayed Jesus. His heart wasn’t right and he didn’t understand who Jesus was and what he came to do. (Matthew 26:20)
While they were eating the Passover, Jesus took the bread, gave it to them and told them that it was his body. He then took the cup of wine and said that it was his blood poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin. (Matthew 26:26-28)
He warned them that many of his followers would fall away that night on account of him. He told Peter that Peter would deny him three times that night before the rooster crowed in the early morning hours. Peter said that he would never do that, but he did. (Matthew 26:31-32)
Gethsemane
After they ate, Jesus took the disciples to a garden called Gethsemane and asked his disciples to watch as he prayed. Jesus asked that the Father would take the cup of suffering from him if it were possible, but he also asked that God’s will be done, not his own. He knew what he was going to go through would be awful and personally he didn’t want to do it. However, he wanted to do what he was sent to do, which was to fulfill God’s will and save sinners. (Matthew 26:36-39)
While Jesus was in the garden praying, soldiers came and arrested him. Jesus was put on trial before the Sanhedrin where people came to say things about him that weren’t true. Before the high priest and religious leaders, Jesus said that he was the Savior (Christ), the Son of God. The leaders said he was speaking blasphemy, which means he spoke irreverently about God. Jesus was speaking the truth, but they said he was saying something about God that wasn’t true and showed a lack of reverence for who God is. (Matthew 26:63-68)
Because they didn’t have the authority to put Jesus to death, Jesus was taken before the Roman governor, Pilate. Pilate didn’t want to punish Jesus because he didn’t think Jesus had done anything wrong. So he decided to ask the people what he should do with him.
Some of the people who didn’t like Jesus started stirring up the crowd and got them to shout, “Crucify him, crucify him.” Remember at the beginning of the week the people had been shouting, “Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” What a change of heart occurred within a week. Because Pilate saw that the crowd was all worked up and getting out of control he turned Jesus over to the Roman soldiers to be beaten and crucified. (Matthew 27:15-26)
The soldiers made a man named Simon carry Jesus’ cross to a place called Golgotha. There they nailed Jesus to the cross and hung him between two criminals to die an awful, agonizing death.
Crucified
The physical pain of his death can’t even be compared to the spiritual pain of the people’s rejection of him as Lord and Savior. He gave his life for the forgiveness of the very people who were putting him to death. Showing his great love for all of us who have hurt and rejected him, he even asked the Father to forgive them as he hung on the cross.
At the moment that Jesus died, the earth shook, it grew very dark, and the curtain of the Jewish temple was torn into two pieces. The centurion and the other soldiers who were guarding Jesus got very frightened and thought that Jesus must really be the Son of God. (Matthew 27:50-54)
After Jesus died one of his friends, Joseph of Arimathea, asked for his body, took it down and put it in a tomb where a huge rock was rolled across the opening. Because the Jewish Sabbath (day of rest) was about to begin, Jesus’ friends couldn’t prepare his body for burial. They had to leave him there and couldn’t go back to the tomb until the Sabbath rest was over. (Matthew 27:57-60)
The Risen Christ
Early on the first day of the week after the Sabbath, the women who were Jesus’ friends went back to the tomb to properly prepare his body. Instead of finding the tomb as they left it, they found that the stone had been rolled away. To their surprise, an angel was there and Jesus’ body was not around. (Matthew 28:1-4)
The angel told Mary Magdalene and the other Mary that Jesus had risen from the dead just as he had said he would and that they were to go and tell the disciples. As the women were hurrying away from the tomb, Jesus appeared to them. (Matthew 28:5-7)
Even though Jesus had told them that he would rise from the dead, the disciples had not understood what he meant. It wasn’t until Jesus appeared to them that their minds were opened to understand fully what it was all about.
The resurrection of Jesus from the dead shows that he is the Son of the living God, overcame death, and is able to forgive sin. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, he wouldn’t be God and we would still be left without a sacrifice for our sin.
Without the resurrection we have no hope because Jesus wouldn’t be who he said he is. The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:13-14, If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
Testimony
Many people try to deny the resurrection of Jesus and call it a myth, by doing so they believe they can discredit Christianity. The disciples testified to the truth of what happened. They believed Jesus because they saw him alive after his death. They wrote down what they saw and heard. We can believe them because of the faithfulness of their testimony. They were willing to die for what they knew to be true. This Easter Sunday you, too, should be filled with joy because Jesus your Savior has risen from the dead and opened the way to life for you.
- Overview Questions: What happened when Jesus died? Why couldn’t the women find him in the tomb? How did the disciples know that Jesus rose from the dead?
- Thought Questions: Why is the resurrection of Jesus so important to our faith? What would be the result if the resurrection weren’t really true? How do we know the resurrection is true?
- Prayer: Thank Jesus that his resurrection shows that he is the Son of God and able to forgive sin. Thank him that he demonstrated the truth of the resurrection by appearing to so many people after his death. Thank him that you know he is alive by the changes that he makes in your life and in the lives of others who believe in him.
- Memory Verse: 1 Corinthians 15:13-14
How important is the resurrection of Jesus to our faith?
Our faith depends on the resurrection of Jesus.
13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.