Passion Week – Day #11

Matthew 28:1 “Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.”

Mark 16:1 “When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Him.”

Luke 24:1 “But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.”

John 20:1 “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.”

And so begins a day that is full of controversy.

There is much that can be said about this day. If you remember from the very first post on March 28, “What Is Passion Week,” I mentioned The Easter Challenge that was made by an atheist. Is it possible to reconcile all four accounts for this day to say for certain what happened? I would like to try, but this post would be forever long. For the sake of brevity, I’ll just hit some highlights. Maybe some other time I can take The Easter Challenge. In the meantime, let’s look at a controversy about the resurrection and it begins with verse one of the chapters above.

Right off the bat, you can see that Matthew mentions two women, Mark says there were three, Luke doesn’t give a number but says ‘they’, and John only says that Mary went to the tomb. Later, Luke names three women and says there were others with them (so, at least five?). Is this a problem? No. Not from a biblical point of view. The problem comes from not understanding what the inerrancy of Scripture means. It does not mean that every event mentioned in the Bible has to be identical. The writers are telling things from their point of view. When Paul says that all Scripture is theopneustos, or God-breathed, it does not mean that God dictated to each writer what they were supposed to write. They all still had their own personalities and traits that come out in their writings. Luke was a physician, so we see things that a doctor would notice. Peter said that Paul’s writings were hard to understand. That’s probably because Paul was highly educated and spoke from his vast knowledge. Those without the equivalent knowledge might struggle to understand what Paul is saying, which is what Peter was talking about. I mentioned Cold Case Christianity before. From a detective’s point of view, you don’t want to hear identical stories from the witnesses. It means they rehearsed the story and it puts doubt on its veracity.

There’s so much more to say about all of the details of the day, but let’s get back to the resurrection. As was mentioned yesterday, the resurrection more likely happened just before sundown on the Sabbath about the same time that He was put in the tomb the Wednesday before, making it three full days and nights that He was in the ground. However, the tomb wasn’t opened until the earthquake that rolled the stone back (Matt 28:2). Notice that the other three Gospels say that the women found the stone rolled back when they got there (Mark 16:4, Luke 24:2, John 20:1). Obviously if the women felt the earthquake and saw the stone roll back in their presence, then they would have seen Him exit the tomb. But He was already gone. Where did He go? And if the resurrection happened before sundown, what was He doing?

1 Peter 3:18-20a “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared.”

These verses have been used to say that Yeshua went to hell to preach to the dead while He was in the grave. I don’t think that is correct for a couple of reasons. The Bible is clear that when we die, we sleep until the resurrection. The Messiah is no different. He was asleep for three days and nights until he arose at the end of the Sabbath. It was then that He went to preach to the spirits in prison. And that’s the second reason it is incorrect to say that He preached to the dead. Peter clearly says that He preached to the spirits who disobeyed in Noah’s time. Remember, Hebrews 9:27 says it is appointed once to die and then be judged. The dead cannot have a second chance at salvation. They made their choice while alive. And Peter doesn’t say the Messiah preached to the spirits but rather He proclaimed to them. The spirits are the fallen angels that lead man astray in Noah’s time. God said that all mankind’s thoughts were evil all the time (Genesis 6:5). The fallen angels taught them that, and God imprisoned them because of it. But they all knew the promise God made to Adam and Eve, to send One who would crush the head of Satan. Yeshua rose from the grave and descended to proclaim to the spirits of disobedience that He was the ONE who was promised, the Son of God, and He had just conquered the grave.

By now, the women had seen the empty tomb and wondered what happened. Some may have left before seeing the Messiah. The angels mentioned in the synoptic gospels tell the women He is risen and to go tell the Disciples. John tells it differently. He says that Mary saw the empty tomb and ran to tell Peter and John. They all three ran back to the tomb, and after finding it empty, Peter and John returned home but Mary stayed. That’s when the Messiah appeared to her alone. John is also the only one to record this tidbit. Matthew says that Yeshua met the women after they left the angels and they held His feet and worshipped Him (Matt 28:8-9). But John says that Yeshua told Mary not to cling to Him because He had not yet ascended to the Father (John 20:17). Why is that? It’s because of First Fruits.

Leviticus 23:9-11 “And YHWH spoke to Moses, saying, 10 ‘Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, 11 and he shall wave the sheaf before YHWH, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it.”

Paul told the Corinthians that the Messiah was the firstfruits of the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20). According to Leviticus 23, that would be the sheaf of firstfruits from the harvest of the dead. It is to be waved before YHWH “so that you may be accepted.” “On the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it.” It is now the day after the Sabbath. He is the sheaf of the harvest. He is also the new High Priest. And He is the only one who has descended from heaven, so He is the only one who can ascend. John 3:13 “No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” Now was the time for Him to ascend to heaven, to present His firstfruits offering to the Father as the High Priest, to wave it before YHWH and have His offering accepted. As a priest, He had to be clean without defilement to present Himself before the Father. That is why Mary couldn’t cling to Him.

So, while Mary and the other women went to tell the Disciples about His resurrection, He ascended to the Father to return later that day to meet two disciples walking home to Emmaus. Luke is the only one to record the events on the Road to Emmaus. (Can you guess where our namesake came from?) You can read the full story in Luke 24:13-35. One of the two disciples is named Clopas. John 19:25 says that the wife of Clopas was at the cross with John and the other women. Her name is Mary and she is the sister of Mary the mother of Yeshua. It’s interesting that they are both named Mary. It could be that they have similar names that both translate to English as Mary, but some have suggested that they were half-sisters. Regardless, Mary is the wife of Clopas. It makes sense that Clopas would be walking home to Emmaus with his wife, so the second, unnamed disciple would be Mary. Most people just assume that the two disciples were men, but that’s most likely not the case.

While walking with the Messiah, Clopas tells the stranger walking with them all of the events leading up to the crucifixion. And herein lies one of the controversies of the Wednesday timeline. In Luke 24:21, Clopas concludes that “it is now the third day since these things happened.” The third day from Wednesday would be Saturday, not Sunday. But Friday doesn’t work either. The word ‘since’ means a separation of time. If the crucifixion was on Friday, you wouldn’t say that Friday was the first day since Friday. Even with the reckoning of a partial day counting as the whole, the word since means it would be a day removed. Saturday would be one day since the Friday crucifixion, making Sunday the second day. If Sunday is the third day since something happened, then the day that something happened would be Thursday. I don’t know how to reconcile it any other way. However, the next thing Clopas mentions is that some women went early in the morning to find the tomb empty (Luke 24:22). Could it be that Clopas was telling the story up to the end of the Sabbath and then recounted that it was the third day in reference to the Messiah saying He would raise in three days? And then he continued the story to where the women found the tomb empty and that gave them all pause to think if it could possibly be true. I mean, the Messiah mentioned many times that He would rise from the dead on the third day. Maybe Clopas put the third-day comment in the story to say that the three days were passed and nothing had happened. And then the morning happened and they are all confused. And consider this, after Clopas recounted that the women found the tomb empty and then the men went and found it just the same, not seeing Yeshua, it was then that Yeshua interrupted Clopas and called them foolish and slow of heart to believe what the prophets had spoken (Luke 24:25). He indeed had risen on the third day, but He had things to do in the depths. And He had to ascend to the Father to present His offering. No one except Mary had seen Him since His resurrection until these two met Him on the road to Emmaus. Because no one had seen Him even though the angels said He was alive, they still had their doubts. Seeing is believing, and no one was seeing Him yet.

So they traveled on until they got to their home. Along the way, the Messiah went through Moses and the prophets and how it all was concerning Him. It wasn’t until they sat down for a meal and He broke bread that they recognized Him. And He disappeared. They ran back to Jerusalem to tell the others, and that’s when Yeshua appeared in the room with them and they all believed. Except for Thomas. It would be eight days later before Thomas saw the Messiah and believed (John 20:26-28).

That’s it for the first day of the week. There’s plenty more to say about this day, but this post is very long. I hope you enjoyed it. And I hope you enjoyed the entire series.

Enjoy the Feast of First Fruits.  It’s a blessed day to celebrate His resurrection.

He Is Risen! (And all the believers say…)