Three Days in the Belly of the Earth

Dr. Walter Kaiser explains how Good Friday afternoon to Resurrection Sunday morning equals three days.

HT: Tim Challies

Sola5 Wednesday Recap - 10/15/08

This weekly topic is an effort to recap the Wednesday night Bible study I teach at Sola5, my youth group. I hope it serves to help us all in contemplating the ceaseless riches of God’s grace as revealed through the Scriptures.

Last night, we concluded our study of Christ’s resurrection by looking at John 20:11-18. Whereas last week we focused on the empty tomb and the many stories offered to explain it away, this week we focused on the reality of the resurrection - what it accomplished, and what it means for us as Christians. We begun by pondering the question, “If Jesus’ life is our example and Jesus’ death bought our forgiveness, then why does the resurrection matter?” What does Jesus’ resurrection have to do with our faith? Is it just a tag-on happy ending to the more-important crucifixion? What we found is that there indeed is no more important reality in our faith than the resurrection, because without it our faith lacks any real power and our evangelism lacks any real authority.

First off, we looked at the resurrection as a demonstration of power. God, in raising Christ from the dead, did something that is impossible by human means. Christ’s power was seen here more clearly than ever before. Look at Mary Magdalene’s reaction to the empty tomb. The fact that Christ is alive has not even registered with her brain. She is distraught that his body has been stolen or moved, despite even seeing angels flanking the empty tomb. She doesn’t recognize Jesus when he appears to her. Plainly put, resurrection isn’t something that anyone plans to see. I fear, in a way, that we’ve all become so familiar with declaring that Jesus rose from the dead that we’ve lost the incredible nature of that claim. What happened in that moment was the ultimate display of divine power - the shattering of the force that we humans, for all our ingenuity, are powerless to overcome - death.

But why the display? Was God just showing off? Was this the divine equivalent of a rabbit out of a hat? By no means. To truly understand the purpose, we need to look at a parallel event from Jesus’ ministry in Luke 5:17-26. In that section, a paralyzed man is brought to Jesus for healing, and Jesus responds by pronouncing his sins forgiven. The Pharisees are outraged and essentially protest, “Who do you think you are? You can’t forgive sins! That’s God’s business.” Jesus fully anticipates what they’re getting at. Anyone can say, “Your sins are forgiven.” How can we know that it’s true? Christ responds by saying, “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins, get up and walk.” Christ performs a physical miracle as a demonstration of the power that he has over sin. The resurrection does the same thing. I could say that I’m going to throw myself in front of a bus and die for your sins, and I could indeed throw myself in front of a bus – but how can you believe that I’ve bought you cosmic forgiveness? What evidence would there be that I had delivered on my promise? The resurrection is the evidence that Christ has accomplished what he said he would do – seek and save that which is lost. He said as much himself in John 2:18-22.

But the resurrection is not only a demonstration of power, it’s also a declaration of authority. Notice Christ’s focus once he reveals himself to Mary. He speaks of ascending to the father repeatedly. Why the focus on his ascension? After all, the disciples don’t even know he’s alive yet! Philippians 2:8-11 fills us in about the significance of Christ’s exaltation – which began with his resurrection and continued with his ascension to the Father’s right hand – the ultimate position of authority. He stands now above all things, and all men must answer to him – all must one day bow. Christ’s resurrection and exaltation is what establishes him as not one religious leader among many, but as Lord of the universe.

And consider the tremendous effect that has on us as Christians – specifically, on our evangelism. Look at Paul’s exhortation to Titus in Titus 2:11-15. He encourages him to proclaim the gospel of salvation in Christ, and to do so “in all authority. Let no one disregard you.” He tells Titus that his preaching – his exhortations and rebukes – carry ultimate authority and he should preach accordingly. How can he say that? Who is Titus? How can I say to all people when I preach, “You must trust in Jesus Christ in order to have peace with God?” I have no authority. But I don’t proclaim my own authority, I proclaim Christ’s authority, which he has clearly demonstrated by rising from the dead. All people must answer to him. The exclusivity of the gospel would be arrogant (as the world often accuses) if I invented it. However, the authority of the gospel doesn’t rest in me, but in the risen Christ.

Presented with this picture, we all must decide what to do with the authority of Christ – the triumphant conquering king of Revelation 19. Will you reject and fight against it, as many do, or will you embrace it, and take refuge in him as your mighty fortress? There is no more important thing that you will ever consider in your life. Not because I say so, but because the one who died but is alive forevermore said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.”

Sola5 Wednesday Recap - 8/20/08

This weekly topic is an effort to recap the Wednesday night Bible study I teach at Sola5, my youth group. I hope it serves to help us all in contemplating the ceaseless riches of God’s grace as revealed through the Scriptures.

Last night, we continued our “You Asked For It” Q&A series with another question about the trustworthiness of the Christian message. After examining the truthfulness of the Bible last week, we now looked at the question “Can we trust that the resurrection is true?” Without a doubt, there is no more foundational belief for Christians than the belief that Christ has been bodily raised from the dead. Paul makes this very clear in 1 Corinthians 15, which we read as our call to worship to open last night’s Sola5 study. If Christ has not been raised, then we have no hope that our sins are forgiven or that we will live again also when this life is over. Plainly put, if Jesus is still dead, then we are a sorry bunch of fools. However, many have alleged that the four gospel accounts contain inconsistencies and cannot be trusted to be anything more than inspirational fiction. Do we see hopelessly contradictory accounts, or four individuals each giving their own take on the same events, highlighting different details that stuck out in their own minds? We tackled some of the biggest “problems” head on and examined why we should believe that Jesus of Nazareth returned to life after being dead and buried.

After reading the four accounts of the resurrection (Matthew 28:1-10, Mark 16:1-8, Luke 24:1-12, and John 20:1-10), we looked at some of the most frequent criticisms of the text. First up, did the events described occur before or after sunrise? Mark indicates that that sun had risen while John says that it was still dark. The most obvious answer is that these two descriptions are not mutually exclusive. The sun does not flip on like a lightswitch, but anyone who is up for the sunrise (as, unfortunately, I often am) knows full well that the sun can be rising and it can also be quite dark outside, especially without the aid of electrical lights. That aside, the journey that the women take on foot from Jerusalem to the tomb would have likely taken half-an-hour at the very least – enough time for the lighting to change substantially, as reflected by Matthew’s description that it was toward dawn when the events took place. The next question – how many women and angels were at the tomb? The number of women named varies from 1 to 3, while the number of angels differs from one to two. However, the fact that certain women or angels were not mentioned doesn’t necessarily indicate that they weren’t there. For example, if you were to ask me what Heather and I did a week ago, I would tell you that we saw Brooks & Dunn and ZZ Top in concert. However, if you consulted the newspaper, you would find that we actually saw Brooks & Dunn, ZZ Top, and a guy named Rodney Atkins in concert. Was I lying when I left Atkins' name off my description? No, I was just leaving out a detail I didn’t find personally important to my telling of the story. We all do this all the time. The gospel writers aren’t seeking to give exhaustive details, but to tell the story as they remember it (or in the case of Mark and Luke, as it was told to them).

The last alleged contradiction we looked at was the one requiring the most thought – if Mary Magdalene had already seen the angels and the risen Jesus as described in Matthew 28, why does she seem worried and confused about the body being taken in John 20? The answer requires that we carefully examine what each writer is (and isn’t) saying. Matthew reports the women who went to the tomb, then simply refers to them as a group when they enter the tomb and see the angels and Jesus. However, John – who mentions only Mary Magdalene – points out that she fled the tomb immediately after seeing that the stone was gone, heading back to find Peter and John. This has a great effect on how we view the timeline of events. Matthew Perman and Justin Taylor have put together a detailed description here, but I’ll summarize: while the women see the angels and then Jesus, Mary tells Peter and John and the three of them set out for the tomb. While the rest of the women are looking for the rest of the disciples back in Jerusalem, Peter, John and Mary arrive at the tomb, and after Peter and John leave Mary has her famous encounter with Christ where she mistakes him for the gardener.

A careful look shows that the so-called contradictions in the gospel accounts actually have quite plausible explanations. When one considers the validity of the resurrection, one should also consider the wide scholarly acceptance of the empty tomb (Rome and the Jewish leaders wanted badly to extinguish Christianity – if the tomb wasn’t empty all they had to do was produce the body - game over) and the fact that 10 of the 11 disciples died violent deaths for their unwavering testimony to Christ’s resurrection and the 11th, John, didn’t get off for a lack of effort (he was tortured repeatedly and eventually banished to a remote island). People don’t often die for that which they know to be a lie, especially so many without exception. However, at the end of the day, no one will ever be intellectually argued into the Kingdom of Christ. Why? Because lack of information isn’t our problem – sin is. Christ himself said that we could not have faith in him apart from the work of the Spirit of God. Faith can only result from God’s free gift, and all the mental evidence and theory in the world means nothing until the heart of stone is exchanged for the heart of flesh. Thus, while it is important that we think carefully and critically about the Scriptures, we must always remember that our trust is in Christ because of the change he’s made in us. We can’t miss the forest for the trees. As my good friend Josh Nelson put it last night, thought many people alledge inconsistencies in the gospel accounts, the four accounts undoubtedly agree on one pretty important point – Jesus did rise from the dead.