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About David Jeffers David Jeffers writes for the Talon. He is a lay preacher, retired Army Master Sergeant and author of Understanding Evangelicals: A Guide to Jesusland. A Magna Cum Laude graduate of Liberty University where he received his degree in Biblical Studies, Mr. Jeffers frequently comments on the Evangelical perspective of current affairs in the media. Mr. Jeffers has published numerous articles on The New Media Journal and appears regularly on talk radio shows around the country. Mr. Jeffers is available for public speaking engagements.

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David Jeffers

“He Is Not Here”
April 12, 2009

To all of our Christian readers who are observing the Holy Day of the Ascension, we wish you a blessed holiday. To everyone, everywhere, we wish a Happy Easter.

She crept silently towards the garden and Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb where they had laid Jesus’ body.

 

She knew exactly where they laid His body; she had been with Him through it all. Unlike His Disciples, she had not abandoned Jesus. In fact she and Jesus’ mother Mary stayed for a while at the tomb that horrible night.

 

She and the other women had bought spices once the Sabbath was over. Now they were ready to finish the anointing of Jesus’ body.

 

As they arrive they see the stone that guarded the entrance to the tomb had been rolled away. The Pharisees and chief priests had insisted it be sealed and guarded by Roman soldiers.

 

Like any other soldiers throughout history these must have thought what a wasted night...it’s Saturday night and we’re stuck guarding some dead man. Little did they know...

 

There is a violent earthquake and an angel descends from heaven. Being at the epicenter of an earthquake is terrifying...seeing an angel is petrifying. This angel appeared as lighting and his clothing was white as snow.

 

The guards behold something supernatural; the angel rolls away the stone and then sits on it. That was all the Roman guards could take; they fainted. Battle-hardened soldiers are overcome by a glimpse of heaven.

 

Mary Magdalene is frightened because she feared the worse for Jesus’ body. Had someone stolen and defiled Him? She ran for all she had to find Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved. She tells Peter and John, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”

 

Peter and John take off for the tomb in a mad dash no longer concerned for their safety. John the younger one arrives at the tomb first but does not go in...he peers in and sees Jesus’ grave clothes laying there just as if a body had disappeared from within them. In fact, it had.

 

Peter arrives moments later and goes into the tomb. He too sees the miraculously abandoned grave clothes and he sees the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head neatly folded by itself. John finally enters the tomb, he sees what has happened and believes. Jesus has risen from the dead as He said He would. The disciples returned to their homes.

 

Mary returns to the garden alone and weeping. Where is her Lord?! She walks up to the tomb and looks in and to her amazement she sees two angels sitting at the head and feet of where Jesus had laid. Allow the Apostle John to recount Mary’s words:

 

Then they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”

 

She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.”

 

Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?”

 

She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.”

 

Jesus said to her, “Mary!”

 

She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher).

 

Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’” (John 20:13-17)

 

Mary runs back to the disciples to tell them she has seen the Risen Lord, but like most men in that era they do not believe her.

 

But what about the sleeping soldiers? They have finally awakened and realize what has happened. What would be their punishment for allowing this to happen? Death...the Apostle Matthew tells of what happened.

 

Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened. When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, saying, “Tell them, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.’ And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.” So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day. (Matthew 28:11-15)

 

Funny how no serious historian has ever disputed this account.

 

Jesus decides to show up on the road to Emmaus with Cleopas and his wife, disciples of His although they did not recognize their Resurrected Lord. Imagine the shock of these disciples as they recount to the stranger all that happened in Jerusalem and He rebukes them for their unbelief. And this amazing stranger gives them the greatest theology seminar on the Old Testament.

 

They invite the learned teacher to have dinner with them at their house and when He broke the bread and blessed it then they knew. It was Jesus and at that moment He vanished. No “thank you”, no instructions...just gone.

 

They excitedly realize to each other “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”

 

They hurry back to Jerusalem through the evening to tell the Disciples that they have seen the Risen Lord. The Eleven tell them...

 

“The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.” (Luke 24:34-35)

 

Jesus appears later to all but Thomas and the ten are terrified and frightened. Jesus literally walked through the walls...He has a new resurrection body. It was still flesh and bones. We who are born again will have the same body too, and like Jesus’ body ours will not be affected by nature or time. Jesus’ body still held the scars of a week ago and He still enjoyed a meal of fish and honeycomb.

 

How did he get such a body? Dr. H.L. Willmington writes:

 

Early that morning Jesus had told Mary to, “touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” (John 20:17). But here in the evening of that same day he invites the disciples to touch and handle him. Why the change? It is believed by many that he ascended that afternoon to present his blood to the Father for the sprinkling upon the mercy seat in the heavenly tabernacle. The debt of sin had now been officially paid.[i]

 

I do not know for sure how and when it happened; what is important is that it happened. Jesus had and has a resurrected body. Of course had you not been there it would be hard to believe; would you have believed? So why does Thomas get the historical moniker of Doubter? Would you not have said, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

 

A week later Jesus clears up all doubt for Thomas; He walks through a locked door. “Come here Thomas, see for yourself.” Thomas doesn’t need to put is finger into the mark in Jesus’ palm or put his hand into Jesus’ side. Seeing is believing, “My Lord and my God.”

 

Very good Thomas you believe; you had the benefit of seeing Jesus for yourself. But what about us? What do we have to go on? Jesus says I am blessed for believing without seeing, but what of the scoffers Jesus? How do I prove that You are real and the Scriptures are true?

 

Simple my believing friend...you don’t have to. The Great Commission doesn’t mean we get blessed based on commission because of how many we convince of Him.

 

Invite them to look into the empty tomb and hear the angel say,

 

“Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” (Matthew 28:5-6)

 

What does this special day mean to you? It doesn’t mean what the merchants are selling or what many churches are offering.

 

It means prophecy has been fulfilled and Jesus has triumphed! Don’t believe me? Have a look in the tomb where history records the burial.

 

He is not there...