PASSION WEEK SERIES: RESTING

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

Luke 23:50-56

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

It was the day after Jesus’ crucifixion and the Jewish Sabbath, a holy day commanded by God to be set aside for worship, for family time, and for resting.

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were resting after receiving Jesus’ body from Pontius Pilate and preparing the body for burial in accordance with Jewish customs before placing it in a tomb and putting a large stone in place to cover the entrance.

Some of the women who had followed Jesus through much of His ministry work were resting, awaiting the opportunity at daybreak to go to the tomb and anoint Jesus’ body with spices and perfumes they had prepared the day He was crucified after being at the tomb when Joseph and Nicodemus placed Jesus within.

And of course, Jesus’ was very much at rest in the tomb before He would come back to life, emerge from the grave, and make appearances to others.

How can we be sure Jesus was resting?

We can rewind to two separate incidents when He displayed the power to resurrect others.

The first one involved the daughter of Jairus, a Jewish synagogue leader. Look at this passage from the Gospel of  Matthew:

While He was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before Him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put Your hand on her, and she will live.” Jesus got up and went with him, and so did His disciples.

When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, He said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at Him. After the crowd had been put outside, He went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up.  Matthew 9:18-19, 23-25

Did you catch the words of Jesus?

“The girl is not dead but asleep.”

The crowds who had gathered at Jairus’ house laughed and must have thought Jesus was crazy because of what He said. That is until He went into the room where the girl laid, took her by the hand, and she got up, very much alive.

And then there was the miracle resurrection act Jesus performed on His good friend, Lazarus. John shared this account in His Gospel:

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped His feet with her hair.)

So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one You love is sick.”

When He heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was two more days, and then He said to His disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone You, and yet You are going back?”

Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.” After He had said this, He went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but His disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

So then He told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” John 11:1-15

Jesus had received word sent from Lazarus’ daughters, Martha and Mary, that his beloved friend was sick. Of course, if you know the story, you know that Jesus did not go immediately to His friend’s aid but rather waited two days before telling His disciples He was going to Judea to the village of Bethany. It was there that Lazarus had fallen asleep. In other words, Lazarus was resting and Jesus was going to awaken him.  

But note that Jesus did not hold back the truth of the matter to His disciples who thought Lazarus was experiencing a natural sleep. He told His followers point blank that Lazarus was dead. His body, like Jesus’ in the tomb and Jairus’ daughter, was at rest until resurrection happened.

So where does this leave us today? What can we glean from this message, the seventh devotion in the Passion Week series?

I believe there are two takeaways:

First, this matter of being at rest after death until resurrection is something all those who place their faith and trust in Jesus will experience. God’s word makes this clear in Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians:

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

The events that will surround Jesus’ return will be nothing short of spectacular and note that those Christians who are still alive when He returns will not precede those who have passed away and “fallen asleep in Him”. In other words, those believers in Christ who have been resting and awaiting His second coming when He will resurrect them to go onto the new heaven and earth to live with Him and God the Father forever.

It’s this first takeaway that leads us to the second. For as we are reading this on the day before we celebrate Resurrection Sunday, we can be resting easy that no matter what life might bring our way, everything is going to be fine. We have a blessed assurance through Jesus that death is not the end but rather the entry point into the eternal life we have been promised in Him.

It’s this truth that brings us peace, that brings us hope, that brings us rest.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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