Mark Bradford's Bible Blog

³³They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together ³⁴and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” ³⁵Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

Clepoas and the other disciple got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. The NLB and Amplified Bible say that they returned within the hour. I imagine that they forgot all about the meal they were about to eat, and left it uneaten on the table. They were so excited that Jesus is alive, they forgot about their hunger. How excited are we that Jesus is alive?

When they got back to the rest of the disciples, they found that Jesus had already appeared to Peter. The disciples didn’t mention that Jesus had also appeared to Mary Magdelene, or at least Luke doesn’t record that they did. But Jesus had now appeared to at least two men. The requirement for legal testimony in Judaism is two witnesses. In the Jewish mind at that time, that would be considered confirmation that a story was true. That may be why they didn’t mention Mary’s story. I could be wrong about this, but I don’t believe women were allowed to testify in court in that culture. But the fact that the disciples now had two male eyewitnesses to Jesus’ resurrection made them believe that it was true.

³⁶While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

³⁷They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. ³⁸He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? ³⁹Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

⁴⁰When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. ⁴¹And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” ⁴²They gave him a piece of broiled fish, ⁴³and he took it and ate it in their presence.

John says the disciples had their doors locked for fear of the Jews (John 20:19). So just as Jesus had vanished from the home of Cleopas, he reappeared in the house where the disciples were. Locked doors were no obstacle for him. John also confirms that this happened on the evening of Easter Sunday. This was still the same day that Jesus rose. Jesus knew what their reaction would be to his sudden appearance, so the first thing he says is, “Peace be with you.”

The disciples thought they were seeing a ghost, which is understandable. Jesus understood their fear and reluctance to accept what they saw, so he provided demonstrations to prove that his body is physical. He showed them his scars, and ate a piece of fish. The resurrected Jesus also ate with his disciples by the sea of Galilee, when he restored Peter (John 21:13-15). Luke and John didn’t give us these details lightly. They were purposely included to prove that Jesus was resurrected bodily from the grave. At the time the gospels were written, there was a form of heresy going around called Gnosticism, which held that the flesh is evil and spirit is good, therefore Jesus did not have a physical body. Luke and John were refuting that heresy by making sure their readers knew that Jesus did have a physical body, before and after he rose. But his resurrected body wasn’t bound by time and space like ours are, and like his body was before his resurrection.

I have believed for many years that the resurrected body of Jesus is the model of what our resurrected bodies will be like. 1 Corinthans 15:49 says, “And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.” The resurrected Jesus was not a phantom, or a disembodied spirit. He walked for miles on the road to Emmaus. He had flesh and bones. He still had his scars. It was recognizably him. I believe that our resurrected bodies will be like that. We won’t be disembodied spirits, but will have physical bodies that will be recognizably us. I know people hope that our resurrected bodies will be perfect, young, and thin. But Jesus’ resurrected body still had its scars. That may have been a special case, but I doubt it. I don’t think that means that we will still have the infirmities that we had in this life. Those infirmities make us mortal, and our resurrected bodies will be immortal (1 Corinthians 15:53). But if you look like Danny Devito now, I don’t think you’ll be able to choose to look like Brad Pitt. You’ll look like yourself. In fact, you’ll be yourself more completely than you ever were in this life. You just won’t care about your appearance like you do now. Earthly standards of beauty will no longer apply. We will be like him, for we will see him as he is (1 John 3:2).

⁴⁴He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

⁴⁵Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. ⁴⁶He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. ⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

Jesus then reminded them again of how he had told them what he must suffer, so that all of the prophecies about him could be fulfilled. But they still didn’t get it until he opened their minds. I feel that, over the course of writing this blog since August of 2008, God has opened my mind to the scriptures, and he continues to do so. Lord, open our minds so that we can understand and believe what you’re trying to tell us! In verse 46, Jesus combines his suffering, death and resurrection with the preaching of repentance and forgiveness of sin into one sentence. The two go together. The cross was not some obstacle Jesus had to overcome to get to his glory. It’s the cross that makes repentance and forgiveness possible. In verse 48, he calls his disciples witnesses. That doesn’t just mean that they saw what happened, but that they were to bear witness, like testifying at a trial. And they did testify to the resurrection, both in evangelism and in testifying at their own trials, where many of them were martyred.

The disciples may have wanted to rush out into the countryside and start telling people that Jesus was alive right then and there, but Jesus told them to “stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” The disciples’ testimony would not have the power it needed until Jesus sent what his Father had promised, and they were clothed with power from on high. Our testimony will not have the power we need it to have if we speak in our own strength. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, so we can be clothed with power from on high.

⁵⁰When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. ⁵¹While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. ⁵²Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. ⁵³And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.

We know from John 21 that Jesus did appear to his disciples again, by the Sea of Galilee. Luke provides a few more details about the ascension in the first chapter of Acts in the form of a “flashback”, which I’ll start on next. But here, he focuses on the disciples. Verse 52 says they worshiped him. That means they accepted that Jesus is God. Only God is worthy of our worship. After Jesus had risen and ascended into Heaven, their fear of the religious leadership vanished. They didn’t hide behind locked doors anymore. Instead, they stayed continually at the temple, praising God. When we have really had an encounter with the resurrected Jesus, our lives are lives of worship and praise. Have you met the risen Lord?

Mark Bible ascension, Jesus, Luke, resurrection

On the Road to Emmaus

¹³Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles^[a] from Jerusalem. ¹⁴They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. ¹⁵As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; ¹⁶but they were kept from recognizing him.

The account of Jesus’ appearance to two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus only appears here, in Luke. It appears to be afternoon, since they say it is “nearly evening” later in the story. Jesus had already appeared to Mary Magdelene (John 20:10-18), and he also appeared to Peter at some point during these two disciples’ journey, though that encounter is not recorded in the gospels. So this seems to be the second or third appearance of the resurrected Jesus. It’s easy to understand why Jesus would appear to Mary and to Peter, since they were both very close to Jesus. But here, Jesus appears to two lesser known disciples, walking on their own. I can’t help but wonder why Jesus chose to appear to these two men in this circumstance. Only one of the two disciples is named, Cleopas. This is probably the Greek version of the Jewish name Clopas. Clopas is identified in John 19:25 as the husband of one of the Marys who was present at the crucifixion. The gospel writers often mentioned people by name because they were known in the early church. Clopas was the father of Simeon, who was later head of the church in Jerusalem.

These two disciples walked along the road, dejected, yet puzzled by the news they had heard that day. They didn’t yet dare to hope that what they had heard was true. They were so preoccupied with their conversation about everything that had happened, they didn’t notice that a stranger was walking with them. How long did Jesus walk alongside them, listening to their conversation, before they became aware that someone was there? How often do we go through life not realizing that Jesus is right there with us?

¹⁷He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

They stood still, their faces downcast. ¹⁸One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

¹⁹“What things?” he asked.

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. ²⁰The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; ²¹but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. ²²In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning ²³but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. ²⁴Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”

Jesus interrupts their conversation and asks them what they are talking about so intently. I imagine that he startled them. That may have been the first time they even noticed that someone was there. They stood still, their faces downcast. They were so surprised by this question that they stopped walking. The modern day equivalent of their question to Jesus would be, “Have you been living under a rock?” Everyone in Jerusalem knew of the events of the past few days, and this stranger appeared to be coming from Jerusalem like they were. How could he not know about what had happened with Jesus? Of course, Jesus did know very well. He was drawing them out. Even though God knows very well what’s troubling us, he still wants us to tell him all about it.

Their answer to Jesus revealed how little they understood Jesus’ mission and the nature of his kingdom. Though we understand today that Jesus was more than a prophet, for them to call Jesus “a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people” was high praise, putting him on the same level as Moses, Elijah, Daniel, and others of similar stature in Judaism. They “had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” This shows that they had still expected Jesus to be a political Messiah, to free Israel from Roman oppression, in spite of all he had said. The concept of a suffering Messiah was not taught at that time. The idea was completely foreign to them. Then they related to Jesus the women’s account of what they saw at the tomb. So they had been there with the other disciples that morning when the women told their story, and had still been there when Peter and John came back from the tomb, but had not heard Mary Magdelene’s account. Don’t you hate it when you miss the best part?

²⁵He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶Did not the Christ^[b] have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” ²⁷And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

Jesus rebukes them for their lack of understanding. He calls them foolish, using the Greek word anoetos, which means “unintelligent, foolish, dull-witted.” He’s calling them idiots! But the real indictment is when he also calls them “slow of heart to believe.” A lack of intelligence won’t keep us out of Heaven. But being slow of heart to believe will. Then Jesus began what has to be one of the greatest Bible lessons ever given. He went though all of the Old Testament, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, and pointed out to them how each of the prophecies regarding him had been fulfilled. Cleopas and his companion must have related these lessons to the other disciples. These lessons must have formed the basis of much of the Apostles’ teaching later. The Old Testament references quoted in Acts may well have come from Jesus himself in this conversation. One passage in particular that must have have been stressed by Jesus as they walked is the Suffering Servant passage in Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12. That passage was not taught as Messianic at that time, but if you read it and see the Suffering Servant as the Messiah, it’s clearly a prediction of Jesus’ death and resurrection. It’s so powerful and compelling that for centuries it was banned from public reading in the synagogues lest any more Jews see the Messiah in it and convert to Christianity.

²⁸As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. ²⁹But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

³⁰When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. ³¹Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. ³²They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

When they arrived at Emmaus, Jesus pretended to be going further, knowing they would invite him to come in. Emmaus must have been where one or both of them lived. They were going home. They probably left Jerusalem when they did in order to get home before dark. They were so enthralled with Jesus’ teaching, still not realizing that it was him, that they invited this stranger in to stay with them and continue his teaching. The more you walk with Jesus, the more you want him around.

They reclined at the table, and though Jesus was a guest, the disciples must have regarded him as a learned rabbi, and asked him to offer the blessing for the bread. This would have been unleavened bread, as the Feast of Unleavened Bread was still going on. It’s at this point that their eyes were opened. There’s lots of speculation about what it was that made them realize that it was Jesus there with them. Two things stand out for me. When Jesus offered the blessing, it would have been the same one he used at the Last Supper, the traditional Jewish blessing of the bread: “Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the world, who has caused bread to come forth out of the earth.” How many times had these two men seen and heard Jesus offer this blessing before breaking bread? I think when Cleopas and his companion heard Jesus’ blessing, it rang a bell for them. Then Jesus picked up the bread and broke it, using both hands. That made his sleeves drop below his wrists, and they saw the nail scars in his wrists. That’s when they knew it was Jesus.

As soon as they recognized him, he disappeared! Now why did he do that? Because the whole point of his appearance to them was to get them to believe. As soon as they believed, his presence was no longer necessary. They then realized that Jesus had been with them the whole time. What will it take for us to realize that Jesus is with us all the time?

Mark Bible Jesus, Luke, resurrection, road to Emmaus

The Resurrection

¹On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. ⁵In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? ⁶He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ⁷‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” ⁸Then they remembered his words.

In my post on the accounts of the resurrection in Mark and John, I wondered why the women went to the tomb alone, with no one to help roll the stone away. The stone which covered the entrance to the tomb was a heavy, circular shaped stone, running in a groove and settled down into a channel, so it could not be moved except by several strong men. This was done to ensure that no one would disturb the remains. Mark tells us that, on the way there, the women wondered to themselves who would roll the stone away for them (Mark 16:3). The disciples must still have been afraid to go there for fear of arrest by the Roman guard, which should still have been there, guarding the tomb. They had placed a Roman seal on it, which only they had the authority to remove. So the women must have been hoping the soldiers would move the stone for them, so they could complete the anointing of Jesus’ body. These were the same women who had witnessed the crucifixion and Jesus’ burial.

When they arrived, the stone had been rolled away, and the Roman soldiers were gone. As I also mentioned in my Easter blog, the stone was not rolled away so that Jesus could get out. We know from John 20:19 that Jesus in his resurrected body could pass through solid walls. The stone was rolled away so that others could get in and see that he was risen. The women walked in and saw that Jesus’ body was missing. At first, they were puzzled, as anyone would be. As it says in verse 4, while they were wondering about this, two angels appeared to them. Mark only tells us of one angel in the tomb (Mark 16:5). I believe there’s enough Biblical evidence to indicate that Mary, the mother of Jesus was present at this scene. She may have been the “Mary the mother of James” that Luke names in verse 10, since Jesus had a brother named James. We know she was present at the crucifixion (John 19:25), and many Biblical scholars believe that the myrrh the Magi left as a gift when Jesus was a child (Matthew 2:11) was intended to anoint his body for burial, so it makes sense that she would have been there to use it. Biblical scholars also believe that Luke got a lot of his material from interviews with Mary. I say all of that to say that I can’t help but think it was Mary who told Luke that it wasn’t just one angel, but two. When Mary Magdelene went back to the tomb, she also saw two angels (John 20:11-12).

The angels were dressed in “clothes that gleamed like lightning.” The word used here is similar to the description of Jesus at the Transfiguration (Luke 9:29). The implication is not of a light shining on them, but a brilliant light shining out from within them. They literally shone with the Shekinah glory of God. The angels essentially asked the women why they did not take Jesus at his word when said he would rise on the third day. If they had, they would not be looking for him in a tomb. How good are we at taking Jesus at his word?

⁹When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. ¹⁰It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. ¹²Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

The women ran back and told the disciples what they had seen and heard. The disciples didn’t believe it, because “their words seemed to them like nonsense.” Of course a story like this would seem too good to be true. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is, right? But these women were literally telling the gospel of the resurrection of Christ. The Gospel always sounds like nonsense to those who don’t believe (1 Corinthians 1:18). At that point, the women were believers, but Jesus’ own disciples were not.

Then Peter decided to investigate for himself. After hearing the women’s story, he at least believed them enough to accept that it was safe to go there because the Roman soldiers were gone. We know from John’s gospel that John went with him (John 20:3). But where Peter saw the strips of linen lying there, but still went away puzzled, John saw and believed (John 20:8). I have my own theory as to why this is, which you can read in my post on the accounts of the resurrection in Mark and John. But one thing is clear. From the appearance of the grave clothes, it was obvious that the body had not been stolen. If it had been, the thieves would not have unwrapped the body first, nor would they have taken the trouble to fold up the cloth “by itself, separate from the linen,” as John  describes (John 20:6-7).  We don’t know the actual details of Jesus’ resurrection, but we know from the evidence and testimony in the gospels that he is risen. He is risen indeed!

Mark Bible Jesus, Luke, Mary, Peter, resurrection

The Resurrection

¹When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. ²Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb ³and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” (Mark 16:1-2)

The Jewish Sabbath is from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. So the women were able to buy the spices they intended to use on Jesus’ body on Saturday night, but they couldn’t go to the tomb to do their work until Sunday morning, when it was light enough. I wonder who this Mary the mother of James was. Is it the same Mary that Mark calls “the mother of Joses”? Matthew tells us that Mary Magdelene and “the other Mary” went to the tomb on Sunday morning (Matthew 28:1). I can’t help but think this was Mary the mother of Jesus. Jesus had a brother named James, who wrote the book of James. I don’t know if he had a brother named Joses or a sister named Salome, but we know Jesus had brothers (Mark 3:31) and probably had sisters too. Plus, the job of treating bodies for burial was the responsibility of the closest family members. So it would make sense that Jesus’ mother and sister would be among those who went to the tomb. Many Biblical scholars also believe that the myrrh that the Magi left when they visited the Christ child was intended for use at his burial. I can imagine Mary carrying this container of myrrh that she had saved for over 30 years to the tomb, finally expecting to use it, but never being able to! If this Mary was Jesus’ mother, why did Mark keep referring to her by the names of her other children? Maybe Mary wanted anonymity. Maybe Joses and Salome became leaders in the early church, and Mark wanted to mention them. Or maybe this was some other Mary altogether.

If Mary and Salome were immediate family members, that explains why they were going to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body. So why was Mary Magdalene with them? Her devotion to Jesus was well known, but she was not related to him as far as we know. But her devotion was rewarded a little later in the story, as we will see.

As the women went to the tomb, they wondered who would roll the stone away from the entrance for them, since it was too big and heavy for them to move. There was supposed to be a Roman guard there, but they would not have helped these Jewish women. Why didn’t any of the disciples come with them to help? They let these women go by themselves, even though they wouldn’t be able to get in without help?

⁴But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. ⁵As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

⁶“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. ⁷But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ “

⁸Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. (Mark 16:4-8, NIV)

When the women arrived, they saw that they didn’t have to worry about who would help them roll the stone away. It had already been done. The stone had been rolled away, not so that Jesus could escape (we know from John 20:19 that Jesus in his resurrected body could pass through solid walls), but so that others could enter the tomb and see that he had risen. The fact that neither the women nor the disciples were expecting this shows how little they understood of what Jesus had been telling them. How many times had he told them he would rise again on the third day? We are often surprised by miracles. Why should we be surprised when a miracle happens if we say we believe in a miracle working God?

Mark says they were alarmed when they found the entrance to the tomb open. At first, they may have thought his body was stolen. What would you think if you went to the grave of a loved one and found the grave open and their body missing? Instead of the body of Jesus, they found an angel. The angel identified who they were looking for, as if they might think they had gone to the wrong tomb. He not only told them Jesus was risen, he showed them the place where his body was laid. These same women had followed Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus and had observed his burial two days before (Mark 15:47). They had seen where they laid his body. So by showing them this place, the angel proved the resurrection to them. This started a long series of physical evidence given to prove the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus appeared to his disciples and showed them his scars. He knew they would need that kind of proof to be able to endure the persecution that lay ahead for them. Most people will not endure torture and death for what they know is a lie. The martyrdom of the Apostles proves that Jesus really is risen.

In verse 7, Peter is singled out from the rest of the disciples. Some think he was no longer considered a disciple at that point because he had denied Christ, and had not yet been restored. I think it may be that, since scholars believe that the Gospel of Mark is really Peter’s gospel, it’s not that the angel didn’t want to count him among the disciples right then, it’s that Peter himself did not want to be considered a true disciple before Jesus restored him. It’s interesting to me that the angel singled Peter out to be notified of Jesus’ resurrection. None of the others were mentioned by name. Even when we have failed Christ miserably, he seeks us out personally and calls us by name in order to restore us to him.

¹Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. ²So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

³So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. ⁴Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. ⁶Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, ⁷as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. ⁸Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. ⁹(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) (John 20:1-9, NIV)

As we just saw above, Mark 16:8 says that the women who went to the tomb “said nothing to anyone”, but here in verse 2, John says that Mary Magdalene did tell Peter and John about it, as the angel told them to do. I don’t think this is necessarily a conflict. Since Mark tells us that three women went to the tomb, but John only mentions Mary Magdalene, I can’t help but think that maybe she went back with the other women and stayed quiet at first, but then felt driven to go back to the tomb again by herself, as if to make sure she hadn’t imagined the whole thing. Maybe it was at that point that she went and told Peter and John. It’s clear from John 20:2 that she still didn’t really accept that Jesus was risen. She thought the body had been stolen. It’s possible she didn’t realize that it was an angel who had appeared to them earlier. Mark 16:5 simply calls him “a young man in a white robe.” It seems she didn’t know what to believe, and who could blame her?

So Peter and John ran to the tomb to see for themselves. This passage in John 20 struck me several years ago, and since then I’ve had my own belief about what it means. John specifically describes the way Jesus’ grave clothes are folded, and I wondered why. I’ve heard other theories about this, but naturally, I like mine best!

This was a group of guys that had traveled together for 3 years. When you travel with someone for that long, you get to know them pretty well. John was Jesus’ best friend. It occurred to me that there must have been something about the way the linens were folded that spoke to John, because verse 8 says “he saw and believed”. In that group of 13 guys, it’s easy for me to picture Jesus as “the neat one.” I imagine that his mother Mary taught him to fold his bed clothes neatly every morning when he got up. I imagine that Jesus and John, being best friends, roomed together when they stayed in some rich person’s house, which they did quite a lot. Best friends tease each other, and I’m sure Jesus and John were no exception to that. When you travel with someone for that long, there are gonna be some inside jokes. Just ask anyone who’s ever toured. I can see John giving Jesus a hard time about the way he folded his clothes so neatly every day. These are the kinds of things you learn about people when you live with them.

When I come back from a gig out of town, sometimes I get home during the day after my wife has left for work. If I wanted to look for signs she’s been there, I’d look for personal details only I know about her. The half empty water bottle she leaves on the nightstand, for example. Peter went into the grave first, and saw the linens first, but he didn’t get it. Maybe he didn’t room with Jesus on the road that much. He probably roomed with his brother Andrew. I think John went into the tomb, and saw the grave clothes folded up the way only Jesus would have folded them. I believe that Jesus rose from the dead, and before he left the tomb, he folded his clothes the way he always did, for John’s benefit. He did it so that John would take one look at the way the linens were folded and think,  “Only Jesus would fold his clothes like that. He’s alive!”

¹⁰Then the disciples went back to their homes, ¹¹but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb ¹²and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

¹³They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”(John 20:10-13, NIV)

Now, in verse 10, John says there were two angels, rather than just one young man in a white robe, seated where Jesus’ body had been laid. Mary is still so distraught that she isn’t afraid of the angels. Her only thought is for Jesus. Others had come to the tomb, and one believed, but they had all gone back to their homes, except for Mary. She would not rest until she found him. If we seek Jesus with that much passion and commitment, we will find him.

¹⁴At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

¹⁵“Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

¹⁶Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

¹⁷Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”

¹⁸Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. (John 20:14-18, NIV)

Mary’s devotion to Jesus was rewarded. She was the first one to see his resurrected body. Apparently, she was so glad to see him that she grabbed onto him and wouldn’t let go. That’s easy to understand. When we really meet Jesus, we want to grab onto him and never let go. But Jesus didn’t rise from the dead to go back to his old life. He had to ascend to the Father. Now he sits at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us (Romans 8:34). His instruction to us is the same as it was to Mary; go and tell that he is risen!

I hope that my Holy Week posts have been helpful to you, and that they’ve added to your observance of our Lord’s death and resurrection. Tomorrow I will pick up where I left off in Luke 18.

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The Resurrection

¹When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. ²Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb ³and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

The Jewish Sabbath is from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. So the women were able to buy the spices they intended to use on Jesus’ body on Saturday night, but they couldn’t go to the tomb to do their work until Sunday morning, when it was light enough. I wonder who this Mary the mother of James was. Is it the same Mary that Mark calls “the mother of Joses”? Matthew tells us that Mary Magdelene and “the other Mary” went to the tomb on Sunday morning. I can’t help but think this was Mary the mother of Jesus. Jesus had a brother named James, who wrote the book of James. I don’t know if he had a brother named Joses or a sister named Salome, but we know Jesus had brothers (Mark 3:31) and probably had sisters too. Plus, the job of treating bodies for burial was the responsibility of the closest family members. So it would make sense that Jesus’ mother and sister would be among those who went to the tomb. Many Biblical scholars also believe that the myrrh that the Magi left when they visited the Christ child was intended for use at his burial. I can imagine Mary carrying this container of myrrh that she had saved for over 30 years to the tomb, finally expecting to use it, but never being able to! If this Mary was Jesus’ mother, why did Mark keep referring to her by the names of her other children? Maybe Mary wanted anonymity. Maybe Joses and Salome became leaders in the early church, and Mark wanted to mention them. Or maybe this was some other Mary altogether.

If Mary and Salome were immediate family members, that explains why they were going to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body. So why was Mary Magdalene with them? Some have supposed that Mary Magdelene was Jesus’ wife. Dan Brown wrote a best seller about it, though he did not come up with the idea. I know Catholics have a problem with this, but Catholics also don’t believe Mary and Joseph had other children, when the Bible clearly says they did. It’s easy to understand why a church that requires their priests to be celibate would want to suppress the idea that Jesus may have been married. Some of the apocryphal gospels, such as the Gospel of Thomas, do say that Mary Magdelene was Jesus’ wife. It was considered dishonorable in that culture for a man to remain unmarried into his 30’s. If Jesus had been a 33 year old unmarried man, he probably would not have been trusted as a rabbi by so many people, and it probably would been one of the charges against him at his trial. Rabbis were married men. It could also explain why Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene first after he rose. I’m not saying I believe Jesus was definitely married, and that Mary Magdalene was his wife, but I think it’s possible, and there’s nothing in the Bible to contradict it. According to Jewish tradition, the mother, sister, and wife of a dead man would be the ones to tend to his body, and that could be who these three women were who went to the tomb on Easter morning.

Whoever they were, as they went to the tomb, they wondered who would roll the stone away from the entrance for them, since it was too big and heavy for them to move. There was supposed to be a Roman guard there, but they would not have helped these Jewish women. Why didn’t any of the disciples come with them to help? They let these women go by themselves, even though they wouldn’t be able to get in without help?

⁴But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. ⁵As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

⁶“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. ⁷But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ “

⁸Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

When the women arrived, they saw that they didn’t have to worry about who would help them roll the stone away. It had already been done. The stone had been rolled away, not so that Jesus could escape (we know from John 20:19 that Jesus in his resurrected body could pass through solid walls), but so that others could enter the tomb and see that he had risen. The fact that neither the women nor the disciples were expecting this shows how little they understood of what Jesus had been telling them. How many times had he told them he would rise again on the third day? We are often surprised by miracles. Why should we be surprised when a miracle happens if we say we believe in a miracle working God?

Mark says they were alarmed when they found the entrance to the tomb open. At first, they may have thought his body was stolen. What would you think if you went to the grave of a loved one and found the grave open and their body missing? Instead of the body of Jesus, they found an angel. The angel identified who they were looking for, as if they might think they went to the wrong tomb. He not only told them Jesus was risen, he showed them the place where his body was laid. These same women had followed Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus and had observed his burial 2 days before (Mark 15:47). They had seen where they laid his body. So by showing them this place, the angel proved the resurrection to them. This started a long series of physical evidence given to prove the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus appeared to his disciples and showed them his scars. He knew they would need that kind of proof to be able to endure the persecution that lay ahead for them. Most people will not endure torture and death for what they know is a lie. The martyrdom of the Apostles proves that Jesus really is risen.

In verse 7, Peter is singled out from the rest of the disciples. Some think he was no longer considered a disciple at that point because he had denied Christ, and had not yet been restored. I think it may be that, since this is really Peter’s gospel, it’s not that the angel didn’t want to count him among the disciples right then, it’s that Peter himself did not want to be considered a true disciple before Jesus restored him. It’s interesting to me that the angel singled Peter out to be notified of Jesus’ resurrection. None of the others were mentioned by name. Even when we have failed Christ miserably, he seeks us out personally and calls us by name in order to restore us to him.

I am going to end my blog on the Gospel of Mark here, because the rest of the chapter was not in the original manuscripts, but was added later. (Read the rest of the chapter here) Some are troubled by this knowledge, and wonder if we have to throw out passages like the Great Commission in verse 15 because of this. Let me just say what I believe. It looks to me like the last part of Marks’ gospel was lost somehow. Maybe the last page was destroyed or lost. It’s very unlikely that Mark ended his gospel by saying the women were afraid, and told no one about the resurrection. We know from the other gospels that they did tell the disciples about Jesus being risen. It looks to me like, long after the fact, somebody decided that Mark’s gospel shouldn’t end that way, and decided to finish it the best they could. They referenced events from the other gospels, and gave it a better ending.

As for whether these verses should be included in our Bible, I don’t believe they should. Does that mean I disregard everything they say? No, because most everything in them is repeated elsewhere. The Great Commission is repeated in Matthew 28:16-20. Jesus’ appearance to Mary Magdelene, to the disciples, and on the road to Emmaus are all corroborated in other gospels. The only passage in this group of verses that is not supported elsewhere in the Bible are verses 17-18. Because of this, I think those two verses should be disregarded. I know there are churches who base their doctrine on these two verses, and I believe they are in error. You can’t base a doctrine on one or two verses of scripture. Doctrine must be based on the whole of scripture, and I don’t believe those two verses should have been included in our Bible. Therefore they are not scripture, as far as I’m concerned.

Does this mean I don’t believe the Bible is the Word of God? No, of course not! If I believed that, would I be taking the time to write this blog? Anyone who has read my blog with any kind of regularity knows I believe in the authority of the Bible. But the Bible we have today is a collection put together by a group of men in the 4th century, and the final canon was not officially decided upon until the 1500’s. The early church fathers put the Bible we know today together over a long period of time, with much debate about what should and should not be included. They based those decisions on knowledge they had at the time, and they had far fewer early manuscripts to work from than we have. So it’s possible they did not know what we know about Mark 16:9-20. They put Mark’s gospel in their canon in the form they had it, and it’s good that they did, because through the Gospel of Mark we see the ministry of Jesus through Peter’s eyes. What’s remarkable about the Bible is how few examples like this we have, even over 20 centuries. And over that time, not one of the essential doctrines of Christianity has ever been able to be discounted because of an early manuscript that was found. The accounts of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Christ are more corroborated by early writings than any other historical event we know of. He is still risen, and he is still Lord!

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Marriage at the Resurrection

¹⁸Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. ¹⁹“Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. ²⁰Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. ²¹The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. ²²In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. ²³At the resurrection^[c] whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”

The Sadducees were a wealthy, aristocratic, intellectual group who did not believe in an afterlife, as opposed to the Pharisees, who did. There is actually much disagreement on the subject of an afterlife in the Old Testament. For instance, David did not believe in an afterlife. See Psalm 30:9:

“What gain is there in my destruction, ^[a]
in my going down into the pit?
Will the dust praise you?
Will it proclaim your faithfulness?

Also see Psalm 6:5 and Psalm 88:11. David always seemed to think that if God didn’t rescue him from his enemies, he would not be able to praise God after he died. Solomon also had his doubts, as shown in Ecclesiates 9:10. On the other hand, there are several references to resurrection in the Old Testament (1 Samuel 2:6, Job 19:26, Isaiah 26:19), but they are all in the prophets. The Sadducees only believed in the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. If you’re interested in learning more about Jewish beliefs in an afterlife, I recommend reading Wikipedia’s page on it and this article from ReligionFacts.com.

The Sadducees were not trying to make a serious point or ask a serious question. They were trying to make the doctrine of resurrection seem ridiculous. This was like asking how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, or if Adam had a belly button. But their question has some of the same flaws regarding the concept of Heaven that people have today. Jesus not only points out how wrong they are about marital relationships in Heaven, but also about resurrection in general.

²⁴Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? ²⁵When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. ²⁶Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’^[d]? ²⁷He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”

First, Jesus points out their error in two areas. They don’t know the scriptures, and they don’t know the power of God. So many silly doctrinal and philosophical arguments arise from just those two problems, and one leads to the other. If we don’t know the scriptures, we will not know the power of God. Second, Jesus addresses the question of marriage in Heaven. Though marriage is ordained by God, and at its best, is a spiritual union, its origin lies in sexual attraction, which is a biological impulse. It’s the biological impulse to reproduce, and it’s very powerful. But when we get to Heaven, there will be no more reproduction, as far as we know. Marriage is God’s way of channeling our sex drive so we don’t behave like animals. But in Heaven that will no longer be necessary. I believe we will know and recognize each other in Heaven, and we will see our loved ones there, but our relationships with them won’t be the same. Our joy will not be in being reunited with our loved ones, but in the fact that we are all there with Jesus. Romantic ideas of being “together forever”, even in Heaven, are not scriptural.

Third, Jesus corrects their mistaken ideas about resurrection. Since the Sadducees only held that the first five books of the Old Testament were true scripture, he quoted from Exodus 3:6. Jesus’ point was that God did not say “I was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”, he said “I am their God”. The patriarchs were long dead when God said that to Moses, but Jesus said to the Sadducees that God is the God of the living, not the dead. Remember that they are not talking about the eternal soul here, they are taking about the resurrection of the body. This is one of the great mysteries of the Bible, and of our faith. The patriarchs had not been resurrected by that point, from our perspective, but they were alive to God. Moses and Elijah had appeared bodily at the Transfiguration a few weeks before, but from an earthly perspective, the resurrection had not happened yet. I explain it this way. God and eternity exist outside of time. In Heaven, and to God, there is no past or future, only an eternal present. Therefore, from God’s perspective, everyone who will be in Heaven after the final resurrection is already there now. God is like someone watching a parade from the top of a tall building, whereas we are like people watching the same parade from street level. We only see a sequence of events, but God sees the whole picture from start to finish as one event.

But I digress. The Sadducees were arguing that there is no resurrection, but Jesus knew he would rise from the dead in just a few days. But he didn’t tell the Sadducees that. They would not have believed him anyway. These men were too in love with their position, wealth, and with arguing arcane points of doctrine. But there was legitimate disagreement in Judaism about resurrection and afterlife. Jesus answered those questions definitively here.

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