An Easter Evening, Long Ago
Luke 24:33–43 NKJV
So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “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.
Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, “Peace to you.” But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”
When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, “Have you any food here?” So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence.
To the world, this Sunday was probably like all the other Sundays. They were blissfully unaware of what had happened in Jerusalem. After all, Jerusalem was at the eastern extreme of the Roman Empire. Many of those who knew of the city saw it as being the realm of religious zealots. Those of the unbelieving Jews were glad to be rid of that trouble making Galilean Rabbi named Jesus. They breathed a sigh of relief. Now Jerusalem could get back to “normal,” Then there were the disciples. They were hid behind locked doors for fear of being arrested by the Jewish or Roman authorities. This Sunday morning was especially troubling and gloomy. They were unwitting of what had just happened at garden tomb where they had laid the body of Jesus. Nicodemus had prepared the body for burial including a king’s ransom of myrrh and aloes and carefully wrapping the body with strips of cloth to create a sticky cocoon. Perhaps there were other spices necessary to be applied to the body, Or perhaps, the disciples who were nowhere to be seen and were hiding did not know what had been done to properly prepare the body. The women and John saw afar off. They saw him placed in the tomb, so they knew where the body of Jesus was laid.
The disciples could not do anything more for the body of Jesus as the Sabbath had come. Things would have to wait until the morning after the Sabbath. But the disciples were also afraid. But the women took courage. A group of several women, many of whom were named “Mary” decided to go and finish the job. It is said that they started on the journey to the tomb while it was still dark. This serves as a kind of metaphor. They came in the dark, and their minds were darkened to what Jesus had taught all of them on many occasions that not only would He suffer and die, but also that He would arise on the third day. It must have been a gloomy journey. The gates of the city would open at the coming of the dawn at 6 AM in the morning. Whether they already had spices with them or had to purchase them is unknown. As the Sabbath ended at sunset, they could have purchased them the night before.
They made their way to the tomb which was just outside the city. Although they had brought with them the necessary spices, they had overlooked one major thing in their eyes. A great stone had been rolled over the grave. they were not strong enough to have moved it. The soldiers who had guarded the tomb could have moved the stone, but they had fled in terror when the stone was miraculously moved and Jesus came forth alive. These soldiers were properly the first witnesses to the resurrection. Matthew includes the fact that they fell asleep. This may well mean more than one thinks here. Roman soldiers who fell asleep on watch could be punished by death. They would have had every incentive to keep each other awake. But, perhaps we should see things this way. When we read in the Bible of those who had encountered God in a physical way felt like Isaiah a profound undoing. Sleep is an euphemism for death. When we see the disciples fall asleep at the Mount of Transfiguration, was it because they had seen Jesus in His full divinity? What about their falling asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane? Later, the Apostle John would have a vision of the Lord Jesus while on Patmos and would fall down as dead. So did the soldiers see Jesus in His risen Divine glory?
Whatever might be the case here, the soldiers were the first witnesses to the risen Jesus. they were also the first rejecters of the gospel as they were willing to be bought off by the priests. Money they knew. Jesus they did not know. It would have been dangerous for them to have confessed Jesus. However, the Roman Centurion at the cross was not afraid to confess that this Jesus and not Caesar is the Son of God. It is sad to see how many reject the evidence of the resurrection of Jesus.
The women were startled to see that the stone had already been removed. Their first reaction is that grave robbers had stolen the body. But then, they saw two angels in dazzling garments. The one angel called out to them “Why seek ye the living among the dead! He is not here, but risen.” The women were terrified. What an emotional roller-coaster ride. They were told to tell this message to Peter and the eleven. This they did, but the men thought the women were crazy. Surely, they were hysterical! It is interesting to note that the word “hysterical” comes from the Greek word for “uterus.” To be hysterical in those days was to act like a woman. Their message could not possibly be true. The dead simply do not rise. They might be resurrected at the last day, but not now. This was for the sweet by and by and not today. But the men partially believed them. They needed to investigate the mystery of the missing body. They did not remember what Jesus had told them. They did not remember the raising of Jairus’ daughter. They did not remember the widow’s son. The did not remember the raising of Lazarus. One might think that the men were even more hysterical than the women were.
It was sometime during this encounter that a disciple named Cleophas and another disciple decided they had enough of this nonsense and decided to return home to Emmaus. Little did they know that Jesus was about to meet them. They had left psychologically exhausted and began the seven mile walk home. They felt their heart burn as Jesus, who was not yet revealed, was chiding them for their lack of faith. He reminded them of what the Scriptures prophesied about the suffering, death, and resurrection. But they yet did not yet see. They asked Jesus to remain with them that evening as it had been a long and tiring day. But when they saw the particular way Jesus broke the bread, they knew it was Jesus who had talked with them. These exhausted and emotionally wrought disciples began the swift seven-mile return to Jerusalem, even though evening was falling upon them.
We now come to an Easter evening long ago. Technically, it was the start of a new day. It was Easter Monday as the Jewish day began at sundown. The day was reckoned this way because in creation, darkness was first, and then light. The day of Easter had started in the dark and ended in a wildly confusing gamut of emotions. What did this all mean? The disciples needed to know what the resurrection of Jesus was as well as its implications. Was Jesus really alive? It seemed too good to be true. Peter and Mary Magdalene had seen Jesus. So did Cleophas and the other Emmaus disciple. But they had also seen Jesus simply disappear. Surely a flesh and blood person could not do this, They came to realize that Jesus had risen.
So they gathered together that Easter Monday evening. Easter day had been exhausting. But the disciples were filled with adrenaline. The Emmaus disciples came to report what they had witnessed and how Jesus was known by the breaking of bread. The ten disciples who were there replied that the Lord had risen indeed and had appeared to Simon. (John who also records this account tells us that Thomas was not present. Then the impossible happened. Jesus appears in the midst of them without having come through the door. They believed phantoms could go through solid walls. So was it just the phantasmic soul of Jesus they had seen. Had Mary Magdalen actually grasped the feet of Jesus? Or was it just the gardener? They were certainly troubled at the sudden appearance of Jesus.
Jesus greets the disciples with the usual Hebrew blessing upon the house and people inside it. “Peace be unto you.” But they were not at peace at this moment. But Jesus commands them to gaze upon Him, especially His hands and feet which still bore the marks of the nails. He tells them that they have no need to fear. He tells them to grope Him and see that he had flesh and bones. He was not a ghost. Then he asks for food and eats a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb and did eat them in their presence. The reason that He asked for the food was because even though they were joyful and had firmly grasped a flesh and blood Jesus, they still did not fully believe. Jesus wanted them to know for certain that He was not only alive, but still fully human. He was in a glorified body, of course, but it was nonetheless human. Jesus wanted them to be certain of this new reality because they would need it when they went out into the world to witness, something which would someday cost their lives.
As important as knowing for certain that Jesus was alive, there was one more thing which was even more important. In John’s Gospel he said “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” He breathed upon them even as in creation he had created by the will of the Father and breath of the Spirit. Luke records the other part. He opened their eyes to understand what had been written in the Scriptures concerning Him. It is this united witness of Word and Spirit which gives us certainty of the truth of the Gospel. There was no room in a hostile world for doubt. Thomas would get his chance next Sunday. But as John tells us as He addresses Thomas that more blessed are those who have not seen Jesus physically but still believe.
Easter Monday starts the day of certainty. We need to resolve what happened on Easter Sunday. We also are all too prone to doubt. A lot of “Christians” today still suffer from doubt. Did this actually happen? I heard the account of a person named Ray McGovern who appeared on a YouTube video. He was once a CIA analyst and was on a video concerning the events in both Gaza and Ukraine. He noticed that it was Easter season, a time of resurrection. He mentioned how he attended a mainly African American church and was captivated by the Easter sermon. There was reason to hope that the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine would come to resurrection. He was sounding very eloquent, and I am sure he was sincere. But then he said that this hope was the real proof of Easter. Jesus may or may not have risen from the tomb. But this did not seem to matter to him. However, the truth is that whether this event actually happens means everything. All other proofs are essentially meaningless. If Jesus was just a victim of religious bigotry, what does this really matter apart from the resurrection. There have been many victims of religious hatred over the centuries. what would the death of Jesus add to that. If it is just the teaching of Jesus that matters, then we can look at this troubled world and wonder if anything has changed, that there is something new under this sin. We can look at the season of Christian optimism we saw in the nineteenth century in which many thought that we had finally Christianized the world. The favorite hymn of Great Britain, Jerusalem, reflects this optimistic view. They were going to make London the New Jerusalem and the fair land of England the new Israel. whatever happened to that. The evangelicals had a hymn “We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations.” The same optimism is stated here as well. If we will just tell the nations, they will believe, and all will be well.
The world wars and advancing secularism has dashed any idea that the kingdom will come as a result of human beings applying the principles of Christianity. Whereas there are many rational proofs given in Scripture for the resurrection, the problem is that we are not rational creatures. We are sinners. We want to run everything on our own terms. We want to say what is right and what is wrong. It wasn’t any different back then. One thief believed but the other did not, even though they were gong through the same experience of crucifixion. The Centurion believed because of what he witnessed, but the Roman guards did not as we have noticed. Many Jews came to believe on Jesus, especially after Pentecost. But many Jews rejected, even though they experienced the preaching and miracles done through the Apostles. The Gentiles are no different. Some believe, some doubt, and others reject altogether.
It is vitally important that we believe in the resurrection of the body. Other than we know that Jesus died at the Passover holiday in Jerusalem, we don’t know the date of the crucifixion because we cannot be sure the year of the crucifixion. Christians cannot even agree whether Jesus died on the Day of Passover or the Day of Preparation. But we hold that Jesus truly died for our sins at the time of the evening sacrifice outside the gate in Jerusalem. And we affirm that He arose on the third day. He ascended into heaven and will return for us. We shall in that day be like Him. This is the sure ground of our hope. Scripture and the Holy Spirit affirm this truth to us.
We meet here on an Easter Sunday evening. Easter is a long day, It started with the sunrise service followed by breakfast. Then we attend the Easter service and lustily sing the resurrection hymns, then it is home for a big lunch with the family. By the time we get through this we are tired. The thought of coming to church on Easter Sunday night seems like a burden. Many have not come, wishing to go to sleep. Many churches will cancel Sunday night worship altogether, if they even have Sunday night services any more. But we need to come to the Easter Evening service just like the disciples did that night. We need to be certain of our faith. Luke and the other Apostles took care to provide us with many infallible proofs. If we just believe, we shall do great tings for the Lord.
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