"get Up Out Of That Grave" Series

As he hung there, shamed, bleeding, suffocating in sheer agony, many questions ran through their mind. Doubts and questions rolled in.

Have you ever had that happen to you? Have you ever expected God to do something in your life and He didn’t? Have you ever prayed a prayer thinking that God would respond in the way you expected and He didn’t? Of course you have. We all have.

Have you ever put your hope in God--- only for circumstances to come and your faith collapse in the midst of the driving questions of doubt?

If so, you will identify with Mary and the disciples who ran to the tomb that first Easter morning. Doubts are often part of discipleship.

The Jews would visit the tombs after death for a number of days by tradition. There were two reasons for it:

a) To assure that they were actually dead. They did not believe the soul departed for

three days afterward so they went to assure that their loved one was actually gone.

b) To place burial spices on their loved ones in the folds of their grave clothing.

In this passage it is obvious that Mary knew Jesus was dead. There are several reasons why she knew He was dead:

1. Luke 23:48-49 tells us that she stood close to the cross and saw his crucifixion

personally.

2. John 19:41 tells us that John the disciple (one of the other runners) so close to Jesus

at the cross that Jesus in agony was able to give him directives on taking care of His

mother. She had another eyewitness that knew the facts as well.

3.Rome, the highest governmental authority on earth at the time declared him dead and

assured it with a spear in his side and evidence of blood and water from his heart

draining out. Mark 15:15

Luke, as a physician described a condition now called “hypovolemic shock” from which one can not recover. Here’s what happened:

1. The heart would race to pump blood that was not there.

2. The victim would suffer extremely low blood pressure.

3. The kidneys would shut down to preserve bodily fluids

4. The person would experience extreme thirst as the body desired to replenish lost fluids.

5. The person would die.

Interesting, one of the last things Jesus said was: “I thirst.” John 19:23

One physician recently wrote:

Prior to death, the sustained rapid heartbeat caused by hypovolemic shock also causes fluid to gather in the sack around the heart and around the lungs. This gathering of fluid in the membrane around the heart is called pericardial effusion, and the fluid gathering around the lungs is called pleural effusion. This explains why, after Jesus died and a Roman soldier thrust a spear through Jesus’ side, piercing both the lungs and the heart, blood and water came from His side just as John recorded in his Gospel (John 19:34)

Two Roman soldiers even declared Him dead. The one in Mark 15:39 that said: “Truly this was the Son of God.” And Pilate in Mark 15:44-45 asking the centurion in charge of the execution if Jesus was dead and the Bible says: “ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph.”

This undeniable evidence and eyewitness account of Mary led Mary to come up with another conclusion that she reported to the other runners: “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb...” vs 2