Sunset Changes Everything ...

At the Genesis of man, creation was completed in six days, and God rested on the seventh.  This institution was a memorial among other things for us to remember that Jesus the Christ, is our creator.  And if Jesus can create a thing, He can also re-create a thing.  Reclamation is not as hard as invention, at least not to the Savior of our souls.  But over time man forgot.  So on top of Mount Sinai, etched by the finger of Jesus into the rock tablets He carved, were the words … Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.  We cannot make it holy, but we can remember that it “is” holy; as God has set aside His time, to be with us in a special way.  A time to hang out with our God.  But over time man twisted the meaning of “play time with Dad” into lists of do’s and don’ts.  Trust was lost that Jesus could restore in us what we could not restore, and hope was failing in redemption itself.

But then Jesus came to us in person.  He practiced what He had commanded.  He did not just attend the synagogues on Sabbath, He taught there on that day.  He honored His own edict that God would be with man on the special day of the Sabbath.  But Jesus did more than teach, He fed those in need, He healed those in pain.  He met the needs of His children in order that their time with Him would not be distracted by common needs, or the pain sin causes.  He forgave us.  He released us from the bondage to sin, whether by demons inhabiting us, or simply by our chains to sin and self-love.  He came to perform the work of our redemption.  And throughout this work, He kept His Sabbath with us.  But now, the zenith of His work for us had reached its peak.  And Friday sunset was coming.  The same sunset that greeted Adam and Eve when He walked with them in the garden, teaching them the mysteries of the universe, and of love itself so many years ago.  But on this Friday sunset, Jesus would greet the Sabbath at rest Himself.

Peter recalls the urgency of the Sabbath’s approach to John Mark in his gospel in chapter fifteen picking up in verse 42 saying … “And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath,”  Sunset changes everything, or it should.  Preparations must be made before the Sabbath arrives.  Here is where the list of do’s and don’ts might better thrive.  Did you remember to prepare the food as much as possible?  We don’t want to miss time with God because we are distracted by cooking.  Did you remember to clean our home?  We don’t want to lessen our enjoyment with God, distracted by a messy home, with things out of place, or dirt piled up that we cannot see.  Did you arrange to insure the workers at our home have the Sabbath off?  We want to make sure those who serve us do not have to be occupied doing so, when they could be enjoying time with God themselves, we wish not to be that distraction from time with Him.

Manna fell in double portion for Israel on Friday’s and lasted through Sabbath for them without spoiling.  But on no other day was this possible.  The preparation or cleaning of the home was not meant to be a dictate of misery.  It was meant to be a liberation for those who normally serve in the home, to be free as well to enjoy their time with God.  The work of preparation was work of anticipation.  But on this Friday, Jesus could not engage in it Himself.  He was already at rest.  Someone else had to do it for Him.  Someone else had to do for God, what God was unable to do on this particular Sabbath.  And the time was growing short, for Sunset would change everything.

Mark continues in verse 43 saying … “Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counseller, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.”  Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin.  He had not been included in the travesty of the event they had called a trial.  He was not consulted in the vote to put Him to death.  He was informed only after it was done.  Joseph was suspected of being sympathetic to Jesus.  But Joseph had not been bold either.  He and Nicodemus spoke in quiet tones, at night, away from prying eyes.  They studied scripture and the more they looked, the more it pointed to the Truth of Jesus Christ.  But where caution had ruled the day before the death of Christ, it was thrown to the wind after He died.  Joseph was overcome by a desire to do one last kindness for Jesus.  And he was driven to do it quickly, as the Sabbath approached.

Mark continues in verse 44 saying … “And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. [verse 45] And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.”  Again Pilate looked upon these events from an entirely different perspective than the Jewish one.  Pilate was amazed that Jesus was dead so quickly.  No man died this fast before, not ever.  That was the point of the cross.  It was meant to torture its victim over several days.  Otherwise one could just behead the victim and be done with it immediately.  That Jesus could be dead so soon represented a marvel in the eyes of Pilate.  Pilate was aware of the darkness, he had seen it.  Pilate was aware of the earthquake he had felt it, and heard about the rip in the Temple curtain.  Pilate needed confirmation from his centurion that Jesus was really dead, and not some trick to be performed on him.  So a spear was thrust into the side of Jesus, blood and water emerged from the wound, but no reaction.  He was dead.  The legs of the other two were broken, but not a bone of Jesus, as scripture had foretold.

Pilate grants the request of Joseph.  Mark continues in verse 46 saying … “And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre.”  Joseph did not buy cheap materials to wrap a dead body in.  He bought the finest linen he could secure.  His purchase gives way to the Christian legend of the imprint of Jesus left within the material surviving the ages.  Joseph lays Jesus in his own best burial tomb, he will secure another for himself later.  Jesus has need of it now.  The tomb is carved out in solid rock, no scavengers will get in here.  Mimicking the Egyptians for preserving a body as close to Jewish tradition as possible for burial Joseph gives his all in this quest.  Joseph has no idea this is merely a hotel for short storage.

The round rock takes many Roman soldiers to move in front of the door, but before they do a few witnesses take notice.  Mark continues in verse 47 saying … “And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where he was laid.”  The women who still refuse to leave their Lord are present.  They examine where Jesus will be laid, in order that they may come later and anoint their Lord with the spices and preservatives that will best keep Him in tact.  But while the women of extreme courage remain present, so too are the spies of the Temple.  You can imagine as the Sanhedrin learns of Josephs kindness revealed, they have other intentions.  They request a Roman garrison be put on guard at the tomb at least until the third day passes, in order to prevent prophecy, or theft and deception.  They too examine the body of Christ, and the place where He is laid.  They too witness the Roman guards move the heavy stone, and then seal it with a Roman seal, the breaking of which will mean death.  But they must hurry for sunset approaches.

Humanity does not realize the God they are commanded to take time away from everything else and be with, is the Jesus Christ they lay in this tomb.  They do not realize that the ultimate price for our redemption has been paid by Jesus, and that the separation from God that He endured on that cross, the separation that killed Him, is something we need not endure.  Humanity sees only a dead Rabbi, like any other before Him, but perhaps this one was more kind.  Humanity sees only a dead prophet, one closer to God than any before Him, able to perform great miracles, but now dead and entombed like any other.  Our vision does not discern the divine.  We see only what we know.  We measure time only by how we know it to pass.  But what we miss is that even in death, Jesus will rest upon this Sabbath day, from the work of our redemption, as He once rested from the work of our creation.

Divinity sees something else.  Sunset will change everything.  The Sabbath will be the longest portion of the three days spent in this tomb.  Jesus dies only hours before it on Friday the first of three days.  He will rise early Sunday morning only hours into the third day.  It will be Sabbath that is spent in full where Jesus will rest from the work of our redemption.  The Sabbath will begin with sunset on Friday, and then end with it on Saturday evening.  A full 24 hour day spent in rest from the work of keeping us away from the eternal punishment, the eternal separation from God, that we have chosen, and we have earned.  Here is where mercy will sleep.  Here is where mercy will rest.  This day is not spent in preparation of the resumption of the work of our reclamation.  Here a full day will be set aside to simply rest in the sleep we call death.  Divine eyes see that death does not end the Sabbath memorial, it re-establishes it through the very actions of the Son of God Himself.

The Sabbath began at the Genesis of man before sin in our world existed.  It was reaffirmed at the covenant of man with our creator on Mount Sinai.  It was demonstrated by our God Himself, in His life and ministry before death, and then in full when He died.  It will be continued as Isaiah predicts in our heavenly home forever and ever.  Divine eyes see Sabbath in its reaffirmation by Jesus Himself.  If you consider that the Kingdom of God was meant for little children.  And you combine this with idea of a day set aside with God where our Dad sets aside His time to be with us.  Then perhaps you come to the idea that Sabbath is not a list of the concerns of adults, but rather unscripted playtime with Dad.  We prepare for it, only because we do not want to be distracted by any other concern during it.  We honor our time with Him, but insuring no one else has to spend their time serving us, instead of joining us, with our time with Him.  Until we think in alignment with Jesus, until He transforms how we think in this regard, our ability to keep Sabbath is stunted at best.

Sunset has changed everything …

 

Aftermath ...

The darkness remained.  The noise dissipated.  Satan could not believe his own eyes.  He always thought that at some point, Christ in the embodiment of weakened human nature, would find a way to back out of going through with His own death.  Surely God the Father would not permit His most treasured object of affection, to actually die.  Particularly at the hands of this wicked species, who had the special irony of using God’s own religion against Him.  This was beyond the comprehension of Satan that Christ would go through with it, and that God the Father would allow it.

 

Satan and his band of malcontents had lost a war to this Christ.  They had been kicked out of heaven by this Christ.  They knew He had the power of God, and they knew He could easily stop His own death.  And yet He did not.  Christ submitted His own power, and His own desire for self-preservation, and His own human weakness; for the love He felt for us.  And thus Christ went through with our punishment even unto death.  Having all the power in the universe at His disposal, He used none of it to preserve Himself from suffering our fate, and taking on our well-deserved punishment.  This level of sacrifice, Satan had simply become too degraded to understand.  Seeing that love had no limits; effectively had broken down the purported legitimacy of every argument he had ever made about the character of God, on display to the entire universe.

This loss to the kingdom of Satan was stunning.  Satan had long hoped the misery of mankind over breaking the “laws” of God would somehow inspire the rest of the universe to revolt seeing that God was nothing more than a cruel dictator who took pleasure in the punishment of others.  However, to see that same God, give up everything; to see Him sacrifice His only Son; to see the perfect Son do nothing wrong, but willingly yield up even His own life, to save us from the fate and punishment we deserve stood as a real example of why Satan was wrong.  God did not delight in our punishment, but in our salvation.  And He was willing to die in our stead to prove it.  Satan would make no such gesture.  Satan wanted God dead, but would never be willing to make a similar sacrifice for his own kingdom or cause.  The difference was stark.  The difference was clear.  The character of God had been vindicated to the angelic hosts on both sides of the conflict.  The arguments were over.  The rest of sentient life in the universe could see the contrast of love for others without end, and what happens when love is twisted to only please self.  Satan’s argument had failed.  He had lost.  The contrast of good and evil was decided on that cross.  There was nothing left he could say, and there would be no universal uprising against God.  All Satan would have left now, was to hurt God as much as he could before Satan died.  He would hurt God, but by hurting the thing God loves the most, namely us.

Beyond the unseen realm of universal importance was the aftermath of the death of Christ here in our world.  In perhaps the height of hypocrisy, and self-delusion, the religious leaders who would never be able to remove the stain of the blood of Christ from their guilty hands, attempted to purify themselves, and resume services for the Day of Atonement.  Even while they killed the innocent lamb, the irony of killing the Lamb of God was lost on them.  Even though the symbolism of the blood of the lamb to atone for their misdoings was literally all over their fingertips, they missed the reality of what they had just done to the actual Lamb of God.  Instead they would follow self-proscribed ideas about Sabbath observance.  These same ideas had no founding in the values of God.  It was these ideas that had led to the first conflict with Christ, for Christ had loved and healed someone on Sabbath.  And despite their warnings of Christ not abiding by their own Sabbatical laws and interpretations, He had done it again.  So now, in the aftermath of the death of the Lamb of God, in the year of Jubilee when all property must be returned to its owners, all the slaves must be set free, and on the Day of Atonement itself, the religious leaders went about their traditions uninterrupted by the killing of God’s only Son.

But there was a problem.  Great care was always taken so that only the High Priest, wearing the vestments of his office, could enter the Most Holy place in the temple of God.  No one else was permitted to even look into it, upon pain of death.  The priest actually wore bells around the hem of his garment, and a rope tied to his ankles so that he could be pulled out if the bells stopped making noise in the event of his death.  To enter the presence of God with sin, in an incorrect manner, was to die as sin cannot exist in the presence of God.  It was our sin that separated Christ from His Father, broke His heart, and killed Him in grief.  So while every precaution always had to be taken for this singular annual event, today was markedly different.  The great and heavy multi-layered curtain which separated the Most Holy place of the temple from the Holy place where priests were always about their business was torn by an unseen hand from top to bottom.  Temple worshippers, of which there would never be more than now, some of whom had come to Jerusalem hoping to crown Christ their new Messiah King; could now see the Ark of the Covenant without death.  What is more, the presence of God was NOT to be found in the mercy seat.  Christ in fact, would be at rest in the grave on the Sabbath.

Without the presence of God in the temple, there would be no need for pilgrims to come to Jerusalem any longer to worship.  Without the presence of God in the temple, the control of the priests over the people would be broken.  The worship of God would now reside where it always should have been, in the hearts of men, not in the structures we erect in His name.  It was not as if the priests could cover this truth up.  The curtain was torn in front of witnesses.  It could not be repaired quickly.  And the entire missing presence of God was physically seen by the attending crowds.  The need for further sacrifice of sheep’s blood had lost its meaning.  No more would we need sacrifice to point forward to the death of God in our place.  Instead we would now look backwards at this event.  The sacrificial system had lost its significance.  The directives of God for worship in this regard, had been fulfilled.  They would no longer be required.  And to insure we got that message, the curtain had been torn, and the Mercy seat on the top of the Ark was visibly empty.  The laws of God would transfer their significance from the stone shards within the Ark, to the hearts of believers who would submit to their God and learn to love others.  No longer would the Jewish nation be the preservers of love, for they had given that duty away in the act of killing Christ.  From now on, ALL men would be drawn to the Love that was raised upon that cross.  The mercy seat would find its home in our hearts, as would the love of God, when we like Christ yield our will to the Father in Heaven.

The character of God, and the 10 commandment laws were not broken or done away with by Christ, even in death.  Christ still honored God, and kept His day Holy, resting from His own work of salvation; not taking the name of God in vain; nor dishonoring, nor stealing, nor killing, nor lusting, nor coveting.  In every way, before, during, and after His death, Christ upheld the law that began to define what love is to God and man.  This law was a part of “who” God is, and therefore cannot be abolished without abolishing Love itself.  However, the laws of the temple and its system of worship, the laws of animal sacrifice and atonement; those laws had seen their fulfillment in the life and death of Christ.  They would no longer be relevant, or required.  The annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem, or to any other city of worship, would be something without significance to God.  We would now be able to find God, by seeking Him from within our hearts.  God would no longer be constrained to be only in one place, in one temple, in one city.  He was free to be everywhere with us, through the outpouring of His Holy Spirit.

The universe had been sealed forever.  The worship system of God had changed forever.  And the followers of God became publicly scarce in number.  However, the significance of these events were not lost on all who understood the prophecies and what had just been accomplished.  In the heart of darkness, those who had sought Him in secret now emerged boldly from the shadows.   John records in his gospel in chapter 19 and verse 38 … “And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.”  Jesus was dead.  Joseph was one of the religious leadership so Pilate had no problems with having someone dispose of the body.  Next would emerge another follower of Christ who had kept his own allegiance quiet until now.  John continues in verse 39 … “And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. [verse 40] Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.”  These two men and the attending women would take great care of their Lord after His death.  They would gently clean His body, and perfume it with spices and oils, wrapping it in linens for burial.

The Sabbath was very close, and for convenience there was a garden close by, and a new tomb that had never been used within it.  So John records in verse 41 … “Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. [verse 42] There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.”  They would place Jesus here, at least for the time being, in order that He might rest and they might all return to Jerusalem for the worship they had grown accustomed to performing.  Perhaps they would join with those who sought shelter in the upper room.  Or perhaps they would bear witness to the first fruits that had emerged from their graves at the death of Christ.  A crop he would take with Him when He ascended to the Father; a harvest of what His sacrifice had enabled.  These long deceased messengers and patriarchs of God, walked the streets of Jerusalem with a singular message about the divinity of Christ; a message that would have a resounding resonance. 

By and large the people were still expecting to see Christ at the ceremonies.  They were anxious to crown Him king.  They were anxious to see the prophecies of the Messiah fulfilled.  They had every hope the Romans would soon be leaving.  But the religious leaders knew that could not be the case.  They knew what they had done.  They began to remember the words of Christ, they understood even before His own disciples did, that He might rise again on the third day.  So they took precautions to insure this could not occur through trickery.  John does not record their request they made of Pilate to place 100 guards at the tomb of Christ.  Pilate must have thought the Jews were completely crazy.  But given the popularity of Christ, there was no sense in seeing a riot break out over the disposition of where Christ was buried.  So he directed guards to place a giant stone in front of the tomb, a stone that required many of his guards to move.  They would place a Roman seal on the stone, so that anyone who dared to break it, would know it was a death sentence for them as well.  Pilate and the Jews who sought him out in this matter, believed they had all the bases covered. 

It would have been unusual for the followers of Christ to try something.  Up to now, they had not demonstrated a wealth of bravery.  Up to now, they had been meek, disappointed, sad, and humiliated.  One of their number had betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver, and ultimately hung himself in despair.  Another had denied even knowing who Christ was three times in a single night.  One of them was a notorious doubter.  One of them a former Roman tax collector and hated by his own people for it.  Most of the rest were simple fishermen with little education, and no fighting skills.  They would be outmatched at His grave by 100 seasoned Roman killers.  These followers were perhaps the most disappointed in the chain of events.  They knew Christ to be God, but they also knew He was dead at the hands of the priests and the Romans.  Like Satan, they could not understand how God would allow this.  Like Satan, they had always figured that power was the ultimate goal, and they knew Christ had it in Him to take power anytime He wanted.  Like Judas, they probably all had hoped He would simply exert that power to avoid death.  They would have.  We would have.   Why didn’t he?

The aftermath was a time of miracles, a time of reflection, a time of rest, a time of change, and a time of taking measures of precaution.   But nothing could prevent what was about to occur …