Radical Transformation ...

If you knew the end from the beginning, you wouldn’t choose it any other way.  This assertion will be verified in heaven (look me up, if it turns out I was wrong 😊).  But because we don’t know: it feels much more like a rollercoaster doing 90mph and its just certain there is some track missing up ahead.  Roller coasters at high speed are dangerous enough when guided by the flimsy track we all realize was built by a team earning minimum wage dying to get home for the weekend.  But if track is actually missing, if the ride itself is frankly incomplete: then the ride is not only dangerous, it is certain death.  And nobody here is looking for that outcome.  After all we signed up for this, we bought tickets, we chose to be here, wait in line, do whatever it takes to ride.  If you told me however, that the “surprise” of this ride, was missing track, I would tell you – thanks, but no thanks.  That kind of “radical” is just way out of my league.  And yet here I sit waiting in line, really close to my turn to ride.

The basic problem with transformation of any kind, is that the future me, is just not going to look anything like the current me.  No, I am not talking about physical body alteration of any kind.  I am talking generally about what it means to have character or personality “one” today – and through a series of events I cannot predict, anticipate, or sometimes even understand – finding myself down the road with personality “two” instead of who I am today.  The promise of God, is that what He will remake me into, will be something I would love to be.  But what is that?  He offers no road map.  He does not set any time limits on all this.  It could take minutes, or it could take decades.  Perhaps the timing is something I directly influence.  He does not even tell me what “I” will look like in that future model.  I have no idea what features, strengths, or weaknesses I will have.  It may even be possible weaknesses will have left my vocabulary.  God tells me He will put His love inside of me.  Just like He does for literally everyone else.  So while some of the outcomes are known, the parts that make me unique from everybody else are not known.  Will I still be able to play the violin (goes the old joke)?

And more to the point, will the parts of me I lose in this process, be parts of me I will miss in the future?  That is kind of the most burning question that crosses my mind when I ponder transformation of any kind, let alone radical transformation.  I am kind of fond of some of who I am today.  Even if those parts are perhaps not the best things for me, or anybody else really.  Then comes the scariest part of all.  When you read scriptures about radical transformation, it tends to use language like “having to die” to achieve it.  I foresee the missing track right there on this roller coaster.  “Death” words are never very comforting for any mortal.  Even if they only refer to my personality or character, they are still very frightening.  And for a marketing campaign, this is probably the worst one I have ever heard.  Who cares if it is truth in advertising, it is not a truth most of us want to hear.  You start telling me that the end of the rainbow lies behind the death-door number one, and I start wondering if there is a door number two, or three to choose from.  That’s just human nature.  And it is human nature God intends to redefine in me, even if some sort of death is required to do it.

So my first response is … you first.  Ego crazed, selfish creature that I am, choosing to be blind to the infinite glory God is offering – and in this state, I demand He does it first – to prove that it works.  You would think a Santa Clause version of God who doles out rewards and punishments (emphasis on punishments) would just strike me down in my arrogance.  But our God is NOT any version of Santa Clause.  He is a saving God.  And instead of debating with me, He leads me to scriptures to show me where He ALREADY has gone first.  Talk about missing tracks on the Roller Coaster.  Matthew chronicles how real radical transformation begins, not just ours, but our God’s.  He writes of experiences the author of Life should have never known.  But to save us our God did way more than He would ever ask of any of us, in order to see what future me could see.

Matthew picks up in chapter 27 in verse 45 saying … “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. [verse 46] And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  There will be pain in our transformation.  Pain brought on by sin, and its consequences, and the choices others continue to make while bound to sin like the strongest cocaine addiction the world has ever known.  How do I know radical transformation is not a recipe for a pain-free-life – look what sin did to God.  Jesus sits atop a Roman cross, and for three hours He writhes in agony, nearly deprived of all His blood.  The Creator is to experience death first.  The Author of life is to experience its ultimate opposite, in order to save us.  And for those three hours, nature refuses to look upon what is happening.  An eery darkness covers the land.  This is no normal thunderstorm, no normal cloudy day.  This is a thick blackness like the plague that once covered Egypt.

The Romans assigned to this detatchment must light torches to see; when usually the sun is high in the sky.  No stars can be seen.  No moon.  No Sun.  No reflections of light anywhere but from the torches the soldiers must light in order to see.  And humanity is now terrified.  Radical Transformation is anything but predictable.  How could anyone have prepared for this?  But what Jesus says reveals a pain infinitely greater than the pain His body suffers from.  He has never known a millisecond without absolute unity with His Father.  It is the light of the Father, that has sustained Jesus throughout this ministerial tour through torture-ville.  It is that harmony, that unity, that keeps Him submitting to God, deferring His own will, in order to show us what we need to do.  Jesus is to be our living example.  But now, near the moments of His death, He can feel no Father God.  He is now truly alone.  He is now experiencing what separation from the Father feels like.  And folks – that is the very definition of HELL.  Hell is NOT about the flames.  Hell is not even about the eternal consequences.  Hell is the infinite torture of being separated from the source of all life and love even if only for a moment.  To endure that separation, is to endure HELL, and Jesus has been dealing with it for a while now.

I am sure in His darkness, Jesus must be asking Himself, what good can come from this?  Is it possible that having carried the weight of the sins of this world upon Him, He will forever be stained with it?  If so, might He ever have to endure separation from His Father?  Jesus is walking through the doors of Hell, with zero exit strategy.  Even after He is resurrected, He might still be stained, and forever driven from the presence of His Father.  Our sin could easily be that great.  Mine alone perhaps that great.  Talk about death wording.  Jesus is going to die.  But perhaps Jesus will endure a fate worse than death.  And from this side of the cross, He cannot see past it.  The risk is real.  The risk is overwhelming.  And so He cries out in agony, to mark this extreme pain.

Matthew continues in verse 47 saying … “Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. [verse 48] And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. [verse 49] The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.”  The priests have fled the darkness back to Jerusalem.  Only the soldiers, the curious, and the faithful remain here.  Those listening misunderstand Him, how typical.  They prepare a pain dulling sponge for Him, to see if Elijah will come to save Him.  Another sign that could not happen, perhaps no matter how bad Elijah wanted it to.  For Elijah, Moses, Enoch, and any other human translated into heaven, must now sit in silence witnessing the price of God’s love for us.  There was no adequate road map for any of this.  When Father and Son, plan all of this out in heaven 4000+ years ago, it is different knowing it will come, than being now in the middle of it, unable to see past the fog of our sins, to know if redemption is even still possible.

We complain about what might be required of us during a radical transformation.  But we have endured nothing next to our God, who did go first.  We may even lose the life we have in this world of sin, but like the theif on the cross, we will surely see our loving God in the next one when it comes.  What Jesus did was risk both lives.  The human one on the cross.  The divine one from being stained with our great sins.  It might have been planned.  But it was here, and unexpected.  All radical transformations are unexpected.  If we knew about them.  We would defer them.  They happen to us, in spite of us.  And Jesus will die with those in attendance still not understanding what He was doing for them.  Those onlookers meant no sympathy with the vinegar to dull the pain.  They meant to extend His life by dulling the pain long enough to see if Elijah would descend out of the darkness all around them.  Radical Transformation often happens to us alone.  When comfort does not come from those around us.  It is just between us and our God.  Here Jesus must endure it, even without the comfort of His Father God.

Matthew continues in verse 50 saying … “Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. [verse 51] And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;”  The agony is too great.  The separation too intense.  Jesus cries out in a blood-chilling cry of a heart physically rending in His own chest.  And He dies.  No escape.  No alternative pathway for our salvation.  He does what must be done.  His death not only before our own, but in place of our own.  Our transformation will now be possible because Jesus did what He must do to save us.  Even if He does not know it yet.  His sleep begins.  He knows nothing for now. 

But radical transformation is not just meant for people.  It can and just did happen to a belief system.  The most holy place was where the mercy seat sat atop the Ark of the Covenant.  This most holy chamber was hidden in the Temple at Jerusalem behind a 20ft curtain insolated with three different kinds of heavy materials & colors sown together, and embroidered with gold angels throughout.  The curtain weighed several hundred pounds and took many men to hang it.  It was not intended to be moved offering only a slight possible opening at the center base where a man could pass from one chamber to the other once a year.  To look upon the most holy artifacts, was to see the presence of God, and be struck dead from the intensity of our sin, and purity of His love by contrast.  No Jew ever dared to do it.  They knew the consequences.  They tied bells on the hem of the High Priest, and a rope around his ankles, when he entered this sanctum only once per year, in case the bells went silent and he died, they pulled him out by that rope, never daring to look in. 

And now on the day of atonement, with hundreds of worshippers packing the Temple site, and the high priest making ready to go in – the curtain is torn by an unseen angelic hand from top to bottom.  It falls away revealing not only a small passageway, but the entire Most Holy place sanctum, Ark of the Covenant and all.  The mercy seat is empty; the One who normally occupies it just gave up His Ghost over on Calvary at that moment.  The entire crowd stares in to the most Holy place in terror and amazement.  They are all still alive.  And their faith has just undergone a radical transformation.  No longer will Jerusalem be its center.  No longer will any Temple building be where God is found.  He will be found with each of us who seek Him, where we happen to be.  And the cornerstone of the faith, Jesus Christ, who was cast aside by the priests charged with building the base of believers, will become the very foundation of the new faith that emerges from the Old faith that has met its fulfillment at the cross, on the Day of Atonement.  It is also the year of Jubiliee, all the slaves are to be set free.  A symbolic representation of what Jesus will do for us if redemption worked.  The timing of everything is perfect.

But this is not just a silent event.  At the death of her Maker, the earth trembles as you would expect it to, when the Creator God is put to death.  The earthquake is felt here and hundreds of miles away.  It tears rocks into pebbles.  It rips great holes in the earth, though preserving Jerusalem, and the cross site where He has laid down His life.  But there is purpose in this quake.  It tears deep into the earth, to reveal graves that have been covered over by ages of shifting sands and sediments.  Matthew continues in verse 52 saying … “And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, [verse 53] And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.”  The graves of many sleeping saints were exposed by the quake.  When Jesus would come forth, they would arise as well, a first fruits offering for what was to come.  In addition to the sightings of Jesus after His own resurrection, would be sightings and encounters of saints long asleep in the earth, who would come forth and testify in full body form about their risen Lord.

Radical Transformation, that follows death.  Radical Transformation none can deny, and none would oppose.  Those sleeping saints were not disembodied spirits wandering the halls of a heaven forced to see their loved ones continue on in their absence in a world of sin.  They were instead asleep as scriptures describe, knowing nothing, not the passage of time, not the decay of their bodies, nor the conditions that occurred after their sleep began.  Until now.  They arose in full body form, not as spirits.  They emerged from death, as we all will also emerge from death.  Radically transformed into new creations, even if that process began before our sleep did.  Future them, is radically better than past versions of them.  Their characters are not burdened with the addiction to sin, but are completely free of it.  They are made pure by our Savior, and are now able to ascend with Him when He ascends into heaven.  But whether their influence was witnessed for three days, or for forty days, it was undeniable, profound, and radically different than what ANYBODY expected, including them.

The reaction to all of this by those who least believed, and were most responsible for the cruelty of all of this was the admission believers seem so reluctant to admit.  Matthew continues in verse 54 saying … “Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.”  You will note these pagan men made no reference to pagan deities.  They proclaimed Jesus as the Son of God, the Jewish version of who the Messiah would be.  This statement affirms the Jewish version of who God is, and does nothing to support any kind of previous pagan belief.  And it comes from the most cruel, military men, who are bound by orders to witness all of it.  But then, Radical Transformation was meant to occur in the Roman soul, as easily as it occurs in the Hebrew one.  It does not matter who you are now, who you can be is so infinitely better.  You do not need to worry.  Even if death comes, so what.  Death comes to us all.  But real change to so few.  Real change, from real love, makes real life so much better.  Future you will never dispute this.  But to encounter future you, you must be willing to let current you, go.  It might sound radical, but some missing track is just what this ride was supposed to have.

 

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 …

 

Extreme Courage ...

There are stories of extreme courage when despite heavy risks, and personal danger, a person does what seems like the impossible.  When we hear of these stories, we picture men, in excellent shape, of a young age, able to perform at the peak of their fitness.  Sometimes the stories surprise us, when it is someone older who steps into the breach.  Children can only do so much, so few stories exist here other than heroic fights against disease, or the courage to stop a bully.  But what few of us imagine when the words extreme courage are uttered; is a mom, and a prostitute.  These two are hard to associate with the ideas of extreme courage.  Add to their pair, a servant girl, and then another.  Add to that group a cook, a maid, and a daughter with a famous name.  How could a band of women be associated with terminology we reserve for our military in action, and yet have no military association at all?

Courage begins with standing against the popular.  In a time when reputation is everything, and particularly so for a woman, courage begins with risking it to do what is right, instead of what is popular.  Religious association, being a student of the Word, is one way to help maintain both spirituality and reputation.  Being cut off from religious association for what you do, or what you say, is a recipe for ruin, and ruin on a public scale.  Could you face this, to do what is right?  To face it not boldly in arrogance of your beliefs, but in humility, seeking truth, unsure you have found it.  Courage for a woman in the time of Christ was to ignore the threats of the Sanhedrin to be cast out of the Temple forever, and serve at the feet of Jesus.  Courage was not defined as railing accusations against those still in the wrong, but humble service in the ministry of Jesus.  It was feeding them.  It was washing what needed to be washed.  It was caring, without arrogance and confrontation, all the while suffering the greatest loss a woman could suffer, her reputation damaged beyond repair, in a time when that was all she had.

Courage remains by loving those we should not love.  This was not a group of the holy, it was a group of the injured, the sinful, the untouchables.  Hookers are not often welcomed by women of any church.  Demon possessed hookers even less so.  But Jesus repairs a life, sometimes more than once, and those women never acquainted with such pain, are expected to accept, embrace, and love the reclaimed without limit or reproach.  Hookers, now former, are to love housewives, and vice versa, without a word of condemnation from either.  Hookers who know the hypocrisy of families where husbands cheat in secret.  And housewives who fear the unbridled sexuality of a prostitute will lure away that which should not be lured.  Now intermixed by a Rabbi who loves everyone, in a society that does not.  But not just the hookers are of ill repute.

The woman was alone at the well in Samaria because of who she was, and what she had done.  Her lack of commitment in marriage, her trivial treatment of the forever, had landed her many husbands, and now only a live-in lover.  She too was destined to join this band of women.  She too was to be reclaimed, and after the evangelism in her region which converted so many, would become yet another servant, of no reputation whose name we do not even know.  She too would be listed as only part of “many women” who served and ministered to Jesus and His disciples … as if this was all she did in the furtherance of the gospel, and the redemption of souls.  But acceptance into the collective of other women required forgiveness in the hearts of them all, not just in the heart of Jesus.

These women, one and all, sacrificed their reputations, whether by their deeds in a former life, or by their association with each other in the spirit of forgiveness and love.  And now they were willing, to a woman, to risk their lives in a display of courage the world had never seen.  An act so great, the Holy Spirit will not let Peter forget it.  In the brevity of Peter’s telling of the gospel at its end, Peter takes time to recall what women did.  When the courage of men failed, the courage of women did not.  When the followers of Jesus, His disciples, were scattered to the wind; the assembly of women began.  These women gathered themselves, and presented themselves in growing numbers at His trial.  It was not their voices calling for death in tones of hate.  It was their voices calling for mercy, as it had always been given to them.  But they were drowned out by the screams of evicted demons now bent on revenge.

But women of no repute, continued to assemble, and without fear, or perhaps without concern that it should cost them their very lives.  You cannot stamp out the message of Christ, until you kill all of His followers.  While men hid themselves in upper rooms afraid to see what would transpire, women were out in the places they needed to be.  They followed His procession up the hill of Golgotha in tears, and in association for all to see.  Peter recalls it to John Mark in his gospel in chapter fifteen picking up in verse 40 saying … “There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome;” 

Notice Peter first points out that in this group of women is Mary Magdalene.  The Hooker is listed first.  The demon possessed former hooker is listed first, above all other women there.  Why?  Could it be that for whom much is forgiven, much is expected?  Could it be that the woman with the most corrupted idea of love had been reclaimed the farthest in what love is now.  Chief among sinners is listed first.  Reputations of those who follow her, of those who dare to be with her, are done.  Next Peter lists Mary the mother of Jesus, but in an unusual way.  Peter lists her by the names of the siblings of Christ.  So much for the idea of a perpetual virgin.  Mary was a normal wife and mother after the birth of Jesus.  James, Joses, and Salome (whose name was also given to the daughter of Herod Phillipi living with Antipas at the execution of John the Baptist).  These were the names of Jesus’ family at the recollection of Peter.  He would know.  The hooker and the housewife lead this assembly.

Mark continues in verse 41 saying … “(Who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him;) and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem.”  These women ministered to Jesus, to each other, and to assemblies so large they were hard to number.  They did this at the cost of their reputations, shunned by the religious leadership for association with Jesus.  Shunned by the public, for association with women of ill repute, hookers, divorcees, and such.  They lost what could not be replaced, and without a word of discontent.  For they had found something of far greater value, a vision of love and what love should be, that does not look for credit or disdain, only to serve. 

But this was no book club, knitting circle, or potluck.  They were assembled in the place of a skull.  They had no weapons, or skills to use them.  They were sheep.  They were witnesses to a fallen Lord now dead upon the cross.  They had no one to protect them, or give care should they be raped or killed without mercy from soldiers who paid no mind to the virtue of a woman.  They were Jews in front of Romans.  They were apostates in front of priests and rabbis who governed in absolute control over religious matters.   And their Lord was dead, unable to hear their cries, or offer assistance or love.  Everything they had hoped for was dead on that cross.  Everything they had dreamed of for the Jewish nation was lifeless on that cross.  Jesus hung naked before them, without a shred of dignity.  And they were there assembled as sitting ducks for a raging temple system, and Roman military to do with as they pleased.

Their lives, their reclaimed virtue, their reputations were as vulnerable as it gets, and all of this was by choice.  For the women in this assembly could be in no other place.  They MUST be with their Lord, even if He dies.  Even if He is dead, these women cannot tear themselves away from their Lord.  That is faith.  That is a courage in spite of death or worse, that knows NO fear at all.  This is where a maid, and a cook, and a mother, and a hooker defy the entire Roman empire with steadfast steel in their bones.  This is where Truth stands against the corruption in hearts of religious leaders who wish to kill it.  This is where a housewife comforts a hooker, who reaches back to comfort her.  Jews are amazed by this.  Even in death these women do not flee, they remain.  Even when there is nothing more to gain for any of them, they do not flee, they remain, and they still love each other.  When hope is gone, the extreme courage of a woman is revealed.

This confounds the Roman soldiers in attendance.  Romans have seen families of victims come out to a crucifixion before.  But never does a mother welcome a prostitute in comfort.  Never does such an assembly of women seem to genuinely care for each other in love that defies explanation.  This is not some wailing performed by those hired to wail.  This is silent crying by those who love so deeply no sound can emerge from it.  This is not the noise of grief; it is a grief so profound it lacks all noise.  Where Romans who hate Jews would have been prone to move sin from the crucified to his entourage, no such inclination is present today.  The darkness, the earthquake, the plea of forgiveness from the cross itself, has dampened further ideas of evil in the soldiers at the cross.  These women represent only another marvel the Romans cannot understand.

It is not their perfection that defines this moment, it is their imperfection.  Mary Magdalene is still known for her former life, a hooker, with multiple demons.  She is present, but still imperfect.  She has not transcended as Enoch did, to a life ready for heaven.  She is in its process, but not at its conclusion.  But despite her imperfections, she is here, where she must be.  This is why it is courage.  Because risk is still present, perfection is not.  Damage is still present, immunity is not.  But despite the reality of this situation, a demonstration of true ministry occurs.  Love for each other in full display, even when Jesus is dead.  Love for each other, even when reputations are in the mud, and death is at the doorway, and Jesus will not be here to save them.  This is the moment Peter must recall to John Mark.  And by contrast, to further deepen his own shame.

Peter must faithfully recount the deeds of women, when his own stand in contrast as abject failures.  When our churches stand, and debate the roles of women in the gospel, we forget that in times like these, men fail, and women deliver.  Those who are in tune to the Holy Spirit, who become a vessel of the love of God, are those destined to preach the word.  This assembly was not preaching in word, but the lesson in deed has survived 2000 years, and will live on in infinity, because even when Jesus was dead, love lived on in His followers.  This love was not done in secret, or in a place of convenience, or in denial of who they served.  It was there when He was dead.  It was there when Hope was dead.  It was a courage that could never be mimicked again. 

To be embarrassed to be associated with Jesus in our day … is such a thing possible?  In our modern age when a co-worker, or associate, asks us if we are a Christian; is hesitation still possible from a thought to what our answer will mean to our reputation?  If the answer was not already apparent, the need for the question, is what will break my heart.  If my actions, my words, and my motives are not already in such tight alignment with His, that those who casually know me, must ask if I follow Christ, I still have far to go in my journey.  I want that answer brazenly self-evident.  I want a measure of love from God, to mimic the love of mothers, hookers, servants, and housewives in an age where extreme courage was defined.  To love like that before He had arisen, was proof, that His Father remained.  It was proof that Jesus provides us a connection to His Father.  We are not connected to only Jesus, but to the Holy Spirit, and to His Father.  This was reconciliation His death was to accomplish for us, and we need only do the simplest of things: to accept it.

Then watch what a reclaimed life looks like.  Watch how extreme courage becomes so common it can no longer be thought of as courage, but just as nature.  Witness how the love for a hooker becomes transcendent.  Love that is no longer a filthy thing, but a holy thing, able to flow from husbands and housewives alike without a moment of condemnation from anyone.  Watch how a risen Lord, who reclaims lives, can change how you love so profoundly that words lose their ability to describe it …

 

To Stain Reputation ...

There is a reason why a lie is an abomination.  A lie is the tool to slander, and malign truth, especially The Truth.  Innocence had been convicted in the courts of pride, by men, by religious leaders who would not cede control to it.  For 2000 years the tactics have not changed.  Threats to power, threats to those who believe themselves to be in control, must first be destroyed in reputation, before in body.  The Sanhedrin in the days of Christ, is little different than the halls of power that exist today.  The pretenses may be different, but the tactics employed, and the results to the innocent are identical.  The Sanhedrin wanted more than the blood of Christ at His death, they wanted Him to be seen as guilty.  They wanted the common people to look upon innocence and call it guilt.  Yet another abomination to add to the rap sheet of religious men and their satanic master.

What would begin, was a long and calculated effort to make the name of Jesus of none effect.  Emmanuel, Yeshua, the Messiah, the Christ; all titles associated with Jesus from Nazareth must be taken from Him, or dragged through so much mud, no one could recognize them again.  The Truth was convicted of blasphemy against God; or in other words, God was convicted of speaking against God.  There was no sense in it.  There was no logic in it.  There was only an abundance of hate in it.  Love was nowhere to be found; hate was dripping in the air itself.  First, Jesus would be taken to the place where the lowest of criminals were taken.  This would be no place of honor, but instead to a place of ignominy, reserved for the scum of the earth.  Jesus would not meet His final hours in apathy, but in a rage against His name, against who He was, calculated to make Him guilty, by the association of guilty things all around Him.

Peter recalls the horror of how men would treat His Lord to John Mark in his gospel in chapter fifteen and picking up in verse 22 saying … “And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull.”  Death was to be by intent.  Torture to precede death was to be by intent.  This place was the place dedicated to just such a thing, to just such a mission.  No one landed here who had any hope of living or lasting.  They bring Jesus nowhere near the Temple, or any place of mercy, they bring Him to the place of a skull.  This act alone could help them heap insult upon the reputation of Jesus.  They could not understand how Jesus could see this place as a place of redemption.  For in their eyes, this place was only a place of death, of horrific death.

Mark continues in verse 23 saying … “And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not.”  Grape juice mingled with myrrh to dull pain, prolong torture, and make the horror of His death last longer.  But Jesus would not take it.  With a back and body still bleeding like a civ, from a lashing one lash short of death itself.  The whip laced with shards of glass, and the crown of thorns pressed deep in His head from the blows by the reed doled out by the Romans while they mocked Him.  The pain to the body and heart of Jesus had to be as extreme as it gets.  But He refuses the drink designed to dull that very pain.  He prefers to keep His mind sharp, even though it keeps the pain at its level.

Mark continues in verse 24 saying … “And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take. [verse 25] And it was the third hour, and they crucified him. [verse 26] And the superscription of his accusation was written over, THE KING OF THE JEWS.”  Peter was not there.  He knows what happened but at best he was far away when he witnessed it.  So Peter omits the nails pounded into the hands and feet of Jesus.  But Peter knows about the removal of the clothing of Jesus, the humiliation of hanging naked for all to see.  In front of the tortured Lord, they part the homespun cloth as a dead Man will have no need of this anymore.  But Romans enjoy irony.  So above the head of this Jew lies the inscription THE KING OF THE JEWS.  This is meant as a testament to all other Jews who would rise up against Rome, that this was their fate.

Mark continues in verse 27 saying … “And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left. [verse 28] And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors.”  Criminals die together.  Jesus would not die alone, but would die with others who were clearly guilty of their crimes.  Guilt by association.  Guilt by proximity.  Jesus does not see these men as criminals doomed to a fate they well deserve.  He sees men who have endured and inflicted such pain by their choices to embrace sin.  This is a pain Jesus would take from them, and free them from.  While their fate on the cross will not change, their fate beyond it could be made free, and eternal, no longer bound to the desire to serve self.  To be no longer destined to repeat a life of similar choices was why Jesus was hanging in between them in the first place.  Jesus must pay their ultimate cost, so He can free them and restore them to a life without such pain ever again.  But what the world sees, what men see, what too often you and I see; is only three criminals.

Mark continues in verse 29 saying … “And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, [verse 30] Save thyself, and come down from the cross.”  And the plan works.  Passers-by, travelers on the way to Jerusalem, remember the words and teachings of Jesus.  But now, given where He is, given who He is with, use these words as a taunt to prove to themselves, that Jesus must really not be the Messiah after all.  Had Jesus come down from the cross, these men would not have been converted, only surprised.  Faith does not originate from fear.  Faith does not originate from insult and challenge.  Faith originates in a love that recognizes what Jesus does to transform who we are.  It comes from submission, not control.  These men had no intentions to believe no matter what the challenge.  They were already convicted of the Savior’s guilt, by where He was, who He was with, and what was happening to Him.

Mark continues in verse 31 saying … “Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save. [verse 32] Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him.”  Let there be no doubt as to where the religious leaders stand on the issue of Jesus, and His innocence or guilt.  The Sanhedrin joins in the mocking, and challenges.  They ask Jesus to do, what Satan desperately wants Jesus to do.  Satan wants Jesus to take the easy way out.  To stop all this redemptive work and decide very logically that “we” are simply not worth it.  “We” have earned the destruction we face, if Jesus does not pay this penalty for us.  So stop.  Just stop dying.  Go back to your Father, and leave these pathetic creatures to me.  Satan’s thoughts, his temptation, comes to voice in the taunts of the religious leadership of the true church of God.

At this point, even the criminals beside Jesus join in, in taunting Him.  But worse than this.  The plan is succeeding wonderfully, as scripture reads, they “reviled” Him.  This means they looked upon Jesus as having a reputation lower than their own.  Both of them did this.  Peter does not hear the repentance of one of them before it is too late.  Peter is too far away.  He only hears the jeering, the taunting, the mockery.  Peter misses the redemption and sees only the guilt.  How often do we too, continue to see only three criminals?  We miss repentance because it is quiet.  We are ashamed of our misdeeds, and so are not inclined to shout about them while repenting of them.  Instead we whisper our sorrow over what we have done, and beg in humility to be forgiven which we do not deserve.  How often are accusations hurled loudly against our brothers in church, but apologies said only quietly and in private later on.  Crowds seldom see an apology.  Reputations are damaged in public, and never repaired in quiet lonely places of humility.  There only guilt is assuaged.

Peter is suddenly cognizant of the time.  The crucifixion began in the third hour of the day.  Mark continues in verse 33 saying … “And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. [verse 34] And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  Three hours into the crucifixion, a strange darkness covers the entire land.  The plague that hit Egypt before seems to hit Israel now.  Everyone knows it is daytime.  This is the reason Peter is reciting the time precisely for us.  But the sun refuses to shine, the stars will not yield their light, nor the moon.  There is nothing but fire to provide light as torches must be lit.  On the day of atonement in the year of Jubilee this miracle begins to happen.  The priests and Sanhedrin have left the scene to attend to their duties in the ceremonies at the Temple.  But they know the reason for the darkness.  The darkness is within them.  And fire may be its only cure.  It is a harbinger of where refusal leads.

But then, a language of heaven is revealed to us.  Peter remembers the story of the bloodless hand that wrote on the walls of Babylon in a language no one could interpret but Daniel.  It foretold of death and doom nearly upon them all for the blasphemy they had engaged in.  Now while on the cross, the language again appears to us.  This time spoken by Jesus, and interpreted by Peter to Mark.  Jesus cries out in agony as to why He must be alone to face this punishment.  But then hell, is the absence of God.  So Jesus must endure a separation He has never known in His life, across space and time.  It is the thing that will kill Him.  It is not all the physical pain, as that has become nothing to Him.  His mind can only focus and detect and absence of His Father’s presence.  He is truly alone.  He is more alone that we will ever be.  For this is the real punishment He is living on our behalf.  And we see with only base eyes, not comprehending what He did then, nor 2000+ years later.

Mark continues in verse 35 saying … “And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias. [verse 36] And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down.”  Those still standing around hear this outcry, but do not understand.  They know the darkness.  The Romans know it too.  Everyone is nervous, nothing like this has ever happened before.  The Jews believe Jesus must be calling to Elisha or Elijah to come and rescue Him.  They offer Jesus vinegar as a stimulant to make sure He is awake for whatever, or whoever, comes next. 

Mark continues in verse 37 saying … “And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. [verse 38] And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. [verse 39] And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.”  Many things to unpack in this scripture.  First, it is the separation from God, the unanswered prayer, that kills Jesus.  In effect, Jesus gives up the ghost.  It was not the pain that did it.  It was not the spear that would do it.  It was the keen effect of losing contact with His Father God.  The torture of separation from God preempts the Roman plans for days and hours in agony.  If only we too would feel that deeply about keeping distant from God, instead of treating it so casually.  The earth is shaken when Jesus dies.  I imagine the energy wave is sent into space into the farthest corner of the universe.  Satan thinks briefly perhaps he has won.  But a risen crop of first fruit quickly shatter that idea.

Darkness still covers the earth.  For the first time, the day of atonement ceremonies feel as though they are being done at night, instead of in daylight as tradition and the law demand.  As the blade is raised above the sheep, Jesus dies instead.  It is Abraham’s experience in reverse.  And simultaneously the Temple curtain that separates the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place is torn from top to bottom, rent in two.  Common worshippers and Temple servants stand awestruck staring into the Most Holy Place directly at the Ark of the Covenant.  The Mercy seat is empty.  There is no presence of God there any longer.  There is no more reason to wear bells on the hem of the robe and a rope around the ankle to drag out a high priest unworthy of this sacrificial presentation.  It is finished.  It is history.  What will come now, is something new.  The sacrificial lamb slips away amid the chaos and the fulfillment of scripture.

The Romans fear for their lives.  They have their own worship system, consisting of many gods.  They actually think it superior to the Jewish idea of one supreme, all powerful God.  They laugh at that idea; until today.  When the darkness appears, when the death of Jesus occurs, when the earth is shaken, the Roman guard there is left with only one conclusion.  Surely and truly this man was the Son of God.  Notice he does NOT say the King of the Jews.  This is a divine event, not a manmade one.  This is creation weeping at the loss of its maker.  The Roman feels it, as much as he knows it.  He is convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit even while standing here at the foot of the cross, at the moment of the death of Jesus Christ.  The Roman’s words echo.  This is not some quarrel between warring factions of gods with limited power; this is a tangible demonstration in the nature of the universe of a singular power, and its depth of sorrow over the death of Jesus Christ.

And so the remorse must begin.  Did I nail Him down to this cross?  Did I lash His body with the whip of leather and glass?  Did I push the crown of thorns upon His head deeper while hitting it with a reed?  Did I spit on Him, in His face?  What sins have I done to this Lord of Lords and King of Kings?  What sins have we done to the Lord of Lords and King of Kings?  Every time we choose to embrace sin knowing this cost, are we not Romans of old?  Our sin guides our hands to pick up the hammer and spikes.  Our sin guides our mouth to spit in the face of God.  Our sin guides our greedy hearts to leave the Lord naked, and part His clothing for a greed that can never be satisfied.  We looked and saw only three criminals.  But now we see two men, and the Savior of all mankind.  But we treated them all the same, all ruthlessly, all without mercy.  This is the cost of our self-love.

Only when it is too late does a reputation reveal itself.  Only after we have tried to kill it, do we recognize what we do.  When we see each other through the eye-glasses of hate, we do the bidding of Satan himself.  When instead of three criminals, we see instead three family members where the loss of them would break our hearts, we begin to understand how God sees us, and how we should see each other.  There is not judgment in that kind of love, there is only redemption in it.  If there is judgment to come upon us, it will be brought by us, as we gaze awestruck at how far love would go to save us, while we refused it.  We should guard the reputations of those we love.  We should love even those the world sees as just another three criminals …

 

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 …