Everybody keeps Sabbath, even God ...

Jesus has just died.  The symbolic religion of the past is now over.  The penalty of the Law has been fulfilled in fresh divine blood on that splintery cross.  And the very first thing Jesus Himself does is not to resurrect Himself from a blood stained cross, but instead to rest throughout the entire Sabbath Day.  Time enough to begin His resurrection on the first day of the week after this rest, but now on the first official day of the new religion, of Christianity, Jesus will set the example by resting, even from the work of our very salvation on the Sabbath He created before sin, and intends to honor long after sin has finally and fully been consumed.  No work for Jesus on Sabbath, even the work of saving us, today He will sleep.  Not just Jesus follows this pattern, the pattern of His entire life of example in our world, but ALL of the followers of Jesus rest on this special Sabbath Day as well.  Right there in the middle of Jerusalem, with the much loved Messiah resting in a tomb Luke will describe in this section, everyone else takes time away to rest on the Sabbath.  No one anoints His body to the full extent desired because the Sabbath sunset on Friday evening comes and interrupts that action.  For the Sabbath, Jesus takes His rest, God rests, and so does every Christian alive at the time.  Work will resume after the sunset on Saturday evening in the wee hours of Sunday morning.  The work of resurrection, of the gospel, of angels, of verifying the sacrifice that will save the world.

What happens to the bodies of crucified criminals is not done with much care.  Normally thrown into a mass grave and burned for sanitary purposes.  But before the bonfire, hungry animals, dogs, etc. come and chew on the loose flesh.  It is horrific.  And that is what is expected for those who die in such a manner.  Joseph of Arimathea begins thinking about it.  He has seen the darkness.  He has felt the earthquake.  He may have even been at the Temple when the Passover lamb was set free and the curtain tore from top to bottom.  These signs can only mean one thing.  And while Joseph had longed to see the Kingdom of God enter this world through the vehicle of the Messiah, and Joseph knew in his heart that the Messiah was Jesus, Joseph was not going to let the end of the story of Jesus be one of a mass grave, dog chews, and fire.  Joseph carried the same wrong beliefs as everyone else about the role and expectations of the Messiah.  But Joseph loved Jesus, and was not there at His trial because Joseph would have never agreed with the verdict.  And now what Joseph could do, even if was only for the body of Jesus, Joseph was bound and determined to do, no matter what it might cost him personally.

Luke reminds us of these events picking up in chapter 23 of his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why starting in verse 50 it begins … “And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counseller; and he was a good man, and a just: [verse 51] (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. [verse 52] This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.”  It is humility that begins it all.  Joseph was an esteemed member of the Sanhedrin.  A man of rank and esteemed counsel.  Except in the matter of Jesus, for Joseph could not help loving Jesus.  The power of the love of God simply overwhelmed Joseph, and Joseph had chosen not to resist it, but to embrace it.  You could choose that too if you wanted.  Members of the Sanhedrin ruled the nation as much as Rome would allow.  They were mostly men of wealth and pride.  They never humbled themselves no matter what.  But not so for Joseph.  Joseph, an older man, prostrates himself on the marble floors before Pilate weeping and begging for the body of Jesus.  Pilate is awestruck.  He does not know how to react.  Pilate has seen many men beg before, but never one not on trial, never one who is from the Sanhedrin.  It is as if Joseph is poor.  It is as if the heart of Joseph is so broken he could care less what anyone thinks of him.  The story of Joseph in such humility before Pilate is sure to get out (Pilate will help it if he needs to).  And the whole of Jewish nation will know that even the powerful prideful Sanhedrin bows before the power and might of Rome.  What a miracle.  Jesus is dead and now this.  Who could have imagined?

Would you have done the same?  Can you do it now?  Is there someone you refuse to humiliate yourself before, in order to do for God what you alone might be able to do?  Some of us refuse to be so humbled as to wash one another’s feet during the ceremony of Communion.  Some refuse to be baptized.  Some to refuse to pray at meals.  Some refuse to ask for help, or for prayer.  All of us seem to carry some notion of pride, of a line we will not cross no matter what, no matter for who, even for God.  But Joseph obliterated all such lines on behalf of a dead Jesus who would not even know what he was doing.  Joseph sent his reputation into the shredder for a dead Lord.  He gave the wealth intended for himself to a Rabbi from Nazareth now dead on a Roman cross.  There was no reward in it.  There was no gain to be had.  There was only the sting of criticism from fellow Jews mad that he would submit himself to Rome for any reason, let alone a dead Carpenter of no account.  But that was not how Joseph loved Jesus.  Joseph loved Jesus like the Son of God He was.  Everything begins with humility.

Luke continues in verse 53 saying … “And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.”  Pilate granted Joseph’s request.  It did not cost him anything.  Joseph was covering all the costs.  What was that to Pilate?  But to Joseph this apparently meant everything, which of course did not make any sense at all.  Jesus was clearly dead.  Joseph raced to the cross now, he and the others carefully took the body of Jesus down.  They gently removed the nails and spikes from Jesus’ hands and feet.  The Roman had already removed his spear at the moment he had thrust it in, now was only the wound of it that remained.  Joseph pricks his own fingers mixing his own blood with the head of Jesus as he must remove the vicious crown of thorns.  For that crown had been driven deep into the head of Jesus by taunting guards who drove it deeper with their taunts and tortures.  But now it had to be taken out.  They were not rushing, but they were moving as carefully and swiftly as they could.  Each person taking part in this would have to keep themselves isolated from others as Jewish law was very particular about touching the dead.  Everyone knew it.  But Sabbath was coming, and even this most important work will not complete before Sabbath arrives.

Luke continues in verse 54 saying … “And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on. [verse 55] And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. [verse 56] And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.”  They managed to get Jesus down, get His body free of the instruments of Roman torture.  They wrapped Him in some burial linens.  And they took him to a tomb that no one had ever used before.  It was likely a tomb Joseph had prepared from himself, perhaps for his family if he had one.  But Jesus had need of something, and for Joseph only the best would do, Joseph could always have another tomb carved from the rocks later for himself.  They laid Jesus carefully in the tomb.  Meanwhile the women who had been there all along went home and started gathering and preparing spices they could anoint the body of Jesus with now that he was dead.  They had seen Jesus laid in the tomb.  And the Sabbath had arrived, so there was no time now to anoint His body.  So they went home and prepared as much as they could before the sun set.  Then like every other follower of Jesus, they rested on the Sabbath day.  Joseph would rest too.

But for those who did not follow Jesus, Sabbath rest was not to be part of the itinerary.  The priests and scribes responsible for the death of Jesus heard the stories of Joseph having obtained the body of Jesus.  They were furious.  Terror had quickly given way to anger.  Fear will never keep anyone in the kingdom nor is it a good tool to try to use to get them there.  These wicked priests would have preferred to see Jesus eaten by the dogs in a mass grave then burned.  Instead yet another prophecy was being fulfilled.  So rather than rest upon the Sabbath, they traveled to Pilate to complain and see what could be done.  Now the mind of Satan is much sharper than the human mind.  The followers of Jesus had forgotten the words of Jesus about being raised to life upon the third day.  But Satan had not forgotten, so these priests got it into their heads that they must at all costs keep the body of Jesus in that grave at least for three days.  Friday was nearly gone or gone now with sunset.  Saturday was here.  What was needed was fear at the grave site of Jesus.  An entire Roman detachment, 100 soldiers, and a centurion.  But beyond that, chains of heavy iron dragged across a huge round stone that would take many men just to move to the entrance.  And to top it off a great Roman seal that if broken represented death to any human that would dare.

And who would not keep Sabbath would be these priests and scribes who thought nothing of having someone else work for them on this holy day standing guard over Jesus.  And the Romans who had no concept of Sabbath stood watch over Jesus.  Frankly the Romans were more uncertain of the divinity of Jesus than perhaps the priests.  They had all seen the darkness, they had all been cast as dead men to the ground when the earthquake hit.  Perhaps for the first time in a long time they all knew fear.  They were all guilty.  And if guarding Jesus kept Jesus dead that would fine with them all.  And the priests were going to pay for it all, a condition Pilate was likely to require (Roman tax at its finest).  So while every member of the new religion of Jesus was quietly resting on Sabbath as their Lord was also doing.  Many leaders of the old religion who claimed to be the right one, thought nothing of committing murder, breaking the Sabbath, lying about everything, and funding anything of a criminal nature that needed to be funded.

The difference perhaps of a people who are led by Jesus and follow His example, and those who claim to be led by Jesus but do what they think is right in the name of God, just not the will of God, nor that of the example of Jesus even in these moments.  Many of us are so certain we know what we should do, and how we should do it – only to find when we examine the life of Jesus, what we are doing is far from what He did.  We worship on other days because we want to, but do not set aside the time Jesus made holy and asked us to remember, treating it like those Pharisees of old, doing what we think is needed for reasons we think are important, while Jesus rests in the tomb on the seventh day.  Many of us think nothing of employing others to do jobs we think are critical on Sabbath, and in doing thus, we deny them the blessing of Sabbath they should be enjoying with us.  Many of us watch, and fill our minds, with the same content we could consume any other day, that brings us not one inch closer to God.  We do not need to be dead to keep Sabbath holy, nor do we need to sleep from one end of it to the other.  But to love, we might want to start with humility, and ask God what He has in mind for us during His special time, and follow that leading rather than always thinking we know what is best.

I do find it interesting however, that the Christian church began with an ending of the old, and an ushering in of the new.  And the first new day, and first new action of the Christian church, was the celebration of Sabbath, which Jesus and all the followers of Jesus kept.  The work of our salvation resumed the next day on the first day of the week.  But Christianity did not begin on that day, it began on Sabbath.  That is the leading I must follow.

 

From Noon till Three ...

Abraham repeated.  Many of us may remember the story of Abraham and his son Isaac, when God tested Abraham to see if he would be willing to part with the thing he loved the most because God asked him to.  Some wonder why Abraham had to endure such a test.  What point did it serve?  But because it did happen, the Israelite nation had this story of faith in its ancestry for generation after generation to observe and wonder about.  So many would learn of this test of parting with what we love the most; trusting to God what does not make sense to us, but doing what God said, because God said it.  No one could imagine that the test was destined to be repeated.  But the next version of it was not to be a test of love for a human to pass, but instead the test our God Himself must pass if we were to be saved.  But in the case of our God, Jesus would not be spared at the last minute.   Jesus would have to die.  Our God would have to part with who He loved the most, in order to see us have a chance at redemption and reconciliation.  No angelic hand would be sparing “THE Lamb of God”, instead that angelic hand would be sent to spare the Passover lamb.  Three stories blending into one, with timing nothing short of divine.

As for timing, at the time of the death of Jesus, every periodic feast, or event, happened or culminated in that the same year.  The year of Jubilee for example, the once every 50-year event, when the slaves were set free all across the land of Israel, happened at the year of the death of Christ.  Yes there is a lesson there.  No slave was ever intended to remain a slave.  Not the ones bought and sold in ancient times, nor you and I who before Jesus were nothing but slaves to sin and self.  But beyond the year of Jubilee, if a feast happened once every 7 years or once every 12 years, it was due to happen in the year of Jesus’ death.  This timing would wind up drawing people towards Jerusalem in larger numbers than usual, particularly at Passover which was considered the most important event in Jewish religion.  If you were a freed slave you might want to attend this event for the first time as a freed person.  If you were a Jewish believer and were too poor to gather for the other periodic feasts, you would definitely choose to attend Passover in order to see the ceremonies of the Day of Atonement, when the sins of the nation were laid upon the lamb who would be slain in sacrifice.  These events would happen at the rebuilt Temple directly in front of the Most Holy place where only the giant curtain would separate the two main chambers of the Temple.

Only the High Priest of the Jewish nation could dare to tread behind that giant dividing curtain on the Day of Atonement.  In fact bells were sown into the bottom of the garments of the High Priest in order for those outside to hear if he were still alive behind the curtain.  If the High Priest were still filled with sin behind this curtain he would be struck dead by the very presence of God.  And those outside would have to pull the dead High Priest out of the chamber using the ropes they would secure around his waist before he ventured in.  If instead they too ventured into that chamber there would have been a stack of bodies not just the one.  So this event was a bit terrifying in nature, as well as awesome in symbolism.  And keep in mind it was the very personal presence of our God (Jesus that is) who sat upon the mercy seat constructed upon the top of the ark of the covenant which resided in that most holy place.  These were not just idol traditions happening in empty chambers, but instead real events happening before the presence of a real God.  A real judge of our character.  A real mercy seat.  Taking away our real sins with the blood of the symbolic lamb.

But today was different.  Jesus the real lamb of God was hung on the cross outside of the city of Jerusalem on the hill called Mt. Calvary.  This time it was God the Father who was Himself enduring the test of Abraham repeated with no hope of an out at the last minute.  Instead it was a humble perfect lamb at the Temple of Jerusalem who was to gain a reprieve.  Luke picks up the events in his letter to his friend about what we believe and why in the 23^rd chapter starting in verse 44 saying … “And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.”  Eclipse?  No.  Thunderstorm?  Not likely, a thunderstorm in the desert would have been unusual, but heavy rains, winds, lightnings, and thunderings would have driven casual spectators back into their homes, not allowed them to continue standing at the foot of the cross for three hours while Jesus hung in agony for our sins.  This all started at noon and lasted till three pm in our modern telling of time during the day.  This would have coincided perfectly with the ceremonies at the Temple to celebrate Passover.  You can imagine both audience and participants were certainly terrified as this darkness could hardly be seen as an omen of good.

But today was different.  Instead of bright noon day sun, a darkness of the sun refusing to shine, no moon, no stars, just a thick black dark.  It was very dark, perhaps not as bad as it was in Egypt during the plague of darkness, but this was miraculous darkness none the less.  Nature itself refused to look upon the death of its creator.  And our Father God must sit upon His throne and take no action to spare His Son, His most loved Son, the agony, pain, humiliation, naked degradation, and blood flow as it does from open wounds, while dying upon that cross.  Our Father God cannot reassure His Son, or comfort Him, or even be with Him in His agony.  Jesus must die and die alone separated from the presence of His Father.  Jesus cannot see through these events to know if they will be enough to satisfy the justice required by heaven’s law.  Will Jesus be forever stained by our sins so that the Father can no longer look upon Him?  After all, the entirety of the sins of our world are no small amount of sins, nor small amount of viciousness, nor selfishness we embrace nearly every day of our lives, refusing transformation and the freely offered love of God.  That is some weight Jesus must carry, even though He committed no sin at all.  And while God has all the power in the universe, He too must sit and watch His Son die the death we deserve.

Luke continues in verse 45 saying … “And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. [verse 46] And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.”  So it is time for the pinnacle of the ceremony at Passover.  The hand of the High Priest is raised with a knife in it.  He like Abraham of old is set to bring the knife down and plunge it into the neck of the innocent lamb tied below upon an altar in the courtyard in front of the Most Holy place.  But like Abraham of old, before the High Priest can bring the knife down upon the lamb of that altar, an angel restrains his hands, and the lamb is spared, and the ropes fall away from that lamb and he gets up and runs away free back to his flock and his owner.  The People (both audience and priesthood) are amazed at this miracle, but before they can begin to process what has just happened further angels tear a hole in this dividing curtain from top to bottom.  The curtain falls away on the left and right and reveals not just a glimpse of the Most Holy place, but a full view of the entire chamber.  Everyone is looking in there, to a sight no one has ever seen and lived before this; an entire crowd of just normal Jewish believers.  For it is at this very moment that outside the city on a hill called Mt. Calvary, that Jesus is surrendering His spirit to God the Father, giving up the ghost, and dying on behalf of that nation and every other.

Today is surely different.  At the moment of his death there is an earthquake to shake not just this location, nor the nearby city of Jerusalem, but across the entire region of the middle east.  The whole area rumbles at the loss of innocent blood shed at our redemption and these earthquake waves are sent everywhere as a wakeup call to this event.  None will wonder if stories of it are true, for all will have felt it enough to terrify them at this moment in time.  His cross will be the epicenter.  People will be thrown to the ground, holding on to the ground in terror.  The scale of these miracles and scope of those affected are not just limited to small hill outside of Jerusalem but felt nearly everywhere, seen nearly everywhere.  Many have come from the far reaches of the earth to be here at this moment, perhaps most not even aware of what was going on at Calvary.  But they would search for answers behind the meaning of these things now.  Seeds were being planted across believers from the far corners of the earth, that would one day soon result in a harvest of new converts such as the world has never seen before.  Even in the heart of one who calls himself our enemy awakens recognition and conversion based upon what is taking place.

Luke continues in verse 47 saying … “Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man.”  A Roman in charge of this horror sees what is happening and knows what he has just been responsible to carry out.  Yet he does not shrink from the terrible truth, instead embracing it, and giving witness to it aloud.  Some versions of this have the Roman declare surely this was the Son of God (more than just a righteous man).  Keep in mind it is still dark outside from noon till three.  Keep in mind that earthquake happens at the moment of the death of Jesus and is felt everywhere.  Keep in mind the testimony of everyone at Passover will be of a spared lamb freed by angelic hands, and a curtain torn from top to bottom revealing an empty Most Holy place.  People inside the city start hearing of Jesus at Calvary, and want to see it for themselves.  They are there.  They want to see.

Luke concludes in verse 48 saying … “And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned. [verse 49] And all his acquaintance, and the women that followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things.”  Travelers, pilgrims, believers, soon to be believers travel out to Calvary to see for themselves if the rumors of the death of Jesus are true, and to ponder what it means to them.  All of those disciples, and secondary disciples (the 70 selected by Jesus early in His ministry) watch these events from a safe-from-Roman distance and marvel at these events.  Lastly the women who are considerably braver than any of their male counterparts stand nearer the cross watching and weeping and wondering at the meaning of these events.  All of them must confront the error of their own beliefs.  The Messiah was NOT meant to end Roman oppression.  They were not going to be free.  They were going to remain where they were.  Their relief would come from sin, not from circumstances.  They would have to swallow hard to let go their own deep seated incorrect doctrines and acknowledge that Jesus was God, and God did something they did not expect.  Jesus died.  He allowed Himself to die.  He gave up His own life willingly.  He endured torture with no relief.  He hung naked allowing humiliation from a crowd of cruel religious leaders.  He endured all of it then died.  This was NOT something their Messiah was supposed to do.  But God did what they did not expect in a way they never expected.

Is it any different today?  We pray as if directing God to do what we want, what we expect.  But perhaps like those faithful of old, we must confront the idea that God does what He knows must be done, in things we did not expect, in ways we did not expect.  And we too must confront the error of our beliefs.  Jesus is bigger than what we believe.  His Truth is beyond our understanding of truth.  We are not the arbiters of truth, Jesus is, and Jesus alone.  For some back then, despite all the evidence, it was just too much to accept.  So they smote their breasts and went back to where they were staying.  For others however, the sadness of these events was just too overwhelming.  They too smote their breasts and returned home, but in mere sadness wondering what the Messiah was truly supposed to be, instead of what they had pigeon holed Him to be.  But to be clear it was the women who witnessed it all, endured it all, braved the danger of Roman assault and rape, and stood by our redeemer through the worst moments of His life.  For any who would dare to refute what the Holy Spirit might offer to a woman in the realm of spiritual gifts merely because she is a woman stands upon shaky ground.  For women were there.  Men were a good distance farther away.  There is lesson here for us, if we have the humility to accept it.

For three hours nature itself bore testimony to the divinity of Jesus Christ.  These were not coincidences.  The angel in the Temple restraining the hand of the High Priest like Abraham of old was not a coincidence.  The tearing of the curtain by other angelic hands not a coincidence (nor the timing).  It was orchestrated.  It was timed.  It was intended.  The startled lamb freed from the altar had little understanding of what was going on or why, perhaps we have no better.  But these things were miraculously timed, to end the symbolism of the religion of the past, and usher in the religion of Christianity.  Sacrifices were done.  THE Sacrifice had been made.  No more symbolic blood need be shed, the purest blood of God Himself had been shed.  The world was ablaze with these events and even more would be coming.  Perhaps it is so even today just out of your sight.  Are you able to challenge what you believe?  What if God is doing something right now you did not expect, or doing it in a way you never expected.  Can you come to accept Jesus and let Jesus lead?  I hope I can as the true age of Christianity dawns.