Volume IV
The Resurrection and Ascension
Vol. IV, p. xix
§The First Lord's Day.
17th of Nisan (April 8th).—As the Resurrection is the great fact, so the day of its occurrence is the great day of Christianity. Ever since it has been called by the name of the LORD'S Day (Rev. vii. 10); and to this epoch of the new creation of all things, marked by the new life of CHRIST, all the permanent sanctity of the primeval Sabbath was transferred (John xx. 26; Acts xx. 7; 1 Cor. xvi. 2).
The Resurrection itself is related only by Matthew (xxviii. 2-4), who may have learned the facts from one or other of the Roman guard after they had got free from the danger in which they stood because of their falsehood and avowed unfaithfulness. All who heard it must have known that their story was absurd, and that, had they been asleep, they could not have known what had transpired. According to Mark, the Resurrection occurred early on the first day of the week, which commenced from the sunset of the evening before (Mark xvi. 9). It had already taken place when the first visit was paid to the sepulchre, “while it was yet dark,” “as it began to dawn” (John xx. 1; Matt. xxviii. 1). Whatever portion of this day JESUS was in the tomb was, according to the Jewish custom, reckoned a day, and in the same manner the interval between His entombment and sunset on Friday was counted as a day, and thus He was three days in the earth (Matt. xii. 40; xvi. 21; xx. 19; xxvii. 63; Mark viii. 31; ix. 31; x. 34; Luke ix. 22; xviii. 33; John ii. 19, etc.).
§Visit of the Women to the Sepulchre.
The Jews resumed the business of ordinary life the moment that the Sabbath closed. The two Marys were therefore able during the evening to procure the spices required to complete the hasty and partial embalmment by Nicodemus, and in the early dawn they approached the tomb, with certain other women, wondering how they would get the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. Reaching the tomb about sunrise, they found it open, and entering, they saw that the body of JESUS was not there (Matt. xxviii. 1; Mark xvi. 1-4; Luke xxiv. 1-3, 10; John xx. 1, 2).
The ardent spirit of Mary Magdalene led her to run at once and tell Peter of the indignity which she concluded the enemies of JESUS had perpetrated in removing His body.
The other women now entered, and there they saw an angel sitting on the right side, who told them that JESUS had arisen, and would meet His disciples in Galilee.
§First Appearance of the Risen Saviour.
To the Women on their Return from the Sepulchre.—On their way back JESUS appeared to them and addressed them. They fell down to worship Him, and received from Him the message that had already been delivered by the angel (Matt. xxviii. 9, 10). The Apostles were yet in darkness, and they received the intelligence “as idle tales” (Luke xxiv. 9, 11).
§Visit of Peter and John to the Sepulchre.
When they heard from Mary her tidings, Peter and John hastened to see for themselves, while the other women were in converse with the other Apostles. John reached the tomb first, and, looking in, he saw the grave-clothes, but when Peter arrived he entered at once, and saw the linen clothes lying as they had been left, and the napkin that had been around the head folded and lying by itself (John xx. 3-10; comp. Luke xxiv. 12), showing that the Apostles could not have stolen the body, as they would have carried off all these things in their haste.
§Second Appearance of Jesus.
To Mary Magdalene at the Sepulchre.—Mary had followed Peter and John to the sepulchre, and when she arrived they had departed. Looking into the tomb, she saw two angels sitting at the head and feet where the body of JESUS had lain. Turning away she saw JESUS, but, excited and weeping, she did not recognize Him in her great mental confusion. The word “Mary,” from the lips of our LORD, recalled her to herself, and in her excitement she would have embraced Him, but the mysterious words, “Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father,” restrained her, and at His desire she went to intimate to the disciples His approaching Ascension (John xx. 11-18; Mark xvi. 9-11).
§Third Appearance of Our Lord.
To Peter.—Paul states that immediately after our LORD'S Resurrection “He was seen of Cephas,” before He appeared to the other Apostles (1 Cor. xv. 5). Luke also mentions this appearance very emphatically in connection with the journey to Emmaus (Luke xxiv. 34).
§Our Lord's Fourth Appearance.
The Journey to Emmaus.—The mental state of the Disciples may be seen by Luke xxiv. 13-35. Cleopas and his companion seem to have taken this journey merely for the sake of communion with each other respecting the bearing of the recent events on the Messiahship of JESUS. As they journey, an apparent stranger joins them, and, having asked them of the subject in which they seem so absorbed, quietly reviews the whole matter, expounding the Scriptures that related to the Messiah. Though their “hearts burn,” they fail to recognize Him until He makes Himself known in the “breaking of bread,” and no sooner are their eyes opened than “He vanishes out of their sight.”
§Our Lord's Fifth Appearance.
The Apostles, all except Thomas, were met together, when suddenly JESUS appeared in the midst of them. He called them to feel His body, and showed them His hands and His feet. He even ate food with them, and opened their minds to understand what was written of Him in the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms. He indicated the character of their Apostolic mission as witnesses of His ministry and of His Resurrection, and that they were to be preachers of repentance and remission of sins in His name to all nations. Enjoining them to wait at Jerusalem for the descent of the HOLY SPIRIT to qualify them for their work, He departed (Mark xvi. 14-18; Luke xxiv. 36-49; John xx. 19-23; 1 Cor. xv. 5, “then of the twelve”).
§Christ's Sixth Appearance.
Second Appearance to the Assembled Disciples with Thomas.—That we find the disciples again assembled on the first day of the following week, and our LORD'S presence blessing their meeting, goes far to mark the LORD'S Day as sacred. It was then that Thomas, hitherto incredulous, was taught by the evidence of his senses that our LORD was risen indeed (John xx. 24-29).
§The Seventh Appearance of Our Saviour.
The Third Appearance of Jesus to the Apostles (seven of them) by the Lake of Galilee.—The meeting at the lake, which John describes (xxi. 1-24), must have been previous to that which took place by appointment on the mountain in Galilee. Seven of the Apostles had returned to their avocations, and by a miraculous draught of fishes JESUS reveals Himself to them. It was now that He dealt so tenderly with Peter, and restored him after his fall.
§The Eighth Appearance of Jesus Christ.
To His Disciples in Galilee.—Matthew describes how the Disciples went to the place appointed on the mountain in Galilee (xxviii. 16, 17), and it is almost certain that it was to this assembly that Paul refers when he says that JESUS was seen of “above five hundred brethren at once” (1 Cor. xv. 6). Here, in the region where His ministry had chiefly been spent, He closes it with the memorable commission (Matt. xxviii. 18-20) by which He sends forth His Apostles and disciples to be heralds of salvation to mankind.
§Christ's Ninth Appearance.
To James.—After stating that JESUS was seen by such a great body of witnesses, Paul immediately adds, “After that He was seen of James,” and this appears to have been a special interview, as James was not among the Apostles at the Lake of Galilee.
§His Tenth Appearance, and Ascension.
Our Lord's Last Interview with the Apostles, and His Ascension.—His tenth appearance. This last scene was specially reserved for the Apostles alone, who were to be His witnesses for His Resurrection and Ascension. Peter rests on the fact that when GOD raised JESUS from the dead, “He showed Him openly not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of GOD, even to us who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead” (Acts x. 40, 41).
Thus, during forty days, JESUS “showed Himself after His passion by many infallible proofs. As Moses was forty days on the Mount, and Elijah the same time in Horeb, and as JESUS was forty days in the wilderness tempted of the devil, so it appears that a similar period was allotted to establish the fact of His Resurrection. At last, on the fortieth day, the Apostles were assembled with JESUS at Jerusalem (it would seem by special appointment, Acts i. 4; comp. v. 6), and He desired them not to depart thence till they received the promise of the FATHER, the baptism with the HOLY GHOST. Rebuking their desire to know when He would restore the kingdom to Israel, He promised them power for the work which they had to do in His Name in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts i. 4-8). And now He led them forth over the very ground He had traversed with them six weeks before, when He entered the city for His sufferings. The farther or eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, overlooking Bethany, was called by that name, and having reached that locality, He blessed them with uplifted hands, and being received as into a chariot by a cloud, He ascended from their sight into Heaven. Meanwhile, the Disciples scarcely recollected that this was what He had Himself foretold: “What and if ye shall see the SON OF MAN ascend up where He was before?” (John vi. 62). They stood gazing up after Him, lost in admiration, until they were aroused by the appearance of two angels standing by them and declaring that He would so come again in like manner as they had seen Him ascending into Heaven. Having worshipped their glorified LORD, they returned from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem with great joy; and while awaiting the promised gift of the HOLY GHOST, they spent the time in the Temple praising and blessing GOD (Luke xxiv. 50-53; Acts i. 1-12).
The narrative may be appropriately closed by referring to the two points on which John insists: first, that we have only a small part recorded of what our LORD said and did while on earth; and secondly, that what we have, has been written with a specific object—“that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, we might have Life through His Name” (John xx. 30, 31; xxi. 25).