24. Jesus' Resurrection

The Site of Jesus' Tomb

The narratives of the resurrection presuppose that we can visualize the location of Jesus' tomb. Calvary lay outside the walls of Jerusalem and the sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea lay in a small garden just behind it. We know from excavation and from ancient records that there was a small valley between the rock of Calvary and the rock from which Joseph's tomb had been cut.

It is good to remember this original situation in the light of the further history of the tomb. Joseph of Arimathea was a well-known figure in Jerusalem. The fact that Jesus had been buried in his grave provided a very clear identification that could not easily be lost to tradition. The family graves, especially those so near the town, were known to everyone.

The Gospel tells us: "Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a new linen cloth and placed it in his new grave which he had just recently dug out of the rock. Then he rolled a large stone across the entrance to the grave and went away".(Mt 27:59f) The tomb had been cut out of the rock. Then the whole entrance was closed up with a wall made of stones and cement. Only a small opening was left through which one could enter. This opening could easily be closed by rolling a round stone in front of it. This particular fact made it easy for the High Priests to watch the grave. For they not only put soldiers on guard but they 'made the grave secure by putting a seal on the stone'. (Mt 27:66) This means that a rope was sealed with wax to the stone and to the wall next to it. So it could later be verified if anyone had moved the stone. The stone in front of Jesus' tomb was "a very large stone" as St Mark tells us.(Mk 16:4) And the pious women who came to anoint Jesus' body asked themselves: "Who will remove the stone for us?" (Mk 16:3)

Basically the tomb consisted of various small rooms, cut from the solid rock . The rooms were connected by small openings similar to the front opening. The Gospels narrate that Jesus' body had been placed "in the tomb". This meant actually on a stone couch cut out from the wall.The entrance of the pious women "inside the tomb" (Mk 16:1-8) and the subsequent visit of Peter and John ( Jn 20:1-10) would give the impression that Jesus had been put in the first room. But a study of the customs of the time and archaeology tells us that it was more likely that Jesus had been put in one of the interior rooms . The outer room was, perhaps, more of a small cloakroom where the Apostles saw the linen clothes lying. (Jn 20:5-7)

THE HISTORY OF JESUS' TOMB

The testimony about the empty tomb was stressed in the early Church so we can expect some consciousness of its location to have been maintained.

AD 30—70. During this period the apostolic community itself remained in Jerusalem. Herod Agrippa built a new wall in 43 AD , which caused Calvary and the Sepulchre to be included in the city.

AD 70—134. After the destruction of Jerusalem few people lived in the city. But both Jews and Christians kept going up to the place on pilgrimage, and the small settlement of inhabitants kept up the traditions of the place.

AD 135—324. After the second Jewish revolt (132-134 AD) the Roman Emperor Hadrian wanted to rebuild Jerusalem as a pagan city. He called it "Aelia Capitolina". Knowing the veneration of the Christians for the site of Calvary and the Sepulchre, Hadrian decided to build a pagan Temple on top of it. The small hillock of Calvary was razed, with rubble and earth, to a terrace on which a sacred grove to Venus and Cupid was planted. South of the grove (with its Temple) , a large rectangular square was cleared as a 'Forum' (market-place; square for public meetings). Also the area of the Sepulchre was covered for a similar purpose . This arrangement did not stop the flow of pilgrims: they knew that their sacred places were underneath the pavement.

AD 325—613. When Emperor Constantine had finally put an end to the Roman persecutions of the Christians, his mother, queen Helena, went to Palestine and assisted personally in the excavation of the sacred places. Golgotha and the Sepulchre were found intact. Constantine then ordered that beautiful shrines should be built over them. To make this possible the rock of the tomb was cut from all sides to become round and over it a round Church was constructed. This building was called "Anastasis" (resurrection). Calvary itself was cut to size, making a platform of 18 feet by 15 feet. It was enclosed in a courtyard with marble pillars from which steps led up onto its top. The flooring was all mosaic, but it remained in the open until about 420 AD when a Church dome was built over it.

AD 614—1140. These splendid Byzantine buildings were destroyed by Chosroes, the king of the Persians. Temporary repairs were done by Modestus, an Abbot, and this state of the sanctuaries remained more or less unaltered during the Muslim invasions.

AD 1140—1808. The Crusades brought in the beginning of a new period. The Crusaders decided to build a huge Basilica that would unite all the holy places. This Basilica had to be restored frequently on account of the later wars (AD 1244. 1310, 1400, 1719), but it retained its form to some extent.

AD 1808. A fire destroyed the dome of the Sepulchre. New buildings were erected which, with the Crusaders Basilica, form the present shrine. Both archaeology and the descriptions of thousands of pilgrims throughout the centuries confirm the accuracy of the locality of Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre!

THE DESCENT INTO HELL

In the Apostles' Creed we say that before Jesus rose on the third day "He descended into hell". What does this mean? What do we profess to believe by this?

Obviously, we do not profess to believe that Jesus went into the place of eternal punishment—"hell" in our contemporary theological usage. Jesus did not go into the place of the damned What then is meant? We must not confuse the "hell of the eternally damned" with Sheol, the "place of the dead", the original home (in Jewish theology) of all the dead.

Old Testament theology went something like this: —

Heaven: is the place where God' is and lives. He is there, separate from where men live and are.

Earth: is the place where man lives and works and makes his life. It has been given to him by God and he is the lord of earth with power and dominion over all other creatures.
But then the Jews (and others too) began to think, "Surely earth is the place where we find only living men. Where do the dead men go to?"

Sheol: is the place of the dead. The Jews imagined it to be a under the earth. To Sheol all the dead went, good and bad alike. (Cf. Ps 29:10; Ps 88:48; Ezk 32:17-32; 1 Kings 28:12-19). The word 'Sheol' was translated in Greek by the word 'hades', from which the English word 'hell' comes.

Jewish theologians gradually developed, under God's revelation, their theology about the fate of the dead. It was a slow development. At first there seems to have been no special place for the good; all were mixed together. Later on they said that the good waited in peace in Abraham's presence. (Cf. the parable of Dives and Lazarus where the poor man Lazarus rests in Abraham's bosom: Luke 16:22). Later still, they come to know of the resurrection of the body, but this was not universally accepted. The Pharisees accepted this doctrine, the Sadducees did not, Christ perfected this point of revelation: "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies". (Jn 11:25)

Hence when we say "He descended into hell" we mean (in the terminology of the Bible) that Jesus was truly dead; He was no longer in the 'land of the living' but went down into the 'land of the dead.' He truly died and thus took upon himself everything that being 'man' included, even unto death.

Jesus became man not only to save and redeem the living, but also to be the saviour of the dead. When Jesus rose therefore He rose not from the land of the living, but He rose from the dead. He is thus the Lord of both living and dead. We say further, "He shall come to judge the living and the dead."

So the descent into hell does not mean a geographical journey to any particular place; this is not geography but theology (expressed in human words).

Read: Acts 2:23-36; Ephesians 4:8-10. Sheol' the prison of the dead, is now unlocked by Christ who has the keys. (Apoc 1: 18: 20:1).

The first five apparitions given above occurred on the very day of our Lord's resurrection. Beginning with the apparition to Mary Magdalene at about dawn or sunrise (6 a.m.) and ending with the apparition at late dusk to the disciples on their way to Emmaus.

Apparition 6 (to Thomas and the other Apostles), took place on the following Sunday, a week later, Apart from the Ascension day apparition we don't know the dates of the other appearances of our Lord.

THE EVENTS OF THE FIRST EASTER DAY

Christ's Resurrection

There is no description in the Gospels of this stupendous event to tell us how it happened. There was a great earthquake at the time (Mt 28:2) which frightened off the soldiers guarding the sealed tomb. There is no mention of their presence when the women and Mary Magdalene come early in the morning, at dawn.

Dawn: Women come to the Tomb

At about 6 a.m. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, the mother of the sons of Zebedee and may be others came to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. They had hurriedly done some anointing on Good Friday (Jn 19:40), but had not finished. They prepared spices and ointments at home (Lk 23: 56), but could not use them on the Sabbath day. So they waited. To anoint a body with spices was the Jewish funeral custom. On the day after the Sabbath (in our way of reckoning days; the day begins with sunset in the Jewish way of reckoning, the women brought the spices they had prepared. (Lk 24:1-2)

On the way to the tomb they asked themselves, "Who will roll away the stone for us? (Mk 16:3); obviously they did not know of the tomb being guarded and of its being sealed. This was because the guard was not posted at the tomb until the Saturday; "The next day - that is the day following Friday - the Jews" ... asked for a guard and Pilate told them to do this for themselves. The guard was not posted when Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus and the women buried the body of Jesus (Cf. Jn 19: 39; M' 27:62: Mk 15:47).

When the women came to the tomb they found the stone rolled back and the tomb empty. "And they went in, but they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus" (Lk 24:3)

Mary Magdalene tells Peter and John

Mary saw the empty tomb and was so overcome that she ran back to tell Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved that someone had stolen the body; "They have taken the Lord from the tomb and we don't know where they put him" (Jn 20:1-2)

Mary ran back from Calvary to Jerusalem, indeed probably to the Room of the Last Supper (Cenacle ) because that must have been where Peter was. It was not too near to Calvary.

Women see the angel: Mary absent

While Mary was running back to Jerusalem to tell Peter, two men in shining clothes according to Luke, (Lk 24:4) "the angel who rolled back the stone" (according to Matthew 28:5), told the women who had remained at the sepulchre that Christ was risen. "Now go and give the message to His disciples, including Peter: 'He is going to Galilee ahead of you; there you will see Him, just as He told you'." (Mk 16: 7) But the women were so frightened that they told no one at the moment: "And they said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid". (Mk 16:8) They told their story only later on in the day, not at once. They ran off from the tomb in fear.

Peter & John at the tomb

Both disciples ran to the tomb; Peter arrived second and went right in and saw the linen clothes lying wrapped up in one place. Now he and John believed the story Mary Magdalene had told them. The body was not there; the tomb was empty. They still did not believe in the resurrection. They were puzzled and went home. (Jn 20:3-10 and Lk 24:12) These stories of the women circulated among the disciples. (Cf. Lk 24:22-24) It was still early in the morning.

Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene

Mary slowly returned to the tomb; the two disciples had left her behind when they ran ahead. When they returned home (to the Cenacle?) she stayed on weeping over the theft of the body. Jesus appeared to her, "Woman: why are you crying? who is it you are looking for?" She thought it was the gardener? Jesus said, "Mary!" and she recognized the risen, glorified Jesus . Mary, overjoyed, threw herself at Jesus' feet and embraced Him Jesus did not forbid her to hold on to Him. He merely said something like this, "Don't waste time holding on to Me; I'm not here to stay permanently. I am on My way back to the Father. Go tell this good news to the others. 'I go back to Him who is My Father and your Father, My God and your God.' So Mary Magdalene told His disciples that she has seen the Lord, and that He had told her this". (Jn 20:11-18; Mk 16:9 This is the first appearance on our list .

Jesus appears to the Women

In Matthew 28:9-10 we find the second appearance of our Lord. The women take hold of Jesus' feet and adore him.

The guards at about this time, made their report to the chief priests regarding the earthquake and the .mysterious events. They were bribed to give out the story that the disciples stole the body at night when they were sleeping (Mt 28:11-15).

Jesus appears to the disciples going to Emmaus

The two disciples must have set off for Emmaus (may be their home town) at about three o'clock in the afternoon, because they reached there in the late evening when the sun was about to set; the distance from Jerusalem is 7 miles (See chapter Twelve). In Mark 16:12 and especially in Luke 24: 13-35 we find the full account of this fourth apparition. We know that, meanwhile St Peter had seen the Lord too, for that is what the two disciples hear when they return to the city to tell of their experience. They are told by the eleven, "The Lord is risen indeed! Simon has seen him!" This was the third apparition.

Jesus appears to the Apostles: Thomas is absent

While they ( the two Emmaus disciples) were telling them this, suddenly the Lord himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be to you." (Lk 24:36ff.) This is the last apparition of Easter Day.

The Meaning Of The Resurrection - The Paschal Mystery.

Sometimes the resurrection of Jesus is only seen as the greatest proof of His divinity; the greatest miracle of Christ's life proving that He is God. This is not so. The resurrection is more than a mere argument to prove that Christ is God. It is the mystery of our salvation. Too often we tend to think of Christ as saving us only by His death. We do not consider the resurrection as a real part of our salvation. Let us try to understand the full meaning of Christ's resurrection in the total paschal mystery. ("Mystery" is here used, not only in the sense of a truth beyond our full understanding, but also, and especially, as a divine action accomplished among men).

1. We are redeemed by Christ's passion, death AND resurrection. His death and resurrection are inseparable. They form one redemptive work although they are two historical events. By becoming man, Christ entered our human sinful condition, the condition of a human nature closed by sin to the Spirit of God. But Christ died to sinful human nature. By His death on Calvary, in perfect love and obedience to His Father, He passed over out of the body of sin to go to His Father. But by simply dying that passing over was as yet incomplete; Jesus had yet to go to His Father and to take us too. Unless we are with the Father, even though dead to sin, we are still not redeemed or saved. The full journey was completed only when Jesus rose and returned to the Father. Only with the resurrection the path to heaven, or rather to our Father in heaven, is really complete. Hence it is very important to realize that we are saved not only by Jesus' death but also by His resurrection.

The Easter preface puts it like this: "By dying he overcame our death, by rising again He restored our life." The mystery of Christ, dead AND risen for us, we call the Paschal mystery, or, the mystery (divine action) of our redemption.

2. Christ's sacrifice of the Cross incomplete without the Resurrection. Isn't it true that we often think of the sacrifice of the Cross as being completed with Christ's death? How many times do we say something like this, "Children, the Mass is the sacrifice of the Cross" or, "The Mass is the re-presentation of Christ's suffering and death on the cross"...Do we ever mention the resurrection? Yet Christ's passion sacrifice is not over when He died; it had yet to be accepted by the Father; Christ said so when He died, "Father into your hands I place My spirit!" (Lk 23:46) Only when the Father accepted Christ's sacrifice was the offering made to God really complete.

The Resurrection was the sign of the Father's acceptance of Jesus' sacrifice. The Mass then is not just the sacrifice of the Cross, but more correctly the ACCEPTED SACRIFICE of the Cross, thus including not only Jesus' death, but also His resurrection and ascension, because this is the sign of the Father's acceptance of the offered victim. Hence we say in the Canon of the Mass (Eucharistic prayer 1): "Father, we celebrate the memory of Christ, Your Son. We, Your people and Your ministers, recall His passion, His resurrection from the dead, and His ascension into glory; ...look with favour on these offerings and accept them..." Of course this acceptance of Jesus' sacrifice for all men was accepted at once by the Father; at the very moment of Jesus' death. But so that no one could dispute the fact of Jesus' death, Christ waited three days. Remember His prophecy in John: 2:3-22, "Tear down this house of God and in three days I will build it again" and the three days' sign taken from the Jonas' story, "In the same way that Jonas spent three days and nights in the belly of the big fish, so will the Son of Man spend three days and nights in the depths of the earth". (Mt 12:40)

3.The Paschal Mystery in our daily lives. The Paschal mystery must be lived by each one of us. Christ's death and His resurrection (the paschal mystery) must continue their effect in the life of the person in grace. He must die with Christ - die, that is, to his former, sinful nature - and thereafter must remain continually risen with Christ. Our sinful state of death must be constantly annihilated by Christ's death, and our life in the Spirit must be renewed and restored by Christ's resurrection. We cannot do this by ourselves. We can do this only because we have become part of the true Vine, members of Christ's own Body, albeit his mystical body, and as such have a CONTINUAL share in His death and resurrection. This dying with Christ and rising again with Him takes place first of all in our baptism. Our baptism is not merely something that happened to us a long time ago; no, we are living our baptism all through our lives. Every day we live our baptism and everything else finds its foundation in that - all other sacraments, our vocation (lay or religious or clerical), our apostolate, etc.

"Surely you know this: when we were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, we were baptised into union with His death. By our baptism, then, we were buried with Him and shared death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might live a new life." Romans 6:3-4 (see also Col 4:14 & 2:12)

This dying and rising again with Christ takes place at every Mass and particularly at the Sunday Mass (Sunday is the day of resurrection: the little Easter Cf. chapter Ten), when we celebrate the memorial of the Lord's death AND resurrection. True celebration of Mass means not just understanding what is going on, but living what we do living our Paschal sacrifice. At the end of the Mass we are sent forth. Christ sent His disciples forth after His personal Paschal sacrifice was over and accepted by the Father. We see Christ giving the disciples His own mission in the world. (Mt 28:17-20; Mk 16:15-18; Lk 24:4748; also in Acts 1:8; Jn 20:21-22) Christ sent them forth as part of his Paschal Passover; so we too are called to do and to live our part after our sharing in the Mass, the Paschal Mystery.

4.The Paschal Mystery and the Jewish Passover. To understand the Paschal Mystery it is essential that we be familiar with the Jewish Passover, for Our Lord in the Gospels makes constant use of imagery borrowed from the history of the Jewish people. We have studied the PASSOVER FEAST in chapter ten and some comparison is made there between the Passover feast and the Last Supper. Here let us look at the large outline comparing the Exodus (passover) with the death and resurrection of Jesus.

THE JEWISH PASSOVER or THE DELIVERANCE OF THE FIRST PEOPLE OF GOD	THE. PASSOVER OF THE CHRIST or THE PASCHAL MYSTERY
(1) The Hebrews in Bondage in Egypt. Read Exodus 1:11-12.. The people become slaves of Pharaoh. God hears their cry and their groanings; Moses is sent as leader and prophet to save them	(1) Sin a bondage worse than that of EgyptAll men are All men are slaves to sin and death. God sent His Son to lead and save us; "and you will name Him Jesus - for He will save His people from their sins". (Mt 1:21)
(2) Deliverance through the Blood of the Lamb	(2) Deliverance by the Blood of Jesus.
(3) Deliverance through the Red Sea, (Sea of Reeds). Read Exodus 14:21-31. The waters bring death and salvation i.e. death to the enemy ( Pharaoh and his army); salvation to the Hebrews. After the Red Sea passage, the Hebrews become one nation on the way to the promised land.	3)Deliverance through the water of Baptism.We have seen above how in Baptism we die to our enemy (sins) through Christ's death and find salvation by His rising. After Baptism we are made one people of God on the way to our promised land (to the Father), with Christ as our leader and walking in the strength of the Spirit.
4) The Covenant on Mt. Sinai. On Mt. Sinai God gave Moses the Law and sealed a solemn alliance with the Hebrews: God would be with His people and the people would observe the law of God. On their march God gave His people food (manna, quails) and drink (water from the rock ) to sustain them on the long ( 40 years ) journey	4) The New and Eternal Covenant. Christ sealed with us, the people of God, the new and eternal testament in His blood. Since then feeds us; He gives us His own self to nourish us as we march on our long way. Our food and drink is His body and His blood. (Jn 6:25-58) Christ gives His new law- the law of loving AS HE LOVED US. (Jn 13:34)
(5) The Promised Land - Palestine. All through their wanderings the Jews had only one thought in their minds - to reach the land flowing in milk and honey. But into this promised land some did not enter because of their sins. In spite of all the wonders God did for them, many were too often unfaithful to Him. The promised land had to be conquered by hard conflict, but God was with them	5) The Promised Land - with the Father. Christ's Passover is complete since he has passed from this world to His Father (Jn 13:1) by His death and resurrection. But the Christian's passover is not yet complete, although begun. We are on our journey back to our Father in heaven who loves us. (Jn 14:2-3) Only sin prevents us from our goal. We too must struggle; "Strive to enter the narrow gate". (Mt 7:13)
(6) The Feast of the passover: a memorial of God's wonders. The Jews loved to recall constantly the story of their deliverance from Egypt. This was done in a special manner each year on the feast of the Passover...Passover means 'passage'; passage of God (angel of death ) over Egypt and passage of the Hebrews through the sea of Reeds. It was a thanksgiving feast day and a thanksgiving sacrifice. The passover took place on a Sabbath, so every Sabbath was a minor passover feast day.	(6) "Do this in memory of Me". (Lk 22:19) We constantly offer the Paschal Sacrifice of Christ's passover to the Father and of our passover going on with and in Him...our deliverance from sin. We have a special feast every year, Easter, when we celebrate in a special manner our Paschal passover. It is our thanksgiving sacrifice ( "eucharist" means "thanksgiving" ). Christ's passover was on Sunday; each Sunday is an Easter-day.