Reflective Bible Study

For the past several episodes, we have been focusing extra closely on the time Jesus spent on the cross. At the end of our passage for our last episode, Jesus has just finished being buried in the tomb, which was a gift from a man named Joseph who was from Arimathea. Our passage for this episode fast-forwards to resurrection morning, and John focuses in on three of Jesus’ followers. One follower was a woman, and two followers were disciples.

Let’s read our passage and discover what happened. Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 20, and we will read it using the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, John sets the stage by telling us:

¹ Early on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb while it was still dark. When she saw that the large stone had been moved away from the tomb, ² she ran to Simon Peter and the follower whom Jesus loved. Mary said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him.”

³ So Peter and the other follower started for the tomb. ⁴ They were both running, but the other follower ran faster than Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He bent down and looked in and saw the strips of linen cloth lying there, but he did not go in. ⁶ Then following him, Simon Peter arrived and went into the tomb and saw the strips of linen lying there. ⁷ He also saw the cloth that had been around Jesus’ head, which was folded up and laid in a different place from the strips of linen. ⁸ Then the other follower, who had reached the tomb first, also went in. He saw and believed. ⁹ (They did not yet understand from the Scriptures that Jesus must rise from the dead.)

¹⁰ Then the followers went back home.

¹¹ But Mary stood outside the tomb, crying. As she was crying, she bent down and looked inside the tomb. ¹² She saw two angels dressed in white, sitting where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and one at the feet.

¹³ They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

She answered, “They have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have put him.” ¹⁴ When Mary said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know it was Jesus.

¹⁵ Jesus asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Whom are you looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said to him, “Did you take him away, sir? Tell me where you put him, and I will get him.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

Mary turned toward Jesus and said in the Hebrew language, “Rabboni.” (This means “Teacher.”)

¹⁷ Jesus said to her, “Don’t hold on to me, because I have not yet gone up to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going back to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went and said to the followers, “I saw the Lord!” And she told them what Jesus had said to her.

Usually when reading this passage, most pastors, teaches, or speakers would have the tendency to pause and insert thoughts in the midst of this event. I thought briefly about doing that as well. However, I resisted the urge because I wanted you to get the big picture of this event before drawing our attention onto several powerful ideas.

When reading about Mary’s trip to the tomb, I don’t think I ever noticed how she left to tell the disciples without even looking into the tomb. Part of me had always imagined that she looked in the tomb to see that it was empty before running off to tell the disciples. However, according to John’s gospel, this was not the case. There is no evidence that Mary looked in the tomb before either of Jesus’ other followers who ran to the tomb that morning, at least from reading John’s version of this event. The impression I get when reading this event from John’s gospel is that Mary understood that an open tomb meant that Jesus’ body had been removed.

Also, it is worth noting that nothing in the response of Jesus’ followers suggests that they believed Jesus had not died, or that He would rise from the dead. Even with Jesus repeatedly predicting this to happen, John purposefully inserts a note in verse 9 to help us understand that: “They [referring to Jesus’ followers] did not yet understand from the Scriptures that Jesus must rise from the dead.”

If these followers did not understand that Jesus must rise from the dead, then what does John mean when he says that he believed when He saw the empty tomb? In verse 8, John, referring to himself as the other follower who reached the tomb first says, “Then the other follower, who had reached the tomb first, also went in. He saw and believed.”

Both Peter and John did not doubt that Jesus had died. I suspect that they doubted Mary’s word that the tomb was empty. While only Matthew’s gospel draws attention to the soldiers that were positioned guarding the tomb, I am certain that all the disciples were well aware that the religious leaders had made Jesus’ tomb the most secure location in that region.

When John says that he now believed, I suspect that he most likely meant that he believed Mary’s word after having seen the empty tomb for himself. Both Peter and John may have had Jesus’ words in the back of their mind about Him predicting His resurrection, but it’s one thing to remember Jesus’ prediction, and a completely different thing to believe that it actually happened.

However, verse 10, while it seems to be a simple transition statement in John’s gospel, is incredibly powerful. In verse 10, John tells us: “Then the followers [refering to himself and Peter] went back home.”

This left Mary alone by the tomb, and it was now Mary’s turn to enter the tomb. If Mary had entered the tomb before this, there wouldn’t be a reason for her to re-enter it. She would have already seen inside. There likely wouldn’t have even been a reason for her to look inside if she had already looked inside.

However, while Jesus’ two disciples had not seen any angels, Mary, perhaps because she knew nowhere else to go, was open to finding answers and she sees the angels when looking in the tomb.

Why is it significant in my mind that Jesus’ disciples left?

In my mind, I speculate that if Jesus’ disciples had stayed, either they would have then been able to experience the angels themselves, or it is possible that the angels would not have appeared to Mary. I don’t know which would have happened. Jesus’ followers left before Jesus arrived, and this is significant when we stop to think about it.

If Peter and John had stayed with Mary, they likely would have been the first people to see Jesus emerge from the tomb, with the only exception to this being the soldiers who had been guarding the tomb who were there to witness the resurrection itself.

The reason I bring this detail up is that, while we could focus in on Jesus’ message through Mary to His followers, I wonder if all too often, I am tempted to give up on something before Jesus has shown up in it.

If you have ever felt as though God had called you to do something, but that you haven’t been making any progress, there is the strong temptation to abandon it. If you have ever been pressing forward with something that is positive that you know God would want you to do, but you don’t feel God’s presence, it is very easy to let temptation win and simply abandon it.

However, what if you leave moments before Jesus arrived? What if, like Mary experienced, moments after Jesus’ followers leave, Jesus showed up? Mary wins the award for being the first follower to see Jesus because she stayed by the tomb when all the others left. In this event, would you rather be Mary, who stuck it out and stayed at the place Jesus wanted her, or be like the disciples who left to go home and missed the opportunity to see Jesus?

While all of Jesus’ followers ultimately see Jesus at various points during the following few weeks, we discover in this resurrection morning event that only Mary stayed by the tomb, and only Mary got to experience Jesus’ first appearance after He had stepped out of the tomb.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, be sure to intentionally seek God first in your life. If you’ve been struggling whether to stick with something God has called you to, or to abandon it because it doesn’t feel as though God is still with you, consider this a nudge to not abandon this calling yet. Instead, consider this a challenge to stick with it until it becomes clear that God is calling you elsewhere. It is rare for God to call someone to stop doing something without calling them to do something else at the same time. More often, God calls people to take steps of faith forward with Him, and these steps lead us closer to God and further away from sin!

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow closer to God and to grow a personal relationship with Jesus. While everyone has an opinion on the Bible, choose to prayerfully study the Bible for yourself to discover for yourself what the Bible tells us about Jesus and what He did for us on the cross! Don’t listen to people who discount the Bible because they have never read it or have only selectively quoted it from other sources. Read the Bible for yourself to discover the truth it teaches in a more personal and powerful way!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As Mark winds down the events surrounding Jesus’ time on the cross, he describes in our passage for this episode, the events surrounding Jesus’ body being removed from the cross and what happened to it to keep it from being lost. In many ways, we have a previously unknown person in the Bible record to thank for this.

Let’s read our passage for this episode and discover what we can learn from what Mark’s gospel tells us about this event. Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 15, and we will read from the Contemporary English Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 42:

⁴² It was now the evening before the Sabbath, and the Jewish people were getting ready for that sacred day. ⁴³ A man named Joseph from Arimathea was brave enough to ask Pilate for the body of Jesus. Joseph was a highly respected member of the Jewish council, and he was also waiting for God’s kingdom to come.

⁴⁴ Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus was already dead, and he called in the army officer to find out if Jesus had been dead very long. ⁴⁵ After the officer told him, Pilate let Joseph have Jesus’ body.

⁴⁶ Joseph bought a linen cloth and took the body down from the cross. He had it wrapped in the cloth, and he put it in a tomb that had been cut into solid rock. Then he rolled a big stone against the entrance to the tomb.

⁴⁷ Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph were watching and saw where the body was placed.

In these last verses describing the day Jesus was crucified, we discover several details Mark wants to draw our attention to. When I look over this passage, I count no less than five big details that are significant for us to pay attention to.

First, Mark transitions into this event by telling us this was the evening before the Sabbath, and this Sabbath was a sacred day. Other gospels and translations describe why this wasn’t an ordinary Sabbath. This was an extra special Sabbath where the weekly Sabbath intersected with the annual Passover celebration, which was one of the most important Jewish celebrations.

This celebration marked the angel of death passing over the Jewish and Egyptian homes where the blood of a lamb was put on the doorposts of the home. This event, as the people of Israel were about to leave Egypt, foreshadowed what Jesus would ultimately accomplish for them on the cross. Jesus would be that lamb who died, and Jesus’ sacrifice, when welcomed into our hearts and lives, protects us from the angel of death.

Mark draws our attention to the detail that after Jesus has finished sacrificing Himself for humanity and God’s people, He rests in the grave during that special Sabbath day.

Next, Mark introduces us to a new character in the gospel story: a man named Joseph from Arimathea. Joseph steps in as being the perfect middleman for every group present and interested in what would happen that weekend.

While I doubt any of those present would have let Jesus’ body be thrown in the heap of dead bodies, which would have been the fate of the two criminals who were crucified with Jesus, Joseph steps in as the perfect middleman. Joseph was a respected person among the Jewish leaders, he was someone who had influence with Pilate, and he was someone who was not hostile towards Jesus’ followers. Some gospels even call Joseph a secret disciple of Jesus.

Joseph also had exactly what this situation needed; Joseph had a nearby tomb where Jesus’ body could lay, and it was a tomb that was easy to access while also being easy to seal and guard. In this event, I believe God had prepared and placed Joseph of Arimathea into the exact place and position that was needed for this weekend. In many ways, Joseph from Arimathea saves Easter because of his involvement this Friday evening.

Another detail worth noting in this event is that Pilate was surprised that Jesus had died so quickly. Crucifixion was a death that was designed to last a long time and it was designed to be painful, humiliating, and public in order to remind any potential rebels that it wasn’t worth trying to fight against Rome. Jesus’ death in six hours was very abnormal. The way to speed up death was to break the legs of the person on the cross, and this happened to both criminals who were with Jesus.

The reason this detail stands out in my mind is that it is one more piece of evidence telling Pilate that Jesus was different. Jesus was not like anyone else who had been nailed to a cross, and to everyone present, it was very clear that Jesus was different. In our last passage, we even read that one of the soldiers present for Jesus’ last breath exclaimed that Jesus really was God’s Son after witnessing Jesus’ death.

I don’t know, and Mark doesn’t tell us the details surrounding what prompts Pilate to let Joseph have Jesus’ body. It is possible that Joseph paid Pilate for Jesus’ body, or perhaps something in Joseph’s request prompted Pilate to agree. It is also possible that Joseph was not present for any of that morning’s condemnation, and this gave weight to his request since he was not among Jesus’ accusers. Regardless of the details, God was ultimately behind Pilate agreeing to Joseph’s request.

Mark concludes this event by describing how Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph were watching where Joseph took Jesus’ body. While this detail doesn’t sound significant at this point, it becomes significant because these women would be the first to witness an empty grave when they go to the tomb the following Sunday.

God was behind everything Joseph of Arimathea contributed to this point in history. God had brought Joseph to this point, and Joseph steps into history with everything needed to make this weekend glorify God in unprecedented, unexpected, and momentous ways.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, continue to seek God first in your life and be ready to step into God’s plan when He calls you to. While I don’t know what God is preparing your life for, I do know you are alive on this earth for a reason, that your life is significant in God’s eyes, and that He has something significant for you to accomplish. When the time comes for God to reveal His plan to you, be ready to jump into what God has prepared you for.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to continue learning and growing closer to God. Through the pages of the Bible, discover just how much God loves us and what God was willing to give up to open the way for us to have a restored relationship with Him!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or leave where God is leading you to in your life with Him!

Over the past few episodes, we have been focusing on Jesus’ time hanging on the cross. However, we now come to the point in this event where it is time for Jesus’ corpse to be removed from the cross. While Jesus fulfilled a surprising number of prophecies while hanging on the cross, when Jesus’ body is ultimately removed from the cross, a previously unknown disciple, and a secret disciple both step forward with exactly what was needed to save this weekend.

Let’s read what happened and how Joseph and Nicodemus save this Passover weekend.

Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 19, and we will read it using the Contemporary English Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 38, John tells us that:

³⁸ Joseph from Arimathea was one of Jesus’ disciples. He had kept it secret though, because he was afraid of the Jewish leaders. But now he asked Pilate to let him have Jesus’ body. Pilate gave him permission, and Joseph took it down from the cross.

³⁹ Nicodemus also came with about seventy-five pounds of spices made from myrrh and aloes. This was the same Nicodemus who had visited Jesus one night. ⁴⁰ The two men wrapped the body in a linen cloth, together with the spices, which was how the Jewish people buried their dead. ⁴¹ In the place where Jesus had been nailed to a cross, there was a garden with a tomb that had never been used. ⁴² The tomb was nearby, and since it was the time to prepare for the Sabbath, they were in a hurry to put Jesus’ body there.

Some people have speculated that since Joseph and Nicodemus were in a hurry to prepare for the Sabbath, they didn’t prepare Jesus’ body properly, allowing Jesus to have survived. However, this thought doesn’t stand up to the logic that if Jesus could have been alive, these two disciples would not have been allowed to take Jesus’ body off the cross, and Jesus’ legs would have been broken, which we looked at in our last episode.

However, while Joseph and Nicodemus hurriedly prepare Jesus’ body for burial because of the Sabbath, these two men step in with exactly what is needed to save this Passover weekend.

Nicodemus believed and understood that Jesus had died, and while he may have remembered Jesus’ words to him during a secret, late-night meeting several years earlier, Nicodemus brought spices to prepare Jesus’ body for burial. Depending on the translation, we can understand that Nicodemus’ gift of spices weighed anywhere between 75 to 100 pounds. If Nicodemus believed or understood Jesus to be only in the tomb for less than 48 hours, a gift of that many spices to mask the odor of a body decomposing does not make sense. It is very possible that Nicodemus overdid it on the spices because they didn’t have much time, and it is better to have too many spices than too little.

However, Joseph’s gift is equally as significant. While offering Jesus a tomb to lay in doesn’t sound all that significant, it is exactly what everyone that weekend needed. If there was no tomb, then Jesus’ body likely would have been thrown in a communal grave and His body quickly lost among the other corpses. If a resurrection happened following Jesus’ body being tossed in with a bunch of other corpses, rumors would begin to spread that the person who was resurrected wasn’t really Jesus.

With this said, a funny thought just entered my mind. If Jesus’ body was thrown in a mass grave, I wonder if it would have caused every corpse in that grave to have been resurrected. This would have been similar to what happened in 2 Kings, chapter 13, verses 20 and 21 when the corpse of a man is hastily thrown into Elisha’s tomb and when the corpse touched Elisha’s bones, it returned to life. With Jesus’ though, I suspect the effect would have been significantly more powerful.

However, before we digress too far, what everyone that weekend needed was a single location to watch to see what would happen to Jesus’ body. The religious leaders need a place to watch, and to send soldiers to guard so that Jesus’ followers won’t steal the body away. The women need a place to return to in order to pay their respects to Jesus following the Sabbath. And the disciples themselves need a place to go to in order to confirm the women’s crazy story of an empty tomb and to also ultimately come to the conclusion that Jesus rose from the dead. Everyone that weekend needed a place to watch and Joseph steps in with the perfect gift at the perfect time.

Both Nicodemus and Joseph step in with what is needed at that time. Both of these men are described as secret disciples, or as disciples who followed Jesus, but didn’t do so publicly. While we might be tempted to follow the lead of Nicodemus and Joseph, understand that if either of these men had stayed silent, we would have no idea who they were.

Only when each of these men stand up and side with Jesus do their stories get recorded. In Nicodemus’ case, the three times He is mentioned in scripture are only in connection with Jesus. The first time is when Nicodemus comes to see Jesus late at night. The second time is when Nicodemus stands up for Jesus while sitting in a hostile-towards-Jesus meeting of religious leaders. And the third time Nicodemus is recorded is in this passage, when he brings spices to assist in Jesus’ burial.

In Joseph’s case, the only mention of him that I am aware of in the entire scripture is during Jesus’ burial. While I don’t know if Joseph reverts back to the religious leaders after Jesus’ resurrection, or if his story as a disciple gets lost among all the other amazing events in the first century Christian church, Joseph is remembered as the giver of the gift of a tomb for Jesus’ body.

Both Nicodemus and Joseph teach us a powerful truth: If we want our lives to last longer than our lives, and if we want to be remembered for what we have done for eternity, we must step into God’s story and align ourselves with Jesus. When we publicly side with Jesus, letting our lives move God’s story forward, our lives and our witness will be remembered for eternity!

If you have been living as a secret follower of Jesus, consider this a gentle nudge to step forward when God calls you to step forward, and to publicly proclaim Jesus while allying yourself with Him!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to ally yourself with Jesus. If you have been afraid to share your faith, ask God for the strength and courage to stand up when the time is right and to give you the confidence and words to say when you do stand up for Him. Don’t let fear in this world keep you from publicly proclaiming your allegiance to God!

Also, as I always challenge you to do, keep praying and studying the Bible for yourself to personally grow closer to God each and every day. Through prayer and study, you can grow closer to God, and the closer you grow to God, the more the Holy Spirit will show up in your life and transform you into the person God created you to be. With the Holy Spirit in your life, nothing Satan throws your way can scare you out of God’s plan for your life!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or shy away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

During the past couple of podcast episodes, we have been looking at how Mark describes the time Jesus spent on the cross. For this episode, we will conclude looking at what Mark tells us happened during the hours Jesus spent on the cross, and discover what we can learn during the last portion of this event.

Our passage for this episode is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 15, and for this episode, we will read from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 33, Mark tells us that:

³³ At noon darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. ³⁴ At three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

³⁵ When some of the people standing there heard him say that, they said, “Listen! He’s calling Elijah.” ³⁶ Someone ran and soaked a sponge in vinegar. Then he put it on a stick and offered Jesus a drink. The man said, “Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down.”

³⁷ Then Jesus cried out in a loud voice and died. ³⁸ The curtain in the temple was split in two from top to bottom.

³⁹ When the officer who stood facing Jesus saw how he gave up his spirit, he said, “Certainly, this man was the Son of God!”

Without any question in my mind, the moment Jesus cried out in a loud voice and died is the darkest point in the entire Bible. For three hours, darkness covered not only the entire region but specifically Jesus on the cross. I wonder if this darkness was caused by supernatural forces, if there was some type of eclipse that blocked out the sun, or if this happened because of a thick cloud cover. It was as though the last three hours of Jesus’ life were aimed at prompting Jesus to feel like He was all alone.

Mark doesn’t describe anything that happened during these three hours, and I wonder if nothing noteworthy happened, perhaps except for Satan trying to mock and taunt Jesus that His death was for nothing and that His sacrifice would not be accepted by God.

Whether the darkness ended immediately after Jesus gave His last breath, or whether the darkness ended at the point Jesus cried out about feeling like God had abandoned Him, the last hours leading up to Jesus’ death gave Jesus time to reflect on His sacrifice. These three hours likely felt like an eternity, but it was an eternity where Jesus was able to reflect and resolve that His death would open the way for our salvation.

In my mind, it is significant to pay attention to what Jesus cries out here in Mark’s gospel. After three hours of darkness, Jesus cries out in verse 34 saying, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

This cry of Jesus is a cry we all may be tempted to believe when we go through dark points in our lives. In our lives, we all will have times when things go our way and when life is looking up, and we will all have times when it seems like everything is going wrong. It is tempting to think God is with us in the good times and that He has abandoned us in the bad times, but if we choose to believe this, we may be believing a lie Satan wants to trick us with.

I have no idea whether the darkness during the last hours of Jesus’ time on the cross was caused naturally or supernaturally. I don’t know whether it was something symbolizing God turning His face away from Jesus or whether it was a move by Satan to try to break His spirit.

However, I believe that regardless of the source of the darkness, and regardless of Jesus’ cry out to God about feeling abandoned, I have no doubt in my mind that God was 100% focused on this moment in history. Even though Jesus felt like God had left Him, I don’t believe for a moment that God turned His back on Jesus’ sacrifice.

One of the most famous verses in the Bible tells us that God loves humanity to the point that He sent His Son to face death for us. Jesus took the punishment we deserved onto Himself because God loves us that much. God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice because Jesus returned to life the following Sunday morning. The weekend of the cross was what the entire Godhead had been directing history towards.

However, with God’s focus present on this moment, I don’t believe God felt joy during this moment. Instead, in ways that would be hard for us to imagine, I believe God felt pain during the hours Jesus hung on the cross. Regardless of whether a skeptic could rationalize God’s perspective and say that He knew Jesus would be alive days later, God knows what it is like to watch someone you love die. God understands one of the greatest pains we can experience in our human lives.

In this event, we discover that Satan wanted Jesus to feel as though He was alone, and in this regard, it is possible that he succeeded. However, Satan wasn’t strong enough to convince Jesus that His cries to His Father would not be heard.

This means that for us living today, Satan can try to trick us into believing that we are all alone and that God is uninterested in our lives. Satan can try to trick us into believing that our prayers fall on deaf ears, or no ears at all. However, Satan is powerless to stop our prayers from being heard by the Father, and Satan is powerless to stop the Father from being passionately in love with us!

The best Satan can hope for is tricking us into not praying and seeking God, because he knows that if we turn to God, God is more than willing to help us in our time of need.

When Jesus gave up His Spirit, the curtain in the temple ripped in two from top to bottom. This spiritual and significant act opened the way for sinners to come before God directly and ask for forgiveness, ask for help, and ask God for answers to our prayers and requests. Jesus’ death makes coming to God possible, and Jesus’ death bridges the gap sin had created between humanity and God.

Everything worth anything in life hinges on Jesus’ death, and because Jesus died on the cross, we are able to accept the gift of eternal life through Jesus that extends into eternity!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life. Resolve today to never let Satan trick you out of praying and seeking God. Satan’s best chance is tricking you into thinking that God doesn’t care about you and letting your mind resolve to give up on God. This is because Satan knows that God is unwilling to give up on us. Jesus came to prove to us that God loves us with all His heart and that He wants us together forever with Him in heaven!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and fall in love with the God who gave Himself for you and me. Through the pages of the Bible, discover just how much God loves you and what He was willing to give up in order to redeem you and I for eternity.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him – even when Satan tries to convince us we are living alone and God has forgotten. God never forgot Jesus, and He will never forget you!