DID JESUS WALK OUT THE TOMB?

While Jesus was alive he spoke of His death and resurrection. In Mark 9:31,32, we read, “for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.” The disciples of Christ did not fully comprehend the death of their Savior and His resurrection. However, many would witness the death of Jesus on the cross and they would depart in deep sorrow for their Savior had died. First, I want us to look at Matthew’s account of the resurrection of Jesus found in chapter 28:1-6: “Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.” Now, you need to read about the women coming to the tomb where the body of Jesus had been laid by Joseph of Arimathea recorded in Mark 16:1-6; Luke 24:1-8; John 21:1. The women arose early with spices to further the preparation of the body of Jesus for His burial. In Matthew’s record, there was the appearance of the angel who had rolled away the stone to the entrance of the tomb where the body of Jesus had been placed. Mark shows the tomb already opened after the women are concerned about how they will open it. A young man sitting in the tomb tells them Jesus has risen. In Luke, the women arrive, go inside, but do not find the body. Suddenly two men appear in it asking the women, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” Mary finds the tomb empty, according to John. When you read these separate accounts there is no mention of Jesus walking out of the tomb! No doubt we all have seen pictures of Jesus walking out of the tomb with a great light shining all around him. Even in the movie The Passion of the Christ, you can see Jim Caviezel, who portrayed Jesus, waiting for the stone to be removed so he can walk out the tomb. But this is misleading. The angel did not remove the stone for Jesus to walk out of the tomb; the angel removed the stone so the witnesses could look inside and see that the tomb was empty! In Matthew’s account, you will observe that when the angel removed the stone, the angel spoke to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary saying, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified, “He is not here: for He is risen.” From this we can understand that at the time when the angel removed the stone, Jesus had already risen from the dead. When Peter and John ran to the tomb, they found the linen cloths and the napkin where Jesus had been lying in the tomb. Jesus had passed through them when He arose from the dead (20:2-10). And we must understand that the stone and the tomb were no problems for the Lord because we read in In John 20:19;26 that Jesus on two different occasions, “when the doors were shut”, suddenly appeared to His disciples where they had gathered in a room for fear of the Jews. So, neither the tomb nor the ‘exceeding great stone’ prevented Jesus from rising from the dead in His resurrected body. The exact time when Jesus arose early on “the first day of the week” is not recorded. What we are to believe is “He is not here; for He is risen”!! The resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the cardinal doctrines found in the New Testament. The empty tomb cannot be denied. It stands as evidence that our Lord arose from the dead on the “first day of the week”. The apostle Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 15:1-3,”Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,...” My friends, let us thank God that His Son arose from the dead because we worship and serve a risen Savior!!