It is not possible to talk meaningfully about the Empty Tomb without referring
to the miraculous conception, both of which represent the inexplicable power of
God. He alone knows what is unknowable, Rom. 11:33 and does what is
undoable, Job 12:13-25. When Isaiah prophesied:
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign;
Behold the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,
and shall call his name Immanuel,
Isaiah 7:14
The Israelites of his day must have wondered how that would happen, as virgins
were not known to conceive naturally, then, and even now. And when, hundreds
of years after, angel Gabriel announced the news to the Virgin Mary, she was
puzzled. How could that be since she had not related to any man? Lk. 1:34. But
this child was not going to be the product man-woman relationship but of God,
vs 35-37, Mk. 1:1.
When He came into the world Jesus treated His earthly parents well but, even as
a young boy, He made it clear to them that His real Father was in heaven, Lk.
2:41-50. He was not being rude, He simply told them the truth. They were be
wildered. When He made a similar declaration, much later, in the course of His
ministry, the Jewish leaders, in envy or ignorance, treated him as an upstart or a
demon, John 8:47-48, John 5:16-17.
In his opening statement concerning the purpose of His mission on earth He
recalled Isaiah’s prophesy concerning him:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he
hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, and the recovering of
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are
bruised. To proclaim the acceptable year of the
Lord,
Isaiah 61:1&2, Lk. 4:18-19
During His ministry He did not just preach and teach, He delivered and saved.
He restored hope to the hopeless, Mk. 5:46-52, Lk. 7:11-15 and, on many
occasions, made satan look foolish Lk 13:10-17, Mk 5:1-15. In one instance He
fed more than 5000 people with delicious meals, Matt 14:15-21 while, in less
than 4 years of His ministry He raised and nurtured about 100 disciples, “little
christs”, who, after His death, “turned the world upside down”, Acts 17:4-6
So it was not just His conception and birth that engendered the miraculous His
ministerial activities in Palestine confirmed His claim as son of God, John
14:11&12. But the Jewish leaders of His day saw Him as a rival, a threat to their
status and an enemy they must bring down so that they and they alone would
continue to falsely be the face of God, who had long departed from them, John
8:39-42.
They raised false allegations against Him with sole aim of getting Him
convicted, by all means. That Pilate, the Governor, who presided over His trial
said He was innocent of the charges against him, did not impress them. They
wanted him crucified, a particularly painful form of death meant for criminals,
Matt. 27:11-25,
Must Jesus die for the sins He never committed? Yes, indeed, because it was
only the blood of the innocent that was acceptable to God for the atonement of
the sin of Adam and his descendants, Rom. 3:23-25, Rom. 5:10-11. Otherwise
man would have been forever condemned, without any hope of redemption and
reconciliation with the Father, John 3:17. Yet the deception and mindless
cruelty of the Jewish elite is in excusable.
So Jesus was crucified. He died and was buried in a tomb. As far as His enemies
were concerned that was his end. And since they had heart that He predicted His
resurrection three days after death, Mk. 10:32-34, John 2:18-19, they tried to
forestall that by posting soldiers to His tomb, Matt. 27:62-66.
In ignorance they attempted to treat the Immortal as a mortal. They failed
miserably. The Father, who sent His son on the mission of deliverance and
salvation, never abandoned His own. The angelic presence around the tomb,
now empty, testified to that. Christ had risen. Satan and his agents had been
shamed, Matt. 28:1-6.
The resurrection of Christ was a miracle of enormous dimensions. First, it was
the first and the last time ever that any person would fortell his own death and
resurrection and the prediction would come true. Secondly, the earth which
normally receives the dead, overtime converting it to “manure”, reacted
violently, in the form of an extensive earthquake, saying perharps “this
particular person is my creator-you cannot subject Him to the kind of indignity
reserved for mortals”, Matt. 28:2; John 1:1-3
The quake resulted in the opening up of the graves of the saints, who, following
the resurrection of Christ, were also raised and were seen by many people in
Jerusalem, Matt. 27:52-53, I Cor. 15:4-8.
Even though Jesus has since returned to the Father, His name and blood still
perform wonders, Acts 3:1-8, Phil. 2:9-11, I Pet. 2:24. So, the empty tomb is
indeed empty, a miracle of enormous proportions, a confirmation that the dead
in Christ even in our time, would also rise from the dead, John 14:1-3.
