JESUS AND THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
Easter Sunday is SUCH a HUGE day for us! We call it “RESURRECTION” Sunday… and most of us even go to church on Sunday each week to commemorate, “The day Jesus ROSE from the DEAD.”
I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard that SO MUCH in my life that it’s …kinda lost it’s meaning… especially in “churchy” circles, ya know? We hear it all the time!
Jesus’ death burial and resurrection
Jesus’ death burial and resurrection
Jesus’ death…
But… if you stop and think about it… that’s pretty hard to believe - someone coming back from the dead - right?
I mean, nowadays if you say something about someone coming back from the dead people start talking about the Zombie Apocalypse… and that is NOT what today is all about! LOL!
I’ve heard some people say that Jesus didn’t REALLY die… that He just like, passed out or something.
First of all, you don’t just “pass out” from having your back ripped apart by whips filled with nails and broken shards of glass, and then being NAILED to a cross and hanging there all day long.
That’s not something you wake up from!
AND, the Roman soldiers - men who KILL people FOR A LIVING… who see people die ALL THE TIME … THEY know what death looks like.
THEY knew He was dead… and they made SURE of it.
John tells us in his gospel, “Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.”
So, when you were crucified, you would actually die of suffocation because your body is hanging down like that and it crushes your lungs and you can’t breathe … so you’d push yourself up with your legs to be able to breathe… until you were too weak to do so… so if your legs were broken, you wouldn’t be ABLE to do that and you’d die more quickly… which is what the Jewish leaders wanted.
Grim. Uck… Anyway…
John goes on… The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.
That means he pierced his heart, because your heart is surrounded by a bag of fluid called the pericardium… if Jesus was just passed out? Well, he would NOT be waking up from that!
So, yeah… Jesus was definitely dead.
Okay, but, did He REALLY come back to life??
Well, let’s take a look at a couple of stories…
Mary Magdalene and Jesus' mom and some other women were apparently the first to see Him alive…
AFTER they SAW Him DEAD.
THEY were actually THERE at the cross. They personally SAW Him die.
So AFTER Jesus is crucified and buried and they’ve waited for the special Passover Sabbath days to be over, these women get up as early as was allowable, and they go the tomb.
Matthew’s gospel tells us, “There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.”
This always CRACKS me up! Remember… these are Roman soldiers - they are NOT easily frightened! But clearly, this angel was enough to make them freeze in terror - not only because he’s GLOWING like LIGHTNING but he also just rolled the 2 ton stone away from the entrance - BY HIMSELF! That’s DEFINITELY enough to make your knees start knockin’!!! LOL!
And I LOVE that the angel doesn’t even acknowledge them! Instead, he turns to the women and tells them, “Jesus isn’t here… look… He’s risen, so go tell the others!”
They take off running - TOTALLY freaked out! - and then… THEY SEE JESUS.
ALIVE!! Now they’re REALLY freaked out!
Jesus tells them NOT to be afraid, and then He says the same thing the angel told them… to go - be the first evangelists! Ha! - and tell the others that He’s ALIVE and He’s coming to see them too! So, GIT READY!!!
Those guards, meanwhile are EVEN MORE freaked out now… because HOW are they gonna explain what just happened… to their BOSS???!!!
So, they don’t go to their boss, they go to the CHIEF PRIESTS and they tell THEM what they saw, which you would THINK would freak THEM out - or at least wake ‘em up a little bit…
…but instead we’re told they meet with the elders, devise a plan, give the soldiers a bunch of money and tell them to say ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ Then they tell the soldiers, “don’t worry, if Pilot hears about this, we’ll give HIM a bunch of money too, so you’ll be cool.
And that’s what happened. And we’re told “this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.”
OMG!!!
Now… 1st of all, again, these are ROMAN SOLDIERS! They are NOT gonna be sleeping on the job! NOR are they gonna allow that ROMAN SEAL that the tomb was sealed with to be broken by ANYONE because they would be KILLED if they did so - LITERALLY! - that’s why the chief priests reassure them they’ll keep them out of trouble.
2nd Jesus’ disciples were NOT Roman soldiers! They were just a ragtag bunch of men… fishermen and… a wimpy little tax collector guy! After seeing what just happened to Jesus, you think THEY’RE gonna risk taking on a bunch of Roman soldiers? In a graveyard?? In the middle of the night??
Yeah, I don’t think so…
Okay, so the women are the first ones to see Jesus alive, which I think is just awesome on a NUMBER of levels… but NOW I wanna focus in for a sec on a story that Luke tells us in HIS gospel.
It’s kinda long, so I’m just gonna paraphrase it here for you, but basically it’s about a couple of guys who leave Jerusalem after this horrible weekend they’ve just had, with Jesus being killed and everything, and they start heading home to a village called Emmaus.
They’re walking along, totally bummed out, talking about everything that just went down and Jesus comes walking up alongside them. Except, they don’t realize it’s Him - because… he’s SUPPOSED to be DEAD! - and He’s like, “Hey guys what’s up? Whatcha talking about?”
This TOTALLY takes them off guard because EVERYONE’S talking about the same thing right now, so they’re like, “Seriously? Where have you been?? You live under a ROCK or something? We’re talking about everything that happened in Jerusalem this weekend… About Jesus of Nazareth! He was a prophet and He was TOTALLY AWESOME!
But our rulers had him crucified - which is HORRIBLE because, well, crucifixion IS HORRIBLE, but man, we REALLY thought HE was gonna save us all from the Romans!
And THEN some of our women went to his tomb this morning and came back COMPLETELY hysterical because NOT ONLY was the tomb EMPTY, but they ALSO said they saw angels who said Jesus was ALIVE! So, then some of our friends went to the tomb and it WAS empty… but THEY didn’t see Jesus.” shrug
Then Jesus is basically like, “OMG - don’t you guys READ your Bible??” (I think He says that to ME a lot, too! LOL!)
… and then it says, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in ALL the Scriptures concerning himself…”
WOW!
Now THAT’S a Bible study I wish I coulda been at!!! LOL! SERIOUSLY!!
Eventually they get to town and Jesus pretends like He’s gotta go further, but it’s late now so they talk him into staying with them. They STILL don’t realize it’s Jesus until He breaks the bread at supper and THEN they’re like OMG!!!
And Jesus immediately DISAPPEARS!
I think that was like His version of a MIC DROP!!!
But the guys are like, “DUDE!!! We should have KNOWN it was Him when He was telling us all those Bible stories!” So they jump up and go ALL THE WAY BACK to Jerusalem to tell the others, and then they hear that PETER has seen Jesus too!!!
Okay, so 1) some women have seen Jesus, 2) these 2 guys have seen Jesus, and 3) apparently Peter has seen Jesus as well!!
And later, Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthians, that “Jesus appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, (like, just in case you wanted to go ASK them! Ha!) though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also…”
WOW.
So, if we put ALL of this together… several HUNDRED people SAW Jesus ALIVE after he was crucified, dead, and buried.
That’s amazing.
Some people may say, “Yeah, but is that really BELIEVABLE?”
Well… I personally find a FEW things compelling…
If only a couple people saw Him… like, here and there… that would be kinda hard to believe. Like maybe they were making it up… just because they really WANTED it to be true. But He appeared to GROUPS of people… several women, a couple men on the road, the disciples, and then to over 500 PEOPLE at the same time.
People are NOT gonna SUFFER and DIE… for a LIE… and ALL the apostles, including Paul, suffered HORRIBLY - and almost all of them were killed for their faith. If they were ALL LYING, you’d think at least ONE of them would crack under the torture… But they didn’t…
Then there’s the thousands of years and millions of people who may not have “seen” the risen Jesus with their own eyes, but they’ve witnessed and experienced Him personally in their lives… many of whom again, gave up their lives and died horrible deaths - being beheaded, torn apart and eaten by lions, burned at the stake, skinned alive, etc., - rather than denying Him.
But still… someone coming back alive after being dead FOR DAYS! It’s just a REALLY hard thing to believe!
Even one of Jesus’ closest companions, Thomas, didn’t believe it! Even when ALL the other disciples told him they’d seen Jesus alive.
It’s only AFTER Thomas sees Jesus with his own eyes does he believe… to which Jesus tells him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Blessed are those who have NOT seen
AND YET…
have believed.
That’s you and me folks…
I don’t know about you, but I’ve never “seen” Jesus personally with my own eyes…
But I’ve definitely seen Him in others.
I’ve seen Him in my husband.
I’ve seen Him in my mom.
I’ve seen Him in some of you guys.
AND, I’ve seen the RESULTS of Him in my own life. How my life is not just one HORRIBLE decision after another like it used to be!!!
I used to be totally dead inside.
But now I’m not.
I have NEW LIFE because of Jesus.
He’s brought ME back to life as well!
Hmmm… Maybe Jesus is the start of the Zombie Apocalypse after all…