It just feels wrong to write about anything other than Jesus’s death and resurrection during Holy Week. It was the most miraculous and impactful weekend in human history and the climax of God’s plan to save humanity, defeat death, and make possible a relationship with our omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient God.
We know that now, after 2000 years of theological reflection, but if we had been contemporaries of Jesus, we would have needed some time to make sense of it. The events of Holy Week were completely unexpected, shocking, and until Sunday morning, horrifying.
Jesus was a Jew, and the Jews of his day had been steeped in Jewish tradition, followed the law meticulously, and knew that they had been chosen by God to represent him in the world. They were expecting the Messiah, who they thought would bring back the glory days of king David’s reign and put them back on top of the world.
Good Friday
Those who understood who Jesus was did not expect the promised Messiah, who had done miracles no one had even contemplated and taught with supernatural authority, to be executed by Roman authorities. Everything they had expected was turned upside down. They were reeling.
And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. Matthew 27:50-52
The curtain that was torn was roughly 60 feet high and 4 inches thick, so this was no accidental rip. Matthew wrote his gospel a number of years after Jesus’s death and resurrection, so even though these events occurred when Jesus died, his followers wouldn’t necessarily have known about them until after the resurrection. They might not have made the connection that the curtain being torn from top to bottom signified that the Most Holy Place, the presence of God entered only by the high priest, would be available to everyone. We all have direct access to God.
Resurrection
But then God accomplished one more stunning event.
While Jesus’s followers were trying to get their heads around his death, the women who went to his grave early on Sunday morning found an angel instead of Jesus’s body.
The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Matthew 28:5-6
The Bible includes stories of prophets and Jesus raising people from the dead, but those people all died again. Jesus didn’t. Jesus appeared to his disciples, and they thought he was a ghost (Luke 24:36-37), he showed them his scarred hands and feet (John 20:19-20), asked them for something to eat (Luke 24:40-43), and opened their minds so they would understand the prophecy that had been given about him (Luke 24:45-49).
The resurrected Jesus was on the earth for 40 days, appearing here and there, before he ascended to heaven,
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly, two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” Acts 1:8-11
Based on the unexpected nature of Jesus’s first coming, I expect his second coming to be just as surprising. Many theologians have speculated on how or when Jesus will return, but Jesus himself told his disciples that no one but God knows when that will be. Anyone who thinks they’ve got it figured out, does not.
Expect the unexpected.
God is wildly creative. His plans are bigger, broader, better and more beautiful than we can imagine, and we all have a part to play in his eternal story. We cannot imagine what he has planned for us, but we can be sure that in the end, it will be good. Very good.
You may be wondering what this has to do with retirement. I would simply like to remind you to play your part, be ready to participate, watch with interest what God is doing. Retirement can be a time when we face the unexpected, but it can also a time of tremendous opportunity. Jesus’s death and resurrection were unexpected, and the events of that weekend changed the world forever.
Expect the unexpected, and joyfully receive whatever or whoever God brings into your life.
There is a lot to unpack in the scripture reading of Our Lord’s resurrection. For instance, the two angels standing beside the empty place where Jesus had been laid. This is the new mercy seat bringing to life the fulfillment of the Old Testament Ark of the Covenant in which the golden angels whose wings overshadowed the mercy seat. Christ being tempted by Satan after His baptism and wandering in the wilderness for 40 days, corresponds to Noah and the great flood. Again, this is finalized or rather affirmed as Our resurrected Lord was on the earth for 40 days, bring not only the flood, but the days before sin, when God visited with Adam and Eve in the garden. The richness and fullness of scripture and the death and resurrection of Our Lord is nothing short of phenomenal!
He has risen! He has risen indeed! Alleluia!