Surprise and...Surprise Again! As we have already seen, the "surprise" of the Gospel was the good news that God became man in order to bear our curse and to redeem us to himself. No longer alienated from God because of Adam's sin, all of humanity is now reconciled with God through Christ. This good news is especially good news to believers. But if this is true, then the news of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection should not really be considered as "something unexpected". All believers should expect to see a crucified Messiah and to see their Lord risen from the dead, and we should expect the death and resurrection to have meaning for us. So it is indeed quite shocking to many readers of the Gospels that Jesus dies, is buried, and then appears alive. Even the disciples have difficulty fully accepting that Jesus died on the cross (Mark 15:37). It is as if the disciples, as well as everyone else, did not expect Jesus to die (Mark 9:9; 12:7; 13:32; 14:31; Matthew 10:21; John 11:32). It is as if, apart from the disciples, no one else in the entire world knew that a messiah was going to be killed. And Jesus' friends thought this messiah was going to liberate them from Roman oppression, not from God (John 8:59-12:8). There is an important distinction between this "news" and "what we know" (that the Messiah was to be killed and rise again), and "what we need to know" (that Jesus died and rose for our justification). The problem is that the disciples were not ready to comprehend what they were hearing. The fact that there are people today who have had their lives turned upside down, and who live in complete denial of all of the evidence of their senses, should remind us how very much we still need to learn. The Resurrection Begins With the Resurrection Man The Resurrection must be preceded by the resurrection of someone (John 11:25). When a friend or family member dies, we mourn. The person will never return to this earth. There will be no more family reunions, no more jokes, no more walks or conversations, no more memories. Nothing will be the same again for the survivor. At a graveside, there are tears and the words, "We love you. Rest in peace". But as horrible as death is, it is not as horrible as living. Living is much more than simply breathing. Our senses have the power to show us the evidence of our lives. The evidence of our lives may be seen and felt and heard and smelled. Our ears can hear God's creation. Our eyes see beauty, and our hearts can feel joy. Our bodies feel tired at the end of a hard day, and our thoughts can be full of memories. Our minds can picture the future, and sometimes see the presence of God within us. At our best, our lives bring life and joy and love to others. At our worst, our lives harm ourselves and others. A healthy life makes everything more hopeful. It's no wonder so many people have lived to see a day past forty. But when our lives come to an end, the possibility of life ends. Our bodies return to dust, and our senses lose their ability to experience God. We have seen a preview of this in the second death of Paul's friends in Corinthians 15:26-28: And if Christ is not risen, then all our preaching and learning is useless, and your faith is also useless. Yes, our hearts may be sad, but if you really think that our hearts will not be broken with sorrow, then you don't understand the way that Jesus died for you and for everyone. If he wasn't raised, then our preaching and learning are useless, and your faith is useless. The resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of everything, for it is only through his resurrection that we have life in this world (John 10:10). If Jesus is not risen, then not only was the church preaching in vain, but "the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18). Without the resurrection of Jesus, Christians are only living on a hope. But how can we believe in Jesus' resurrection when it cannot be proved from the evidence of our senses? If someone asks you whether you think God raised Jesus from the dead, and if your answer is "I don't know", then you don't believe. We don't believe if we don't know. But what about the times when the evidence seems to suggest that something happened after the person died? The Resurrection of Jesus is both a doctrine about the present and a hope for the future. As we have already seen, Jesus did not only die, but he also rose from the dead. So God raised Jesus, and through him we have the hope that in the future Jesus will return to this earth and all will be made new. When it comes to our faith, we must seek understanding from what is true. If we must understand to believe, then we can't believe unless we understand. If we don't understand, then we can't believe. The key to understanding is evidence. To believe in the resurrection of Jesus, we need a testimony and examples of the power of God in the world. The resurrection of Jesus is something we should already know. It is not something we should hope for. Evidence for the resurrection of Jesus must be as real and real as the resurrection itself (1 Corinthians 15:35). There is no resurrection unless God raises our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:14). There is no new life without resurrection. Without a resurrection, we are nothing more than "corpses" (Ephesians 2:1-3). Without the resurrection of Jesus, there is no reason to believe the death and resurrection of Jesus were anything but one and the same. How can we understand what would be impossible to know? How can we know something that is unbelievable? Some people never believe that God has raised Jesus from the dead, but they believe that God raised his mother from the dead. But it is ridiculous to believe in something that cannot be discerned by our senses. So it is for us to believe in the resurrection of Jesus because God raised him. And when we understand and accept the doctrine of the resurrection, then we are convinced that the death of Jesus was an atonement for sin and not just the death of one more person. The resurrection of Jesus makes sense because God raised Jesus from the dead. The resurrection is only a matter of faith for those who believe. For those who don't believe, it will always be a "stumbling stone" (1 Corinthians 1:23). So the resurrection is a stumbling stone to those who reject Jesus. Conclusion The resurrection of Jesus began with a real man in the first century and continues to end the world in the second. This is not a fantasy story. This is a real story that happened in the past and is going to happen in the future. It is a story about men and women who, like you and me, were able to receive God's free gift of salvation because of the power of the gospel and the testimony of the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection happened in real time. As it happens, history takes longer to write than the lives of humans. In the Gospels, the resurrection was only announced as though it had happened in the past. But it took many days for the disciples to accept that Jesus was in fact the Messiah they had hoped for (Luke 24:9-15). They did not understand what the resurrection meant for their lives, and they had no reason to doubt it because they had no hope without it. "So What Happened to the Disciples After Jesus' Death?" We have already discussed how the disciples lived with the hope that the messiah would be killed. All of the disciples had given their lives to serving the Messiah. But now the reality of his death must have seemed impossible to them (Luke 22:31). The disciples had to face the truth that they had become as useless to God as a boat that is tossed about by the waves. Their only hope was now Jesus in the tomb (Luke 24:1-6). Though the disciples were now spiritually dead, they were still alive physically. The disciples had a long, hard journey ahead of them. They were physically and emotionally dead, but alive physically and emotionally. It would be two days before they finally understood the good news that Jesus was in fact alive. This passage in Luke is quite important. The next two verses reveal the disciples' questions about who was going to take care of them. The Bible, and all religious texts that give a "gloss" to the story of Jesus, have the disciples asking this. It's not just Luke who has the disciples asking questions. It is nearly every Gospel writer. The writers tell us they did not understand how Jesus rose from the dead or why the disciples had not expected him to rise from the dead (Luke 24:10-12; John 20:12; Luke 24:25). Even the disciples' own minds did not accept what happened (Luke 24:25-27). The reason why so many of the disciples, even those close to Jesus, were in denial of the truth of Jesus' resurrection is explained in Mark 9:24-25. The Disciples' Belief in a Dead Messiah