A Prophecy Fulfilled - The Death And Resurrection Of A Savior

People celebrate Christmas for a lot of different reasons. Nonbelievers and people not quite that strong in their faith know something about Jesus being born and that's "the reason for the season." But at the end of the day we celebrate family, snow, Santa, presents, and some of us celebrate a baby born a little over 2000 years ago. But that's not what true Christians celebrate, is it? No, we understand that our Savior had finally come to fulfill that time-long promise of removing sin permanently from our souls. One could say that Christmas is more of a premature celebration of Easter.

Then again, you could argue it's not as premature as it seems as once again we find out that this celebration of death and resurrection and our triumph over the grave was once again long since foretold. Our last lesson started at the the beginning of Holy Week and learning that our Savior was to arrive in Jerusalem. That same visit was to become a death march for Him. Before our lesson ended we saw that Jesus was already losing favor with His chosen people and that His time was very near.

So let's pick up where we left off. Jesus arrived in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. On the night of the Passover Jesus fulfilled God's promise of a new covenant, meaning promise. God shared this with His prophet Jeremiah and he writes in chapter 31, "₃₁"The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. ₃₂It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, " declares the LORD. ₃₃"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ₃₄No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.""

This moment is described across the Gospels and a selected verse from Luke 22:20 says, "In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." The old covenant was God's promise to send His Son for the forgiveness of sins, the new covenant was the forgiveness of sins, from then through now to Christ's return on the last day. Paul reiterates this in his letter to the Hebrews in chapter 8, "₆But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises. ₇For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. ₈But God found fault with the people and said: "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. ₉It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. ₁₀This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ₁₁No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. ₁₂For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." ₁₃By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.""

Certainly that first Maundy Thursday was an impressive delivery of a long awaited promise but sadly, for our sake, more needed to happen that night. Among Jesus' disciples was a man named Judas who would need to betray the Messiah for another prophecy to be fulfilled. In two different Psalms, Judas betrayal is discussed, the first in Psalm 41:9, "Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me." And Psalm 55, "₁₂If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. ₁₃But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend," Judas had visited earlier in the day with the priests of the temple and they had given him money to turn in Jesus so that they could arrest Him and ultimately put Him to death for blasphemy. Jesus reveals this shortly after giving up His body and blood for His disciples that first communion and reveals that the one who betrays Him. John 13:26 gives this account, "Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon."

At this point Judas leaves and goes to retrieve the priests and guards to have Jesus arrested. Matthew 26 gives this account, "₄₇While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people. ₄₉Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, "Greetings, Rabbi!" and kissed him. ₅₀Jesus replied, "Friend, do what you came for." Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him." And with that, Jesus march to the cross began.

Unfortunately, again for our sake, one of the things that managed to make Jesus punishment eligible was that false witnesses were brought forward to testify against Him. In Psalms 35, the writer again warns of this dark time our Savior has to go through, "₁₁Ruthless witnesses come forward; they question me on things I know nothing about." Matthew writes in chapter 26, "₅₉The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. ₆₀But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward." Mark also corroborates this account in chapter 14 writing, "₅₆Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree. ₅₇Then some stood up and gave this false testimony against him:". After this Jesus was sentenced to death on a cross. The Psalmist in Psalms 22 gives this account.

"₁My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? ₂O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent. ₃Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel. ₄In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. ₅They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed. ₆But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. ₇All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: ₈"He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him." ₉Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother's breast. ₁₀From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother's womb you have been my God. ₁₁Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help. ₁₂Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. ₁₃Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths wide against me. ₁₄I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. ₁₅My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. ₁₆Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. ₁₇I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. ₁₈They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. ₁₉But you, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me. ₂₀Deliver my life from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs. ₂₁Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen. ₂₂I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you. ₂₃You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! ₂₄For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help. ₂₅From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows. ₂₆The poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the LORD will praise him-- may your hearts live forever! ₂₇All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, ₂₈for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations. ₂₉All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him-- those who cannot keep themselves alive. ₃₀Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord. ₃₁They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn-- for he has done it."

This Psalm gives a lot of insight into what needed to happen on that cross to let us know that Jesus was the true Son of God. Think about how it wasn't even enough for Him to just be crucified, rather though, all of these things needed to happen. Let's break this Psalm down further. In verse 28, it states that those crucifying Jesus would divide up his clothes and cast lots, or gamble, for Jesus clothing. The Gospels all state this account; John describes this in chapter 19, "₂₃When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. ₂₄"Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it." This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said, "They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing." So this is what the soldiers did."

One thing of note that happens on the cross described in Psalm 22 states that the His tongue sticks to the roof of His mouth and then He is laid in the dust of death. Psalm 69:21 elaborates this thirst, "They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst." John again gives this account later on in chapter 19, "₂₉A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. ₃₀When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit." Another thing we know that happens is that right before they brought Jesus the wine vinegar He cried out the opening verse of Psalm 22, Matthew writes in chapter 27, "₄₆About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ""Eloi, Eloi," "lama" "sabachthani?""--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?""

After Jesus died, the sun had begun to set, meaning that the end of the Hebrew day was nearing and this posed a problem because the next day would be the Sabbath in which the Jews would be resting and to make sure that the bodies could be properly taken care of it was ordered that the legs be broken of the crucified to speed up their deaths. When they came to Jesus however they found that He was already dead so His legs were not broken, this fulfilled the prophecy in the Psalm above that all of His bones could be counted. Psalm 34:20 also states, "he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken." John gives his account, "₃₁Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. 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. ₃₂The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus and then those of the other. ₃₃But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ₃₆These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken,"

One minor note, due to it being out of order is in the Psalm above, it is stated that Jesus hands and feet were to be pierced on that day. We know this as a fact, not just due to the customs of crucifixion, but also due to the fact that Jesus, upon visiting His disciples after His resurrection showed them his pierced hands and feet to prove He was indeed alive and real. Luke writes in chapter 24, "₃₆While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." ₃₇They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. ₃₈He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? ₃₉Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself ! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.""

Before sunset, they quickly set about a burial for Jesus in which they could keep Him until they could come back on Sunday to properly dress His body. A rich man, Joseph of Arimathaea offered up his family tomb. Isaiah prophesied in chapter 53, "₉He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth." Also you'll notice once again this verse also warned that false testimonies would have to be brought forward. It also emphasizes that Jesus was perfect innocence for us to bring us the salvation needed. One final time returning to chapter 19, John writes, "₃₈Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away. ₃₉He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. ₄₀Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. ₄₁At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. ₄₂Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there."

Jesus lay in the ground from late Friday through Sunday, sometime in the early morning. Seeing the verses above, though we trust in God, you could imagine the Old Testament believers may have had some worries about their Savior and what would happen to Him. Luckily they knew that God was all powerful and that even death would not triumph over Him. How could they be sure? In Psalms 16, God promises us His resurrection of life, not only then, but through eternity. "₁₀because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. ₁₁You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." John in chapter 20, gives the account of the Saviors return to life, "₁₁but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb ₁₂and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. ₁₃They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." ₁₄At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. ₁₅"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." ₁₆Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher)."

We also know from the verses above that He returned to His disciples. Jesus stayed on Earth only an additional 40 days before returning to Heaven, where He sent His angels to promise His eternal return to us. Next time we'll look at the some of the prophecies Christ not only gave but fulfilled within His life, a way to show us His Godliness and power. Also look forward to a special Christmas message in which we see the promise of the Glory that we've yet to receive.