Sermon: What if the Tomb Had Not Been Empty?

Here is a great sermon for Easter.  I preached it on Palm Sunday, but when you are preaching through John verse by verse, Palm Sunday (in chapter 12) is not close enough to the crucifixion (chapter 19) to fit in without some juggling.  Besides, I hate all the emphasis on the Triumphal Entry in most churches.  Many Christians will come into church one week and hear about the Triumphal Entry and then the next week will hear about the Resurrection  and along the way will hear very little about the cross.  We need to understand WHY Jesus was crucified (our sin meets God’s love).  Anyway, enjoy the sermon.

“What If the Tomb Had Not Been Empty?”John 19:30 – 20:9Robert WarrenApril 1^st, 2007 

 

John 19:30-20:930 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.  

31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews 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. 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,”  37 and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”  38 Later, 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. 39 He 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.  40 Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41 At 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. 42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.  

John 20 20:1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)NIV 

Without any exaggeration, the scripture that I just read to you is the most important text in all the Christian faith.  Oh, there are other verses that are more poetic, more awe-inspiring, more often quoted, or more familiar.  But these verses here, or rather, the truth they contain, make all the difference in the Christian faith.  What is it about these verses that make them so important?The text I read this morning tells the most important truth about the Christian faith: that the tomb of Jesus was empty.  No matter what James Cameron and Dan Brown, the guys who claimed to have found the bones of Jesus, may say, there is no tomb of Jesus that contains his earthly remains.  In fact, if there were, if it could be proved that Jesus behaved like most humans and remained properly dead after his crucifixion, then the claims of Christianity would be in serious doubt: which perhaps explains why so many people have worked so hard to shed doubt on the empty tomb.  All of the claims of the New Testament, the foundation of Christian religion, the truth of what we belief, the foundation of our faith, the source of our hope: all of that is tied up in what these verses say.And what do these verses claim?First, they make it very clear that Jesus died on the cross.  This is of first importance.  For what we believe to be true, Jesus had to be dead.  Completely dead.  Now, I know that saying “completely dead” seems redundant, like saying “completely pregnant”.  You’re either dead or you’re not.  But this fact has to be clear: Jesus was clinically, physically, totally, undoubtedly dead.  And that’s exactly what these verses say, so that there can be no doubt.  When Jesus had said, “It is finished” he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.  He died, no question about it.And if there was any doubt, you could look at the evidence of the Roman guards who were experts on death and torture.  It was the normal practice to leave crucified criminals on the cross for days.  The cross was particularly cruel, the cruelest death of that era, because it took a notoriously long time to die.  For days the criminal would hang on the cross, slowly suffocating while their lungs filled with fluid.  Like a drowning person, the condemned would push up with their nail-pierced feet to get a breath.  When they could stand the pain no longer, they would slump down, starting the suffocating over again.  Over and over they would cycle from suffocation to excruciating pain.  In fact, if you look closely at the word “excruciating” you see the word “cruc” which comes from the word for crucifixion.  For days the criminal would hang on the cross, given enough water to stay alive, until they finally gave in to death by exposure, dehydration, or suffocation.  So, the fact that Jesus only hung on the cross for a few hours may lead some scholars to think that he didn’t really die.  But, the text is clear that he died!  The Romans were good at what they did, and they would NOT allow a person to come off the cross before they were absolutely sure that they were dead.  Because the next day was to be a Sabbath, the Jews did not want Jesus and the two criminals to his side to be hanging on the cross: it would ruin their Holy Day to see people hanging on a cross.  So they asked Pilate to have the legs broken of the men on the cross and the bodies taken down.  Breaking the legs sped up the dying: the person’s lungs would fill with fluid and they would be unable to push up with broken legs and they would quickly suffocate.  The Roman guards complied and came to both criminals and broke their legs, causing them to die.  But they didn’t break Jesus’ legs.  In fact, the prophecy said that Jesus’ bones would not be broken.  This is a very interesting prophecy.  Remember, Jesus was to become the Passover Lamb for lost sinners: he would be the sacrifice which would make it possible for us to “pass over” from death to life.  Now, look at what the requirements were for the Passover Lamb:Ex 12:46  “It (the Passover Lamb)must be eaten inside one house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones.  Num 9:12 They must not leave any of it till morning or break any of its bones. When they celebrate the Passover, they must follow all the regulations.And even the Psalms predict that God would not let his Holy One have his bones broken:   Ps 34:19 A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; 20 he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken. The question is: why didn’t the Romans break Jesus’ bones to speed his death?  Because he was already clearly dead.  Verse 33: “But when they came to Jesus and foun that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.”  There was no need to break his bones since he was already dead.  I assure you, if he were not dead, they would have done their job.  Just to make sure, though, they took a spear and pierced his side.  Not only would they be able to see if he flinched, but this was another test.  When they pierced his side they pierced his lungs and water and blood poured out, showing that he had already died of asphyxiation: verse 34: “Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.”Jesus died, and he died on the cross, just like the scriptures predicted.  The writer of the Gospel of John was willing to testify to this as though he were in court: verse 35: 35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe.  So, we’ve established, our scripture tells us that Jesus died on the cross.Second, we know that Jesus was placed into the tomb.  In Jesus day tombs were usually caves with slots in them into which the body of the deceased was laid, much like our mausoleums today.  When the body was placed into the slot in the cave a stone was rolled across the opening of the tomb to keep wild animals away from the corpse and to keep in the stench of decay.  The body was allowed to rot away until nothing but bones left.  Once there was nothing but bones left the bones would be taken out and placed in a box to be kept: this was called an ossuary.  An ossuary was a little bit like our cremation urns, but it contained bones, not ashes.  In this way, a tomb could be used over and over since the tomb was not the eternal resting place of the dead but just a temporary place until the body decayed.So, after Jesus died, his body was taken down from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, anointed with oils, covered with spices, and wrapped in linens.  This was not to preserve the body, but to cover some of the stench and to show care.  This was why Jesus said that the woman who anointed his feet with oil was preparing him for death.  But, because the Sabbath was quickly coming, this job had to be done quickly.  The men treated the dead body of Jesus with respect, but they were not able to give it the treatment that it deserved.  They quickly placed it in the tomb and the plan was for the women to come back after the Sabbath, on Sunday at sunrise, to finish preparing the body.  Joseph was a rich man and owned a garden which contained a tomb which had never been used.  This, too, fulfilled scripture: Isa 53:9  He 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.  So, Jesus body was placed into the tomb.The Jewish leaders were taking no chances, though.  They knew that Jesus had predicted that he would rise from the dead: ironic that even though the disciples seemed to miss this prediction, Jesus’ enemies remembered it.  They were afraid that Jesus’ followers would come and steal the body, claiming that he rose from the dead.  So, they went to Pilate and made sure that the tomb was sealed with Pilate’s seal: to break that seal was punishable by death.  Then they had guards assigned to guard the grave.  Matt 27:62-66  62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”   65 “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.  There was no earthly way that the body of Jesus was going to be taken from that tomb!Jesus was definitely dead, and he was definitely buried.  There is no doubt about it.And this is where the story ends.  Or, at least, for most people this is where the story ends.  Dead people generally stay dead.  Their bodies remain in their tombs.  Jesus’ body would have decayed in the tomb and after a long while his family would have come and collected the bones and placed them in a box and inscribed his name there.  The box of bones would have sat around until 2,000 years later when they were discovered and made into a Discovery Channel special.  And if the story had ended in this very normal way, the Christian faith would have been radically different.  Jesus would have been just another false Messiah who went around for 3 years, gathering followers, preaching repentance, sharing a philosophy, and fooling simple peasants into believing that his magic tricks were really miracles.  Jesus would have been no more than a footnote in a history book.If the story had ended here, like it would for most people, with the death and burial of Jesus, what would the Christian religion be today?·        At best it would have been no more than a mythology: a fanciful story made up and believed by the gullible and naïve.  Jesus would be no different than Paul Bunyan, Superman, the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy.  A story told with winks and nods and jokingly believed by a few childish people.  The stories of Jesus would be circulated and retold, but not really believed as history.·        Or, it could have been a type of fanciful history mixed with legend, like King Arthur.  Historians believe that there was a King Arthur, but we have no way of knowing where the story ends and the legend begins, though all historians agree that there is more fiction than fact in his life.  Jesus would be the same way.  We would know that a man named Jesus lived and that he taught and did great things, but we would not know for sure what was truth and what was not.·        The Christian religion, if there even were a Christian religion, would be no more than a philosophy, much like Buddhism or Taoism.  Buddhism makes no claims about its founder, since everyone agrees that Buddha was a prince who lived and died and remains dead to this day.  The things that he taught are followed religiously by many, but nobody expects Buddha to come back some day to save the world.  Jesus would be the same way: some might follow the things that Jesus taught, but only as a philosophy.·        The morality of Christianity would be up for discussion as well.  Jesus would not be seen as the bringer of God’s laws, but just a good man who died a tragic death.  We could decide to be a Christian based on any standard that we made up on our own since Jesus would just be a good man, not God’s man.  Imitating the life of Jesus would be no different than trying to live like George Washington or Martin Luther King, Jr.: good examples, but nothing more.Yes, if the life of Jesus ended like most people’s do: with a death and burial, then the Christian religion would just be a myth, a legend, a philosophy, a set of rules.  It would be devoid of power, empty, meaningless. 

The Good News is: the story didn’t end there!Jesus died, like all of us die.  He was buried, like most people are.  But unlike anyone before him, he was raised by the power of God from the dead never to die again: THE TOMB WAS EMPTY!!!The first people to the tomb in the morning were the women, come to prepare Jesus’ body properly.  They didn’t come to find an empty tomb: that’s not how most stories end when a person dies.  Instead, they came carrying spices to prepare a dead body.  They came wondering how they were going to move the stone to get to the body, hoping that they could get by the guards and convince them to move the stone.  They came with tears in their eyes, dreading the sight of their beloved, DEAD, Jesus.When they got to the tomb, they saw that the stone had been rolled away and the tomb empty.  All they could figure was that someone had taken the body of Jesus.  So they ran and told the disciples.  Peter and John ran with all their strength to the tomb, thinking that the women must have been seeing things or were out of their minds.But when they got there, they found out that the women were right: the stone had been rolled away.  Going into the tomb, Peter saw nothing but the burial cloths of Jesus, neatly folded.  Get that: neatly folded.  Not strewn around like a wild animal had been there.  Not balled up like a Roman soldier.  But neatly folded, like a man who had woken up from a 3 day sleep!THE TOMB WAS EMPTY, Jesus HAD RISEN!  John, seeing that the tomb was empty, believed.This simple yet miraculous fact makes all the difference for our faith and is the reason that we celebrate Easter, worshiping Jesus not as a great man or wise teacher but as very God, worshiping him and bowing down before as we should only do to God: the tomb was empty, Jesus had risen from the grave!That is why the scripture that I read this morning is of prime importance: for if the tomb were not empty, all that we have believed in as Christians would be for nothing, Jesus would not be Lord, our hope would be in vain.  In fact, that’s what I want you to consider today: what if the tomb had not been empty?There are a lot of people today who insist that Jesus’ tomb was not empty.  They want to say that Jesus did in fact die on the cross and that he stayed dead; in fact, they insist that Jesus’ bones can be seen to this day in a tomb stored away somewhere in Israel.  There are so-called Christian scholars who will tell you that Jesus never really died, that if he did die that his body was stolen away by the disciples.  Those who don’t believe in miracles will tell you that Jesus could not have risen from the dead, since that would be a miracle.  The whole foundation of Christianity rests on the fact that the tomb which held the dead body of Jesus was found empty three days later.  So, let’s think about that today: what if the tomb had not been empty?First, if the tomb had not been empty, then we could not believe the bible.  The bible makes it very clear that Jesus’ tomb was empty.  In fact, John goes out of his way to tell us that he saw these things with his own eyes and testifies that it is true.  He was there, he looked in the tomb, he saw not a body but empty grave clothes.  Peter preached a risen Lord on the Day of Pentecost when 3,000 people were baptized into Christ.  All of the apostles went out into the world preaching the Gospel that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and was raised from the dead.  If the tomb were not empty then what they were preaching was not the greatest story that was ever told, but the greatest hoax ever pulled on the world.If we can not believe that Jesus rose from the dead, then we can not believe anything else in the bible.  We could not even believe the words of Jesus, since he himself made it very clear that he would die and then on the third day he would rise from the dead.  If Jesus did not rise from the dead then his very testimony about himself is nothing but a lie or a mistake.  The very truth of the bible rests on the fact that the tomb was empty on the third day.  If the tomb had not been empty then all of the other claims of Jesus would have been a lie as well, including the fact that he was the Son of God.Second, if the tomb had not been empty, then we would have no hope for a life after death.  Death frightens us all.  It is the ultimate destiny of everyone in this room: life is a terminal disease that ends in death for 10 out of 10 people.  Everyone we know will one day die and no matter how much we try to escape the fact, we too will some day die.  There is nothing more precious than life and so in the end, we will naturally fight as hard as possible to hold on to life with everything we have in us.  It is no wonder, then, that the bible describes death as our enemy, for it robs us of that which is most dear to us.  Without life, we have nothing.Every culture has some answer as to what happens when we die.  Some cling to the hope that we will be reincarnated to have another go at life.  Some picture some sort of life after death which is pleasant and life-like, a Happy Hunting Grounds or a comfortable cloud to pass eternity on.  The idea that there is nothing after we die except an eternal nothing is horrifying: to think that this life is all there is and nothing more!But, if the tomb was not empty,  then we have no hope for any life after death.  If Jesus was not resurrected then we can expect that when we die we will remain dead, for that is the natural order of things.  This is exactly what Paul says in 1 Cor. 15, saying that if Christ was not raised, we have no hope:1 Cor 15:16-2216 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.    

20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.If the tomb was empty, if Christ rose from the dead, then he has shown that he has conquered our oldest and fiercest of enemies: death and the grave.  But the tomb WAS empty, and Jesus declares: Rev 1:18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. Finally, if the tomb was not empty, then we have no payment for our sins.  We all stand condemned before God.  All of us, from the best of us to the worst, if we have sinned in the least bit, deserve death from a just and mighty God, for if we break one part of the Law we have broken it all.  We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God and deserve nothing less than to be thrown into hell.  We may think that death is our most feared enemy, but to be honest, there is something worse than death.  Far worse than death is the prospect that we will stand before God, be found guilty of breaking His Law, and be sent to an eternal hell.  Yet, this is exactly what the bible teaches.But, we need not fear if we have someone who is willing to live a perfect life and die in our place.  That person, of course, is Jesus Christ.  He came to this earth to live a perfect, sinless life and to pay for our sins on the cross.  He carried our sins to the cross, was crucified there, and was buried.  His final victory over sin is to rise from the grave, pure and spotless like a lamb.Therefore, if the tomb was not empty, then our sins remain unpaid for.  If Jesus was not resurrected then his claims to be able to pay for our sins were just empty boasting.  If some researcher were able to prove that Jesus was not who he claimed to be and did NOT rise from the dead then all of us should shudder in the horror of realizing that our sins have not been paid for. 

But, the good news is: the tomb WAS empty!  The scripture that we read today is true, whether you believe it or not: Jesus really did die, he really was buried, and he really did rise from the grave, just like he said.  I can’t take you to the empty tomb today and prove that fact to you, but I can take you to that passage in the scripture and show you what it says, and I can declare that I believe it to be true with everything that is in my heart.  If I did not believe it to be true, I would be hopeless and lost in my sins.The sad thing is, though, there are many people in this room that will receive no benefit from the empty tomb.  Not because it is not true, but because they have not claimed it for themselves.  Jesus did in fact die for every person in the world, but only those who freely accept this gift will benefit from it.  God does not impose his love on anyone, but only gives it to those who ask for it.The question today is this:Do you believe that Jesus was killed for your sins, was buried as a dead man, and rose from the grave as a victor?Are you willing to confess that Jesus is Lord, telling God and the world that you accept his gift of grace?Do you repent of the sins that led Jesus to the cross?  There are many folks, even here today, who claim to be a Christian, but have not really made Jesus their Lord and left their sins behind.And finally, will you be baptized and thus be buried with Christ.  You see, baptism is the way in which we too die to our sins, are buried, and rise again to a new life in Christ.  When you are baptized you renounce your old, sinful lifestyle, burying it in the waters of baptism, and when you come up out of the water, you rise to a new life, basically rising from the dead just like Jesus did.Whether or not the tomb was empty will matter nothing to you and will have no benefit to you until you make that decision.  So, do you believe this most precious scripture today?  Do you believe that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again?  Do you believe that the tomb was empty?