The Resurrection

I heard a great question about the resurrection a while back and it seemed like Easter was a good time to write a post about it, "Since salvation is from Jesus' death (John 3:16), the atoning sacrifice, what is the resurrection for?" Paul states that the is determined to know nothing but Christ and him Crucified. Why not resurrected to?

In the Bible, the verses that talk about us being justified from his death use a Greek word can mean "from" or "because". We are justified because of His death.  We are/will raised because we are justified. Jesus resurrection was proof, vindication that Jesus atoned for our sins. God raised him as a sign that he accepted the payment for sins. He purchases life with his death and now lives in the life that he purchased.  Also, being God, he could not stay dead. As God's son Jesus was raised, we look forward to the resurrection as well having been adopted as sons of God in Jesus' death.

In his small catechism, Luther's explanation of the resurrection is great. He asks, "Why is Christ's resurrection so important and comforting?"

     Christ's Resurrection proves that:

          A.) Christ is the son of God

          B.) His doctrine is the truth

          C.) God the Father accepted Christ's sacrifice for the reconciliation of the world

          D.) All believers in Christ will rise to eternal life

Walther once wrote, "By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, God has absolved the entire world of sinners from their sins."

Johannes Bugenhagen

Johannes Bugenhagen (24 June 1485 – 20 April 1558) was Martin Luther's Pastor and Confessor at St. Mary's church in Wittenberg. Before the reformation, he encouraged Luther and was a major influence on him. During the reformation, he outlined ideas on what to focus on and created new church orders in northern Germany to reform the church.  He was one of the great early reformers.

He was pierced for our transgressions...

Old Testament prophecies of the Crucifixion

Isaiah 53:3-12

He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 52:13-15
Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you—his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.

Psalm 22 (selected verses)
1: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" 

6: despised of the people.
7: All those who see Me ridicule Me; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
8: He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him; let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!"
13: They gape at Me with their mouths, like a raging and roaring lion.
14: I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it has melted within Me.
15: My mouth is dried up... my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.
16a: For dogs have surrounded Me; the congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. 
16b: They pierced My hands and My feet;
17: I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me.
18: They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.

Deuteronomy 21:22-23
And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God.You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

Numbers 21:8-9
And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

Genesis 3:15
"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Maundy Thursday

In Genesis 14:18, we read, "And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God."  Jesus is compared to Melchizedek in Hebrews 7:11-28. Melchizedek and his actions were a "type" and a foreshadowing of Jesus.

At the Lord's command, the Israelites celebrated their first Passover on the night before their exodus from Egypt. Lambs without blemish were killed and prepared. With the lamb, the Israelites ate unleavened bread. The blood of the lamb, which was painted on the doorposts, was the sign that would spare the Israelites from the tenth plague to come upon Egypt, namely the death of the firstborn (Exodus 12).

The similarities between the Passover meal and Holy Communion are quite apparent: both are meals of commemoration in which bread is an indispensable component. The cup of wine which is drunk at the end of the Passover meal symbolizes the joy resulting from the Israelites' deliverance from Egyptian captivity. The blood of the Passover lamb effected deliverance for the firstborn of the Israelites. This is a reference to Jesus Christ as the "Lamb of God" who was sacrificed: "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1: 29, 1 Peter 1: 19).

Bread is a symbol for human sustenance. Twelve loaves of the "Bread of the Presence" were placed on a table in front of the veil to the Most Holly Place. Each Sabbath, they were eaten by the priests and replaced. (Exodus 25:30). Bread proclaimed the actual presence of God, but this was before his incarnation.

"The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood. Any one also of the people of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who takes in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth. For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. -Leviticus 17:11-14

In Israel, wine was also a symbol of joy and of future salvation (Isaiah 55:1)

For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup

    with foaming wine, well mixed,

and he pours out from it,

    and all the wicked of the earth

    shall drain it down to the dregs. -Psalm 75:8

Your words were found, and I ate them, -Jeremiah 15:16

Jesus is the word made flesh (John 1:1)

Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.  They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them.” -Jeremiah 25:15-16

"[Jesus said], "I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.  This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

"The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.  For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.  Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.  As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.

"When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”  But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?... After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him." -John 6:48-57, 60-61, 66

This also fulfilled the prophecy in Jeremiah 9:17, "Grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the young women." Bread and wine, the elements of the Lords Supper in the new covenant which was established through Jesus blood of the covenant (mentioned earlier in 9:11), give joy (among other feelings) to Gods people, reminding them that the price has been paid for their sins. This is right after the prophecy that was fulfilled in Palm Sunday.

Jesus promised us his life. The life is in the blood. The way to get his life in us is by drinking his blood.  Bread is the symbol for all we need and what sustains us.  What better way to give us his body than through the bread. Isn't it awesome that he found a way to give us his body and blood in, with, and under bread and wine so that we are not cannibals?

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? -1 Corinthians 10:16 

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the Antichrist. -2 John 1:7

There are three physical advents of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  The first is when baby Jesus was born. The second is in the Eucharist. The third is when he will come again to judge the living and the dead.  Note that the last two verses use the present tense.The current advent is in the flesh.

Palm Sunday

Jesus' Triumphal Entry is the fulfillment of prophecy from  Zechariah 9:9-13 - The Coming of the King of Zion

9:9: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." -- Fulfilled by Jesus during the Triumphal Entry.

9:10: "I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth." -- Jesus established the covenant of grace which is available for Jews and Gentiles alike; the church has expanded from sea to sea, and the gospel has been preached all over the world. (This verse is very close to Psalm 72:8, which is about the Lords Anointed King, which is fulfilled by Jesus.)

9:11: "As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit." -- Through the sacrifice of Christ and the atonement provided through His blood (as He mentioned at the Last Supper), God has liberated those who were trapped in the pit of sin and guiltiness.

9:12: "Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double." -- Jesus will compensate His martyrs and confessors for their losses and hardships. He calls all those persecuted for the sake of the gospel to maintain their hope and faith in God, the ever-present refuge.

9:13 "For I have bent Judah as my bow; I have made Ephraim its arrow. I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior's sword." -- God used the Jews to bring salvation to all people in the entire world.