The disciples’ proclamation, Jesus is alive, shocked their listeners in Jerusalem. They backed that statement up with the fact that Jesus’ tomb was empty even though guards sent by the Jewish authorities secured it. Obviously, the empty tomb caused innumerable difficulties for those authorities, so much so that they spread the story that the disciples had stolen the body. Of course, they had to get the guards to say that they had fallen asleep. The guards’ story begs the question of how they knew it was the disciples who stole the body if they had been asleep. A question the authorities didn’t even try to answer. The disciples also backed up their claim of Jesus being alive with powerful works, similar to what Jesus had done. They healed a man of forty years, lame from birth, claiming the power of Jesus’ name. Again the Jewish authorities had no answer for what the disciples’ proclaimed; they could only resort to failed attempts of intimidation.
However, while the message of Jesus is alive was powerful, the disciples meant more by their declaration that Jesus had been raised to life. On that Sunday morning when an angel descended to remove the stone from the tomb, causing the guards to faint in fear, the tomb was already empty. He removed the stone and met the arriving women to invite them into the tomb to see that it was empty. Jesus, however, didn’t need the stone removed to emerge from the tomb, because when he took on new life, he didn’t take on the same type of life he had before. Jesus’ resurrection was unique in comparison to other resurrections that had taken place before. The official’s daughter, the widow’s son, Lazarus all aged and died at some later date. Their bodies’ were subject to the same physical laws as before, but not Jesus. While Jesus could consume food and had a physical body so that the disciples could touch and see his crucified hands and feet, as well as his pierced side, he could also appear and disappear at will. He did not need a door to enter a locked room. Such ability frightened the disciples at first, until Jesus demonstrated that he wasn’t a ghost. In other words, Jesus experienced a physical, bodily resurrection, not merely a spiritual one, but his body was not the same. He had experienced a metamorphosis. Like a caterpillar spins a chrysalis and emerges as a butterfly, Jesus was laid in the chrysalis of the tomb and emerge several day later transformed into a new physical life.
While we may not grasp the prophetic significance of this, the disciples did. They began declaring not only that Jesus was alive, but also the resurrection from the dead. The Jews understood their meaning, because their rabbis had taught them about the eventual resurrection from the dead. Martha outside her brother’s tomb had referred to it, as the resurrection on the last day, to which Jesus declared that he was the resurrection and the life (John 11:24-25). Of course, not all the Jews believed as Martha did, some known as the Sadducees denied this belief. They came to Jesus and asked about a woman who had been married to seven brothers, all of whom died. They asked to whom she would be married at the resurrection. Jesus pointed out their error. He declared to them that at the resurrection, their would be a new type of life, similar to the angels, in which there would be no marriage. He confirmed this by reminding that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Therefore He is the God of the living not the dead (Matthew 22:29-33). After Peter and John healed the lame man, we read that the Sadducees were greatly annoyed, because the disciples were declaring in Jesus the resurrection from the dead (Acts 4:1-3). They were so annoyed that they arrested Peter and John. Why were the Sadducees so annoyed? There is nothing more annoying to an educated person than to be proven incorrect by an uneducated one. In fact later, we read that the disciples Peter and John were uneducated, literally illiterate (Acts 4:13). The disciples were proclaiming Jesus’ resurrection, but also the initial fulfillment of the prophesied resurrection from the dead. Jesus’ resurrection was another demonstration of the arrival of the Kingdom of God. Later Paul would explain to the Corinthians that Jesus was the first fruits of the prophesied resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20).
What is the significance of this message? With his resurrection Jesus introduced the type of physical life that all believers will experience one day. It also revealed that the Kingdom power of God has invaded the present evil age and revealed another aspect of the Kingdom of God present on earth. That type of life can be experienced in part by Jesus’ followers now, which Jesus referred to several times. To Nicodemus, he called it being born again (John 3:3). Later to his disciples Jesus referred to the abundant life (John 10:10). This type of life is characterized by what Paul referred to as the fruit of the Spirit, in contrast to the fruit of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-22). This life Paul explained was live with the Holy Spirit and is referred to as eternal life. While there will be in the future a resurrection from the dead, the follower of Jesus can now live in communion with the Holy Spirit and begin to experience the life to which Jesus referred.
David Freitag 