What is the Resurrection and Why Does it Matter?

No other religion or religious leader has ever made any claim that even comes close to the magnitude of Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead.

For over 2,000 years, Christians have held to the historical event that a man named Jesus of Nazareth was crucified by the Romans. This happened in Jerusalem at the hands of the Jewish leaders. Jesus was buried in a tomb, and was literally and physically raised from the dead after 3 days.

Good Friday

To begin, we have to back up to a very specific Friday afternoon. In the Christian church, we call this Good Friday. It’s the day that marks the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This is the day that we recognize when Jesus received the full punishment of the death penalty. In the Roman Empire, that meant he was nailed to a wooden cross.

In Jesus’ case, prior to being nailed by large iron spikes to the wooden device, he was beaten. And I mean beaten badly.

The Roman soldiers used a tool called a scourge or flagrum to administer this beating that was just short of death. This was a club wrapped with leather and had long, tentacle-like leather straps hanging from one end.

Chunks of brass, lead, and bone were sharpened and embedded into those straps. The person receiving this form of punishment would be strapped face-down to the ground, tied to a post, or suspended in the air.

A Roman scourging with this device was 40 lashes on the back. That was extreme by any standards. Well beyond what many people could physically tolerate and survive. The scourge was designed to shred and rip the skin, peeling it from muscle and skeleton. It would typically expose arteries, internal organs, muscle, and bone.

The scourging was so horrible, it was actually illegal for any Roman citizen to receive this punishment. Many of Rome’s enemies never even received crucifixion because they didn’t survive the scourge that was administered beforehand.

This isn’t the “away in a manger” baby Jesus. This is Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man willingly paying for mankind’s sin.

This is how ugly the sin of the world looked when God took it upon himself and wore it for you, for me, and for every man, woman, and child.

Crucified

After all of this, Jesus was ridiculed, spat on, slapped, kicked and stripped naked.

In public.

By now, his flesh was shredded, his face swollen, and he was covered in blood. He was unrecognizable. Then a crown made with thorns long enough to pierce his skull was forced down upon his head.

Jesus was then forced to walk to a hill overlooking a well-traveled road that led into Jerusalem. And in his condition, he was forced to carry part of the wooden cross that he would soon be nailed to.

Most scholars estimate that a Roman cross weighed about 300 pounds (136kg). The horizontal beam that Jesus had to carry strapped to his now shredded back would have been between 75 and 125 pounds (34-57kg).

After the scourging, Jesus should have been barely able to carry himself the 650 or so yards to Golgotha. Not to mention with a 100 pound (45kg) beam of wood strapped to his bleeding and badly wounded back.

Once they reached the hill, the Roman soldiers would assemble the crossbeam and the main beam on the ground. They would then lay Jesus on it, strapping his wrists and ankles to the wood.

After that, iron spikes were pounded through his feet and through each hand, possibly just below the thumb.

The cross was then stood up, then heavily and forcefully dropped into a hole so that it would remain upright.

The cross had a sort of ledge built into it below the feet that the crucified would intermittently push up on. This was to raise themselves just a few inches in order to take a breath of air into their collapsing lungs.

Typically, a victim’s legs were broken after they would hang for so long. Then, no longer able to take that breath of air, they would suffocate and drown in the blood that filled their lungs.

This is where we find Jesus on one dark Friday afternoon.

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What’s So Good About Good Friday?

That’s a great question. To sum that up, it’s because it’s the day that Jesus endured what you just read about.

Jesus did this willingly because he loves you, me, and every person that has ever lived or ever will live. His is a love that we would do well if we could even just barely begin to comprehend it.

It’s a good Friday because the price was paid on that day for your sins. There simply is no greater news than that the Son of God reconciled you to the Father.

Appropriately enough though, not all cultures call the day good. In some countries, the day is Holy Friday, in others it’s Silent Friday. In Germany, it’s called Karfreitag, which means “sorrowful” or “mourning” Friday.

The Resurrection

Normally, those who were crucified in the Roman Empire were placed in common graves. Often these were no more than an enormous hole in the ground where trash was thrown and allowed to continuously smolder. After Jesus died on that hill though, his body was carried to a tomb. A huge stone weighing up to two tons was rolled in front of it that would take several people to move.

Finally, Roman centurions were stationed in front of the tomb that Jesus was laid in.

That happened because this case was a very politically charged one between the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, and the Jewish religious leaders led by the high priest, Caiaphas.

Jesus’ body was in this tomb during the Sabbath, which was Saturday in Judaism. No preparation of his body would have been done prior to that because that Friday night happened to be the Passover.

That’s why bright and early on Sunday morning, 3 women went to the tomb with spices to prepare the body of Jesus.

Except when they arrived, that massive stone had been rolled away and the tomb was empty!

Scandal erupted and blame was pointed in all directions. Accusing fingers were pointed at Jews, Christ followers, and Romans alike. The resurrection of Jesus Christ had come to fruition.

Why the Resurrection Matters

But what really happened with the resurrection is this. Jesus had conquered mankind’s greatest foe: death. Because Jesus has risen from the grave, he controls even death itself.

The bondage of death came into the world because of sin. So in defeating death, Jesus also declared his victory, once and for all, over the heavy yoke of sin.

You’re going to find this recorded in John 20 and 21. It’s desperately important. Read that text.

The resurrection of Christ matters because it’s the lifeblood of the Christian faith. It’s who you are in Christ, it’s your identity as a Christian.

Without Christ crucified, dead, buried, and resurrected, you have no reason to hope in anything beyond your short life on this planet.

All you have to do is look at every sermon, book, and letter written in the New Testament. Take note, the theme of every one of them is Jesus Christ resurrected.

Too often, we Christians relegate the resurrection of Christ to one Sunday each year and call it Easter. But the cross is vacant and his tomb is empty.

This is an every day celebration for those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ.

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