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REL E 611
The Passion Narratives and the Resurrection
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Martha and Mary
John 11:17‐27: Jesus’s interaction with Martha
John 11:28‐36: Jesus’s interaction with Mary
• What did you notice about the different ways Martha and Mary expressed their grief to Jesus?
• How did Jesus respond to each?
• What do we learn about Jesus’s concern for the individual?
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John 11: The Raising of Lazarus
Function in John’s narrative:
1. A sign: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live”
(John 10:25).
2. The event that leads to the crucifixion (11:53).
3. Bookends (inclusio):
Conversation before (11:7‐16): threat to Jesus’s life in Judea
Conversation after (11:45‐53): plans to put Jesus to death
4. Therefore, it is a case of Jesus laying down his life for a
friend – a foreshadowing of the atonement. “Greater
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life
for his friends” (John 15:13).
What details might be symbolic in the raising of Lazarus?
11:43‐44
John 13‐20: The “Book of Glory”
Many references to “glory” in 2nd half of
John
Example: John 17:5 “O Father, glorify thou
me with thine own self with the glory which I
had with thee before the world was.”
“To those who accept him, the Word shows
his glory by returning to the Father in death,
resurrection, and ascension. Fully glorified,
he communicates the Spirit of Life.”
(Raymond Brown, An Introduction to the New
Testament, 334)
The glorified Christ Moses 1:39 God’s work and glory: to bring to
Apse mosaic, Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian
Rome, 6th century AD pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
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John 13‐20: The “Book of Glory”
Outline:
13‐17 The Last Supper
13:1‐30 Washing of feet, identification of
traitor
No institution of the sacrament; instead,
sacramental imagery is woven throughout gospel.
13:31‐17:26 Farewell Discourses
18‐19 The Passion Narrative
20:1‐29 The Resurrection
20:30‐31 Conclusion: author’s statement of
purpose (“These are written, that ye might
The glorified Christ believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
Apse mosaic, Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian
Rome, 6th century AD
God; and that believing ye might have life
through his name.”)
[21 an additional conclusion]
“Passion”
Acts 1:3 KJV: Jesus “shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs”
Greek pathein, from páschō, Latin passio, meaning “suffering,” but also includes idea
of deep feeling
“Passion Narrative” usually from the last supper to Jesus’s death and burial (or from
Gethsemane to Jesus’s death and burial), followed by Resurrection narratives
Longest block of material that all 4 gospels have in common
All 4 seem to draw upon an earlier tradition, a very early Passion narrative that relates
the same basic events in the same basic order:
Last Supper
Gethsemane/Mount of Olives, prayer
Betrayal, arrest, desertion
Hearing before Jewish leaders + Peter’s denials
Hearing before Roman authorities, scourging
Crucifixion
Death and burial
Resurrection
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Table Fellowship
In the biblical world, “meals were much more than occasions for satisfying hunger,
for it was understood that persons who ate and drank together were bound to one
another by friendship and mutual obligation.”
HarperCollins Bible Dictionary [1985], 616
In the ancient Near East, “table‐fellowship was a guarantee of peace, trust,
brotherhood; it meant in a very real sense a sharing of one’s life.”
James D. G. Dunn, Unity and Diversity in the New Testament, 162
How many stories/parables from Jesus’s ministry can you think of
that involve the sharing of food or drink?
Mark 2:13‐17 Luke 15:1‐2
• Why were the scribes/Pharisees scandalized by • Why did the Pharisees and scribes complain on
Jesus dining with sinners and tax collectors? this occasion?
• To judge from v. 17, how did Jesus understand • What does v. 2 imply about the meaning of
his practice of dining with sinners? eating with sinners?
Was the Last Supper a Passover Meal?
Synoptics: Yes!
John: No, the day before Passover (supported by Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 43a: “On the eve of Passover, Yeshua was
hanged.”)
Possible explanations…
Synoptics are correct: John altered it to emphasize Christ was “The Lamb of God” dying on the cross at the very time the Passover lambs
were being slaughtered in the Temple.
John is correct: The Synoptics altered it to portray the sacrament as the Christian “Passover” meal.
Both are correct: Many theories: Pharisees and Sadducees observed it on different days; or, Jewish lunar calendar vs. Qumran solar
calendar; or, Galilean observance vs. Jerusalem observance; or, Passover began Friday evening but Jesus, knowing that he would not be
alive for it, was anxious to celebrate it early with his friends: “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer”
(Luke 22:15); maintains both the Synoptic and Johannine symbolism.
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What was Passover?
Why is the general timing of Christ’s death at Passover important?
• Commemoration of the Lord’s deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in
Egypt (Exodus 12‐14)
• Lambs slain, blood placed around doors of Israelite homes, angel of death
“passed over” those houses
• Symbolism of salvation by the blood of a lamb
• Jesus = “Lamb of God” (John 1:29, 36)
• At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Sacrament (“The Sacrament of
the Lord’s Supper,” Eucharist, Communion) as a new commemorative
meal for his followers
• 1 Corinthians 5:7: “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us”
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The Institution of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper
The earliest New Testament reference is actually by Paul:
“For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord
Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given
thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do
in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had
supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye
drink it, in remembrance of me.” (1 Corinthians 11:23‐26)
Luke 22:19‐20 is closest to this
Not surprising since Luke is closely associated with Paul
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Some Meanings of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper
You are linked to Christ, As a covenant: Matt 26:28; Mark 14:24 “This is my blood of the [new] testament”
you belong to Him. diathēkē or “covenant”
Jeremiah 31:31‐33 “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel, and with the house of Judah . . . I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in
their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
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What do you notice about how Jesus is attired?
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John 13:1‐30 – The Meal and Washing of Feet
13:4‐5 “set aside his outer clothing,” washed feet = clothing and
actions of a slave, not a dinner host, symbolic of Jesus setting aside
his glory and status to come to earth, minister, and make atonement.
Philippians 2:6‐8: “He was in the form of God, … but he poured
himself out, and took the form of a slave, and … humbled himself …
to the point of death: death on the cross.”
13:4 Jesus “took off [τίθημι] his outer robe”… 13:12 Jesus “put on
[λαμβάνω] his robe” again
Jim Gerlitz
Echoes John 10:18 using the same verbs: “I have power to lay down Washing the Disciples’ Feet
[τίθημι] my life, and I have power to take it up [λαμβάνω] again.”
The washing of feet = an enacted parable, an act symbolizing the cleansing Jesus is about to perform in the
Atonement, during the time that the Word has taken off his premortal glory and been made flesh (John 1:14),
and modeling the selfless service that his disciples are to emulate.
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John 13:1‐30 – The Meal and Washing of Feet
13:6‐9
“If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me” = Reference to a specific
ordinance? (baptism? washing of feet?) The cleansing of the atonement?
Both?
In early Christianity, baptismal rites sometimes included a washing of feet by
the bishop; in early LDS history, washing of feet is referred to as an
ordinance: D&C 88:138‐141.
Maybe what’s important for us:
1. Ordinances that use water / cleansing imagery (baptism, Jim Gerlitz
Washing the Disciples’ Feet
sacrament, temple washings and anointings) point to the spiritual
cleansing that Christ’s Atonement brings to us.
2. Jesus said the washing of feet was an example of service 13:15‐17;
connects the act with 13:34‐35 “love one another as I have loved
you.”
13:18‐30 Identification of traitor; see 13:26‐27
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John 13:31‐17:29: The Farewell Discourse
Set in the upper room where the Last Supper was
held, and then apparently on the way to the Mount of
Olives; 14:31 “Arise, let us go hence.”
Important themes:
• Christ’s departure but continued presence in the
spirit
• Love
• Obedience as a product of love
• The role of “Comforter(s)”
• “In‐dwelling” of Deity: the Father in Christ, Christ in
disciples, the Holy Ghost with disciples
• Unity, oneness
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Holy Father, protect them by the power of your
name, … so that they may be one as we are one.…
that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are
in me and I am in you… that they may be brought
to complete unity. Then the world will know that
you sent me and have loved them even as you
have loved me. Father, I want those you have given
me to be with me where I am…
John 17:11, 21, 23-24 NIV
See also D&C 45:3-5
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Gethsemane
Mark and Matthew: Place called Gethsemane
Luke: a place at the Mount of Olives
John: a “garden”
What does Gethsemane mean?
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Neal A. Maxwell: “Imagine, Jehovah, the Creator of this and other
worlds, ‘astonished’! Jesus knew cognitively what He must do,
but not experientially. He had never personally known the
exquisite and exacting process of an atonement before. Thus,
when the agony came in its fullness, it was so much, much worse
than even He with his unique intellect had ever imagined!” (Ensign,
May 1985, 72–73)
Matthew 26:38; Mark 14:34
KJV: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.”
NLT: “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death.”
CEV: “I am so sad that I feel as if I am dying.”
Walter Rane
Atonement
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Luke 22:43-44
Not in some early manuscripts
Earlier scholarship: not originally in Luke
Current scholarship: strong evidence that these were originally in Luke, removed
by later Christians embarrassed at criticism that Jesus’s death was not “heroic” or
“noble” like Socrates or the Maccabbean martyrs
“agony” from Greek agōnía = “struggle, contest, agony felt in a very personal way”
Restoration scripture affirms literal bleeding from pores:
Mosiah 3:7 “He shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even
more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every
pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.”
D&C 19:18 “Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble
because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit…”
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12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will
take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may
know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.
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[In addition to suffering for sin] Jesus also
volunteered to take upon Himself
additional agony in order that He might
experience and thus know certain things
“according to the flesh,” namely human
sicknesses and infirmities and human
griefs, including those not associated with Neal A. Maxwell
Ensign, June 1996
sin. Therefore, as a result of His great
Atonement, Jesus was filled with unique
empathy and with perfect mercy.
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“The Savior knows what it’s like
to die from cancer.”
Write: “The Savior knows what
it’s like to _____.”
Neal A. Maxwell
Ensign, June 1996
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All the negative aspects of human existence brought about by the Fall, Jesus Christ
absorbed into himself. He experienced vicariously in Gethsemane all the private griefs
and heartaches, all the physical pains and handicaps, all the emotional burdens and
depressions of the human family.
He knows the loneliness of those who don’t fit in or who aren’t handsome or pretty.
He knows what it’s like to choose up teams and be the last one chosen. He knows the
anguish of parents whose children go wrong. He knows the private hell of the abused
Stephen
Robinson child or spouse.
Believing Christ,
He knows all these things personally and intimately because he lived them in the
122-123
Gethsemane experience. Having personally lived a perfect life, he then chose to
experience our imperfect lives. In that infinite Gethsemane experience, the meridian
of time, the center of eternity, he lived a billion billion lifetimes of sin, pain, disease,
and sorrow.
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Jesus experienced the totality of mortal existence in Gethsemane. … Sometimes we don’t think
through the implications of that belief. … That means He knows what it felt like when your mother
died of cancer—how it was for your mother, how it still is for you. He knows what it felt like to lose
the student body election. He knows that moment when the brakes locked and the car started to
skid. He experienced the slave ship sailing from Ghana toward Virginia. He experienced the gas
chambers at Dachau. He experienced Napalm in Vietnam. He knows about drug addiction and
Chieko N. Okazaki alcoholism.
Lighten Up!
(Deseret Book, 1993),
174-176 Let me go further. There is nothing you have experienced as a woman that he does not also know
and recognize. On a profound level, he understands the hunger to hold your baby that sustains you
through pregnancy. He understands both the physical pain of giving birth and the immense joy. … He
understands your mother‐pain when your five‐year‐old leaves for kindergarten, when a bully picks on
your fifth‐grader, when your daughter calls to say that the new baby has Down syndrome. …
He’s been there. He’s been lower than all that. He’s not waiting for us to be perfect. Perfect people
don’t need a Savior. He came to save his people in their imperfections. He is the Lord of the living,
and the living make mistakes. He’s not embarrassed by us, angry at us, or shocked. He wants us in
our brokenness, in our unhappiness, in our guilt and our grief.
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However, some Christians have noticed more…
Walter W. Wessel, Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 8:763‐764:
“The two verbs [“sore amazed” and “very heavy”] describe an extremely acute emotion
… nowhere else portrayed in such vivid terms as here. [Jesus] was the Lamb of God
bearing the penalty of the sins of all mankind. ... Only this can adequately explain what
happened in Gethsemane. The burden and agony were so great he could not stand up.”
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Sacrificial lambs in Jerusalem Temple: The sacrifice first receives the guilt and then is slain for the sins.
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Imagine the Being whose power, whose light, whose glory holds the universe in order,
the Being who speaks and solar systems, galaxies, and stars come into existence—
standing before wicked men and being judged by them as being of no worth or value!
When we think of what he could have done to these men who took him to judgment,
we have a new and different sense of his condescension.
Gerald Lund
When Judas led the soldiers and the high priests to the Garden of Gethsemane and Doctrines of the
Book of Mormon, 86
betrayed him with a kiss, Jesus could have spoken a single word and leveled the entire
city of Jerusalem. When the servant of the high priest stepped forward and slapped his
face, Jesus could have lifted a finger and sent that man back to his original elements.
When another man stepped forward and spit in his face, Jesus had only to blink and our
entire solar system could have been annihilated.
But he stood there, he endured, he suffered, he condescended.
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Peter’s Denials
Synoptics: “Peter followed him (out of love) afar off” (out of fear) an inner
conflict all of us may experience as disciples
Mark, Matthew, John: each accusation = increasing threat
Peter denies having been Jesus’s disciple, knowing Jesus; does not deny that Jesus
is the Christ (what he knew by revelation)
Shows fulfillment of Jesus’s predictions at the last supper (and failure of the
disciples’ predictions)
• “Thou shalt deny me thrice” = future tense; a prediction, not a command
• Pres. Kimball’s talk “Peter My Brother”: “I do not pretend to know what compelled him to
say what he did”; stresses Peter’s repentance and subsequent faithfulness, urges
forgiveness
Theologically important points:
• Along with the betrayal of Judas, this episode illustrates Jesus’s descent below all things –
he knows the terrible pain of betrayal from even one’s closest friends.
• Peter could be forgiven of even the serious error of denying Jesus and go on to do great
things – this emphasizes the reach and transforming power of Christ’s redemption.
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Peter’s Denials
Aeterne rerum conditor (“Eternal Founder of the World”)
Early Christian hymn (Ambrose, 4th century AD), sung at dawn prayer services
The herald of the day now sounds out…
it was at cockcrow that the very rock of the church
washed white his sin…
When the cock crows hope returns,
health is restored to the sick,
the robber’s sword is sheathed,
and faith returns to the fallen.
Look on us, Jesus, in our wavering,
and seeing us correct us;
“And the Lord turned, for if you look on us our sins leave us
and looked upon Peter”
(Luke 22:61) and our guilt is washed away in tears.
“The cock crew… And
“His mercies never end; they are new every morning…”
Peter went out, and – Lamentations 3:22‐23
wept bitterly” (Luke
22:60, 62)
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The Crucifixion
The torture of death by crucifixion
Mark 15:23 Jesus refused wine + myrrh, a possible anesthetic (Proverbs 31:6 “give
strong drink to him that is ready to perish”) – “Jesus is still capable of making
choices, and his choice is to drink the cup his Father has asked him to drink and not
escape from it by drinking from another cup.” (Julie M. Smith, The Gospel According to Mark, 790)
Many women (and John) watching, witnesses
Ankle bone of Yehohanan Mark: crucified the third hour (9:00 am), darkness from the sixth hour to the ninth
1st century AD, put to death by crucifixion,
nail bent during crucifixion and left in place. hour (12:00‐3:00 pm)
Found in East Jerusalem, 1968, in an ossuary
(bone box) inscribed with his name.
First two details after Christ’s last breath (in Mark):
1. Veil of temple torn from top to bottom (Mark 15:38)
2. Centurion: “Truly this man was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39)
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• Luke’s benevolent theology; Jesus = Savior of those who are lost
• “Forgive them”: Could we think of “them” more broadly than just the Roman soldiers?
• We tend to place limits on Jesus’s statement to the thief. Should we? How does it function in Luke’s narrative?
What could it teach us about Christ’s power to redeem?
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• Traditionally understood: Jesus placing his mother in the care of his disciple.
• Is there more going on here? At the crucifixion, the beloved disciple becomes part of Jesus’s “family.” Likewise,
when we stand in wonder at the cross, placing our faith in Christ, we too become part of Jesus’s “family.”
• Mosiah 5:7 “Because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons,
and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you…”
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• Quotation of Psalm 22:1. Meaning debated…
• One possibility: A temporary sense of defeat, but pointing to future vindication, because Psalm 22 begins with
abandonment, but ends with reconciliation. This foreshadows Jesus’s resurrection.
• OR: A genuine sense of abandonment. If so: reflects the theological claim that Jesus descended below all things.
He knows what it’s like to feel utterly abandoned by God.
• Mark: the most human portrait of Jesus, low christology; maybe Jesus really felt utterly abandoned, and didn’t
know why.
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• On a physiological level: dehydration (remember the sweat in Gethsemane).
• Theologically: Jesus understands bodily needs like thirst (“The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,”
John 1:14).
• John: motif of Jesus a giver of “living water” (John 4:10‐14; 7:37‐39; Rev 21:6)
• Tragic irony: The one who so generously satisfies humanity’s spiritual thirst, in his own moment of extremity
said, “I thirst,” and humans gave him a sponge soaked in vinegar.
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• John: high Christology, Jesus is divine and in control.
• John 10:18 “No man taketh [my life] from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I
have power to take it again.”
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• Luke: emphasizes Jesus’s practice of personal prayer.
• A model for future disciples of Jesus, such as Stephen: “While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against
them.’ When he had said this, he died.” (NRSV Acts 7:59‐60, written by Luke)
• As we follow Jesus, our stories start to look like his; our lives start to resemble his.
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The Salvific Importance of the Crucifixion
1 Nephi 11:32‐33
And I looked and beheld the Lamb of God, that
he was taken by the people; yea, the Son of the
everlasting God was judged of the world; and I
saw and bear record. And I, Nephi, saw that he
was lifted up upon the cross and slain for the
sins of the world.
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Visual depictions of the cross didn’t appear in Christian art until the
4th century
Depictions of Christ’s crucifixion didn’t appear in
Christian art until the 5th century
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Christian artists sought various ways of representing the crucifixion
For Christians, the cross was always a symbol of Christ’s atonement, love, victory over
death – not a fixation on death.
In the wake of the Protestant reformation, the symbol became an identity marker:
• Protestants favored the empty cross
• Catholics favored the crucifix (with Christ depicted on the cross)
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B.H. Roberts headstone Whittier Ward chapel, 1936‐1938
Centerville, UT, 1933
Salt Lake Liberty Ogden Deaf Branch, 1916
Ward chapel,
1908‐1924 Doctrine & Covenants
1852
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See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
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Joseph B. Wirthlin (1917‐2008)
“Sunday Will Come,” Oct 2006 General Conference
Each of us will have our own Fridays —
those days when the universe itself seems shattered
and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces.
We all will experience those broken times
when it seems we can never be put together again.
We will all have our Fridays.
But I testify to you
in the name of the One who conquered death —
Sunday will come.
In the darkness of our sorrow,
Sunday will come.
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The Burial
Joseph of Arimathea (all 4 accounts)
rich (Matthew)
“waited for the kingdom of God” (Mark)
member of the Sanhedrin (Mark, Luke)
a good, just man who had not consented to Jesus’s death (Luke)
secretly Jesus’s disciple (John)
boldly goes to Pilate to request Jesus’s body (Matt, Mark, Luke)
Nicodemus comes IN DAYLIGHT to help with the burial, brings a kingly
amount of spices (John 19:39‐42; cf John 3:2, 14)
Women witness the burial and sealing of the tomb (Matt, Mark, Luke)
Pilate places a guard (Matt)
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John 2:19, 22. Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it up again in three
days.” … When he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this…
John 12:16. His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was
glorified, then they remembered….
John 20:8‐9. Then the other disciple, who came first to the tomb, entered and saw and he
believed. (For they did not yet understand the scripture that said he must rise from the
dead.)
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Mary Magdalene
In all 4 gospel accounts, fullest story in John
John 20:15‐16
• “Whom seekest thou?” compare 1:38, seeking has come full circle
• “supposing him to be the gardener”
• “Woman,” “Mary” – Does John 10:3 explain why Mary recognizes him in v.
16 but not in v. 15? Jesus the Good Shepherd “calls his own sheep by name.”
John 20:17
• KJV “touch me not.” Greek: present imperative, implying continuing action,
“Stop holding on to me,” “Don’t keep clinging to me.” NASB: “Stop clinging
to me.”
• “Go to my brethren, and say unto them…”
• Mary often called “the apostle to the apostles”
• apostle: from apostolos (“one who is sent [with a message]”), apostellō (“I
send [with a message])
• Paul’s definition of apostle: one who has seen the resurrected Christ (1 Cor
9:1)
• Peter’s definition of apostle: one who had traveled with Jesus from Galilee
to Jerusalem, witness of the resurrection (Acts 1:21‐22)
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John 20:26‐27 What does Jesus say to Thomas?
In time, Jesus speaks peace to us in our doubts, and offers what we need.
John 20:28 Does Thomas actually touch Jesus’s wounds?
“My Lord and my God” – echo of John 1:1, and the highest Christological confession of
faith in the Gospels.
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Thomas and the others illustrate the different kinds of doubt
we may face and work through as disciples of Jesus Christ.
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Luke 24:44‐46 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I
was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the
prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to
understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah
is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day…”
Luke 24:33 there would have been women and children present,
too: “the eleven and those who were gathered with them”
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As Mark Strauss discussed, what was the significance of the
Resurrection for the early church and the writers of the New
Testament?
It vindicated Jesus’s message and mission.
It signaled the beginning of a new age—the last days and the final
resurrection.
It represented the defeat of Satan, sin, and death.
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The world would never have been stirred by men with such wavering, doubting, despairing
minds as the apostles possessed on the day of the crucifixion. What was it that suddenly
changed these disciples to confident, fearless, heroic preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ?
It was the revelation that Christ had risen from the grave. His promises had been kept, his
Messianic mission fulfilled. … On the evidence of these unprejudiced, unexpectant,
incredulous witnesses, faith in the resurrection has its impregnable foundation.
David O. McKay
Treasures of Life, 15‐16
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