According to the four Gospels, an influential member of the ruling Jewish Council, Joseph of Arimathea, who was good and righteous, to Pilate for the body of Jesus. Otherwise, like other common criminals the body would be left for the vultures and dogs or taken down and thrown physically into the Valley of Hinnom or Hell just south of Jerusalem outside the city gate. That was where all bodies of crucified criminals were consigned.  Joseph was instrumental to get the body of Jesus down from the Cross wrapped it in linen shroud and placed Him in the cave-like tomb. A stone was rolled over to seal the entrance..

Matthew alone added another account that Pilate sent a guard of soldiers to secure the place by sealing the stone and setting a guard to prevent the disciples from stealing the body and say that Jesus has risen from the dead according to a Jewish prophecy. Matthew was primarily addressing the Jewish audience.

Three days later and early in the morning the women, names and number vary in the gospels, returned with spices and ointment to embalm the body. When they arrived they saw the stone rolled away from the mouth of the cave and they could not find the body within.

Matthew described that the stone was rolled away by an all-white angel during an earthquake and the guards trembled with fear.

Mark did not mention any Roman guard when he wrote that the women saw a young man in white robe saying to them that Jesus had risen and has gone ahead to Galilee to meet His disciples. Matthew said that the figure was an angel. John saw two angels in white. Luke described instead two men in dazzling apparel inside the tomb. They questioned, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” Christ has risen. The women informed the frightened disciples but they did not believe the report and regarded this as "an idle tale," "empty talk," "a silly story,"  "utter nonsense," "sheer humbug," “woman’s gossip.”

Why?  why did the apostles dismiss the news that Christ has Risen with a wave of the hand? This Easter proclamation was poorly received because the messengers were women. "From women let not evidence be accepted," reads the Mishna, "because of the levity and temerity of their sex." The witness of women were not acceptable in Jewish courts.

Matthew continued his story about guards reporting back to Pilate about the missing body of Jesus. The guards were bribed and told to spread the story that while they were asleep the disciples came and stole the body.

In Mathew’s rendition of the appearance of Jesus to the women, “they (the women) came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him. Mathew 27:9. But John narrated that when Mary Magdalene recognized Jesus, Jesus said to her, “Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” John 20:17. Mark & Luke recorded the Ascension of the body of Jesus up to heaven. Luke in Act repeated that the same Jesus who ascended into heaven will come again in the say way in the last days.

If we read some of the Biblical stories we find embedded in them this dimension of the presence of Christ not in the form of the body but in Spirit. In the walk on the Emmaus Road the disciples did not recognize the stranger who interpreted the Scriptures to them. Only when the stranger broke bread and gave it to them they recognized him as Jesus and He suddenly vanished out of their sight. In the experience of the breaking of bread they experienced Jesus Christ presence in their midst.

Looking at these gospels there are variations and divergent details in the accounts of the burial and resurrection of Jesus. They were written at different times and for different audiences. Contrary to common perception and even though Matthew is listed the first book of the Bible, Mark is actually the earliest gospel and it was written about 70 in the Common Era during the period of the second generation of Christians and was available to Matthew and Luke and much later to John. Even then Mark was not the first written New Testament document. The honour goes to Paul and his letters like that to the Church in Corinth which was circulating soon after the death of Jesus and 20 to 40 years later the Gospels appeared. Paul was therefore the first person to write about the resurrection for the first generation Christians.

The Resurrection message that the early Christians and especially the Gentiles heard was that found in Paul’s I Corinthians 15 He was the Pharisee who with fellow Pharasees traditionally believe that the resurrection will only occur at the end of human history when the righteous dead will be raised from the grave. In meeting Jesus, he finally came to the new conviction that Jesus is the first fruit of the resurrection which had already began in His time.

Recall what Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke23:43). This is contrary to the prevailing perception that the resurrection will occur only at the last days when the trumpet will sound, and the graves will be opened and the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive will be caught up together with them in the cloud to meet the Lord in the air and so we shall always be with the Lord. (I Thessalonians 4:16-17)  The conclusion that we can draw is that the thief would meet Jesus in the spirit world with spirit bodies the moment after both were physically dead.

The witness to the resurrection of Jesus in the form of a spiritual encounter was available in the lives of the followers, and particular in His disciples and even to Paul on the Damascus Road. They claim to be witnesses of the spiritual resurrection. It is now available to all beyond Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem.

Critically examining Paul’s teaching on the resurrection he affirms that Christ has risen from the dead. Rhetorically, the asked the question in I Corinthians 15:15, “How are the dead raised?” He distinguished between the terrestrial body for life on earth and the celestial body for life after death. This follows about a physical body in life and a spiritual body after death. It was clear to him that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. There is no permanency or continued existence of the physical body and the human body is only good on earth but not for eternity. The physical body is for earthly use and serve no heavenly purpose. The spiritual body is not that of flesh and bone but conveys personal immortality which gives identity and recognition to the person in life after death. Those who focus on the importance of the body will not even want cremation but burial so that at the last days the grave will open and the body that was interred will be raised up and very likely ascend as they believed the resurrected body of Jesus floated up to heaven. But with cremation the ashes of the human body is not expected to come together at the time of our resurrection. to be molded back into the person we were before we were put to fire The spiritual rather the bodily resurrection makes sense to me. This interpretation instead of diminishing our faith enhances it.

I have followed this particular thread as I search the Scriptures about the Resurrection and analyzed the history of the Jesus movement. Others follow different threads and have different experiences and perceptions. We need to respect the different interpretations of the Easter story. The important consideration is how the Easter event impacts our lives and does it result in bearing the fruits of the Spirit. The different beliefs that we have about the Resurrection cannot remain just as words but must come alive to transform our lives. Doctrines determine lives. Our theological orientation determines our understanding of sexual orientation. It is beyond belief to practice. Are we a better person because of what we believe is true? To me the litmus test is the consequence of my beliefs in the kind of life that I lead. That is what the world wants to see from us who confess Christ as our Saviour not only in the form of doctrine but in the style of our life.

Easter Sunday comes to us with this important message. We can celebrate the experience of the presence and power of Christ who is among us in the spiritual form. It is the power of God available through Jesus which broke out of the tomb and unconfined by time and space to anyone who believes and experiences Him. To me this is the real Easter story.

This Easter experience was able to transform the members of the early Christian community.

The Crucifixion of Jesus was seen as a mortal blow to the Jesus movement. At the arrest even Peter was compelled to deny knowing Jesus for fear of his own safety. At the place of the Crucifixion and the Entombment the frightened disciples kept their distance and not even present at the scene. The death of Jesus stunned them and they must been numbed with the shock. They huddled in fear and trembled at every knock on the door. All their hopes and aspirations which they pinned upon Jesus when they left their fishing nets to follow Him came crashing to the ground. They sank into the very depths and darkness of despair and disappointment. They were a defeated lot.

It was a Friday of dejection, Saturday of desolation, and then the Sunday of resolution.  This was what the gospels recorded. But it must have certainly taken more time for the transformation of the disciples to emerge from their own tombs. The disciples must have huddled together in fear and trembling and wondering about the future of the Jesus movement. Some even gave up and went back to their fishing nets.
 
As they reflected about their destiny there was the growing conviction of the presence of Christ. They experienced the Presence and the divine empowerment and they entered into their Easter experience. Jesus is dead as far as the body is concerned but Christ is alive in the Spirit and is in their midst. They experienced Jesus as the living Jesus as a living reality – a non material spiritual reality who is one with God as we experience Christ now. This is what is known as the Pentecost experience.  They sensed the spiritual presence of Jesus Christ.

The living Christ who appears the disciples continues to appear to the faithful followers today. Christ journeys with us as he journeyed with the two disciples on Emmaus Road. The truth of Easter is based on the ongoing experience of Jesus Christ even with us now as we praise and worship and as we break bread together and engage in the continuing mission and ministry of Jesus in the world.

What is our experience today on Easter Sunday. Do we leave Jesus hanging on the cross or entombed waiting for the general resurrection in the end of time. Are we entombed with our personal suffering and without hope for relief and freedom? When we keep our faith and reflect upon the living Christ we can yet enter into a relationship with this spiritual reality that will give us the power and the strength to live again and face the struggles of our time with faith and hope because Christ has risen from defeat and death. The Easter experience assures us of victory in Christ.     

There is a dialogue in one of our Passion Plays, “The Trial of Jesus,” in which the wife of Pontus Pilate was conversing with the Roman Centurion who was responsible for the crucifixion.

“What do you think of his claim? asks the wife of Pilate.

The officer replies, “If a man believes anything up the point of dying on the cross for it, he will find others to believe it.”

Then she inquires, “Do you think he is dead?”

“No, lady, I don’t.” he answers

She asks, “Then where is He?”

Without hesitation he replies, “Let loose in the world where neither Roman nor Jew can stop his truth.”

Christ is loose in the world in the form of the Spirit to bring hope to all people. He brings new life to His people. Christ is alive and in our midst by the power and presence of the Spirit. This is the fact that is being testified by the faithful followers of Jesus. There are the cloud of witnesses of those who have overcome their problems in living in this world enduring the suffering. There are those who have led sacrificial lives in their service to humankind.  There are even those who faced death with courage and become martyrs of the faith.

Let me end with this posting that I read early morning from the internet.

A team of four Christian Peacemakers were kidnapped in Iraq on November 26, 2005. One of them Tom Fox from the United States was executed. The remaining three were rescued by the military last month after 118 days of incarceration. The Canadian Jim Loney, a gay, had written a moving account of his ordeal which ended with a reflection of the hope of Easter and Resurrection faith.

He says, “I’m learning that there are many kinds of prisons and many kinds of tombs. Prisons of the mind, the heart, the body. Tombs of despair, fear, confusion. Tombs within tombs and prisons within prisons.”

There are no easy answers. We must all find our way through a broken world, struggling with the paradox of call and failure. My captivity and rescue have helped me to catch a glimpse of how powerful the force of the resurrection is. Christ, that tomb-busting suffering servant Son of God, seeks us wherever we are, reaches for us in whatever darkness we inhabit.

May we reach for each other with that same persistence. The tomb is  not the final word”.

“Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.”   I Corinthians 15:57-58