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HE’S ALIVE! April 8, 2007Luke 24:13-35 Easter a.m.
As they sadly walked along that dusty road outside of Jerusalem that afternoon, they did not realize that the One they were talking about was the One they were talking to. It was Sunday afternoon, and the past few days had been filled with disappointment and confusion.
We read about their conversation in Luke 24. (read v.13-35). Verse 14 says: They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. Jesus had been their hero, their teacher, their rabbi. Although these on the road that day were not among the inner circle of Jesus’ disciples, they were disciples none-the-less. They had heard Him teach; they had seen His miracles; they had believed Him to be the long-awaited Messiah, the Holy One of God. How it had happened & why it had happened, they did not understand. They were told that Jesus had been in the Garden of Gethsemane praying. He had not been sharply answering the Scribes and Pharisees like He sometimes did. He had not been violating their Sabbath rules like He sometimes did. He had not been confronting them for their hypocrisy like He sometimes did. He had just been praying. But they came as a mob, led by Judas, and arrested Him. For praying? For teaching about the love of God? For healing the sick and cleansing the leper? For setting free those who had been tormented by Satan? Of what was He guilty that they would arrest Him? It didn’t make sense. He was taken to the home of Caiaphas, the High Priest, and there a trial was held – if you could call what they did a trial. Various accusations were made, and they tried to find witnesses against Him, but all they did was to contradict each other. Finally the High Priest asked Him: “Are you the Christ, the Son of God?” And Jesus freely admitted that He was. They called it “blasphemy”, and judged Him to be worthy of death. The only problem was that the Jews did not have the authority to condemn anyone to death. They were under Roman occupation, and only the Romans could pass such a sentence. “We have to somehow convince Pilate, the Roman Governor.” And off they went, Jesus in tow. Pilate, after examining Jesus and the evidence against Him, concluded that He had done nothing worthy of death & was determined to set Him free. But by now the religious leaders had gotten the crowds involved. And the same crowds that just 5 days earlier had been chanting as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey: “Hosanna; blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord” are now chanting “Crucify Him; Crucify Him”. “But why? What evil has He done?” Pilate asked them. By now, they were irrational. What He had done was not the issue. They were out for blood. Crucify Him; crucify Him. And so it was that morning that Pilate washed his hands of the matter and gave his permission, and the soldiers led Jesus away to be nailed to a cross that was not His. It was intended for Barabbas, a murderer. But the crowds asked that he be set free and Jesus be crucified. First, He would be whipped. Dr. Andrew Metherell, a California physician who has extensively studied the historical and medical data concerning the death of Jesus says: (think beating scene “The Passion) “Roman floggings were known to be terribly brutal. They usually consisted of 39 lashes, but frequently were a lot more than that, depending on the mood of the soldiers applying the blows. “The soldiers would use a whip of braided leather thongs with metal balls woven into them. When the whip would strike the flesh, these balls would cause deep bruises or contusions, which would break open with further blows. And the whip had pieces of sharp bone as well, which would cut the flesh severely. “The back would be so shredded that part of the spine was sometimes exposed by the deep, deep cuts. The whipping would have gone all the way from the shoulders down the back, the buttocks, and the back of the legs… He continues, “We know that many people would die from this kind of beating even before they could be crucified. At the least, the victim would experience tremendous pain and go into…shock.” (video clip) No wonder Jesus struggled and stumbled as He carried His cross up the street that led from the whipping post to Golgotha, the hill outside of the city wall where the crucifixions took place. The nails were pounded not through the palm of His hands but through His wrists, which were considered part of the hand in the language of Jesus’ day. (base of hand bones). In the process, the median nerve would have been crushed. Have you ever hit your “funny bone” really hard? What you have done is to hit one of the nerves in your elbow that goes to your arm and hand. And no matter how painful that was, it is mild compared to what Jesus felt when the nerves running to His hands were pierced by that spike. It was so painful that a new word was invented: “excruciating”. That word literally means “out of the cross.” Crucifixion is essentially an agonizingly slow death by asphyxiation. Hanging by your arms on the cross begins to paralyze your diaphragm and you can’t exhale. The only way you can get another breath is to push down on that spike through your feet and raise yourself up for a moment or two. And remember the condition of your back as it rubs against the rough wooden cross as you push yourself up. That’s why, to hasten death, they broke the legs of the two crucified with Jesus – so they could no longer push themselves up to breathe. Did Jesus really die, or did He just faint as some claim, only to be revived by the coolness of the tomb? Obviously, the soldiers who crucified Jesus had not been to medical school. But they were well-trained experts in killing people. That was their job, and they did it well. They knew without a doubt when a person was dead and when they were still alive. And then there was the spear through Jesus side that was designed to pierce His lung and His heart. There had been a buildup of fluid in the sac surrounding the lung, and so when it was pierced, that fluid spilled out along with the blood that came when the heart was pierced. Besides, these soldiers knew that if a prisoner escaped, they would be put to death themselves as punishment. That in itself was a huge incentive to make sure that no one who was taken down from a cross was still alive. So when the executioner was called before a doubting Pilate to confirm Jesus’ death, he was absolutely sure that there was no life left in that body. Jesus was dead and His body was released. Let’s go back to the two disciples of Jesus walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus that Sunday afternoon. They could not imagine this One Who came along and asked them questions could possibly be the One Whom they had seen crucified. They walked along with Jesus for several miles and didn’t know Who He was. (And to those who say Jesus just fainted on the cross and was revived by the coolness of the tomb, ask them how he walked those miles on feet that had just two days earlier been nailed to the cross).They talked with Him, and they didn’t know Who He was. He interacted with them, and they didn’t know Who He was. He taught them, and they didn’t know Who He was. And that’s just like some of you who are here this morning. You know about Jesus, but you don’t know Who He is. You have no relationship with Him. You may be able to rattle off all the correct facts, but your eyes are as closed to the reality of Jesus as were these two men’s eyes on the Emmaus road. But in the late afternoon, they arrived at their destination. The walk had made them hungry, and they invited Jesus to come in and eat with them. And as they sat down to a meal with Him, and as He broke the bread and gave thanks, their eyes were opened and they knew it was Him; they knew it was the resurrected Jesus. He had not remained in the tomb but had risen from the dead. My prayer has been this week that God’s Holy Spirit would open some people’s eyes this morning, and that you would recognize Jesus for Who He really is, and that you would bow before Him as your Lord and your God. Close with 2 minute video: “He Was.” PRAYER Invitation.
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