The sun was dark. The veil guarding the entrance to the holy of holies in the Jerusalem temple had been ripped into, Luke writes. Jesus, near the end of crucifixion’s torment, cried out, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.”
The sounds echoed the words of King David as recorded in Psalm 31:5. The phrase voiced confidence that the Father would care for His Son.
To the Sadducees watching Jesus die, His words meant little. Sadducees did not believe in resurrection. Their view of the future was a shadowy type existence in Sheol, the abode of the dead. Being might continue, but only partially. And from Sheol, there was no escape.
Pharisees envisioned a fuller life after death, a life based on one’s earthly existence. The souls of the good passed into another kind of body for life with God. This was resurrection, as the Pharisees understood it. The souls of the wicked suffered eternal punishment. For Jesus, Pharisees believed the crucifixion was only the beginning of His eternal distress.
Greeks visiting Jerusalem during this particular Passover season must have thought both groups strange. Greeks were sure Plato was right. One’s immortal soul was trapped in the prison-house of the body. Death was a release, a release of the soul from the inferior state of bodily existence so the soul could return to its natural state.
The idea of resurrection into some other bodily form would be the worst outcome of all. The idea of a partial type existence in Sheol was folly. Death was the door through which immortality was re-expressed.
One can almost see the little gatherings of Sadducees, Pharisees and Greeks standing along the place of the skull where Jesus hung. One can almost hear the taunting in response to Jesus’ words of faith, “Father into thy hands I commit my spirit.”
Few, if any, asked what Jesus expected because of His trust in the Father. Had they listened to His teachings, they might have had some inkling. Twice Jesus had resuscitated persons judged dead by their families. The son of the widow of Nain and the daughter of Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, both were restored to life. Jesus even commissioned His apostles to “raise the dead” (Matt. 10:8), but that kind of resuscitation is far from resurrection. Just ask Lazarus who had to face death a second time.
In Luke 14, Jesus spoke of a resurrection of the righteous. In Mark 12 he taught that the patriarchs of Israel still lived. In John 2, Jesus predicts His own resurrection. In chapter five, Jesus says the Father raises the dead and that resurrection is for those who have done evil as well as those who have done good.
Resurrection was for all, beginning with the Son of God. Resurrection was in recognizable bodily form. Resurrection was for judgment. Resurrection was for eternity. Resurrection was of God the Father.
It was not in some natural immortal state that Jesus trusted. It was not in His own righteousness or power in which He had confidence. Jesus’ faith was in the Father. The word translated resurrection literally means “a raising up.” Throughout the New Testament, the message is the same — “God who raised (resurrected) Jesus from the dead.”
At the “last day,” the Bible teaches it will be Jesus who “sets up again” (resurrects) those who believe in Him as Lord and Savior. The power of the Father has been bestowed upon the Son.
The witness of the New Testament is that Jesus was not disappointed. On Sunday morning following Friday afternoon’s dastardly deed, a miracle happened. The writer of Acts declares that God raised Jesus from the dead. (2:24, 32; 3:15, 26; 4:10; 5:30; 10:40; 13:30, 32-33, 34, 37). The testimony of the Beloved Apostle is “… what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life” (1 John 1:1).
The bodily resurrection of Jesus has been at the core of Christian belief since that first Sunday morning. The message remains the same as announced by the first person to see Him that day — “He is alive.”
Like Greeks of old, some people discount the idea of resurrection. God is in all people, they reason. All are immortal so “we are all going to the same place.” There is no need for Jesus.
Modern-day Sadducees still believe the idea of a meaningful life after death is folly. “When you are dead, you are dead,” they say. There is no need for God.
Today’s Pharisee thinks his good works will put God in his debt. He will pull himself all the way to heaven by his own bootstraps. He commits himself into no one’s hands but his own.
But the words of Jesus are stronger than the reasoning of Greeks and Sadducees and Pharisees combined. As Christians stand on the edge of an open grave, they know it is into the hands of God their loved one is committed. It is the One who has the power to “raise up” whom they trust. It is the Father who “set up again” His Son in whom they have confidence.
It is the God of grace and glory, the Father who invites all people everywhere to become His children through faith in Jesus who died for sin once for all so that “all who believe in Him might not perish but have eternal life.”
Resurrection for Jesus is a reality. Resurrection for Christian loved ones and for ourselves is our blessed hope because, like Jesus, it is into the hands of our heavenly Father that we commit our spirits.
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