He is Risen indeed!
If you are a regular listener to Kinship Christian Radio, I’m sure you heard that phrase sometime last weekend.
It’s a common reply among Christians at Easter time, and it comes from Luke 24: 34: “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!”
It takes place right after Jesus has walked with two of the disciples on the road to Emmaus and explained all the Scripture that told about His death, but they didn’t recognize Him until He broke the bread and blessed it.
It’s a wonderful, traditional Resurrection Sunday greeting and reply. In the history of the church, it is said to date back to when Mary Magdelene addressed Emperor Tiberius in Rome with the words “Christ is risen.”
But there’s another reply I’ve heard to “He is risen!” that goes, “Just as He said!”
And this one comes from the lips of an angel:
He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Matthew 28:6 (NIV)
It’s what the angel tells Mary Magdelene and the other Mary when they peer into the empty tomb for the first time.
Just as He said.
Scripture records a number of times when Jesus prophesied his own death.
The first occurred early in his ministry, some three years before they actually killed him. In John 2:18-22, Jesus tells the Jewish religious leaders of the day that the temple would be destroyed, but in three days he would raise it up again. Verses 21 and 22 read: But he was speaking of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had spoken.
Another instance occurs once again when Jesus is speaking to the Jewish religious leaders. They demand a sign of his power and he replies: “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12: 39&40 NIV)
Very shortly after that, Jesus and Peter have a conversation in which Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. And Scripture says, “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” (Matthew 16:21 NIV)
It happens again, and Jesus is once again speaking to the Pharisees. He tells them he is the Good Shepherd, willing to lay down his life for the sheep, and then he says, “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” (John 10:17&18 NIV)
Many of the instances are somewhat veiled and we know that the disciples didn’t fully understand what he was saying even when he said it very clearly.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record Jesus very plainly telling his disciples exactly what was about to happen as they walked into Jerusalem: Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.” (Luke 18:31-33 NIV)
But Luke also records: The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.(Luke 18:34 NIV)
But just one day after He was crucified, while he was still in the grave, there were those who did remember: “The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ (Matthew 27: 62&63 NIV)
It’s why they posted guards at the tomb.
But it did them no good.
He had said it. He said he would rise again, and that’s exactly what happened because everything God speaks is a promise. Everything God says is true. It all comes to pass.
It is always just as he said.
Today’s Praise
For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. 2 Corinthians 1:20 (NIV)