1 August 1999
Mike Tueller
This is the last lesson of the gospels. Of course, it deals with the climactic event of the gospels, Jesus's resurrection and a small part of His ministry immediately thereafter. Hopefully we can do it justice before we dive into the apostolic world.
1. The announcement by the angels.
Let's first turn to Luke for the first things that happened.
Read Luke 24:1.
There are a lot of things to notice here. First, observe that the women (who are named in verse 10) are coming to give Jesus a proper burial, by anointing Him. Two things should come to mind about this. First, of course, He was buried in haste on Friday night, so they did not have time to do these things then. Second, He had already been anointed for His burial while He was alive (see a previous lesson).
The next thing to notice is the timing. He was buried on Friday night, just before sundown. By Jewish reckoning, this was only a few minutes from the end of the day; a new day began at sundown. He lay in the tomb on Saturday. On Sunday morning, presumably before dawn, He rose. How many days is that? By our reckoning, it would be probably 36 hours, so we would say a day and a half; but traditionally I know you have all heard three days. What we are seeing here is the custom known as "inclusive reckoning," a universal practice in the Greek language (and Latin as well). It goes like this (to use a fairly familiar example): How often are the Olympics held? We say every four years. The last one was held in 1996. So count four years: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000: that's when the next Olympics will be. Now, the ancient Greeks said the Olympics occurred every five years; and they would have counted like this: the last Olympics occurred in 1996, so count five: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000. As you can see, when we count, we don't include the starting number; when Greeks count, they do: hence the name, "inclusive reckoning." There is a little more to it than that: they would count any part of a whole as a whole. So, for instance, my daughter was born very near the end of December 1995. This is August 1999. I say that she has lived three and a half years, counting 1996, 1997, 1998, and half of 1999. Greeks would say that she has lived five years, counting 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999. So, to return to the subject at hand, Jesus lay in the tomb part of a tiny part of Friday, all of Saturday, and part of Sunday: that's three. (If you think this digression is entirely worthless, you'll see that, in fact, we're going to use inclusive reckoning again later today.)
I can't improve on Luke's drama, so let's just read the next few verses.
Read Luke 24:2-10.
I want you to notice one of the people who are present here: Mary Magdalene. You notice that she, along with the other women, remembers what Jesus said, and believes. Jesus has information for the apostles, but He doesn't tell them directly: He sends the message through a woman (or, here, women). Let's see how well the priesthood listens to important gospel messages that come through women:
Read Luke 24:11.
Now, of course we have to give Peter some credit, because, after all, he did at least think this message was important enough to check it out. But I think this response is instructive. Keep it in mind while we read the more famous encounter between Jesus and Mary Magdalene.
Let's turn to John. As often, John's account is quite different and not wholly reconcilable with the others. The announcement by the women to the disciples has already happened here, but the angels have not yet been seen. Mary then comes to the tomb and sees the angels, but they don't tell her where Jesus is; they only ask her why she is weeping (strange question to ask in a cemetery, no?). Let's pick up the story now.
Read John 20:14-18.
This is a touching scene by any standards. Notice that here again Jesus has a message for the apostles, which He sends through a woman, Mary Magdalene. He has appeared to her in what we would call a semi-resurrected state just to see her and to pass on this message: that He is ascending now. Verse 17 is a short verse; it is certainly possible, perhaps even probable, that much more was communicated than just that.
There are a number of ancient gospel traditions that are now coming to light that focus on the character of Mary Magdalene and, in particular, on this moment. Mary was the first to see Jesus after His death, and communicated His message to the apostles. A number of traditions go into great detail about what He said through her, including directions for salvation. Very often these same traditions show how the traditional priesthood, headed up by Peter, rejected these ideas, often because they didn't believe Jesus would really say anything important to a woman. We don't need to believe all those traditions about what exactly He said, but it is interesting that the canonical gospels confirm that Mary Magdalene did pass on an important message (however brief) and that the apostles (at least at first) didn't believe her.
3. The nature of the resurrected body.
I'd like to take just a few passages, to talk about the nature of the resurrected body. I'm going to take them all from one author (Luke) so we can avoid any possible differences of point of view. Let's see what conclusions we can reach from the following survey of passages:
Read Luke 24:13-16, 30-32, 36-43.
(I should note also that, according to John, the appearance of Jesus in the midst of His disciples that was just spoken of last, was in a room where all the doors were shut.)
What interesting about the nature of the resurrected body do we learn from these passages? (Write answers on the board; some are suggested below.)
 | It is like the bodies we are used to in that:
It is unlike the bodies we are used to in that:
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As you can see, a resurrected body is mostly a familiar thing, but it also has attributes that are more glorified than our current bodies. This is the same fate that awaits us.
Just one item of note on the disciples' meetings. Sometimes there is some uncertainty as to why Christians celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday, when the tradition from which Christianity emerged celebrated it on Saturday. We have our own answer in the Doctrine and Covenants (59:9-10), but for most Christians, the best evidence we have is right here in John. The following two passages give the setting for Jesus's first two appearances in John.
Read John 20:19, 26.
Now, why were the disciples met together? We don't know, but it may have been in a regular church meeting. Even if the disciples were together every day of the week, Jesus favored them with His appearance on the first day of the week, i.e., Sunday (the day He rose) and then again eight days later. Now, remembering our inclusive reckoning, what day of the week is that? (Sunday.)
Meetings of the disciples on two consecutive Sundays makes it reasonable to conclude that the early Christians met on Sunday, known as the Lord's day, in commemoration of His resurrection. We attend sacrament meeting on that day to remember our covenants made through His atonement, and we can also remember that the very day on which that meeting is held is also a commemoration of His atonement.
5. The commission of the apostles.
Of course, Jesus is not visiting His apostles just as a social call. He has a mission for them to perform. His words to them about this mission are given most clearly by Matthew:
Read Matt. 28:18-20.
This is the commission that we are still exercising today. Because we have been performing this mission for so many years, we very used to this scripture. But what about this pronouncement from Jesus would have been very strange to the apostles' ears? (The idea of preaching to all nations.)
According to Luke (in Acts), this didn't happen all that quickly: it took a little while for this message to be revealed, and even longer for it to be understood. But the final message is here: teach--and baptize--everyone.
John and Luke are the only gospels that continue beyond this point. Luke has an entire second volume, which we know as Acts. John has just one chapter, chapter 21, to give a hint of what happened next.
In chapter 21, the disciples are back at the Sea of Galilee.
Read John 21:3a (just the first sentence of verse 3).
This is a really fascinating sentence. It forces the reader to wonder: does Peter think that everything is the same as it used to be? Now that he's back in Galilee, is it just back to the boat and the nets? Is it all over, as if it never began? Maybe Peter wondered these things too.
Read John 21:4-6.
If Peter thought everything was the same as it used to be, then he is in for quite a surprise: all of a sudden, there is Jesus, recreating the circumstances of Peter's original call to be a disciple (Luke 5:3-11)! Jesus lets him know that his call to discipleship is not revoked, but renewed.
Let's read on:
Read John 21:12-13.
This may not seem like much, but remember how similar this is to Jesus's other post-mortal appearances: on the road to Emmaus, He broke bread, blessed it, and distributed it (Luke 24:30). Later in Luke, at a Sunday gathering of the disciples, He ate fish (Luke 24:42). Now He distributes bread and fish. This all probably reminds people of His distribution of bread and fish to multitudes of 5,000 and 4,000, on one occurrence of which He spoke at length about the sacrament (John 6). It seems that both these items--bread especially, but also fish--figured prominently in early Christian community dinners, probably in remembrance of Jesus's distribution of bread and fish both before and after His resurrection.
Let's now read the most famous passage in the chapter.
Read John 21:15-17.
Much has been made of subtle variations in the original Greek of the six occurrences of the verb "love" in this passage. You may also have noticed variation in between "lambs" and "sheep." There is also variation in the word "feed" (this variation doesn't show up in the King James Version). Unfortunately, after looking into this as deeply as I can, I just can't see any meaning in this variation. In fact, most people who talk about it not only mistake the nuance, they actually make factual errors regarding what words are in the passage. One thing we should remember is that ancient authors would sometimes make subtle variations for no reason other than style. That may be the case here. Admittedly, that has never seemed to be John's way, but I can see no other way to look at the passage yet.
I think we need to look at this passage simply as something Jesus repeated three times. The first question Jesus asks has most of the punch: "lovest thou me more than these?" that is, more than the fish. I have often heard people say that the quantity of fish caught would make Peter a rich man. Actually, a glut of fish just results in a lot of spoiled fish, so it's unlikely that Peter would get any more than a temporary windfall from this catch. And Peter does not ever seem to have been tempted by riches anyway. However, he was tempted by the idea of giving it all up and returning to his old life. We saw that earlier in this chapter, as well as last week. So it's not the quantity of fish that matters, it's whether Peter has wavered in his commitment to be a "fisher of men." What lessons for us are contained in these questions? (This would be a good time for discussion.)
As we move into Acts next week, there's just one thing I'd like you to notice. Acts was written by Luke, so it's a sequel to the gospel of Luke. The one thing that sets it off by itself right away is something we read this week. In Matthew, Mark, and John, Jesus tells His disciples He'll meet them in Galilee, and that's where the post-mortal appearances happen. However, in Luke (24:47-49), not only do the appearances occur at Jerusalem, but there is a lot of emphasis on Jerusalem being the starting point for the dissemination of the gospel. So, despite what the other gospels say, Acts starts off in Jerusalem.
Last update: 10 July 1999
