They Found Not the Body

The Scriptures tell us that when the disciples came to annoint Jesus that Sunday morning long ago, they "found not the body of the Lord."

It is interesting how often, when He died and was raised again, the Scripture makes explicit reference to the body of Jesus.

We do this when anybody dies. We refer to the body in the third person, as if to objectify the person and somehow separate him from his dead body.

Every time in the New Testament that the body of Christ is referred to explicitly, it is in reference to His death.

So when He died, they spoke of obtaining His body from the Romans, of carrying it to the tomb, of preparing His body for burial.

Even his enemies were concerned that His body stay in the tomb and not be removed by subterfuge.

In death we lose autonomy and control over our bodies, which others now carry about and dispose of as they see fit.

What a stark sight to see the body of Jesus, the One who made all things, carried about by His creatures and controlled by them!

That Sunday morning, though, the disciples had a different problem: where was the body of Jesus? It was no longer in the tomb.

Jesus had risen from the grave! He was in full command of His body. The disciples could scarcely believe it!

Their mistake all along was to presume that Jesus had ever lost control of His body. All through His arrest, His trial, the assaults against Him, and even as He hung in shame upon the cross, our Lord Jesus was in complete control over His body.

He deliberately submitted to the degradation and humiliation to save His people. He laid down His life - no man took it from Him!

His body was always meant to be the sacrifice for sin.