The Crucifixion & Resurrection

The whole of the Gospels moves toward a single week in Jerusalem. After entering the city to shouts of 'Hosanna,' Jesus shared a final Passover meal with his disciples, transforming it into the Lord's Supper — 'this is my body... this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many' (Mark 14:22–24). That night, betrayed by Judas and abandoned by his friends, he was arrested in Gethsemane, tried by the Jewish council and then by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, and condemned to death though no fault was found in him.

He was crucified at Golgotha between two criminals. Darkness covered the land; Jesus cried out, 'It is finished,' and gave up his spirit, and the great veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom (Matthew 27:50–51). He was buried in a borrowed tomb, sealed and guarded. But on the first day of the week the women who came to the tomb found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty, and an angel declared: 'He is not here: for he is risen, as he said' (Matthew 28:6). Over the following days the risen Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, to the disciples, and to more than five hundred at once.

The two events are inseparable — the cross without the empty tomb is tragedy; the resurrection without the cross is meaningless. The leading proposals for the year are AD 30 and AD 33; we present both rather than asserting one.

The crucifixion and resurrection are the center of the Christian faith and the climax of the entire Bible. On the cross Jesus bears the judgment that sin deserves — 'Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures' — fulfilling the Passover lamb, the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, and every sacrifice that pointed forward to him. The torn temple veil signals that the way to God is now open.

The resurrection is God's vindication of it all: it proves the sacrifice was accepted, that death is defeated, and that Jesus is 'declared to be the Son of God with power.' Paul stakes everything on it — 'if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain' (1 Corinthians 15:14). It is the ground of the believer's forgiveness, the promise of resurrection life, and the launch of the church's mission to the world.