By the time of the sixth hour, darkness came over all the land. The sunlight vanished until the ninth hour. The veil of the temple was ripped down the middle. Then Jesus shouted out at the top of his voice, 'Here's my Spirit, Father! You can take care of it now!' And with that he died.
The centurion saw what happened, and praised God.
'This fellow', he said,'really was in the right.'
All the crowds who had come together for the spectacle saw what happened, and they went away beating their breasts. Those who knew Jesus, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, remained at a distance and watched the scene.
Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the council. He was a good and righteous man, and had not given his consent to the court's verdict or actions. He was from Arimathaea, a town in Judaea, and he was longing for God's kingdom. He approached Pilate and asked for Jesus' body. He took it down and wrapped it in a shroud, and put it in a tomb hollowed out of the rock, where no one had ever been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was beginning.
The women who had followed Jesus, the ones who had come with him from Galilee, saw the tomb and how the body was laid. Then they went back to prepare spices and ointments. On the sabbath they rested, as the commandment specified.
This weekend I gave a book to my father-in-law called Agape Road. One of the things the book helped me to identify and begin to ask God to deal with was the need to be 'right'. The book identifies this as a type of giant in the land of your person that stands in opposition to God's people entering the land and thus in opposition to God. Now, to be 'right' generally means holding to a fact that one believes to be concrete. That doesn't seem like a bad thing at first and for a lot of people they believe that is in some way the same as faith.
Biblical truth is not so much like one of David's smooth small stones, nor is it so much like a hewn stone that one builds a temple with, as important as those are to the Revelation of God. Rather, biblical truth is like a pearl of great value. It shimmers as the light reflects upon it and all the different colors dance and rejoice. Or perhaps its like a diamond whose light reflects differently but always beautifully depending on how it's held in the Light.
Goliath thought he and his Philistine's were 'right'. They after all had the might, the size...every perceivable worldly advantage...so the battle must be theirs. They were, however, 'wrong'. They were ignorant of the will of the one true God, to reveal Himself and to redeem His good creation. Somewhere along the way, like everyone, they had become disconnected from God, as we all have due to sin. And so, the giant needs to be dealt with either through repentance, coming into line with the Gospel, or it must be cast out.
Here we see that Jesus had stood up against that same giant only to be crucified like so many other failed messiah's. Only Jesus, unlike anyone before him was 'in the right' making this ironically, not only a triumph, but the triumph that eternity would center on, Beginning and End. Luke want's this to be firmly established. He has given us a multitude of witnesses, from what would have been considered highly unreliable witnesses at the time (women), to a Roman centurion, to a wealthy Arimathaean, and then some. But there are principalities and powers at work that would have you disregard these witnesses...to enslave you again to unbelief, distract you with all sorts of evil to keep you from growing up into the Child of God that you are.
Luke wants us to be clear not only that there was a real Jesus who was really crucified, but that he was 'in the right' that is to say that He was in perfect communion with the Father, in relationship to His will and walking it out, Heaven and Earth were one. So there's the difference between being 'right' and being 'in the right'. To be 'in the right' is declared by God the moment you profess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Then begins the journey of being 'in the right'...walking in the Spirit, in all the good works God has prepared before hand that you should walk in them. So to be 'right' as in 'holding to a fact that one believes to be concrete' and unwilling to understand something from a greater depth, breadth, height or width for fear of deviation or failure is not God's way. God's Truth is relational and dynamic, always effective regardless of our personal failures to either understand or to walk out. This is grace at work, rather than law.
Try, for instance, to 'know' your spouse that by holding to them as a fact that you believe to be concrete. It just doesn't make sense. My wife and I have lived our lives in routine for a while, but peace is lacking and you eventually wake up feeling devoid of love and fruitfulness...sunken into a lifeless routine, going through the motions, no longer abiding.
That is not the kind of relationship God made us for, Christ and the Church are not made to function that way, faith doesn't work that way, and the Spirit that, like the wind, goes were it pleases, dances and rejoices, laments and wails as it flows within and according to the counsel of God's purposes certainly doesn't work that way. This is why the law never had the ability to save anyone, rather it works more like a babysitter until the Messiah comes, making the outward observance of law obsolete, because the purpose of the law is fulfilled in and through the believer by the power of the Spirit, Messiah Jesus in you.
What you do with this revelation once you wake up, is a matter of free will. Will you get lulled back into the way you were doing things before or will you refuse to be bewitched and put again under slavery to the law? That would not be faith. Faith is the end of the Law, it's fulfillment, it's purpose...enter true freedom, God's rest.
The veil has been ripped right down the middle and Heaven is being poured upon all the Earth, that's Good News...what will you do with Him? Now, I would urge you to be reconciled to God, give Jesus that hollowed out place in your heart...the seed is in. Now, hold on tight, believe God's promise...he has confirmed it by an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, you may have confidence...something miraculous is about to happen so you will 'know' that Jesus is God's Messiah and that God stands by His Word...
May we ever trust Jesus for our tomorrow, because He is already there.
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