Writings: Death Swallowed by Victory

By: Dr. Gregory S. Neal

Back in 2010 I led a group on a tour of Israel. I had been to Holy Land before, so much of what I was seeing wasn’t new to me. This was especially true of the sites in Jerusalem: The Western Wall of the Temple Mount, the Pool of Bethesda, the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane, Caiaphas House and the basement where Jesus was imprisoned, the Via Delarosa and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Garden Tomb … all places I knew and had visited before. And yet, I also experienced them anew through the fresh eyes of those who were with me, who were seeing them all for the first time.
In many ways, visiting these holy sites can be a life-changing experience. One can be inwardly touched through the proximity of these locations and the radical, almost tangible nearness of these stories. When praying at the Western Wall, near the site of the now long-gone Temple, one can almost sense the power of the Holy of Holies. Overlooking the ruins of the pools at Bethesda, one can almost see the crowds and hear Jesus telling the paralytic to “rise and walk.” Gazing at the Temple Mount from across the Kidron Valley, standing on the Mount of Olives, and looking down upon the Garden of Gethsemane, one can sense the urgency of our Lord’s prayers for us and the tragedy of Judas’ betrayal of his Lord with a kiss. Standing in the basement of the High Priest’s House, where Jesus was held in chains before trial, one can sense the immediacy of the story. One also can’t help but be a bit disappointed at how much things have changed.

Two thousand years is a very long time when it comes to buildings, streets, and gardens. Much of the land is at a different level now, and very few structures remain from that era. Some places, like the Garden of Gethsemane, appear to be similar to what they looked like then. Indeed, some of the olive trees in that garden date back to Jesus’ time. Also, the basement holding cell where Jesus waited, prior to the trial before Caiaphas, is still there and you can even stand in approximately the same spot where Jesus stood and cast your gaze to the same stone walls that also surrounded him. The house above was long-ago destroyed by fire, however, and there’s a big church in its place.

Indeed, that true about a lot of the historical sites in Jerusalem. Many of the places that are connected with the events of Jesus’ life and ministry, death and resurrection, have all been commemorated with shrines, chapels, and churches. The building of these religious centers has, in some cases, drastically changed these sites, even destroying them. That’s particularly true at the actual site of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial.

In the 320s AD a Christian woman named Helena, who was the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, had the entire complex excavated; this was necessary because, about a century after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Romans had built a huge temple to Jupiter on the site. Constantine ordered that temple torn down, returning the area to how it was in Jesus’ day; after more digging and the clearing of rubble, they uncovered Golgotha – the Place of the Skull, the site of Roman crucifixions. They also found, a very short distance away, the remains of a garden and a network of tombs where many first century Jews were buried. One tomb, which was found empty, was marked with 1st century graffiti identifying it as the tomb in which Jesus had once been buried.

In the 330s AD the Emperor ordered that a huge church be built on the site, enclosing all of it. They first removed almost the entire hillside of tombs, leaving just the rock outcropping where the empty tomb had been located. They then built a shrine around that outcropping of rock, lining it with marble so-as to protect it from the elements and from those who might want to damage it. They also built a domed chapel around Golgotha, with marble steps leading up to the top, where they built an altar on the site of the crucifixion. Today, there’s a glass cover over the top of Golgotha, and one can duck under the alter and put a hand down to touch the bare rock … it’s become smooth from centuries of faithful coming to touch the site of the crucifixion. After all this, they then built an enormous domed structure over the entire complex, enclosing both the site of Jesus’ death and burial within one huge church. Today, 1700 years later, this structure still stands as the Church of the Holy Sepulture, the “Holy Tomb;” because of these buildings, enclosing and protecting the site, the whole place looks so very different today than it did in Jesus’ day. It can be disappointing to see how marble, tile, and stone chapels have been laid over the site, trapping it, transforming it, making it a place for people to come and pray, but robbing it of its original appearance.

The places one can see, today, in Israel, in Palestine, and in Jerusalem, have mostly all changed with the time, with destruction due to war and natural disaster, and due to people building shrines and churches on top of it all. What has not changed are the stories about the events themselves, and most especially their meaning for us today. What happened in these places: in the Garden of Gethsemane, on Golgotha, and in the Empty Tomb … that’s what’s important for us. What those events mean for us, and what they teach us, is what’s important. The ways we have changed because of what Jesus did for us … that’s what’s important.

This is what the Prophet Isaiah was talking when he reflected upon what would happen in Jerusalem, and on what we could come to know as Calvary:

"On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear." (Isaiah 25:6)

Yes, God has fed us; God has nourished us; God has made us strong, fresh, new, and whole again through the resurrection-life of Jesus Christ our Lord. That is what God has done for us: in our faith in Jesus, in our hope of the Resurrection, in our love for God and for each other, in our service and giving … in the midst of our physical and spiritual deaths, God has brought forth life anew in us. As if that’s not good enough, Isaiah continues:

"And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever." (Isaiah 25:7)

He will “swallow up death forever.” That is what has happened for us in the life and ministry, the healing and teaching, the self-giving love of God made known to us in Jesus Christ our Lord! In his prayers for and with us, through his suffering for and with us, in his dying for and with us, by his rising for and with us, Jesus’ love swallows up our spiritual and physical death … forever.

That’s the meaning of Easter for me; that’s the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus for us, today. Our separation from God, our pain and anguish, our fear and hopelessness, our suffering and death have all been swallowed up by God’s love. Because of Jesus, we can come through the struggles of this life, free from it all through faith in Christ.

The Resurrection of Jesus happened; and, because it happened:

We can happen
We can live
We can love
We can hope
We can serve
We can rejoice
We can dance and sing and praise God forever.
Sin and death have been swallowed up by victory in Jesus. All glory be to God. Amen!

© 2022 Dr. Gregory S. Neal
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