Saturday April 7, 2012

Read Mark 15:40-47; Luke 23:48-56

 

Jesus has died on the cross and His body has been hastily laid in a tomb in honour of encroaching Sabbath. As we read the various accounts of the death of Jesus and what immediately occurred, notice that the male disciples, the twelve, are noticeably absent. They are not there!

 

Is there simply a silence from the writers because they want to focus on the women? Or is there something else occurring? I would suggest, with others, that the disciples, having seen Jesus arrested, crucified and dead, fled the scene to go into hiding. The Chief Priests had engineered the death of their Lord and it would be nothing for these leaders to come after them! I suspect they were hiding in fear of their lives. The women, being out of that current danger, stayed at the cross to witness all that happened.

 

But from the Sabbath on Friday evening to the end of Sabbath Day, the disciples would have sat impatiently wondering what would come of all of this. It would have been the longest and most excruciating time of their lives. They, if nothing else, wanted to give Jesus a proper burial and to finish preparing His body for the final resting. They wanted, at the very least, to honour Jesus by preparing and burying His body.

 

But having heard many times from Jesus’ own lips that He would rise from the dead, they must have been curious. They must have been wondering what would come of all this. They must have tried to figure out what Jesus meant by those words of eternal life spoken what seemed now like ages ago.

 

But as the women disciples went to do their duty and to honour Jesus’ body they were greeted with the greatest surprise. On Sonday morning they began to see Jesus alive and well! Jesus had walked out of that tomb just as He said He would. For the next forty days they continued to see Him, some even poked and prodded Him to make sure He wasn’t a ghost or an apparition.

 

And having witnessed the resurrected Jesus and having been filled with the Holy Spirit these disciples were radically transformed.  What follows are historical accounts of what the disciples did and how they died.

 

Andrew

According to Hippolytus:

Andrew preached to the Scythians [modern day Georgia] and Thracians [modern day Bulgaria], and was crucified, suspended on an olive tree, at Patrae, a town of Achaia [Greece]; and there too he was buried.

 

 

Bartholomew

According to Hippolytus,

Bartholomew, again, preached to the Indians, to whom he also gave the Gospel according to Matthew, and was crucified with his head downward, and was buried in Allanum, a town of the great Armenia [modern day southern Georgia].

 

James, Son of Alphaeus

According to Hippolytus

And James the son of Alphaeus, when preaching in Jerusalem, was stoned to death by the Jews, and was buried there beside the temple.

 

James, Son of Zebedee

James was the brother of John, the disciple "that Jesus loved".

Act 12:1 And at that time Herod the king threw on his hands to oppress some of those of the church.

Act 12:2 And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.

John, brother of James and son of Zebedee

According to Hippolytus,

John was banished by Domitian to the Isle of Patmos, and later died in Ephesus:

 

Matthew/Levi

According to Hippolytus:

Matthew wrote the Gospel in the Hebrew tongue, and published it at Jerusalem, and fell asleep at Hierees, a town of Parthia. Pg 224 [Parthia is near modern day Tehran]

 

Simon/Peter

According to Eusebius

It is, therefore, recorded that Paul was beheaded in Rome itself, and that Peter likewise was crucified under Nero. This account of Peter and Paul is substantiated by the fact that their names are preserved in the cemeteries of that place even to the present day. ---- (Book 2, Chapter 25)

(Paul was a Roman citizen so could not be crucified but got an "easier" death sentence)

 

According to Hippolytus

Peter preached the Gospel in Pontus, and Galatia, and Cappadocia, and Betania, and Italy, and Asia, and was afterwards crucified by Nero in Rome with his head downward, as he had himself desired to suffer in that manner.

 

Philip

According to Hippolytus,

Philip preached in Phrygia, and was crucified in Hierapolis (eastern Turkey, today) with his head downward in the time of Domitian, and was buried there.

 

Simon the Zealot

According to Hippolytus,

Simon the Zealot, the son of Clopas, who is also called Jude, became bishop of Jerusalem after James the Just, and fell asleep and was buried there at the age of 120 years.

Thaddaeus/Judas son of James

According to Hippolytus,

Jude, who is also called Lebbaeus, (hence Thaddeaus) preached to the people of Edessa, and to all Mesopotamia, and fell asleep at Berytus, and was buried there.

 

Thomas

According to Hippolytus

And Thomas preached to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Hyrcanians, Bactrians, and Margians, and was thrust through in the four members of his body with a pine spear at Calamene, the city of India, and was buried there.

 

The Resurrection changed these men powerfully from the inside out. Has it changed you?

 

Prayer:

¥ As we gather to celebrate the resurrection of Christ Jesus tomorrow pray that God’s Spirit would be powerfully at work among us. Pray that we, like the disciples, would be changed from the inside out. Pray that we would be transformed into courageous men and women who stop at nothing to share the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

¥ Pray that each one of your fellow brothers and sisters in your congregation would take every opportunity to share their faith, to speak of Jesus and to serve and do good deeds in His love and His power.