Ep. 14: Waiting for the Impossible | The Crucifixion of Jesus

Jesus died and his body was carried to a tomb and placed inside. I don't know if you know this about dead bodies, but they're not supposed to go anywhere. Despite this fact, the Romans and the religious leaders decide to put a guard in front of the tomb and seal it with a rock. Why? And what happens next? Let's dig into that right now. It's Good Friday and we've finally come to the last event of the day. It maybe is the most significant to you in your moment right now, because you're in this section of the story, whether you realize it or not, and you're actually in it in a character you may have never related to before. To the end of the story on Good Friday, Jesus's body was taken off the cross. It was placed in a tomb by a man named Joseph of Arimathea. He puts a stone across the entrance and they go away. It's a Sabbath. They can't come back and prepare the body until the next day. Now, interestingly, what happens next is the religious leaders go to Pilate and they say, hey, we're concerned that the followers of this guy, Jesus, they're going to come. They're going to push the stone away. They're going to steal the body. They're going to claim that Jesus came back from the dead. So what we'd like to do, Pilate, is we would like you to use the might and the power of Rome, the greatest military authority in the history of the world at that point, all of the might of the best military, and guard that tomb. Seal the stone. Put your Roman centurions as a guard against it to make sure that doesn't happen. And Pilate says yes. Now, you may be tempted to go like, well, of course he says yes. This is the guy who, after all, handed over Jesus to be crucified and killed. Of course he would say yes. Well, not so fast. Let's look at this guy more closely. See, Pilate, when Jesus first was brought to him, was warned by his wife not to condemn Jesus. Pilate's wife actually had a dream in which she said, this man is just. He's innocent. And so, Pilate did not want to condemn him. In fact, what Pilate ultimately does is washes his hands and hands Jesus over to be crucified. He actually never passes a judgment or passes a sentence on Jesus at all. See, once Jesus is crucified, he hangs on the cross. And the Roman centurions, who are Pilate's actual guard, are hanging around the base of it. And Scripture says the moment Jesus was crucified, crazy stuff started happening. The sky goes dark. Earthquakes come. The curtain in the temple is torn from the top to the bottom in two. And then get this, dead people start coming out of graves all over the place and walking up and talking to people. And people are seeing their dead relatives all of a sudden. Crazy stuff is happening. Supernatural stuff. It's so crazy that these guards, the same ones who had just killed Jesus, actually said truly this man was the

Son of God. They start to believe. These guys all work for Pilate. They're all in the same city. Pilate's seeing the same exact stuff happening. He's seeing dead people walk around the streets. He's seeing the earthquake. He's seeing it go dark. And he's wondering, could it be true? How do you know if something's true? How do you know if God is who he says he is? How would you know, for instance, if a man named Jesus showed up and he said, I'm God, how would you know he is? Well, I'd say you'd know if he could do the impossible. See, Pilate says yes to their request. And he actually says this in Matthew 27, 65. His exact response to the religious leaders when they asked to guard the tombs, he says, make it as secure as you know how. In other words, take all of the might of Rome, all of our best technology, all of our best soldiers, and do everything you can to make it impossible for Jesus to come out. Make it impossible. Why would you do that? Because Pilate would know if Jesus could get through the impossible, Jesus is who he says he is. This right here is the moment you are the same as Pilate. There's something in your life that feels impossible for Jesus to break through. Something so immovable, some barrier so just set in stone that only Jesus could break through. Only God himself could break through it. Have you put him to the test? Pilate did. We don't know what happened to his story afterwards. I don't know if he believed or he didn't, but he put him to the impossible test and Jesus broke out of that tomb. What feels impossible to you right now? Now, I wonder if it's something in this list the Bible talks about the fruit of the Spirit. It's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, and self-control. Do any of those feel impossible to you? Does peace feel impossible? Does joy feel impossible? Does it feel like it's guarded, like there's nothing you could do to possibly access it? If it does, ask Jesus for that thing right now. You can pray a simple prayer with me, just like that. Jesus, I want to know if you are who you say you are. Joy feels inaccessible to me. It feels impossible. Peace feels impossible. Self-control feels impossible. I can't stop doing that thing on my own.

But I'm asking you, Jesus, could you do the impossible for me? Could you break me out of this prison I feel that I'm in and give me the life that you say you will? Amen. Listen, putting Jesus to the test is the point of the entire story. Good Friday is good because you get to see and experience the goodness of God for yourself. I'm telling you, if you prayed that prayer, get ready to see God break through in your life. Happy Good Friday.