Monday, June 30, 2014

When Christ died, the curtain that separated the people from God was ripped from top to bottom.  The holy of holies was opened.  Why was that?  What did God do when he ripped the curtain?  Remember that the high priest went in behind this curtain only once a year to put the blood of a perfect lamb on the mercy seat to atone for the sins of the people.  They needed mercy.  They tied a rope to the priest so if he touched anything and died--as God had told them would happen--they could pull him out. Let's connect that with Christ's death as the Lamb of God.

The first people at the tomb were women. Mary Magdalene, and Joanna,  and Mary the mother of James and other women that were with them.  We are told that they went back and told the disciples that Jesus was risen.  (Luke 24: 1-10) (The first evangelists were women!!! Imagine that.)

We are told that Mary Magdalene went back to the tomb and was weeping.  Christ appeared to her,  (John 21: 11-17) and  said, "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and to your God.

But much later, he appeared to Thomas and said, " (Vs. 27) "…reach here your finger, and behold my hands; and reach here your hand, and thrust it into my side…"

My opinion is this:  Between those two events with Mary and Thomas, Jesus took the perfect sacrifice, his own blood, the blood of the perfect Lamb, and laid it on heaven's mercy seat of God to atone for our sins.  The holy of holies was opened for you and I to have access to the Father, "…my Father, and your Father…" Having done that he returned to the disciples and commissioned them to tell the world that it truly was "finished."  We do not have to make sacrifices or go through a priest ever again.
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He said "Don't touch me…" to  Mary.   And then he said to Thomas, "Touch me."  If you study the Old Testament, you will find that the sacrifice for the mercy seat had to be perfect.  Unblemished.  In the case of Mary touching him, Jesus needed to be pure, untouched, perfect when he went to God with the sacrificial blood from his own body.  But later when he appeared to Thomas, that had already been done.

So that's my opinion concerning what happened immediately after  he rose.

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