Shalom and Happy Resurrection Day!
I still remember the day when, as a young, nineteen-year-old Jewish man, I realized that Jesus was the Messiah and that He died for my sins and rose from the dead. Boy, was I surprised!
I had a somewhat secular upbringing with elements of Modern Orthodox Jewish tradition. I knew what I should believe and observe, but my mom and dad did not believe or follow it all, and neither did I. Yet, for some reason, my parents wanted me to have a traditional bar mitzvah (coming-of-age ceremony) at the age of thirteen.
To this day, I am grateful they made that choice because the preparation gave me a much stronger education in Jewish life and faith than most of my friends. As a Jewish believer in Jesus, having this background has been a great blessing throughout my decades of walking with the Lord.
Before accepting Jesus as my Messiah, I was growing more and more secular every day as my peers had tremendous influence over me! I do not remember ever thinking seriously about the Jewish belief in resurrection—aside from a vague understanding that, when the Messiah comes, He would raise the dead.
My two best friends had come to faith in Jesus and challenged me to believe as well. I began reading the Hebrew Scriptures, but only to challenge their new-found faith. I considered belief in Jesus to be quite unkosher, but I found that “my Bible” spoke to my heart, so I asked God to show me the truth. Most importantly, I asked God, “How do I get to You? Show me the way.”
That evening, the Lord gave me exactly what I needed. By God’s grace, I found a New Testament in the most extraordinary way—in a phone booth in the middle of the redwood forest in Northern California, where I was working as a camp counselor for an outdoor education program. I read through the Gospels and discovered a Jewish Jesus who fulfilled the Old Testament Messianic prophecies and hope of the Jewish people—and a big part of that involved His resurrection. I believed the gospel—that Jesus died for my sins and rose from the dead, conquering death.
Further, since Jesus rose, I will, one day, rise as well! It is a glorious hope, and if we need anything today in this world, it is hope. My hope is built upon His rising from the dead, and it endures the most difficult circumstances. I cannot wait to see Him face to face!
As Paul so eloquently wrote in his introduction to his epistle to the Romans:
Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 1:1–4, emphasis added)
I fervently pray that my Jewish family and community will recognize that resurrection is a very Jewish belief, and it should not be strange for a Jewish person to believe the Messiah would rise from the dead.
There is a group of Jewish people called the Lubavitch Hasidim who believe their rebbe, who died decades ago, will, one day, rise from the grave. They even base this view on Isaiah 53! Though I know this is a minority position, it still gives me hope that my Jewish people can be persuaded of the magnificent truth of the resurrection.
RESURRECTION IN SCRIPTURE
Let us briefly walk through Scripture, and maybe you will have the opportunity to share these passages with a Jewish friend during this wonderful resurrection season.
First, we learn from the apostle Paul’s chapter on the resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15, that Jesus’ resurrection was predicted in the Hebrew Scriptures:
Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:1–4, emphasis added)
We might ask where the resurrection of the Messiah was predicted in the Hebrew Scriptures, as Paul proclaims. We can turn to one of the most well-known prophecies about the Messiah in Isaiah 53:
By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. (Isaiah 53:8–9, emphasis added)
This passage is important, as the Servant of the Lord must have died to rise, of course! Isaiah’s words in the final verse of this chapter speak clearly of the Messiah’s death for our sins: “Because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12).
Old Testament prophecy predicted Messiah’s suffering and death for the sins of the Jewish people and the nations, as well as His resurrection. Isaiah wrote:
But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. (Isaiah 53:10)
We also see the hope of the resurrection predicted in the Psalms, where King David spoke prophetically. In Psalm 16, David referred to the afterlife:
For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever. (Psalm 16:10–11)
This passage refers to someone greater than King David. The Jewish apostle Peter confirmed that David was speaking about the risen Messiah:
Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. And so, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay. (Acts 2:29–31, emphasis added)
Immediately after quoting from Psalm 16, Peter proclaimed the promise of the resurrection once again through the mouth of King David by quoting another of his psalms, “The Lord says to my Lord: ‘Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet’” (Psalm 110:1).
The Lord of King David is, of course, Jesus—the Messiah and the greater Son of David!
There is another prophecy of Messiah’s resurrection that is more of a prophetic picture of a future event than an explicit prophecy. In the Passover story, the smeared blood of the perfect lamb during the first Passover in Egypt points to a greater “Lamb of God” and a more powerful redemption from the bondage of sin: “ For Christ our Passover [lamb] also has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
Paul also envisioned a prophetic picture of Messiah’s resurrection embedded in the Festival of First Fruits.
Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, “When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.” (Leviticus 23:10–11)
Paul linked the waving of the sheaf of grain (the first fruit) from this festival mentioned in Leviticus, which takes place on the day after the Sabbath—Sunday. Therefore, this picture of the Festival of First Fruits alludes to the Passion, when Jesus died as the Lamb of God and rose as the first fruits of the coming resurrection. He was the first to rise, and all those who accept Him as their Savior will follow.
Paul, a well-trained first-century Pharisee, understood these parallels and pointed them out under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, especially to his Jewish readers.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming. (1 Corinthians 15:20–23, emphasis added)
If Jesus died on a Friday and rose on a Sunday, then the resurrection may well have happened on the Festival of First Fruits.
With so much written in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Jewish people should have been expecting the atoning death and resurrection of the Messiah. We have the joy of reminding our Jewish friends and family of the Jewishness of the resurrection and that Jesus perfectly fulfills these predictions.
May the Lord fill you with His power and hope, and please pray for the Jewish people during this Passover and Easter season. The Jewish people desperately need hope in this post-October 7 environment.
Dr. Mitch Glaser 