When Jesus's body was finally bathed and wrapped and left in the tomb and a guard placed there at the huge stone which had been rolled into place shutting the opening, the disciples acted like they believe the Romans and Sanhedrin would be hunting them down.
They were in deep sorrow, despite all the teaching Jesus had been giving them for the weeks leading up to entering Jerusalem. These men who had witnessed astonishing miracles at His hand were defeated by death.
He must have been expounding for them from the Jewish texts and had given them strong hints that He would be delivered up for death and three days later arise, He even cited Moses lifting up the serpeant in the Desert and Jonah three days in the belly of the fish.
Yet these men were huddled away and didn't believe it when the women came back to tell them He Is Risen! To his credit, Peter did hurry off to the tomb to check their stories, and young John run on ahead to reach the opened tomb first. But then we have the two on the road to Emmaus who were not in belief that He had risen, not accepting the women's story. And when He joined them on the road they asked if He was new in Jerusalem and didn't hear about the big commotion over the weekend. To these He also opened the scriptures, enumerating all from Moses to the end of books what was written about Him.
I believe it was what He said right before giving up the ghost that put them into such a funk. He called out in Aramaic (from his man self void of the Holy Spirit so he could die), 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani' which is interpreted, 'Lord, Lord, why hast thou foresaken me?' Jesus, Who had known no sin in His life because His seed of the Holy Spirit remained within Him constantly was suddenly without the God Spirit in Him and He died! Even members of the Sanhedrin came by while He was dying ont he cross and shook their heads, saying 'He saved others but cannot save himself.' There was a tremendous secret being worked out!
That must have devastated these men who had come to believe He was God with them and was about to found the New Jewish Kingdom. He was God with them, while God Spirit/Holy Spirit remained within Him. But he died as a man, weighed down with the sin of our transgressions. THAT was the part the disciples did not anticipate.
Excellent analysis and I agree with you. Clearly, just seeing miracles isn’t enough to generate faith or at least not the faith necessary to sustain belief.
Jesus had made the metaphors more than clear and we don’t have everything that He said to the disciples and it would be ridiculous to assume that the closest twelve didn’t have even more detailed knowledge or discussions with Jesus. The NT narrative is not one to one across time. That is it doesn’t record everything. We have to think for ourselves.
You’ve really hit it on the head with your description of the early moments at the tomb.
What we are witnessing is a complete refutation of the Judaic Error. Their law wasn’t God-made, but man-made. The hedge wasn’t about protecting God’s word, but their own prestige, perks and privileges. God’s Law is Natural Law. Wherein did He decree that women are less than men?
No where. Yet, Judaic Elites made women chattel. They abused their authority and set women below men. Women couldn’t be witnesses, yet Jesus Christ made them his first witnesses. Mary is the first living human to witness the most glorious event in the history of the world. That same world missed it nearly completely.
Jesus refutes this false “Law” and re-establishes his true Law. Moses knew and recognized this, but his people had long forgotten it.
‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani’ which is interpreted, ‘Lord, Lord, why hast thou foresaken me?’ is better translated as “My God, my God, why hast thou left me alone?” I don’t think Heavenly Father would abandon his Son in the negative sense, just left him to complete the task alone. Enkatelipes can mean forsake or abandon, but only in the negative sense. Elói in Aramaic is possessive for “God”.
Your conclusion is interesting. If even the closest, most beloved disciples missed the message - that the Messiah wasn’t a material liberator, but a spiritual one - what does it say about the Chosen People missing the message?