[lightman]

The Resurrection is Against the Law

An excerpt from Bill Wylie-Kellermann’s classic Seasons of Faith and Conscience (1991).

The sealing of the tomb is, I believe, notoriously misunderstood. I grew up with a Sunday School notion that to seal the tomb was a matter of hefting the big stone and cementing it tight. The seal, in my mind’s eye, was something like first-century caulking–puttying up the cracks to keep the stink in. Not so. This is a legal seal. Cords would be strung across the rock and anchored at each end with clay. To move the stone would break the seal and indicate tampering.

The event conspicuously echoes the story of Daniel sealed in the den of lions. “And a stone was brought and laid upon the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel” (Daniel 6:18). As there, this is a legal lock on the tomb door–not air tight, but politically tight. To move the stone and break the seal is a civil crime. The resurrection is against the law.

The seal is also a recurring theme in the book of Revelation. Remember the scroll of history sealed with seven seals? Only One is worthy to break them and look upon or unveil the truth: that One is the Lamb who was slain. The seal is a claim of ownership and authority. Its meaning in Revelation is at least that God in Christ reigns sovereign over all history and in all events.

Caesar, in Pilate, on the other hand, violently disputes the claim. He has set his seal of approval on Jesus’ death, and now he guarantees it with troops. Secured by security forces. When the seal is broken in the resurrection, it stands among the signs that the power of the powers (death in all its forms) has been broken. The dominion of political authority–especially inflated, aggressive–and imperial authority has been cut to the heart.

[rollo tomasi]

"With respect to the church, marriage is a sacramental act, a covenant of grace, a vow of fidelity witnessed before God and community. Gay and lesbian Christians called to marriage need and deserve ecclesial resources of blessing and support to fulfill their commitment." Bill Wylie-Kellermann

A beautiful thread ruined by a same-sex marriage advocate within the Church, apostate, and political activist disguised as a Christian that uses a metaphorical seal to justify himself, no thanks..

Good job though. /s

[HKMk23]

“Caesar, in Pilate, on the other hand, violently disputes the claim. He has set his seal of approval on Jesus’ death, and now he guarantees it with troops. Secured by security forces. When the seal is broken in the resurrection, it stands among the signs that the power of the powers (death in all its forms) has been broken. The dominion of political authority–especially inflated, aggressive–and imperial authority has been cut to the heart.”

Close. In Pilate, Caesar said, as he washed his hands, “I find no fault with this man, but — here — you Judean rabble go do whatever your Judean rabble hearts want, and leave me out of it. You want to kill an innocent man over your benighted religion — whatever.” So, not an official approval; just the absence of an official veto.

Unlike Pilate’s capitulation, the seal on the tomb was nothing to do with approving Jesus’ death, and everything to do with preventing human meddlers from perpetrating a resurrection hoax; NOT because Pilate really cared so much, but because it was a no-fuss way for him to get this Sanhedrin bunch to shut up and move off this Jesus kick.

Of course, the resurrection was no hoax, and no mere human meddler who broke the seal perpetrating it, as the terror-stricken guards testified. So, now there’s Pilate, left with Jesus’ words to him echoing in his head, “You would have no power over me had it not been given you from above.” The empty tomb, opened by an angel in defiance of his governmental authority, was certainly an emphatic coda to that.

[thecodont]

Good summary of the “legal seal” on the tomb. The movie “Risen” (a good Easter movie) depicts this.