THe Empty Tomb
As we contemplate the sites of specific events from the New Testament, it is worth noting that the first Christians expected Jesus to return very soon. Why is that significant? Because there would have been little or no impetus for those earliest believers to try to cherish and preserve those sites for future generations. The very prospect of future generations was something of an irrelevancy.
Accordingly, even our oldest traditions concerning where certain things happened in the life and ministry of Jesus come from a few hundred years after His earthly life. As noted on the Golgotha page, there are two traditional sites identified as the possible place of Jesus' burial. In John's account of Jesus' death and burial, he writes, "Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been laid" (John 19:41 NASB). That, combined with the practical matter of Jesus needing to be buried quickly, suggests that the site of the Cross and the site of the Empty Tomb were very near to one another. The oldest and most reputed site for both Jesus' death and burial is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (upper right). A somewhat more recent proposal (dating back to the 19th-century British general, Charles Gordon) is the place known as The Garden Tomb (lower right). The former has a much longer tradition on its side. The latter, meanwhile, is so cherished and meaningful because it looks and feels so much like the right place. |