One of the most fascinating time periods from history to me is the few years following the Savior’s crucifixion. Little is mentioned of it in scripture, and yet there are some remarkable historical accounts that do exist which help fill in the gap of our collective memory during those dramatic years. For anyone who is open, some remarkable truths are within reach.
I write about that time period here because it is so difficult to find a single narrative containing the events and people with the correct relationships, in their proper sequence, and in their true context. My hope is that doing so will help those with similar interests to find some leads, answers, or confirmations to their questions. Another reason for sharing these things is because those events surrounding and including the crucifixion, are being repeated at this moment, and they are and will involve many who are on the earth now.
What follows is a comparison of those times with current and future day events, along with some doctrinal insights.
Doctrinal Backbone
600 years before Christ, a faithful Jew living in Palestine faithfully lived the lesser law of the Gospel then known as The Law of Moses. He stood apart from the church members of his time in that he recognized The Law he followed was merely a collection of steps and procedures that helped bring repentant sinners back to oneness with God. He knew the outward procedures of The Law were a means to that end, and not the end in and of themselves. In his own words:
And, notwithstanding we believe in Christ, we keep the law of Moses, and look forward with steadfastness unto Christ, until the law shall be fulfilled. For, for this end was the law given; wherefore the law hath become dead unto us, and we are made alive in Christ because of our faith; yet we keep the law because of the commandments. And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins (2 Nephi 25:24-26)
If you’ve ever sat in a church meeting or temple ceremony and wondered why we go through these things repeatedly, or maybe even sensed there was more to those outward rites than meets the eye, you may relate to the emotion Nephi felt. As uplifting as those rituals can be, they are not the end, but are rather a means to an end. The question then arises, what is that end?
Nephi, like his Father, was privileged to experience a visitation from a divine messenger who showed him a vision of the metaphor of an iron rod which led to a tree full of beautiful fruit (1 Ne. 8, 11). Through this vision he would have understood that as important as the rod of iron was in acquiring the fruit of the tree, the rod itself was not the ultimate experience, but a means to an end.
Church and temple experiences are like the rod of iron, leading the truth seeker on to a divine experience, which is the metaphoric fruit of Lehi and Nephi’s vision. To say that ones’ church or temple experiences are the highest and greatest achievements one can experience in life would be like Nephi saying, “the rod is the destination”, rather than the fruit at the end of it. In focusing on the outward aspects of the gospel we become like the Pharisees of old, indoctrinated in the methods that lead to salvation, rather than the fruit of salvation itself. In doing so we ‘miss the mark’, which was then and is now considered sin (חטא, “sin” means to “Miss the Mark”).
Historical Narrative (with added insights)
As I proceed I invite you to look for the shadows and interpretation of ancient events with our day. I like to think of Nephi’s time as something like the Mayflower days of American History. Both had a voyage across the seas and began a new world. Many of the events that happened following those voyages in the establishment and downfall of nations mirror each other. In observing those patterns I marvel at the wisdom, divine plan, and curious sense of simplistic and repetitive orchestration of our Father in Heaven.
Over the next 600 years Jewish culture and tradition lead the church into a state of having many technically active, though apostate members of the church, at least in the sense that many had become blind to the precepts of a once purer faith. The Saducees, Scribes, and Pharisees were living in a perpetual state of missing the mark in what still was considered the true and living church. They had priesthood authority and the rites and ordinances of salvation were among them.
Annas and his son in law, Caiaphas, were the High Priests of the church and were evil and conspiring men, whose conspiracies began against the family of Christ before He was even born [ii]. Their power compounded an already impure religious culture by creating fear in the hearts of its adherents – fear of breaking a complicated Law, and fear of The Council who upheld, enforced, and further convoluted it.
Such was the culture among the people when Jesus Christ began His ministry, but despite the false precepts among church members, many truth seekers recognized who the Savior was and the divinity of His mission. Fear of the council pervaded many of the hearts of those who believed in or associated with Him (Matthew 5:22).
Everything the Law of Moses taught defined what it meant to be unclean, therefore to be associated with anyone of a questionable nature would have invited ridicule and the feared perception of being unclean (other labels exist today, like ‘crazy’, ‘apostate’, ‘eccentric’, etc). Many of those rules about what constituted uncleanliness feel like they were rooted in culture, and driven by fear. Everything about that culture from my reading of New Testament literature speaks to the heavy oppression and fear that existed.
Even at the hour of the Savior’s sacred suffering in the Garden, and the few hours following, His disciples struggled to stand beside Him, as they vanish from the scriptures during His last several hours of life when persecution and the danger of The Council became the greatest threat.
At the Savior’s public excommunication and crucifixion, many church leaders stood by as witnesses to the event, mocking Him while He suffered there (Matthew 27:41). But there were those who despite the oppressive fear based culture stood by Jesus – an astounding majority of which were women who showed no fear in their public love and loyalty to the Savior. Among them were His mother Mary, His wife Mary Magdalene and her family members the Bethany sisters, who were the in-laws of Jesus (John 19:25) [ii]. Only one of His apostles, probably John, was mentioned as being present (John 19:27).
Mary Magdalene and the other female followers of Christ are only mentioned a few times in our current scripture, but their role in His life and following him in death is significant. There were attempts in early Christianity, especially during the Council of Nicaea under the direction of Emperor Constantine, to minimize the role of women in scripture, and to propagate other doctrinal biases resulting in the incomplete and even altered scriptures we have now [i].
Joseph of Arimathea, eldest brother of Christ [ii], as well as Nicodemus, who are often characterized as living in fear of the council (John 3:2; John 19:38), courageously and publicly stepped forward to handle matters pertaining to the dignified and proper burial of the Savior. By virtue of their high public status, probably their wealth, and Joseph’s familial connection to Jesus, they legally acquired rights to His body from Pilate.
The scriptures indicate that Joseph and Nicodemus then removed Him from the cross and placed Him in a tomb with spices and oils of a royal value (John 19:39), but they don’t clearly indicate the intimate role many women had in working with Joseph and Nicodemus to prepare the body of the Savior (Luke 23:55-56). In a group effort, Mary Magdalene lead in the anointing of His body and provided His clothing, which was white. They placed white under clothing and a head piece upon Him, and covered His body in a white sheet from head to toe. They laid Him on the stone bed of the tomb, and rolled back the stone slab covering the entrance [ii].
Their public acts removed any trace of doubt as to their loyalty to Christ in the minds of His antagonists and followers alike, and sealed their ultimate fate as banished members of their now fulfilled religion. The first to stand before the council following the Savior’s own trial was Joseph of Arimathea. The Sanhedrin immediately sentenced him to death for his public support of Jesus. Then, because of the insufficient time to carry out his death sentence due to the quickly approaching Sabbath, they placed him in prison. He was rescued three days later by the resurrected Savior [iii], who had just come from first visiting His beloved wife, Mary, at the tomb.
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| 1st Century Fishing Boat |
Persecutions of Christ’s followers continued for the next two years. During that time a plot grew among church leaders to remove and silence Christ’s faithful first line of family members and most zealous supporters. One of Christ’s disciples named Stephen experienced his own public excommunication and death sentence which was carried out by his fellow church members and leaders according to the Old Law of Moses through stoning, making him the first documented public excommunication and death sentence for Christ’s sake (Acts 7:54-60).
About the same time the closest members and supporters of the Savior were gathered and subjected to a sort of public excommunication and banishment ceremony. They were then placed in two or three of Joseph of Arimathea’s own boats and exiled from Judea and their church [ii].
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| Ancient Trade Routes |
They sailed westward on well established trade routes familiar to Joseph from his career as a tradesman under the Roman Emperor appointed title of Nobilis Decurio [iv]. They landed at Marseilles France, and then according to the dictates of the Holy Spirit, went their separate ways as apostate members of their old faith which was now fulfilled, and as the newest members, earliest pioneers, and missionaries of the new faith they helped establish throughout Europe which would later be referred to as, Christianity [ii].
Conclusion
At some point in the journey to the Tree it becomes necessary to faithfully let go of the iron rod, and reach toward the fruit to which the rod leads. God is that fruit. Whatever deadness exists in the Law, or among the church with all its ordinances, covenants, programs, positions, people, and even its temples will all be made alive in Christ at His return.
Similar events to those which transpired for the earliest followers of Christ during that transition of churches are repeating themselves now. Some who are awakening to their forordained purposes and messages of truth to share are facing excommunication by local councils of the true church – councils which for the sake of tradition and culture struggle to see those truths which have not been taught or manufactured from their own pulpits.
As in times of old, mainstream members of the church persecute those unpopular rising voices, ironically providing the opposition they need to pass their individual tests and prove themselves again to their creator in the heat of their refining fires, in preparation of their own intimate experiences with the fruit of the Tree.
Like the early faithful followers of Christ who were banished from the church, modern day front line defenders of truth and those who have partaken of the fruit of the tree work toward the establishment of the New Law, the New Zion (Moses 7:62–63), the prophesied church and Kingdom of God on the earth that will welcome the return of the King of Kings, the true shepherd of Israel (Ezekiel 34:22-31).
Citations
[i] Glenn Kimball, “Hidden Politics of the Crucifixion”, 1998
[ii] Personal and / or shared knowledge
[iii] edited by H.C. Kim. (1973). The Gospel of Nicodemus (Gesta Salvatoris): edited from the Codex Einsidlensis, Einsiedeln Stiftsbibliothek MS 326. Toronto: Published for the Centre for Medieval Studies by the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies
[iv] The Incredible History of God’s True Church. Triumph Publishing Co., Altadena, CA. 1984, p. 54
[v] Annales Ecclesiastici, vol. I, p. 327; The Drama of the Lost Disciples, p. 63; More information can be found in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the sixteenth century Vatican library, Cardinal Caesar Baronius (1538-1609 A.D.).