Where Did Jesus Die? — Page 101
Chapter Eight—Did Jesus Die on the Cross and Ascend to Heaven? 101 The disciples of Jesus, after he had bade them farewell, answered the mocking Jews, who asserted that they had caused their Messiah to die an ‘accursed’ death, that he rose from the dead. But his resurrection was difficult to prove. He made no public appear- ance and remained in hiding all the days he stayed there. When he migrated to another country they stated, metaphorically, that he had ascended to heaven. This answer was more incredible than the former and also unsatisfactory to the Jews who had thought that he had died an ‘accursed’ death. When Paul proclaimed the abolition of the Law, and absolved the people from the necessity of complying with the Law, he boldly told the Jews that it was true, as they said, that Jesus died an accursed death, but to redeem us ‘from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written: Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. ’ 1 Now the belief that sins are forgiven by the offering of gifts and sacrifices of animals was well established among the Jews. Thus, Micah, the prophet, says: Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 2 1. Gal. 3:13 2. Micah 6:6–7