For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 NIV

Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”  He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.  For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Matthew 12:38-40 NIV

14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.

1 Corinthians 15:14, 17 NIV

After Jesus’ crucifixion, the disciples went into hiding, afraid for their lives.  They were overwhelmed, and in disbelief and despair about what had just happened.  How could everything have gone so wrong?  Jesus had brought light to overcome the darkness of Satan’s kingdom, but now, from a human perspective, it appeared that Satan’s kingdom had won.  They hadn’t yet had time to process everything Jesus had taught them, or the symbolism he unwrapped for them at the last Seder.

Then came Easter morning, the Third Day, and comprehension was about to break through their despair.  For the Jewish people, this day was the festival of First Fruits. 

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

1 Corinthians 15:20 ESV

With Jesus’ resurrection, God had confirmed that Jesus is his son, Israel’s Messiah, the Savior of the world.  The disciples began to put the puzzle pieces together.  They studied the Scriptures and they recalled everything Jesus had done and taught them over the past three years. 

They remembered the pictures and symbols of redemption found in covenants and stories and pictures throughout the Old Testament.  They remembered the symbolism in the Passover and the Seder, and especially what Jesus had revealed to them at the last Seder, that the Afikomen had always represented his body, and the Cup of Redemption had always been a symbol of his blood.  They realized that Jesus had died and was buried on the same day priests were sacrificing Passover lambs, and had risen on the day of First Fruits.  God had planned all this long before.

And they undoubtedly recalled what Jesus had said to them while he was on the cross.  Jesus’ cry “My God, why have you forsaken me?” sounds like a cry of despair to us today, but to his disciples it was a signpost to lead them to comprehension. 

In chapter 3 of Jesus and the Undoing of Adam, Baxter Kruger unpacks Jesus’ statement.  It is a direct quotation of the first line of Psalm 22.  Kruger points out that by quoting the first line of a Psalm, Jesus was triggering the memory of the entire Psalm for his disciples, for every Jewish male knew it by heart.  He was interpreting his suffering and death for them. Psalm 22 begins in despair.  It appears all is lost.  Evil has surrounded Jesus, and God seems nowhere near.  Then, at verse 19, things turn around when he calls out to the Lord.  By verse 24 we know that God has heard mankind’s cries for help and is responding.  God will make everything right; the whole earth will acknowledge the Lord and return to him.  The Psalm ends in triumph:

Our children will also serve him. Future generations will hear about the wonders of the Lord.  His righteous acts will be told to those not yet born.  They will hear about everything he has done.

Psalm 22:30-31 NLT

Kruger explains it like this:

“Psalm 22 moves from agony to God’s victorious intervention and to a prophecy that the coming generations will look back upon this moment as the salvation of the Lord of Hosts.”

Jesus and the undoing of Adam, C. Baxter Kruger (Kindle location 951)

And it doesn’t end there.  Psalm 22 is followed by Psalms 23 and 24.  All three were well known to Jesus’ disciples and most likely recognized as a set and recited together.  Psalm 23 begins:

The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.  He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

Psalm 23:1-3 NIV

Then finishes:

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.  You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.  Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever

Psalm 23:4-6 NIV

And then Psalm 24 ends with the triumphant words we know from Handel’s Messiah:

So those three psalms move from despair, surrounded by evil, to triumph when God responds to our predicament, to mankind dwelling with God eternally, and finally to the King of glory, the Lord Almighty, reclaiming his creation.

With time to think through everything that had taken place, the disciples put the puzzle pieces together and saw the whole picture of redemption.  Years later, Paul could write:

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

That creed is one of the first that early Christians used to communicate a summary of the gospel.  It emphasizes that Christ’s death and resurrection were “according to the scriptures”.  In other words, Christ’s death and resurrection had been foreseen in the Old Testament, in words and in pictures, and especially in living parables.

Everything had unfolded according to God’s plan, recorded in the Bible, even though it didn’t make sense at the time.  By Pentecost, the disciples were openly preaching the gospel, ignoring the threats to their lives.  The kingdom of God had been planted, the church had been launched, and it would begin to grow just as in the parables of the mustard seed and the yeast, until Jesus returns.  And Satan can’t stop it.