by Collen Mayer 

“That I may know Him and the power of his resurrection, and share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

-  Philippians 3:10-11 

As we proceed through Lent and as Easter approaches, we are once again powerfully reminded of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  During Lent we repent of our sins and through self-sacrifice and interior conversion experience our own journey of faith as we follow Jesus to the cross.  Although Lent is a sorrowful time when we remember all our faults and failings, it is ultimately a preparation for a much greater joy - Christ’s triumph over sin and death through His glorious resurrection.  The somberness and sacrifice we experience during the Lenten season is replaced by an indescribable joy at Easter time because God has won for us new life!  It therefore becomes an indispensable part of the Christian faith that Christ not only died for us, but that he ultimately defeated death by rising from the dead. 

Unfortunately we hear more and more scientists, philosophers, and sometimes even religious leaders deny the literal, “bodily” resurrection of Christ.  Some try to claim that the resurrection is only “spiritual” and that Jesus’ resurrection was never meant to be taken literally.  Others claim that the apostles moved Jesus’ body from the tomb (leaving it empty) and simply made up the fact that Jesus rose from the dead.  Some even devise incredible stories that Jesus fainted during the crucifixion and woke up in the tomb, or that he just “pretended” to be dead for three days.  As Christians we cannot accept these claims - we have to be ready to show that the bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is a historical fact.   

Some people reading this may already be starting to wonder how I can claim that the resurrection of Christ is a historical fact, such as Caesar crossing the Rubicon or the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Unlike the events recorded in history books, we have to accept the resurrection of Christ on blind faith, right?  We can’t really be sure He rose from the dead…can we?

A Historical Fact

 

“For I handed to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.  Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me.” 

– 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 

It turns out that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not merely an article of faith for Christians… it is a provable, historical fact!  There is an abundance of evidence withstanding all historical objections that convincingly shows that Jesus died and rose on the third day.  Let’s look at some of the evidence: 

1) The Five Historical Accounts in the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, and the Pauline Epistles 

When deciding the validity of a historic event we often look for sources that confirm or deny the particular occurrence.  Often we have to trust secondary sources (sources written long after the event) to recount what actually happened.  We may read a historian’s account of a famous war for example, in which he tries to recreate exactly what happened even though he wasn’t actually there.  Occasionally we are lucky enough to get first-hand sources that were written by people who were actually witnesses of the event and the occurrences around the time of the event.  These sources are seen as more reliable because they are actually eyewitness accounts of the event.  Consider reading an account from a soldier’s journal of a famous war where he tells first-hand the hurts and pains of war and the toll it took on himself and his fellow soldiers.  Is this account not more reliable and descriptive than the account of the historian who wasn’t actually there? 

With the resurrection of Jesus we have the same kind of accurate sources verifying the resurrection as in the example of the soldier’s journal.  The four gospels, Acts, and the epistles of St. Paul provide five different sources from five different authors (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Paul) dating all the way back to the time of the early Christian Church, verifying the resurrection of Jesus.  It is actually quite rare to have five independent, primary sources all verifying an event that happened two thousand years ago. The sources confirming the resurrection of Christ are more numerous than most other events of that time that we take to be historic fact!  We can be sure that Jesus rose from the dead because we have reliable historical sources that testify to the resurrection.  

2) The Empty Tomb

An equally convincing argument in favor of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the empty tomb.  It is a historical fact that Jesus, son of Mary, walked the Earth, was hung and died on a cross, and was laid in a tomb.  Few will try and argue this; these events are confirmed by Jesus’ friends and followers, the Roman soldiers, and all the Jewish people of Jesus’ time.  But it is also a historical fact that the tomb of Jesus on the third day after His death was empty.  In 2000 years, there have been no credible arguments given against the fact that Jesus’ tomb was found empty.   

Think about it: the number one concern for the Roman leaders after Jesus’ death was getting all of the talk and commotion about Jesus to subside.  Jesus had caused nothing short of a social uproar for the political leaders, and by crucifying Him, they finally thought that the Jesus “craze” would die down and all the people would soon forget about this man who called himself the Son of God.  So as soon as the apostles started making these incredible claims that Jesus had risen from the dead, what would be the first thing the Roman guards would have done to quiet them down?  They would have gone to the tomb and showed them that their “messiah” was still lying dead where they left him.  But history tells us that this is not what happened… the tomb was found empty by both the followers of Christ and by those who crucified Him. 

So what happened to the body?  One of the explanations some use to explain the empty tomb is that the disciples of Jesus stole the body.  But this is simply impossible.  There is no doubt that the tomb would have been under heavy guard (and the Gospels confirm this).  The Roman guards knew that the penalty of allowing anyone near the body would have been death for them.  They also knew of Jesus’ “claims” that he would rise from the dead, and of the possibility for one of Jesus’ followers to try and remove the body to prove this claim.  Under no condition would the Romans have allowed anyone near the tomb to steal the body.   

Others have come up with even more outlandish explanations such as: Jesus only fainted on the cross, and after being placed in the tomb, Jesus regained his senses and walked away.  Some people even argue that Jesus only pretended to die on the cross and that after he was placed in the tomb, he quit pretending and left the tomb claiming to have risen from the dead.  These assertions are absolutely impossible.  The kind of torture and brutality Jesus endured was enough to kill any man; science has convincingly proven this.  History tells us that the Roman soldiers found Jesus dead even before the other men he was crucified with had died.  So the claims that Jesus merely faked his death or that he only fainted on the cross are unreasonable and lack any scientific or historical basis.   

The only logical, historical explanation for the empty tomb is that Jesus truly rose from the dead as he promised.  This is the only way to explain why the tomb was empty and why the body was never found.   

3) The Many Appearances of Jesus after His Death 

Another proof of Jesus’ bodily resurrection comes from the numerous eyewitness testimonies from those whom He appeared to after he rose from the dead.   

We know that after Jesus’ death the apostles ran and hid in a room together out of fear for their lives - spreading the gospel message was the last thing on their mind.  They were hurt and disheartened that the man they thought would bring God’s glorious kingdom was in the end nothing more than another righteous martyr who died trying to spread God’s message.  Only the appearance of the risen Jesus can account for the dramatic change in the apostles that took place shortly after His death.  It is just as much a historical fact as the other undisputed facts mentioned earlier that the disciples of Jesus somehow gained the courage to leave the upper room where they were hiding and amidst persecution began boldly proclaiming that the risen Christ had appeared to them.  We also know that most of them were martyred proclaiming this message. 

Now people trying to deny the resurrection will quickly claim that these followers of Jesus simply made up their story to give credibility to the teachings of this man who claimed he would rise from the dead.   Therefore the Christian community made up the story to keep the “myth” of Jesus alive.  But let’s take a closer look at this.  These men who proclaimed Jesus’ Gospel not only devoted their lives for this cause, but they DIED for this cause.  Although it’s possible (yet certainly not probable) that a small group of men could make up an incredible story such as the Christian message, no men would die martyrs’ deaths for a story they knew was false.  Again and again these disciples were killed for following this man who they kept insisting rose from the dead; and not one of them ever retracted the story, and said “Hey stop the execution - I just made it up.”  No, nobody could have died the kind of deaths these men died for a story that was not true.  

We must also remember that it was not just a small group of men that the risen Christ appeared to.  He appeared to multitudes of people within a very short time, and they all went proclaiming the good news that the man Jesus who had been killed was alive again.  Therefore perhaps the strongest evidence that Jesus rose from the dead is that large multitudes of people saw the risen Christ and then staked their lives and became martyrs based on Jesus’ appearance to them. 

Living out the Resurrection of Christ

“May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.” – Hebrews 13:20-21 

We now see that evidence abounds for the literal, bodily resurrection of Christ from the grave - Christians and non-Christians alike can be sure that Christ rose from the dead based simply on the historical facts.  But the question remains: “What does Christ’s resurrection mean for me today?”   

Two-thousand years ago the resurrection of Christ showed all of the disciples that their teacher and friend was more than just a prophet and a righteous martyr; by rising from the dead, Christ showed His whole community of disciples that he truly was, as Peter confessed, “the Christ, the Son of the Living God”- for only the Son of God could triumph over death and raise himself to new life.   

I mentioned earlier that we can know that Christ rose from the dead by reason alone, simply by looking at the historical facts.  But this is only the start…after we are convinced by reason of Christ’s resurrection we then have to live out this incredible message by faith - faith in the man who died for our sins and was raised up on the third day.  Today our mission is still to boldly proclaim the risen Christ just as his disciples did two-thousand years ago.  During Lent we’ve journeyed through a time of repentance and conversion as we remember Christ’s sorrowful journey to the cross; during Easter we live out the joyous resurrection of Christ in our very lives.  We joyfully proclaim Christ’s triumph over death and our own triumph over sin that we experience by God’s grace.   

May the power of Christ’s resurrection give us the strength to follow Paul’s instructions to the Thessalonians during this Easter season: 

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances.  For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

- 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed.