This Sunday, Christians will celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, something we’ve been doing now for almost two full millennia. All true Christians believe this event most assuredly occurred. If it did, it provides all the proof anyone should need that all the claims Jesus made about Himself are true, including His claim to be nothing less that God Himself (John 10:30-33). And if all His claims are true, then one can only obtain eternal life through Him (John 14:6).
If the truth be told, Jesus promised that the truth of everything He claimed about Himself and His ministry would be validated by one sign: His resurrection from the grave (Matthew 12:38-40). His opponents, the Jewish religious establishment, understood this, which is why they asked Pilate for Roman soldiers to guard the tomb so that the body could not be taken by His followers to claim He had risen (Matt. 27:63-66).
Some may say that the resurrection is just a myth created over time by those who wanted to believe it happened. But that is simply not the case. According to Josh MacDowell, “researchers have uncovered twelve reliable, non-Christian sources between 20-150 years after Jesus’ crucifixion, that state clearly that Jesus was executed.” One of those sources was Tacitus (AD 55-120), who is considered by many to be the greatest of the ancient historians. Of course the fact that His death was confirmed by many, both Christian and non-Christian, this does not prove that He rose from the dead. But there is abundant evidence that, early on, there were people who claimed to have seen Him alive after He had died. So let’s spend the remainder of our allotted space to consider some of the evidence for this most fundamental belief of our faith.
First, no one ever argued that the body was missing, including the Jewish leaders, who did everything possible to prevent this. So the question we pose is this: Is there any way to explain the missing body apart from His followers’ claims that He arose?
Well, the first explanation actually comes to us from the Scripture itself, where the Jews said His followers stole the body while the Roman guards were asleep (Matthew 28:11-14). But there are at least two problems here. First, the stone guarding the entrance was so heavy that it would have required many men to move it, which would have awakened the guards. But more than that, any Roman on guard duty who was ever caught sleeping while guarding a Roman seal would have been put to death. This also helps explain why the guards went to the Sanhedrin for protection.
A second explanation that has been offered is that Jesus didn’t really die but was resuscitated after being taken down from the cross. This also should be ruled out, for the Romans were experts at crucifixion, having performed it on thousands. Also, before Jesus’ body was given to Joseph of Arimathea, Pilate sought confirmation that He was dead. So, a Roman soldier thrust a spear into His side and out came blood and water (John 19:34). If He had still been alive, it would have ‘spurted’ with every beat of His heart showing that He was still alive. Yes, Jesus was surely dead.
Others have tried to argue that those who claimed to have seen Him alive were hallucinating. But for this to be true, you have to explain how all who saw him on several different appearances fell into this category. On one occasion, Paul said Jesus appeared to over 500 people at one time (I Corinthians 15:6), many of whom were still living when he wrote these words.
But maybe the hardest question to answer is this: How do you explain the transformed lives of His followers after this event? According to history, many of them went to their death rather than deny the resurrection. Is there anyone who would give their life proclaiming a lie while knowing it was a lie?
These are just a few reasons why we as believers have confidence that the record of Jesus’ resurrection in Scripture is true and why He is all that He claims to be: King of Kings and Lord of Lords, our Lord and our Savior.
For God’s glory and His alone,
Pastor Terry.