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Woodstock Mountain Bike Fellowship

The Resurrection: Historical Fact or Wish Fulfillment?

March 25, 2008

Is it possible to be sure of something that we didn't see with our own two eyes? Before you assume that "blind faith" equals foolishness, think again.

A number of years ago, I sat on a jury for a shoplifting case in Delaware. As usual, the judge instructed us to decide if the defendant was guilty "beyond a reasonable doubt." Now I'd never seen the accused woman before, and I certainly had never seen her in the act of shoplifting, so how could I make such a judgment?

It took about four hours for all of the evidence to be presented, after which time our jury gathered in a room for deliberation. At the end of the process, I cast a vote of guilty without reservation. I didn't need to see the actual event to know that she had done something wrong. Credible witnesses presented consistent stories that helped me arrive at a practically certain decision. I say practically, because I did have to have some faith in the witnesses.

How can we be sure that George W. Bush is actually alive and president of the US? I've never seen him in person, but the media has convinced me of it (and I'm not sure how credible they are). Backing up some, how can I be sure that George Washington was the first president of the US? Because the historians have preserved a trustworthy record. Even further back, did Columbus really cross the ocean blue in 1492? I've belabored the point to remind you that there are many things that you believe to be reasonable and rational, in spite of your lack of first-hand evidence.

In the same way, I believe that it is rational and reasonable to make informed judgments about who Jesus is and about the resurrection "beyond a reasonable doubt". I also believe that it is important to understand that such judgments are made within the domain of faith. Not only is this OK, but it is the way that things must be according to Hebrews 11:6 "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." God created the world and makes the rules, and according to His rule book, salvation comes through faith. If you are waiting for absolute certainty, you are waiting for something that God neither promises nor requires.

So what is the big deal about the bodily resurrection of Jesus - why are Christians so hung up about it? Three reasons come to mind:

  1. If you look at all of the known religions in the world, all but four of them are based on mere philosophical propositions. Of the founders of the other four (Buddha, Mohammed, and Confucius), only Christianity claims that its founder rose from the dead. If this really did happen, Christianity truly stands apart as unique.
  2. Not only does the resurrection identify Christianity as unique, it is the absolute basis for the viability of Christianity. 1 Corinthians 15:17 clearly states that "if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins." Verse 18 goes on to say that "If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied."
  3. If the disciples really wanted to create an illusion, they would have probably simply claimed that Jesus spiritually rose from the dead. This would have been the "easy way" out. But by claiming that Jesus rose bodily from the dead, the disciples set themselves up for complete destruction of their movement when people would find the body of Jesus.

Obviously, the bodily resurrection of Christ is a huge matter. But is it reasonable for modern people to believe in the 21st century? Don't arrogantly assume that we're better able to identify a hoax than the people of the first century. They were equally pre-disposed to skepticism: The idea of a bodily resurrection would seem foolish to the Greeks and Romans, since they believed that the evil body would remain in the grave to free up the "good" spirit at the point of death (influence of Plato). And the Jews who believed in a bodily resurrection expected it to occur at the end of time. So it would take a very convincing argument for them to believe.

Prophesies by Christ. Let's begin by looking at some of the witnesses to the occurrence of the event. Perhaps the most credible of all is Jesus himself. I counted over 16 places where he prophesied of His resurrection. Look at Matthew 16:21; Matthew 17:22,23; Matthew 20:18,19; and Luke 9:22. I think we can safely say that Christ was certain about the coming events, including the resurrection. And when the Jews demanded he give a sign to verify that He was indeed who He claimed to be, He prophesied of His greatest sign of all: John 2:18-22. In doing this, Christ staked His whole claim to deity on the resurrection (pretty important, eh?).

The death of Christ. Following the prophecies made by Christ, the next chronological event worth looking at is the death of Christ. Just to be sure they got the right guy, the Roman Cohort brought along one of Jesus' own disciples to identify Him. Matthew 26:47-50 describes the scene as they bind Jesus and take him in for judgment. From here, He endured a sleepless night with no food, mock trials and beatings, scourging with a cat-o-nine-tails, a painful trek up Golgotha, and the anguish and embarrassment of death on a Roman cross. As recorded in John 19:33,34, the soldiers (who were accustomed to seeing dead men) pierced the dead body of Christ and out flowed blood and water, indicating death by rupture of the heart. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemas then wrapped the dead body with cloths and a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes and placed it in a newly cut rock tomb, then rolled the stone in front of it. It is reasonable to believe that Jesus was dead and buried.

Speaking of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, I'm glad that they were the ones who handled the body of Jesus after His death. This is important, because they were both members of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the day. They were not just nameless people of questionable integrity - they were well known representatives of Jewish authority.

The tomb. The "newly cut tomb" (Matthew 27:60) that belonged to Joseph of Arimathea is to me an exciting thing. Typical Roman crucifixions ended with the dead hanging on their crosses for days, becoming food for the birds of prey. At best, you would normally expect the dead to be put in a grave for criminals. But (I believe) to strengthen the evidence for the coming event, God provided that a sealed tomb in which to bury Christ. This kind of tomb was hewn horizontally into a rock wall, with a ledge cut out of a wall on which to lay the body. Recognizing that a rich man prepared the tomb for himself also helps us better understand the nature of the stone door. A large rolling stone in a groove was provided to protect the contents from theft, and the stone on a rich man's grave would be very large to prevent thieves from stealing his jewelry. A marginal note in a second century manuscript of the gospel of Mark (Codex Bezae) on 16:4 indicates that it took twenty men to move it.

Because the Jews feared the disciples would steal Jesus' body and falsely claim He rose from the dead, they asked Pilate to secure the grave and prevent such a deception (Matthew 27:62-66). In response, he placed a seal (probably attached to a cord) on the tomb to indicate if any tampering with the grave occurred, then posted between ten and thirty specially trained Roman soldiers on guard at the site. Recognize that these guards didn't have the opportunity to goof off on the job more than once. We can be thankful that these Jewish leaders took this step, adding to our trail of evidence.

The Empty Tomb. Leading up to the resurrection, there is clear evidence to believe that Christ was dead, embalmed, entombed, and heavily guarded. Turn with me to John 20, and let's read verses 1-9. It must have quite a frightening sight for Mary to walk up to the tomb that dark morning and see the stone rolled away - she ran all the way back into town to get Peter and John. It's interesting that although Peter had seen the whole saga of Jesus' life and death, he still didn't understand that Jesus had risen when he saw the empty tomb. But having understood the prophecies of Christ and the OT prophets, John saw and believed (v8). So how can we really be sure that the tomb was empty?

Perhaps the most convincing evidence to me was the response of the Jewish leaders who had Him killed in the first place (Matthew 28:2-4,11-15). First, I think that it's interesting that the leaders never did disprove the empty tomb, or the resurrection of Jesus. And as an answer, they circulated a lie to cover for the truth. Similarly, they never did dispute the fact that Jesus performed miracles (Matthew 12:24), they just masked the truth by claiming He performed them by Satan's power. Although these men are regarded as Jewish leaders, you can understand the quality of their leadership. Not only did they instruct them to say they were asleep (worthy of death for a Roman guard), but to say that they saw Jesus' disciples steal His body while they were asleep. I don't know about you, but the only thing I see when I'm sleeping is the inside of my eyelids. And if one really did see the disciples steal his body while the rest slept, why didn't he wake the others and fight to the death as they were trained (knowing they'd die by execution anyway)? Consider for a minute the "bold" apostles...

The response of the disciples. What were the apostles actually doing when all this was going on? It probably would have set the minds of the Pharisees at ease to know that they had "all gone away" (Mark 14:50). And even when the news of his potential resurrection reaches them, only two apostles have the guts to venture outside and see if it's really true (John 20:2,3). And even when they do gather, they still huddle behind locked doors for fear of the Jews (John 20:19). In other words, these are hardly your aggressive, grave robbing gang of followers.

I also think it's interesting that the linen wrappings which Nicodemus and Joseph bound Christ's body in were still in the empty grave (John 20:6,7). If someone had taken the body of Christ (or if He got up and walked away), why take off His clothes? Remember, this is an eyewitness account of John, and very descriptive of this all-important scene. Remember that after His resurrection, Christ was able to pass through the walls of a room (John 20:19) and could just as easily have passed through the grave clothes. Which also means the stone didn't need to be moved. I suppose He had it done so that, like the apostles, we could "see and believe".

But even more important than any of this is the response of people just a short time after they saw Him die on the cross. As Peter preaches the truth about the resurrection of Christ at Pentecost, 3000 people believe (Acts 2:32,41)! And recognize that they were just a short walk from the tomb. I'm sure many who had seen Him die went to check it out (I know I would have). And there in the same city with the empty tomb, many thousand more believe, even some of the Pharisees who initially spread the lies (Acts 15:5). Today, we're not even sure which tomb it was, but how can you argue with thousands of witnesses?

Christ's Post Resurrection Appearances. I find the transformation of the apostles as one of the unique events to occur after Christ's resurrection. In John 20:19, they were hiding behind closed doors in fear. In John 21:3, they went back to a life of fishing. But in Acts 2:14ff, Peter boldly accuses the same massive crowd that condemned Jesus of killing the Messiah, and instructed them to repent. What changed their minds? Acts 1:3,8 gives a good reason - they were instructed and empowered by the risen Christ to go and preach the gospel.

Many times the Bible speaks of appearances that Christ made following His resurrection, and they're well summarized by Paul in I Corinthians 15:3-6. He claims that Christ appeared to over 500 people, and says that most of them were still alive at the time of his writing. Many people today would dismiss reports of Christ's post resurrection appearances as dreams by people with a strong desire to see Him. While a single, grief stricken individual might imagine (or hallucinate) that a loved one has returned from the dead, 500 witnesses are enough to convince a court of law, and were enough to turn the city of Jerusalem (and the entire world) upside down.

Speaking of the resurrection, historians have devised no other rational explanation why thousands of people who had staunchly observed the Sabbath for centuries would rapidly shift over to worship on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7).

The Bottom Line. At our last meeting, we discussed the Sovereignty of God, concluding that God is in control of everything we experience. You might call it coincidence, but imagine this: Today I attended the quarterly meeting of the Atlanta Compliance and Ethics roundtable at the law offices of Troutman Sanders downtown. Today's speaker was a former DOJ attorney and investigator by the name of Michael Johnson. His topic today: "Who's telling the truth? Conducting an effective investigation"

He posed a framework of five questions acceptable in our courts to determine if someone is telling the truth:

  1. Consistency of testimony
  2. Past record of misconduct
  3. Motivation to lie
  4. Corroboration of witnesses
  5. Demeanor of defendant

Consistency of testimony. Throughout the Bible, we read the same story (Jonah and the fish - Matthew 12:40, 1 Corinthians 15:4 - rose on the third day). Jesus died, was buried, and rose again on the third day.

Past record of misconduct. In order to demonstrate its accuracy, the Bible does something very interesting - it tells things just as they really are. It shows the rough edges of the heroes (Peter's denial of Christ, the apostles' infighting, David's adultery), describes non-essential details (153 fish, give the girl some food), and uses women to first discover the empty tomb.

Motivation to lie. Quite the contrary, the disciples had every right to lie and say that Jesus was not resurrected, since telling the truth brought them to their death.

Corroboration of witnesses. Although I used mostly scriptural references to describe the details, secular literature gives identical accounts. Writings by Ignatius (50-115AD), Justin Martyr (100-165AD), Tertullian of Carthage (160-220AD), and Josephus (circa 100AD) give identical accounts. In fact, WM Smith writes, "We know more about the burial of the Lord Jesus than we know of the burial of any single character in all of ancient history". I believe it was no accident - God wanted us to be able to factually make a decision about the reality of the resurrection.

Demeanor of defendant. It would have been easy to tell that Peter was lying when he denied Christ, but look at him a few weeks after the resurrection in Acts 4:8-14 "Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them …let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead … there is salvation in no one else; … Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed."

If Christ had died and stayed in the tomb, perhaps there'd be a shrine in Jerusalem where His followers could worship. But instead of just starting a "typical" religion in which people can follow His example, Christ accurately described his execution and resurrection. And there is reasonable proof that He actually did rise from the grave.

As you've seen, some of the people who actually saw it refused to believe (the priests and guards). It is entirely possible have such a pre-disposition toward non-belief that, in spite of overwhelming evidence, some people will always choose to deny the obvious. I didn't see it with my own two eyes, but from a quick review of evidence, resurrection seems to be the most rational hypothesis.

Acceptance of the resurrection is an amazing thing - it permits us to have a relationship with a risen Savior. In order to do so, we must turn from our sin (Luke 13:3), and turn toward Christ, putting our complete faith in Him and His resurrection for salvation (Romans 10:9). This is the most important thing a person can do in his life, and will be the determining factor on how he spends eternity (John 3:36).

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