There is one key event upon which Christianity stands or falls, and this key event is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a very significant and unique event which, if true, is proof that God exists, that the Bible is true, and that Jesus is God.
On several occasions, Jesus said He would provide one ultimate proof that He is God, and that proof was that He would resurrect Himself three days after His death:
Mt 12:38-40 Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, "Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you." He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous 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."If we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the Resurrection actually happened then the only conclusion a non-Christian can make is that Jesus was telling the truth. This would show that Jesus is God just as He claimed to be.Jn 2:18-21 Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" But the temple he had spoken of was his body.
Acts 17:30-31 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed [Jesus]. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.
At the crucifixion site the criminal's hands were nailed to the crossbar just below the wrist with large metal spikes (similar to modern railroad spikes), and both his feet were nailed to the upright beam with a single spike through both heels. Skeletal remains have been found in a Jewish tomb which include a pair of heel bones with this type of large metal spike through both heels. As the victim's arms and legs became cramped from exhaustion he would become unable to push himself up enough to breathe properly, and his brain and heart would be unable to get enough blood and oxygen. Death was usually by suffocation or a ruptured heart, and if the Romans wanted to hasten the criminal's death they would simply break both of his legs with a club so that he could not lift himself to fill his lungs. The Romans were cruelly and brutally efficient in their executions, so much so that the ancient Jewish historian Josephus (A.D. 37-97) over and over referred to crucifixion as a "horror" and "so horrible a death" and a "terrible warning" to others. The two thieves who were crucified with Jesus had their legs broken to hasten their deaths (Jn 19:31-32), but Jesus was already dead. To confirm this, the Roman centurian thrust a spear into His heart, spilling His "blood and water" (Jn 19:33-34). If Jesus were still alive at that point then there would have been spurts of bright red blood with every heartbeat. Medical experts have written that when death is due to a rupture of the heart, the clotted blood separates from the watery pericardial serum, so the fact that John witnessed the "blood and water" pouring out from the spear wound in His heart is exceptionally strong evidence that Jesus died from a ruptured heart rather than from suffocation.
At Jesus' burial, 75 pounds of spices mixed with a gummy substance made from myrrh and aloes were used in between the folds of the linen cloths which were wrapped around His body (Jn 19:39-40). According to Jewish custom, the body was washed and straightened, then wrapped tightly from the armpits to the ankles in strips of linen about a foot wide. The gummy aromatic spices were placed between the wrappings or folds partly as a preservative and partly as a cement to glue the linen cloths into a solid covering which adhered so closely to the body that it would not easily be removed. The aloes were a fragrant wood which was pounded to a dry dust, and the myrrh was an aromatic gum which was mixed in with the dry aloes. The powder immediately around the myrrh would become sticky and would cement the linen cloths to each other and to the body, but the bulk of the aloe powder would most likely remain dry. The face was covered with a cloth napkin or hankerchief which was sometimes wrapped fully around the head.
A one- to two-ton circular stone had been wedged in a groove or trench uphill from the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea (in which Jesus was laid), and when the wedge was removed the large heavy stone rolled into position to block the entrance to the tomb (Mt 27:57-60). A guard unit made up of highly disciplined Roman soldiers was stationed at the tomb because the Jewish Pharisees were afraid that the disciples would steal the body and claim that Jesus had risen from the dead (Mt 27:62-66). It was unusual for soldiers to be placed at a tomb to guard it in this manner, so it is likely that the stone which blocked the tomb was larger than would typically be used in order to provide extra protection against theft of the body. There is a debate over whether this guard unit was from the Roman guard or the Jewish Temple guard, but either way it was composed of fighting men with strong military discipline who would have been beaten and even killed (often by being stripped and burned alive with a fire started from their own clothes) for leaning on something or sitting down or falling asleep on duty or for deserting their posts. An official seal was placed on the stone so that nobody could tamper with the grave without breaking the seal and incurring the wrath of the Roman authorities (Mt 27:66. See Dan 6:17 for a similar sealing.).
The following Sunday after Jesus' burial, three women visited the tomb and found that the seal had been broken, the heavy stone had been rolled away from the tomb, and Jesus' body was gone (Lk 24:1-3). Two angels told them that Jesus was resurrected just as He had promised (Lk 24:4-8).
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The flaw in this theory is that even if the three women initially went to the wrong tomb, someone in Jerusalem knew where the tomb was, it was never "lost" or forgotten. For example, Joseph of Arimathea owned the tomb (Mt 27:57-60), so he knew where it was. The Roman and Jewish authorities sealed the entrance to the tomb and posted a guard unit there (Mt 27:66), so the authorities and the guards knew where the tomb was, etc. When the disciples started preaching that Jesus was raised from the dead, all the Jewish leaders had to do was to go get Jesus' body out of the right tomb and parade it through the streets of Jerusalem for all to see. That would have killed Christianity immediately because it would have proved that Jesus was not resurrected and therefore was not God as He had claimed to be! It is significant that the authorities knew where Jesus' tomb was, yet they could not produce His body.
Another problem with this theory is that nobody has ever made pilgrimmages to revere the tomb where Jesus' bones lay. People tend to flock to the graves of celebrities and religious leaders, and people tend to revere the bones and relics of dead religious leaders, but this was never the case with Jesus' grave. Why? Because on the third day after His burial the tomb was empty for all to see, and it was a well-known fact which nobody disputed. People have been visiting the empty tomb for 1900 years, but (except for a period of three days) it has always been empty.
The flaw in this theory is that the apostle Paul told the Corinthians in 55 or 56 A.D. that there were hundreds of actual eyewitnesses of the risen Christ who were still alive and could confirm the accounts of the Resurrection (1Co 15:6). In fact, a number of these eyewitnesses were actually hostile witnesses at the time who did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah! (see The "Hallucination" Theory below). The apostle Paul and the other disciples had to be accurate in what they reported because these living eyewitnesses would have been the first to dispute anything untrue that Paul or the disciples may have said.
Another problem is that historians and other writers of the time mentioned the Resurrection, whether directly or indirectly. Many of these references give historical proof that Christians in the first and second centuries were willingly suffering persecution, torture, and execution rather than renouncing their faith that Jesus rose from the dead. Here are some examples:
In addition, if the disciples had invented the Resurrection story in order to prove that they had not been foolish in leaving everything behind and following Jesus in His "rebellion," the natural thing for them to do would be to immediately begin proclaiming "Jesus is alive!" throughout the countryside to prove they were right all along. However, the Bible records a seven-week period between the time the tomb was discovered empty and the time that the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and began boldly preaching the Resurrection of Jesus. Jesus was executed at the time of the Passover Feast (Jn 13:1), but the disciples did not begin boldly preaching until they were filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Ac 2:1-4), 50 days after Passover. During this seven-week period there was an embarassing reluctance on the part of the disciples in believing that Jesus was alive, and in fact Jesus rebuked them several times for being so slow to believe that He had risen from the dead! (Mt 28:17, Mk 16:11-14, Lk 24:11, 25-26, 36-41, Jn 20:9, 13-15, 27).
The most reasonable explanation for all these embarassing facts to be included in the Bible is that the authors were accurately reporting the facts as they actually happened.
The flaw in this theory is that the disciples were not expecting Jesus to come back to life! (Jn 20:9). For example, Thomas said he would not believe that Jesus was alive until he could touch the wounds on Jesus' body (Jn 20:24-25). In fact, some of the people who saw Jesus after His Resurrection were actually hostile witnesses who did not believe Jesus was the Messiah and would have no reason for hallucinating Him. For example, Jesus met with His half-brother James, who earlier had scoffed at Jesus and didn't believe that He was the Messiah (Mk 3:20-21, Jn 7:3-5). Saul of Tarsus (later to be known as the apostle Paul) was one of the biggest threats to the early church, persecuting and rounding up and killing Christians, yet he became one of the greatest evangelists after Jesus appeared to him (Ac 9:1-22).
Another big problem with this theory is that although several people might experience hallucinations at the same time, they would not experience the exact same hallucination. A hallucination occurs in the mind of a person and is therefore a very individual and personal experience which does not occur simultaneously and identically in the minds of other people. Jesus appeared to many different people in different places and at different times of the day, and many of them spoke with Him, physically touched Him, put their fingers in the nail and spear holes in His body, and even ate with Him and watched Him eat (Mt 28:8-10, 16-20, Mk 16:9-14, Lk 24:13-53, Jn 20:13-25, Ac 1:3-9, 1Co 15:6).
Again, the flaw in this theory is that the disciples were not expecting Jesus to come back to life! (Jn 20:9). Why would they steal His body to make people think that Jesus rose from the dead when they didn't even understand that He was supposed to do that in the first place? (Mt 28:17, Mk 16:11-14, Lk 24:11, 25-26, 36-41, Jn 20:9, 13-15, 27).
Here's another flaw in this theory: When Jesus was arrested, all of His followers fled for their lives in fear, and in fact the apostle Peter later denied ever knowing Jesus (Mt 26:55-56, 69-75). Yet now, according to this theory, these same timid, fearful disciples snuck past all of the highly disciplined, highly trained Roman soldiers who were stationed right there at the entrance to the tomb (any one of whom could have fought off all of the disciples by himself!), broke the Roman seal (bringing the full wrath of Rome down on their heads), somehow rolled the massive stone up and away from the tomb (the stone had been "rolled away from the tomb" (Lk 24:2)), removed the body of Jesus from the linens and the 75 pounds of spices which were practically glued to His body by the gummy myrrh and aloes (the graveclothes were still in the tomb when the body was discovered missing (Jn 20:3-8)), and carried the body away, all without being noticed or without waking any of the allegedly "sleeping" Roman soldiers, soldiers who would be burned alive if they were caught sleeping at their posts! This would almost be more of a miracle than the Resurrection itself!
After Pentecost (approximately seven weeks after Jesus' Resurrection) these same fearful disciples were suddenly transformed into great, fearless evangelists, first preaching the Resurrection of Jesus right there in Jerusalem where anybody could go see the proof of the empty tomb whenever they wanted, then preaching the Gospel throughout the known world. These disciples were imprisoned and beaten over and over and had every opportunity and every reason to admit their hoax, yet not a single one of them "cracked" and admitted that they stole the body of Jesus. Every single one of them suffered brutal beatings and (with one exception) suffered cruel deaths because they all firmly believed in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. To say that they stole the body themselves or had it stolen for them is to say that they all allowed themselves to be tortured and executed for a lie.
The flaw in this theory is that if the authorities knew where the body of Jesus was then they simply had to parade it up and down the streets of Jerusalem for all to see. Christianity wouldn't have lasted a second beyond that!
When the Roman soldiers discovered that the body was missing, they deserted their posts and went to the Jewish religious leaders to describe the supernatural event that had just happened. The Jewish chief priests and elders came up with a plan to have the Roman soldiers claim that the disciples had stolen the body while the soldiers slept. The chief priests bribed the soldiers and said that they would use their influence to protect the soldiers if Pontius Pilate (the Roman governor) heard about the situation (Mt 28:12-15). What this means is that the authorities themselves didn't know where the body of Jesus was, so they had to start a false rumor that the disciples had stolen it! In other words, the authorities, the opponents of Christianity, knew that the tomb was empty! This false rumor was ridiculous for at least two reasons: First, the Roman soldiers were highly disciplined because they knew they could be executed for sleeping at their post. Second, if the soldiers were asleep, how would they know that it was the disciples who stole the body? Incidentally, notice that the Jewish chief priests offered to protect the soldiers from the Roman governor, which indicates that these were probably Roman soldiers and not the Jewish Temple guard (because the Jewish chief priests would not need to bribe their own Temple guard, they would simply order the Temple guard to remain silent).
Another problem with this theory is that the chief priests and Pharisees wanted Pontius Pilate to secure the tomb in order to prevent the body from being removed (Mt 27:62-66). This makes it highly unlikely that they would then turn around and remove the body themselves (which would lend credence to the story of the Resurrection), then bribe the Roman soldiers to spread a ridiculous and desperate rumor when all they had to do was go to the right tomb and produce the body to silence the hated Christians.
If the authorities actually stole the body of Jesus, why would they take the time and go to the effort of removing Jesus' graveclothes (which were practically glued to His body by the gummy myrrh and aloes) and then leave them in an orderly arrangement on the slab? The graveclothes which were left behind when Jesus was resurrected were arranged in such a way that as soon as the apostle John saw them he believed that Jesus was resurrected, even though he didn't really understand that Jesus was supposed to rise from the dead (Jn 20:3-8).
The flaw in this theory is that it is completely unrealistic and betrays a lack of understanding of the situation. Could Jesus, after being flogged until His flesh was in bloody ribbons, after being beaten repeatedly on the head with a staff, after having a crown made of heavy spiked thorns crushed onto His head, after carrying the 100 pound crossbar of His cross most of the way to the crucifixion site, after having heavy metal spikes pounded through His wrists and heels, after hanging on the cross by the nails in His wrists and heels for hours in the hot sun, bleeding profusely and struggling to breathe, after having a Roman spear thrust deep into His heart, after being in the cold, dark, airless tomb for the better part of three days without food or drink, encased practically from head to foot in burial linens and 75 pounds of gummy spices without having His many horrible wounds tended and treated, could Jesus have survived that, much less freed Himself from inside the heavy burial shroud, broken the Roman seal from inside the tomb, rolled the heavy stone up the hill all by Himself, and then snuck past the Roman soldiers without them noticing or hearing anything or being able to stop Him? This would almost be more of a miracle than the Resurrection itself!
If Jesus had managed to do all that and get past the soldiers (on feet that were brutally damaged with huge spike wounds!), could He then have convinced His followers in His bloody, near-death condition that He was alive and well and had "destroyed death and...brought life and immortality"? (2 Tim 1:10). After all, with all the terrible wounds He had received He would have died soon anyway, so how would the disciples have been convinced that He was the Messiah and that He had defeated death? The gospels record that Jesus spoke with several people soon after His Resurrection, and although none of these people recognized Him at first (after all, He was dead and they weren't expecting Him to suddenly come back to life), not a single one of them expressed any concern over this horribly-wounded, starving, near-death person. For example, Cleopas and his companion walked with Jesus to a village seven miles from Jerusalem, then invited Him to stay the night with them. They "were kept from recognizing Him," and assumed He was just another traveler. After they recognized Him, he vanished from their sight (Lk 24:13-31). This episode is consistent with the fact of Jesus being God and resurrecting Himself, it is not consistent with the theory that He simply fainted on the cross and then revived in the tomb.
Mt 12:40 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.Not only did Jesus predict that He would be killed, He predicted the exact manner of His death (crucifixion):Mt 17:22-23 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life." And the disciples were filled with grief.
Mt 20:17-19 Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!"
Mt 27:63 "Sir," they [the Jewish chief priests and pharisees] said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver [Jesus] said, 'After three days I will rise again.'"
Mt 26:1-2 When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, "As you know, the Passover is two days away--and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified."Not only did Jesus predict the exact manner of His death, He predicted in detail the exact events that would lead up to and follow His death. He predicted that He would be betrayed, that it would happen in Jerusalem, that He would first be handed to the Jewish chief priests, that they would reject Him, that they would condemn Him to death, that He would be turned over to the Gentiles (the Romans), that He would be mocked, insulted, spit on and flogged, that the disciples would desert Him and deny knowing Him, that He would meet them in Galilee after He rose from the dead, and that everything that had been written by the prophets about the Messiah would be fulfilled:
Mk 8:31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.Not only did Jesus predict the exact manner of His death and the exact events which would lead up to and follow His death, He also predicted the exact day on which He would be crucified (Passover), the exact day on which He would rise from the dead (the third day), and the Person Who would raise Him from the dead (Himself):Mark 10:33-34 "We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise."
Mt 26:31-35 Then Jesus told them, "This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: "'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.' But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee." Peter replied, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will." "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." But Peter declared, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." And all the other disciples said the same.
Lk 18:31-33 Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again."
Mt 26:1-2 When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, "As you know, the Passover is two days away--and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified."We have now established that Jesus predicted in advance that He would be killed and that He would raise Himself back to life on the third day after His death. He predicted the exact day of His death, the exact manner of His death, the exact events which would lead up to and follow His death, and the exact day on which He would return to life. There were many ways in which He could have been accidentally killed and there were many people who hated Him and wanted to kill Him, yet everything happened exactly as He had predicted. If a friend of yours predicted about himself all of the things that Jesus predicted, what are the chances your friend would be right? Jesus willingly gave up His life for a specific purpose (to pay the death penalty in our place for our many sins) and He brought Himself back to life for a specific purpose (to prove that He is God).Mt 17:22-23 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life." And the disciples were filled with grief.
Jn 2:18-21 Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" But the temple he had spoken of was his body.
Jn 10:17-18 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."
As the description (above) of Jesus' torture and crucifixion shows, Jesus suffered terrible wounds that He had little hope of surviving. The Romans were cruelly and brutally efficient at tortures and executions, and they were familiar with death, they knew when a person was dead.
After Jesus was crucified, the executioner did not break Jesus' legs to hasten His death because He was already dead (Jn 19:33). Instead, the Roman centurian thrust a spear deep into His heart to prove He was dead, and the eyewitness description even tells us the exact cause of His death (a ruptured heart) (Jn 19:33-34).
Pontius Pilate released the body to Joseph of Arimathea after double-checking that Jesus had been declared dead (Mk 15:42-45). Notice that the Roman and the Jewish authorities would not have wanted Jesus to be resuscitated and healed after being crucified, so before releasing the body they made absolutely certain that He was dead.
The disciples laid Jesus in the tomb because they knew He was dead. They would not have done so had there been the slightest possibility that He could be revived.
Before Jesus was removed from the cross, Joseph of Arimathea had to go to Pontius Pilate to obtain permission to take possession of Jesus' body (Mk 15:42-46), then the body was carried to the tomb (Mk 15:46), then it was cleaned and washed, then it was tightly wrapped in burial linens with the 75 pounds of aromatic spices placed in the folds of the linens according to Jewish burial customs (Jn 19:40), and during all this time Jesus never stirred or gave any hint that He was still alive.
The ancient Jewish historian Josephus (A.D. 37-97) recorded a time when he noticed three of his friends being crucified. He immediately asked Titus, the Roman commander, for a reprieve for his friends. The reprieve was granted and the three men were taken down and given medical care by the best experts available, yet two of the three men died ( Vita, Josephus, p.75). This is one of the only known instances where someone survived crucifixion, but his survival was only possible because he was immediately removed from the cross and was given immediate, expert medical care. Yet even with expert medical care the other two men died. People simply did not survive crucifixion! Crucifixion was a "horror" and "so horrible a death" and a "terrible warning" to others, according to Josephus.
We have now established that the weight of evidence proves beyond reasonable doubt that Jesus was dead.
The Jewish chief priests were concerned that the disciples would try to steal Jesus' body and claim that Jesus had risen from the dead, so they persuaded Pontius Pilate to seal the tomb with the official Roman seal so that nobody would tamper with the grave or try to steal the body (Mt 27:62-66). A guard unit made up of highly disciplined Roman soldiers was stationed at the tomb to prevent any tampering (Mt 27:66), which was highly unusual. If any member of the guard unit deserted his post, fell asleep on duty, or even leaned against something while on duty then he would usually be executed, often by being burned alive in a fire started with his own clothing. Now that the leader of the "rebellion" was dead, the Jewish and Roman authorities wanted this rebellion (later to be called "Christianity") to die a quiet death, so they had no reason to move the body and they had every reason not to move the body. Besides, if any of the authorities had moved the body then they would have known where the body was moved to. Anyone else who wanted to steal the body would have had to go through the highly trained soldiers and then break the official seal on the tomb, which would have brought the wrath of Rome down on their heads.
Also see The "Disciples Stole the Body" Theory and The "Authorities Stole the Body" Theory above.
We have now established that the weight of evidence proves beyond reasonable doubt that the body was not stolen or moved.
Around dawn on Sunday morning, three women went to the tomb to complete the job of anointing the dead body (Mk 16:1-2). Jesus had to be buried before sundown the previous Friday so that the holy Sabbath day would not be desecrated (Jn 19:31), so apparently the women had not had time to anoint the body with spices in accordance with Jewish burial customs during the actual burial. The fact that the women planned to complete the job of anointing the body for burial indicates that they were not expecting Jesus to rise from the dead. They knew that a large, heavy stone had been rolled across the entrance to the tomb, but when they arrived at the gravesite they discovered that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb and that Jesus' body was gone (Lk 24:1-3). An angel informed them that Jesus had risen from the dead, just as He had said He would (Mt 28:5-7). The women went and "told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others" (Lk 24:9), but "they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense" (Lk 24:11). Notice that the disciples and all the others did not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead! Although Peter and John "still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead" (Jn 20:9, Lk 18:34, Jn 2:22), when they entered the tomb and saw the burial linens lying on the slab with no body in them, they immediately believed (Jn 20:3-8).
Notice in the following passages that the disciples did not understand that Jesus would rise from the dead:
Lk 18:31-34 Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again." The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.We have now established that the weight of evidence proves beyond reasonable doubt that none of Jesus' followers were expecting Him to rise from the dead, and that the tomb was empty except for the graveclothes and two angels. Remember, the tomb was sealed in the presence of the Roman soldiers so that there would be no foul play by Jesus' followers. There was no foul play, and yet the grave was empty.Jn 2:22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
Mt 28:16-17 [After the Resurrection] Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.
Mk 16:9-14 [After the Resurrection] When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it. Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either. Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
Lk 24:9-11 [After the Resurrection] When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
Jn 20:8-9 [After the Resurrection] Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
Lk 24:21-25 [After the Resurrection, Jesus is walking with two men who are describing the recent events] but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see." He [Jesus] said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
Lk 24:33-43 They [the two men who were walking with Jesus] got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, "It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon." Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread. While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, "Do you have anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.
Jn 20:24-28 Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
Who moved the stone? Matthew 28:2-4 explains it for us: "There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men."
The Roman soldiers knew that they could be executed for failing in their duty, so instead of reporting directly to Pontius Pilate they went to the Jewish religious leaders to describe the supernatural event that had just happened (Mt 28:11). The Jewish chief priests met with the elders to devise a plan, then they bribed the soldiers with a large sum of money and told the soldiers to say that the disciples stole the body while the guards were asleep (Mt 28:12-13). The chief priests also assured the soldiers that if the news got back to the Roman governor (Pontius Pilate) then the chief priests would satisfy him and keep the soldiers out of trouble (Mt 28:14). There are several important things to notice here:
The false rumor was ridiculous and desperate because the soldiers had to claim that they were all asleep on duty, an offense punishable by death!
The false rumor was ridiculous and desperate for another reason as well. If the soldiers were all asleep, how would they know that it was the disciples who stole the body?
The grave linens had been tightly wound around Jesus' body and had been applied with a gummy mixture of myrrh and aloes, which served as a "glue" to make the cloths adhere to each other and to the body. When the three women reached the tomb on Sunday morning they could see that Jesus was gone (they thought that someone had moved the body). An angel told them that Jesus was not there, that He had risen from the dead (Mt 28:5). The angel then told them to examine the place where His body had been (Mt 28:6). If the three women already knew that the body was gone, what would be the purpose for them to examine the empty slab? The reason is that the stone slab was not empty, it contained the graveclothes which Jesus' body had passed through during the Resurrection and which must have still retained the approximate shape of the body (although probably caved-in somewhat) due to the gummy myrrh and aloe mixture that was used!
Peter and John did not believe the women who said that Jesus' body was gone (Lk 24:11), yet when they entered the tomb and saw the grave linens lying there together as well as the cloth that had been around Jesus' head (which was lying next to the body linens), they immediately believed (Jn 20:3-8). It is significant that John not only mentions that the body of Jesus was gone, but he makes a special point of emphasizing that both he and Peter saw (and most likely closely examined) the strips of linen lying there, and he goes on to describe that the cloth that had been wound around Jesus' head was folded and was separate from the body linens. The implication is that Jesus' body somehow disappeared from the graveclothes without disturbing them, and they simply collapsed naturally, with the body linens and the facial cloth separated a short distance (the distance from Jesus' head to His armpits, where the body linens had been wrapped). If the grave linens, which were cemented to each other and to the body, had been removed from the body in haste by someone, this fact would be obvious because the linens would be all ripped up and would be scattered about as they were removed and cast aside, and also because of the dried aloe powder which would be strewn about. This would not be convincing evidence that Jesus' body had passed straight through the graveclothes, yet Peter and John (who were skeptical of the report that Jesus' body was missing) immediately believed in the Resurrection when they saw that the grave linens were still intact. John said that Peter "saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen." (Jn 20:6-7). The fact that the head cloth was "separate from the linen" indicates that the linen was all together in one place and not scattered around by being thrown hastily aside.
The Jewish chief priests and elders believed the Roman guards without question, and the evidence was so overwhelming that the guards were never punished for failing in their sworn duty to protect the gravesite from tampering (Mt 28:11-15). The empty shell of the grave linens would have been a major factor in convincing the chief priests and the elders that something supernatural had happened.
If someone had removed the body of Jesus, it never would have occurred to them to go to the time and effort of removing the gummy, glued-together grave linens. They would simply have grabbed the body and run. Notice that if the authorities had moved the body then they would have had to do it quickly and secretly to prevent Jesus' followers from finding out because Jesus' loved ones would have raised a huge uproar over such a desecration of a tomb, especially the tomb of their Messiah. If the disciples had somehow stolen the body, they too would have had to do it quickly and secretly, for obvious reasons. Nobody would have stopped and removed the graveclothes and then rearranged them back in an orderly fashion!
We have now established from the evidence that the tomb was not entirely empty, it contained the empty shell formed by the grave linens which Jesus' body passed through as He was being resurrected. It was such a convincing proof of the Resurrection that everyone who saw it immediately believed that Jesus was alive again.
Confidence in the Resurrection report would have been further eroded by the specific mention of Mary Magdelene as one of the first people to see the risen Jesus, since she was someone who had previously been possessed by seven demons (Mk 16:9).
This helps explain why the women are not mentioned in the evangelistic speeches recorded in the book of Acts nor in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians (1Co 15).
Here are the recorded appearances of Jesus after His Resurrection:
John Ankerberg and John Weldon pointed out that "In criminal trials today, most juries are convinced on the basis of two eyewitnesses to an event and sometimes by only one. But any modern trial lawyer is simply ecstatic when he has three eyewitnesses; his chances for a conviction rise to 99 percent." ( Knowing the Truth About the Resurrection, p.20). In the case of eyewitness testimony of the resurrected Jesus we have more than three witnesses, we have over 500 witnesses!
Christianity might easily have flourished in any other city of the known world of the time, but it could not easily flourish right there in Jerusalem where anybody could go inspect the empty tomb, interview every witness, test every incident, question every fact, and expose any fraud. Yet it was right there in Jerusalem where the apostles began boldly proclaiming the risen Jesus, and it was right there in Jerusalem where Christianity began to flourish.
Now that Jesus, their leader, had been captured and was going to be executed by crucifixion, the disciples were terrified for their lives. They denied knowing Him and hid behind locked doors out of fear of the Jews. Yet seven weeks later they suddenly began boldly preaching right there in Jerusalem that Jesus had returned from the dead. Their paralyzing fear had been replaced by a fearless faith which was put to the extreme tests of imprisonment, tortures, and execution. Something radically changed these fearful men into bold evangelists who were willing to risk their lives out of a certainty that Jesus had been Resurrected.
All but one of these men died horribly because of their belief in the risen Jesus, whom they saw with their own eyes and touched with their own hands:
All throughout Acts and the rest of the New Testament there are numerous references to the Resurrection in the apostles' public preaching, but not a single reference to or defense of the empty tomb. There was no point, everybody knew that the tomb was empty, even the enemies of Christianity knew it!
"I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!" (Revelation 1:18)
Sources:
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from
the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (R). NIV (R). Copyright (C) 1973,
1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan
Publishing House. All rights reserved.
BecauseOf Him,
Rev. Marshall and Ruth Lawson
Sussex, New Brunswick,
Canada
This material is not copyrighted. Please feel free to copy and distribute it in its entirety for the greater glory of the Lord.
A special thanks to Dave and Gina Root of Houston, Tx. for their considerable work regarding this material.