Is Christ risen indeed?

After surveying over 3,400 critical scholars of various persuasions – Atheists, Agnostics, Jews and Christians with different theological views – the distinguished scholar and researcher on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Dr. Gary Habermas, concluded that more than ninety percent of scholars agree that Jesus' death by crucifixion is one of the three minimal (i.e. uncontested) facts in Jesus' biography. But like a leading expert in ancient history, Dr. Edwin M. Yamauchi, once pointed out, the fact that a movement based on a crucified man came into existence needs explanation. How does one explain the spread of a religion based on the worship of a man subjected to the most disgraceful death penalty? Well, historically both the Jewish leaders and the disciples admitted that Jesus tomb was found empty on the third day. Their explanations however differed.

Was Jesus' body stolen?
Ordinarily the empty tomb could have been explained away with theft (either by the disciples or other persons) as a reason. However, Jesus' tomb was no ordinary one. Matthew reports the events after Jesus' burial like this: “The next day, which was a Sabbath, the chief priests and the Pharisees met with Pilate and said, 'Sir, we remember that while that liar [Jesus] was still alive he said, 'I will be raised to life three days later.' Give orders, then for his tomb to be carefully guarded until the third day, so that his disciples will not be able to go and steal the body and then tell the people that he was raised from death. This last lie would be even worse than the first one. 'Take a guard' Pilate told them, 'go and make the tomb as secure as you can.' So they left and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and leaving the guard on watch.” (Matt 27:62-66 GNB)

Interestingly the disciples were not even expecting a resurrection, much less plan one. They believed Jesus was dead (and was going to remain dead until the final day of resurrection of everyone) and so their hopes were dashed. Had they had hopes of him returning to life in three days they would not have been so sad. It seems the Jewish leaders had more faith in Jesus' promise than his own disciples did. Matthew reports that on the morning of the Sunday after Christ's burial, some of the women followers of Jesus went to the tomb, and suddenly there was an earthquake, an angel descended and rolled away the stone at the entrance of the tomb. He showed them the empty tomb and informed them that Jesus had risen like he promised, and was heading for Galilee. Meanwhile the guards were beside themselves with fright as they witnessed this angelic invasion. Matthew explains what followed thus:

“While the women went on their way, some of the soldiers guarding the tomb went back to the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened. The chief priests met with the elders and made their plan; they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers and said, 'You are to say that his disciples came during the night and stole his body while you were asleep. And if the Governor should hear of this, we will convince him that you are innocent, and you will have nothing to worry about.' The guards took the money and did what they were told to do. And so that is the report spread round by the Jews to this very day.” Matt. 28:11-15 GNB

[Note: Matthew was likely writing some decades after the event hence his use of the words, “… to this very day.”] Those who want to go with the stolen-body story as being true must deal with a few issues. By Roman law, if the body had indeed been stolen while Roman guards were sleeping on duty, the guards would have paid with their lives. Yet this did not happen. Why? Further, if the guards were really asleep, how were they able to tell that it was the disciples that stole the body? They could only have seen the disciples steal the body if they were awake. And if they were awake, why didn't they arrest them? Besides, we must consider what would have gone into the stealing of the body. The disciples would have had to sneak past the armed guards and rolled the large stone (of about 1-2 tons) up a grooved incline, walked into the dark tomb, picked up the body and come out without waking even one soldier. And mind you, the disciples would have also had to patiently unwrap the body while in the tomb and place the linen nicely where Jesus laid. This is because when the tomb was found empty on Sunday morning, according to the gospels, the linen wrappings of Jesus had been rolled up and left in the tomb. It is worth noting that when Jesus was arrested, the disciples avoided trouble by distancing themselves from him because they did not want to share his fate. Why then would these cowards now take the risk to go and steal his dead body and claim he is alive – an action which was sure to evoke the fury of the Jewish leaders and likely bring upon them the same fate as their master's? The Christian apologist (and former sceptic), Josh McDowell, commenting on the stolen-body hypothesis said that it creates more problems than it solves. I agree.

May be Jesus swooned
Some have also suggested that Jesus did not really die on the cross but only lost consciousness and that, the cool air in the tomb, the burial spices put on him plus the about 36 hours of rest in the tomb, revived him. If this idea is true, it also produces more problems than it solves. Firstly, how did a weak man with bruised and bleeding side, feet and hands, hardly able to stand on his feet, move the large stone at the entrance of the tomb all the way up the grooved incline – something that requires the strength of more than one fully fit strong man? Further, a staggering crucified messiah, urgently in need of medical treatment would not have inspired the kind of fearless devotion we see of the highly risk-averse disciples. Let's remember that the soldiers did not break his legs like they did the two criminals (John 19:31-33) because they were certain he was already dead. To confirm their suspicion a spear was thrust into his side which caused blood and water to flow (John 19:34-35) – a clear indication that Jesus had experienced heart failure induced by the stresses of crucifixion. The heart failure had resulted in the collection of fluid in the membrane around the heart and lungs. Although John, an eyewitness, may not have known the scientific reasons for what he witnessed, his report is consistent with present medical knowledge. Another question created by the swoon theory is: How in the name of reason did a crucified half dead man overpower the Roman guards at the tomb? This theory falls apart hopelessly in the face of the facts.

Perhaps the disciples hallucinated
Isn't it highly likely that the disciples might have hallucinated – a probable result of their intense love for Jesus? According to Dr Gary Collins, a professor of psychology, hallucinations are individual by nature – only one person can see a particular hallucination at a time. This implies a whole group does not hallucinate on the same thing at the same time. Unfortunately for this theory, the story in the gospel is about multiple people seeing the same resurrected Christ. In fact in 1 Cor. 15:3-8 it is recorded that about 500 people saw the resurrected Jesus at the same time. Hallucinations usually happen once and lasts for a few minutes (except may be in the case of insanity) but in the issue under consideration, it would have had to be repeated and lasting for 40 days (Acts 1:3) to ordinary people. Also the conversion of a non-believer and enemy of Christianity, such as Saul of Tarsus, creates a problem for this theory. This man neither loved nor liked Jesus. He was determined to wipe out the Jesus movement. Then suddenly he turns around 180 degrees claiming he saw the resurrected Jesus (1 Cor. 9:1; 15:8). He becomes so convinced about the resurrection that he gets martyred for it. To the church in Philippi he wrote, “All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death, in the hope that I myself will be raised from death to life.” (Philippians 3:10-11 GNB).

A Conspiracy?
Is it not possible that the disciples agreed and planned to say that Jesus had resurrected although they knew he was still dead? A look at the character of the disciples crumbles this idea. The disciples were simple and honest common peasants rather than sophisticated conniving liars. Their words and lives proved they were sincere; they all preached the resurrected Jesus to the point of dying for this message, without even one of them dissenting – not even Thomas. Even if we would like to say that their message was not the truth, at least we must grant that their martyrdom shows they sincerely believed they had seen the risen Jesus. The apostle John in his first letter stated: “What we have seen and heard we announce to you also …” (1 John 1:3 GNB). In the verse one, he said that not only did they see Jesus, but they also touched him. But if we assume they lied and were aware that they were lying, what possible motive could there be for that? Lies are always for selfish advantages. But we do not see that here. The rewards for such a lie in the time and place they lived was nowhere near advantageous – the list included, hate, rejection, persecution, excommunication, imprisonment, torture, exile, beheading, crucifixion, being fed to lions and suchlike. As far as any good life on this earth was concerned they had much to lose for lying. Lastly, if the resurrection story was a lie, the Jewish leaders would have been too glad to produce Jesus' corpse and put this lie to rest. A conspiracy like this could not have survived in Jerusalem, within the very place and time of many of the non-Jesus-following eyewitnesses. The enemies of Jesus would have had an interest in disproving such a lie. Yet they did not and could not disprove this 'lie' which spread far and wide, without compulsion, and eventually reached Rome itself, and 'turned the world upside down.'

The bottom line is that Jesus said he would resurrect after three days and the evidence we have demonstrate that he did honour his word. The resurrection is evidence pointing to the deity of Jesus. Some people often like to make statements like, “Jesus' resurrection is not unique in history because there are other stories of gods dying and resurrecting in some mystery religions.” Unfortunately for such people there are no credible historical evidence even half as strong as we have for Jesus' case. And I invite such people to do an honest investigation into such stories and compare with Christ's.

Implications of the resurrection
The disturbing issue with Jesus' resurrection story is that, if true, then each one of us is under judgement. Why? Because the resurrection proves that Jesus is divine and therefore how we each respond to him will determine our eternal fate, for God has visited our world and made a statement. And this is exactly the message of Christianity. It is serious business and it seems the early believers in Christ realized it back then. The apostle Paul was keenly aware of the fact that Christian belief stood or fell on the truthfulness of the resurrection, because in 1 Cor 15: 17-19 he said “… if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is a delusion and you are still lost in your sins. It would also mean that the believers in Christ who have died are lost. If our hope in Christ is good for this life only and no more, then we deserve more pity than anyone else in all the world” (GNB). The resurrection of Jesus is what shows that God accepted his sacrifice on behalf of all mankind. Thus if Jesus did not rise from death, then we may as well forget about any forgiveness of sins and simply wait in fear of the coming judgement which will indict all of us who have ever sinned against God, either in thought or deed or both. Fortunately, we need not live in fear of the coming judgement because the Son of God has paid the penalty for sins and he is alive today to offer forgiveness to all who will believe in him.

R. G. Coleman
E-mail: [email protected]
Blog: www.rgcoleman.wordpress.com