UP FROM THE GRAVE

  JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA, a rich man and disciple of Jesus, asked Pilate for Jesus’ body. He wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, laid it in his own new cut-rock tomb, rolled a stone over the tomb’s entrance, and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting across from the tomb. (The story continues below, according to Matt. 27 and 28 ESV.)

The next day, “the day of Preparation,” the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate” and said, “Sir, … that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.”

Pilate’s soldiers sealed the stone covering the tomb and set a guard. After the Sabbath (Saturday), toward sunup on the first day of the week (Sunday), Mary Magdalene “and the other Mary” visited the tomb. 

AN EARTHQUAKE HIT! An “angel of the Lord descended from heaven,” rolled back the stone, and sat on it. “His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.” The guards feared him, trembled, and fainted. The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him… .’” 

THE LADIES, feeling fear and joy, ran to tell his disciples. Jesus met them, and they “took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.’” 

While the women went, some of the guard hurried to the city and told the chief priests what happened. They and the elders decided to bribe the soldiers. “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep,” they said, adding that if Pilate heard about the body being gone, they would smooth things over and keep the guards out of trouble. The soldiers took the money and did what they were told.

TWO THOUSAND YEARS have passed, and Christians are still telling that Jesus physically rose from the dead on the Sunday after his crucifixion, says Neil Shelvi, author of the book “Why Believe?” He says, “Jesus’s death and resurrection are both tied to our salvation. While most religions teach that we are saved on the basis of the good things we do, Christianity teaches that we are saved on the basis of what Jesus did for us. God drew near to us in Christ to bear our sin, to take our punishment, and to die on the cross in our place. The resurrection was God’s confirmation that Jesus was who he claimed to be, and it is God’s assurance to Christians that they have been forgiven.”

Present-day historians are nearly unanimous in accepting Jesus’ death on the cross, Shelvi says. “His death by crucifixion is the single fact most mentioned in all the historical records of his life, both Christian and non-Christian.” Jesus’ burial is recorded in all four Gospels, and St. Paul writes about Jesus’ death. 

WOMEN DISCOVERED Jesus’ empty tomb, and that is the strongest piece of evidence in favor of the historicity of the empty tomb, Shelvi says. “This detail may not strike us as odd, but it is surprising, given the low status of women in the first century. For example, the first-century Jewish historian Josephus claimed that Jewish law expressed the following sentiment regarding the reliability of women: ‘Let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their sex.’ If early Christians were inventing narratives to support their own version of events, why not ascribe the discovery of the tomb to witnesses who would have been received as more credible?”

DIGGING UP JESUS’ BODY would have disproved his resurrection, Shelvi says, adding, “How did Christianity grow so rapidly in the very place where Jesus was buried if it could have been falsified so easily?” And if the disciples stole Jesus’ body, couldn’t the Romans have found that body?

MANY CLAIMED to have seen Jesus alive after he had been executed. “They did not claim to have seen him only once or for a short time; they claimed to have seen him repeatedly over an extended period of several weeks,” Shelvi says.

SUFFERING PROVES SOMETHING. “The apostles were repeatedly beaten and imprisoned,” Shelvi says. “We have good historical evidence that James, Peter, and Paul were all executed for their faith, and church tradition maintains that as many as eleven of the twelve apostles were eventually martyred. Given the suffering the apostles faced, it is difficult to maintain they knew the resurrection to be a hoax. … One after another of those who claimed to have witnessed the risen Jesus went to their own gruesome deaths refusing to recant their testimony.” The Apostle Paul claimed he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus and “went from regarding Jesus as a false prophet to believing that Jesus was the unique Son of God.” Paul joined the despised, persecuted Christian “sect” that had no power and few members because he believed Jesus was the promised Messiah who rose from the dead.