A MIRACLE: For centuries there was conflict between Religion and Science with regard to miracles. Under the Newtonian system there was no room for miracles, indeed they were seen as being against the Laws of Nature. Since Einstein the position has changed.
To-day scientists admit that no-one knows enough about Natural Law to say that any event is necessarily a violation of it. The universe is no longer a tight closed system. One may, therefore, without being out of step with Science,declare that the Resurrection
is a miracle. It is unique.
DEATH OF JESUS: Did Jesus die? When the soldier pierced His side with a spear, blood and water came pouring out – a sure sign that Jesus had died, according to Dr. Samuel Houghton, a one-time physiologist from the University of Dublin. He looks at other possibilities but comes to the conclusion that the rupture of the heart was the cause of the death of Jesus.
THE BURIAL AND THE STONE: We know more about the burial of Jesus than we know of any O.T. character, of any king of Babylon, Pharaoh of Egypt, any philosopher of Greece or triumpnant Caesar. We know who took the body from the cross; we know something of the body in spices;we know something about the burial clothes
The Gospel records mention a stone being rolled against the entrance to the tomb. This was very heavy: when the women came to visit the tomb, they knew that they would not be able to mov it.. The stone was sealed, probably in keeping with Daniel 6:7. The sealing was done in the presence of the Roman guards who were left in charge to protect the seal of Roman authority and power.
THE GUARD: A watch usually consisted of four soldiers. We learn from Polybius that Roman discipline was tight:the fear of punishment produced faultless attention to duty, especially on night duty. Thee penalty for sleeping was death.
THE EMPTY TOMB: This is just about the most debated matter in the Ancient World. If the tomb was not genuinely empty, what happened to the body of Christ?
If the body was taken by the apostles, how did they get it? We have seen that the entrance to the tomb was blocked by a very large stone. We have seen that there were Roman guards to be overcome and that their lives depended on guarding the body successfully. If, indeed, the apostles stole the body, how would they have managed to keep it quiet in such a small area as Jerusalem?
If the Jewish authorities had stolen it, what a propaganda coup they would have had: all they had to do was produce the body to falsify the story that the apostles were putting it about that Jesus had risen.
If the Roman authorities had taken the body, they would have displayed it to disprove the apostles’ claims.
There is a theory that Jesus recovered from His crucifixion ordeal in the cool tomb and escaped. There are two objections to this:
- He wouldn’t have been in any shape to roll the stone away, even if the soldiers were taking a nap. And where would He have gone without being recognissed?
- We have already seen above that He died on the cross from a broken heart.
It is significant that Jesus’ tomb was not a place of pilgrimage.
HE IS NOT THERE: One criticism of Christianity is that the Resurrection appearances were quite simply hallucinations. Part of the answer to this is that hallucinations tend to occur in only two or three locations. The appearances of Jesus cover a much wider area:
- To Mary Magdalene at the tomb
- To women returning from the tomb
- To Peter later in the day
- To the Emmaeus disciples
- To the Twelve minus Thomas in the upper room (The Twelve is a technical term here)
- To the Twelve with Thomas in the upper room
- To the seven by the lake of Galilee
- To a crowd of 500+
- To James
- To the Twelve
- At the ascension
- To Paul
- To Stephen
- To Paul in the Temple
- To John on Patmos
The appearances that Jesus made were not restricted to persons of any particular psychological type
A powerful argument in favour of the validity of the Resurrection is the change in the apostles after the Resurrection. After the Crucifixion they were demoralised: their dream had turned to dust. They were not expecting anything after the Burial. Some of them were unwilling to accept the Good News at first. After the Resurrection they were trans-formed and went on to preach the Resurrection boldly, despite persecution and martyrdom.
The eminent Jewish scholar, Professor Geza Vermes, has stated: “But in the end, when every argumeent has been considered and weighed, the only conclusion acceptable to the historian must be that the opinions of the orthodox, the liberal sympathiser and the critical agnostic alike – even perhaps the disciples themselves – are simply interpretations of the one disconcerting fact: namely that the women who set out to pay their last respects to Jesus found to their consternation, not the body, but the empty tomb..
(With acknowledgements to Josh McDowell)