He Rose? Really?

Each year at Easter we hear Christians proclaiming that Jesus rose from the dead. How do we know if it really happened or not? Let’s look at a few more facts as we continue to investigate. For starters, Jesus’ tomb was empty. Not only did the women and the disciples make this claim, but his enemies did as well. When faced with the knowledge that the tomb was empty the people who had him killed came up with an alternative. They began to say that the disciples had somehow got past the soldiers and stolen the body. Think about it, if Jesus’ body was still in the tomb, all they would have had to do was go and get the body and parade it for all to see. That would have put an end to Christianity in a hurry. Truth is they did not know where the body was and the tomb was indeed empty.
In any trial or court case, the best evidence you can get is from credible eyewitnesses. In the case of the resurrection of Christ, there are many such witnesses. Many people claimed to have seen the risen Christ. People like the disciples, the women, Paul, Stephen, the multitude on the mountainside, and many others. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul gives a list of those who claim to have seen the risen Lord. He also tells the Church that most of the witnesses are still living, as if to encourage them to seek them out and ask them.
So what about the disciples? Maybe they did just steal the body and make the whole thing up? But why would they do that? What did they have to gain? In fact, they all gained violent deaths for their efforts. Historical and non-Christian sources outside the Bible tell us that the disciples claimed that Jesus had risen from the dead and they died for that belief. You may be thinking, “well so what? There are martyrs in every religion. What about the terrorists from 9/11?” Huge difference! You see the suicide bombers did not claim to be eyewitnesses of Allah, they merely believed in his existence. In contrast, the disciples died because they claimed to have seen something with their own eyes. They were in a position to know for sure whether or not they were telling the truth. Either they saw him or they didn’t. History tells us that liars make poor martyrs. These are the same guys who were denying and hiding when Jesus was killed. Now they were preaching from the rooftops that Jesus was alive. There are no accounts in history that say any of them ever recanted this belief.
In addition to all this there are the conversions of Paul and of Jesus’ brother James. Paul was an enemy of Christianity and then became its biggest proponent. During Jesus’ lifetime none of his brothers believed he was the Messiah. Yet history records that his brother James was the leader of the early Church. What can account for the change in these men and in the disciples? Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15 that they saw the risen Jesus. Next time we will conclude by destroying the arguments skeptics make against the resurrection of Christ. Have a great week!