Jesus' Resurrection - Why we can be certain that it really happened

Matthew 27:57-28:15 Mark 15:42-16:8 Luke 23:50-24:53 John 19:38-21:14

There are three questions we need to ask of Jesus’ resurrection to affirm if it really happened:

Was Jesus really dead?

Perhaps Jesus did not die but fainted on the cross to later emerge from his unconsciousness in the cool of the tomb, i.e. it was resuscitation not resurrection. To think that Jesus did not really die ignores the professionalism of the Roman soldiers and their execution abilities. This is what they did for a living, and they did it very well. In Mark 15:44-45 Pilate was surprised at how quickly Jesus had died and sent back soldiers to confirm. This had been established by a heart-penetrating spear thrust which alone would have killed him (John 19:31-34). Jesus was dead, no doubts about it.

Was the tomb really empty?

There are two main arguments here.

The first is that perhaps the wrong tomb was identified and, as Jesus’ body lay rotting in one tomb, everyone else was perplexed by the emptiness of another one. But this is not possible. Joseph gave his new tomb for Jesus’ burial – it’s hardly likely he would forget his own tomb’s location (Matthew 27:57-61; Mark 15:46; John 19:38-42). The women who had followed Jesus’ body to the tomb were not likely to get lost on their return (Matthew 27:61-28:1; Mark 15:47; Luke 23:55-24:1), as with the disciples who came to verify the women’s story (Luke 24:12; John 20:3). And are we to believe the Roman soldiers (whose lives depended on them doing a good job) were all the while guarding the wrong tomb? And of course if they all had been wrong someone would have realised once the resurrection rumours started and found Jesus’ corpse. All these people, Jesus’ friends and enemies, affirmed that the same tomb that Jesus’ body had been placed in was now empty. It was the right tomb, and it was really empty.

The second is to suggest that someone snuck into the tomb and removed the body. There are two possible suspects for that conspiracy; the disciples or the authorities.

· Did the disciples steal the body in some half-hatched plan to keep their new religion alive? Not possible. First the tomb was incredibly well guarded (Matthew 27:62-66) and the stone would have taken three or four men to move – without the guards realising? Secondly, we need to understand that Jesus’ resurrection was as surprising to the disciples as it was to the authorities. They were not expecting Jesus to come back to life – dead was dead (John 20:9). There was no framework for them to hatch a plan from.

· Did the Jewish or Roman authorities steal the body to stop it becoming an icon? Again, not possible. If the authorities had the body then once the rumours of Jesus’ resurrection began they would have brought the body out and immediately dispelled them. We know they did hatch a plan to discredit the resurrection claims, but it was a plan based on them (the authorities) not having the body in the first place (Matthew 28:11-15)! 

Was Jesus really alive again?

Were the sightings really Jesus, and was he really alive? There are four possible objections we need to address.

i. Was it all the delusional dreams of Jesus’ followers?

ii. Was it Jesus’ ‘ghost’ or ‘spirit’ people saw?

iii. Was it was someone who looked liked Jesus, his brother James perhaps?

iv. Was it all a clever lie concocted by the disciples?

 

i. The sightings of Jesus were actually hallucinations by delusional disciples. This is not possible for a number of reasons. Jesus is recorded as having appeared eleven times in the gospel accounts, to different people, including sceptics (John 20:27). These were group sighting (hallucinations are individual events – something only one person can see!). In 1Corinthhians 15 we are told Jesus appeared to 500 people at one time, many of whom were still alive and could verify that. These sightings were real.  

ii. The sightings of Jesus were his ‘ghost’ or ‘spirit’ and not his physical body. Again, this does not fit with the historical record of the sightings. Jesus ate with people (Luke 24:30 & 42-43), cooked food (John 21:9-10), and was touched (Matthew 28:9; John 20:27). He was physical (Luke 24:39-40).

iii. The sightings of Jesus were not actually Jesus but a look alike, maybe his half-brother James. Again, not possible. Many of the sightings of Jesus were by his good friends who had lived with him for years. And they were close up – in a room and sharing a meal. No way would they have been confused. Equally, Jesus had unique identifying marks of his crucifixion on his body (Luke 24:39). This was Jesus, not a look-alike.

iv. The sightings of Jesus were not genuine, but deliberate fabrications by the disciples. No. For a start the disciples would have somehow had to buy in the 500+ other witnesses. Even if they had managed that, a great con does not fit with what we know about the disciples. Their lives were and continued to be morally excellent – they were upright and outstanding individuals even in their enemy’s eyes. Equally, a fabrication would not account for the immediate and dramatic change in the disciples from scared and directionless, to bold and purposeful. Later, all the disciples but John went on to die for adhering to the resurrection – they died for a lie if these sightings were fabrications by them. And if they did fabricate the accounts they did a poor job, making themselves look slow and stupid to comprehend, and placing women (in a society that questioned the legal trustworthiness of women’s testimony) as the key witnesses. There is no way the disciples fabricated Jesus’ resurrection.

In conclusion
We can trust that the resurrection of Jesus really happened.