Glad you asked: Is there life after death? Did Jesus really die, and then live again?

Tough Questions: 

There are tough questions in life.  Whether of the deep & profound variety (suffering, justice, truth, purpose and meaning) or of the practical & immediate variety (marriage, singleness, relationships, parenting, career, guidance).

They are tough because they are:

Intellectually complex with rarely only one equation that needs to be worked through but a multitude of different factors and disciplines involved.

Relationally complex with the same question (e.g: what happens when we die?) requiring radically different approaches if asked by your 5 year old child; your 85 year old grandma; your boss over a snatched pre-meeting coffee; your teenage daughter as she ponders her philosophy homework.

Emotionally complex with no question ever asked in a vacuum but to the backdrop of a horrific earthquake or a senseless murder or a bleak prognosis.

Often our response to ourselves or to others is understandable but unhelpful:

Silent:  We are silent because we feel unequipped intellectually, relationally or emotionally and have no words we feel confident to say.

Strident:  We speak but even to our own ears we sound shallow for the intellectual depth or blind to the relational reality or dead to the emotional complexity.

Glad you asked. 

Peter tell us ‘to be ready to give an answer for the hope that we have in Jesus’ (1Peter 3:15).  There is a way to approach tough questions that is neither silent (for we have an answer to give) nor strident (for our answer brings hope).  Answers which are intellectually solid, relationally wise & emotionally satisfying. 

Tough Question: Did Jesus really die and then come back to life?

This is immeasurable important.  It is the foundation of at least three huge questions:

Is Jesus unique?  Jesus’ uniqueness is built on this claim.  If he really was dead and really came alive again he is unique.  No other religion even makes this claim about its founders – the graves of Mohammad, Buddha, Krishna, Abraham all contained corpses that became bones and eventually dust.

What is our future – after I die?  And therefore how should we live in the present?  Our future beyond death (and to some extent the drive of our present) is determined by this claim.

Is Christianity legitimate?  Paul knows that ‘if the resurrection did not happen then our preaching is in useless and so is your faith.’ (1Cor 15:14)

So as tough questions go this one is in the premiership!

Three convincing foundations that make us able to say ‘I’m glad you asked’!  You can remember them with the acronym WOW.

Witnesses who saw it happen.

There is the widest range of fully authenticated, credible eye-witnesses is available to us.  Such as:

The well-known and well-respected political & social leaders who have closely monitored Jesus’ career & claims. (John 19:38-42)

Joseph and Nicodemus are rich, influential, and respected.  Nicodemus had interviewed Jesus almost three years earlier and continued to monitor and track him (John 3, 7). 

The professional, impartial civil servants & soldiers who executed Jesus.  (John 19:31-34, 38)

Pilate & the soldiers where professionals, whose jobs and credibility relied on doing this well.  The soldiers in the death squad were seasoned, hardened and hand-picked.  Removing a prisoner pre-death from a crucifix was immediate discharge and could be punished by execution.  Any claims that Jesus was alive would have been devastating for Pilate & the soldiers.

The dubious, edge of society, street-savy friends of Jesus. (John 20:1-2)

The accounts are of real events not a fabricated version: Mary was the last witness you would choose if you were to fabricate this account: controversial, biased, female in a male dominated culture.

The reliable, construction site foreman who were Jesus’ lieutenants.  (John 20:3-9)

Peter & John were steady, reliable, un-flappable fisherman.  Construction site foreman or Regimental Sergeant Major types.  Not prone to flights of fancy.

Fully Authenticated

John’s account was public while most of these eye-witnesses were still alive.  Questioned by neutral historians, the founding Christians (such as Luke), and those wishing to crush the church (such as Paul) not one of these witnesses changed their stories.  In fact 10 of the 11 disciples who went on to found the church were killed because of their refusal to change their story.  The fact of the resurrection was accepted at a time when there were abundant living witnesses, both for and against Jesus, who would have contradicted the accounts if they had not been true.

Old Testament that said it would happen. (John 20:9)

There is a mathematically conclusive number of surprisingly detailed predictions that depict these events made 100s years earlier, mostly before crucifixion was invented.

Explicit examples include:  ohn 19:24 quoting from Psalm 22:18 written 800 years before Jesus’ died and before crucifixion was even invented.  Or John 19:36-37 quoting from Exodus 12:42 and Numbers 9:12 (1300 years earlier), Psalm 34:20, & Zechariah 12:10 (400 years earlier).

There are many more of these explicit references in the accounts of Jesus’ death.  But there are also implicit examples:  Jesus would be killed with criminals and buried with the rich was predicted by Isaiah 53:9,12.

Worldwide Church exists because it did happen. (John 20:10, 19-21)

There is the unprecedented transformation of the original witnesses from confused & terrified to clear & courageous, both chronologically and geographically overwhelming verified today.

A new worldview exploded onto the scene, only matched in its fervour by the renewed energy and commitment of those original witnesses.  It has be verified over time and across cultures.  The UK in 2014 is the oddity; the strange dissenter in a universally agreed reality!

I hope I have given something of an intellectually, relationally and emotionally ‘answer for the hope that I have in Jesus.’