Prove It! - Pt. 2

 

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. (Luke 24:1-9 ESV).

 

Today we begin to dig a little deeper in “proving” the resurrection. I surmise that most of my readers will find this a bit tedious as you already have a firm belief in place concerning this foundational tenet of faith. However, I hope you will use this information with some of your friends when they question your faith in the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Our first evidence is found in the reporting that the tomb in which Jesus was buried was discovered empty by a group of women on the Sunday following the crucifixion. There are some basics that support this report by the Gospel writers.

 

First, the women told the disciples immediately. When they verified their story, they began to tell everyone that Jesus was resurrected. All this happened in Jerusalem mere days after his death and burial. Paul Althaus writes, the resurrection proclamation "could not have been maintained in Jerusalem for a single day, for a single hour, if the emptiness of the tomb had not been established as a fact for all concerned."

 

Second, the earliest Jewish arguments against Christianity admit the empty tomb. In Matthew 28:11-15, there is a reference made to the Jew's attempt to refute Christianity be saying that the disciples stole the body. This is significant because it shows that the Jews did not deny the empty tomb. Instead, their "stolen body" theory admitted the significant truth that the tomb was in fact empty. Other Jewish sources also support this fact (ie. The Toledoth Jesu). Further, we have a record of a second century debate between a Christian and a Jew, in which a reference is made to the fact that the Jews claim the body was stolen. Remember that the Jewish leaders were opposed to Christianity. They were hostile witnesses. In acknowledging the empty tomb, they were admitting the reality of a fact that was certainly not in their favor. Paul Maier calls this "positive evidence from a hostile source. In essence, if a source admits a fact that is decidedly not in its favor, the fact is genuine."

 

Third, the empty tomb account in the gospel of Mark is based upon a source that originated within seven years of the event it narrates. This places the evidence for the empty tomb too early to be legendary. Michael Horton wrote: "Caiaphas, who we know was high priest at that time, was still high priest when the story began circulating." For "if it had been written after Caiaphas' term of office, his name would have had to have been used to distinguish him from the next high priest. But since Caiaphas was high priest from A.D. 18 to 37, this story began circulating no later than A.D. 37, within the first seven years after the events." So, the early source Mark used puts the testimony of the empty tomb too early to be legendary.

 

Fourth, Jesus' tomb was never venerated as a shrine. This is striking because it was the first century custom to set up a shrine at the site of a holy man's bones. There were at least 50 such cites in Jesus' day. Since there was no such shrine for Jesus, it suggests that his bones weren't there.

 

Fifth, the tomb was discovered empty by women. This is important because first century women were considered worthless. Craig says, "if the empty tomb story were a legend, then it is most likely that the male disciples would have been made the first to discover the empty tomb. The fact that despised women, whose testimony was deemed worthless, were the chief witnesses to the fact of the empty tomb can only be plausibly explained if, like it or not, they actually were the discoverers of the empty tomb."

 

I’ll have more tomorrow! Today, let your faith stand strong in the face of all skeptics. Jesus is not there! He sits on the throne waiting for the final coming!