Nobody likes to talk about death. It is painful to experience losing someone we love. Sometimes we see it coming and sometimes it takes us by surprise. When someone close to us dies, we all have our beliefs on what happens to them after death. The truth is that none of us knows for a fact of what happens after death. It is the great mystery that mankind has always tried to answer.
The answer is Easter. This day gives us hope.
Jesus told us that He is the resurrection and the life and anyone that believes in Him would live.
That’s a pretty bold claim. Some believe it and some don’t.
When Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life,” He was claiming to be the source of both. There is no resurrection apart from Christ, and there is no eternal life apart from Christ. Beyond that, Jesus was also making a statement concerning His divine nature. He does more than give life; He is life, and therefore death has no ultimate power over Him. Jesus confers this spiritual life on those who believe in Him, so that they share His triumph over death (1 John 5:11-12). Believers in Jesus Christ will experience resurrection because, having the life Jesus gives, it is impossible for death to defeat them (1 Corinthians 15:53-57).
Many years ago I had the opportunity to visit the empty tomb. I filed inside a small opening along with everyone else in the tour group to see absolutely nothing. And that was the best part. Seeing nothing was an awesome experience.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the reason we have hope. The promise has never expired and it still awaits us if we believe in Him. The problem is that many don’t believe.
So what is the proof?
The empty tomb
I Cor. 15:3-4 tells that Jesus died and was buried. He was laid in a tomb after his death. But on resurrection morning, we are told, his body was not there any longer. The tomb was empty. Certainly the Roman authorities could have quelled the early Christian movement by simply producing Jesus’ body, but they never did. The tomb was empty, and the body was missing.
The eyewitness accounts
After Jesus was resurrected, He made several appearances to people, including an appearance to 500 that is mentioned in I Cor. 15:6. Paul makes note that many of these 500 people are “still living.” Why would he say that? What difference does it make if the eyewitnesses are alive or dead? The answer should be obvious: if they are still alive, they can be consulted.
The transformation of the disciples
In I Cor. 15:5, Paul mentions that Jesus appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. Peter had denied Jesus three times and later that night was shut behind locked doors in fear. But in the book of Acts, just weeks later, we see Peter preaching boldly to hundreds of people, saying things like, “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death, but God raised him from the dead.” (Acts 2:23). How do we account for that kind of radical change? He saw Jesus resurrected from the dead, and his life was never the same.
The testimony of women
The first people to see the resurrected Jesus were women (Mat. 28:1-10). In the culture of Jesus’ day, this is hugely significant. Women had such a low social standing that their testimony was not even admissible in a court of law. If the Gospel writers were fabricating a story, they would have had every reason to strike this detail from the record in an effort to make their story as plausible as possible. But they didn’t. This is because they were committed to a reliable historical account of what actually happened on the first Easter morning.
The growth of the church
The early church grew from a few frightened disciples on the night of Jesus’ death to a few billion believers in the world today. It has been transformed from the most persecuted institution to the most influential institution in the history of the world. How could the church grow so rapidly if the apostles were spreading a lie? Why would so many of them go to their deaths if they knew the resurrection was a sham? It’s true that people will die for beliefs they think are true, but they won’t die for beliefs they know are false.
Toward the end of his first letter to the Corinthian church, Paul addresses the resurrection’s significance:
“But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”
Even now when I think of my visit to the empty tomb, I am filled with the hope of eternal life and those I have lost temporarily to death but will see again. I can’t give you all the answers. All I have is the faith I carry with me everyday.
