Coming off the Easter season, I think it’s important for us not to gloss over or move past the idea of the Resurrection too quickly. You see, it can be argued that the Resurrection validates everything in Scripture, not least of which are Jesus’ claims about Himself, namely, that He is God. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then we have no reason to believe any other claims in the Bible. This is not just me making this claim. The Apostle Paul states the same in 1 Corinthians 15 when he says that “if Christ has not been raised from the dead then our preaching is worthless, and your faith is worthless.” So that being said, why do we actually hold to this crazy idea that someone could come back from the dead?
There have been many solid arguments made for the historicity of the Resurrection. One of my personal favorites is the change wrought in Jesus’ disciples. Let us consider these guys before and after they witnessed Jesus alive after being dead. We have their own testimony over and over again in the Gospels, how Jesus claimed that He was going to give himself as a sacrifice for the sins of His people, but that they did not understand or accept Jesus’ claims about this reality. We also see them squabbling over positions of prominence in the kingdom that they believed Jesus was just about to bring about. They mistakenly believed that Jesus was simply going to institute a physical kingdom by overthrowing the Romans and their political and religious puppets. So, the very ones who are testifying to the remarkable event of Jesus rising from the dead are the very ones who paint themselves in a negative light. I do not know about you but if I were going to try to convince people to follow my religion and I was able to play fast and loose with the facts, I would certainly attempt to air brush my own involvement in these events. I would hide my negative words and actions and highlight my admirable characteristics. This is not what we get at all. The Apostles were willing to include even the most shameful words and deeds in their telling of the story. This to me indicates the truthfulness of their testimony.
Let’s approach this another way. Take the Apostle Peter. This man was known to be brash and confident. When Jesus asked His disciples questions, Peter seemed to be the first to step up and take a swing at the answer. Sometimes Peter would hit it out of the park and sometimes he would fall flat on his face. Take the time when Jesus asked the disciples about His identity. Peter very quickly declared that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Immediately after this Jesus declares that He would be killed. Peter again takes a wild swing and declares that this would never happen. Jesus then said, “Get behind me, Satan.” Peter, who would be the leader of the Apostles and the early church was not a paragon of virtue during Jesus’ earthly ministry. During the Last Supper, Peter declared that he would be willing to go with Jesus to the end, but later that night he was unable to even stay up and pray with Jesus during His hour of temptation. Later he fulfilled the Lord’s promise that he would deny Jesus three times. This denial happened to the very intimidating figure of a young servant girl. So that makes us ask the question…How did Peter go from someone who ran away from and denied the Lord, to someone who would, just a few weeks later, preach boldly to the very group who condemned Jesus and put Him on trial? The obvious answer is the fact that Peter saw his risen Lord. Not only did he see Jesus risen, but he interacted with Him several times. In addition, Peter received the promised Holy Spirit.
So, the fact that these weak, squabbling, and dense group of disciples would then go on to change the world with the message of a risen Savior seems to be very strong evidence indeed that they believed the message that they preached. How else can we explain these men being willing to give everything without anything to show for it in human terms? Peter and the rest of the disciples gave it all for the sake of their risen Savior. It has been said that “many people have died for a lie, but few people willingly die for what they know to be a lie.” This is all extraordinarily strong evidence that the Resurrection really took place. This is great news because it is the very thing that secures the future Resurrection of all believers. I guess that is what changed everything and why we call this “The Gospel.”
He Is Risen Indeed!