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The Historical Resurrection of Jesus Christ
"He has risen!"
(Matt 28 v 6, Mark 16 v 6, Luke 24 v 6)
For nearly 2,000 years Christians have proclaimed the Good News of Christ's resurrection and triumph over death. For nearly 2,000 years non- Christians have resisted the claim that Christ rose. The church has grown in that time, from the handful of frightened and dispirited followers who saw Christ arrested, falsely accused and executed, into the millions upon millions of believers of the present era.
This article explores the following questions about the resurrection
2) If it did happen what does that mean?
1) Did it happen?
Before examining the arguments for and against the historical resurrection it is worth asking what is the story that is being discussed here.
Christians claim that Jesus was a Jew who made claims to be the Messiah of whom the Old Testament scriptures testify. He was perceived to be a threat to the religious establishment of His day and executed by the Romans on a cross. A few days after His death and burial some women visited his tomb to discover that it was empty and that the Roman seals on that tomb had been broken and the Roman guard there had fled. In the 40 days that followed some 500 people claim to have seen Jesus. His disciples began to proclaim this with great confidence and the number of followers grew rapidly. From these small beginnings was to grow a church which 2,000 years later would embrace the world and one third of the world's population.
Through the centuries a number of key objections have been raised concerning whether or not Jesus rose from the dead.
a) Christ's resurrection is a myth not history.
c) The resurrection stories are full of contradictions
d) Miraculous events simply do not happen. There is a natural explanation to all things.
f) Jesus only fainted then recovered from his wounds.
h) The risen Christ was actually a different person to the cruicified Christ.
a) Christ's resurrection is a myth not history.
Myth usually takes more than one generation to formulate while the eyewitness accounts of Christ's resurrection crystallised into the New Testament scriptures within one generation of the events described. Sunday worship and basic credal statements affirming the resurrection were firmly established within one generation of the events described. This indicates that it was the widespread conviction of the Christian community that Jesus rose on the first day of the week and that this was a central truth of the faith they professed.
Unlike contemporary mythological literature the scriptures are written in an historical genre and include eyewitness testimony that could have been verified by other members of the community within which the literature was distributed.
Some of the witnesses to the resurrection e.g. Saul of Tarsus or James were previously hostile or sceptical of Christ's claims. It was their experience of the risen Christ rather than any contrived stories on the part of His followers that was to convince them of His Lordship. A contrived mythological account would not have included the crucial testimony of women as this would have undermined its validity in that day and age.
The previous Old Testament scriptures indicate that it is God's way to reveal Himself in history, the historical and bodily resurrection of Christ is a fulfilment of prophecies made in the Old Testament.
b) The resurrection motif was borrowed from other older religions and Christianity exploited a framework already established by these religions, e.g. Mithraism, in its early expansion.
The alleged parallels between Christianity and other religions are inexact.
Christianity and other religions meant radically different things by resurrection.
The individual claims made for different religions can be debunked on close examination. The hostile reaction of pagan critics and Gnostics to the resurrection indicates that the culture was not as well prepared to receive this truth as many would like to suggest.
c) The resurrection stories are full of contradictions
The Bible account is an honest account of how different people reacted to the resurrection e.g. with joy, fear, unbelief, doubt etc. A contrived or mythical account would have been more embellished. While there are difficulties, the apparent contradictions can be resolved on closer examination with understanding of timing and recognising differences between the various resurrection events and perspectives on them e.g. see Richard Harris "Raised immortal".
d) Miraculous events simply do not happen. There is a natural explanation to all things.
Too many people impose their own artificial standards of what they expected from a text onto the Bible rather than reading it in its own terms. If there is a God who created the heavens and the Earth then it follows that miracles are possible since He would be by definition capable of them. Scientists look for uniformities that can be verified by standardisable and repeatable tests. However the resurrection or miracles are unique events which are well attested to by numerous eyewitnesses, both friendly and hostile.
e) The Body was stolen
The Jews and the Romans hads no interest in stealing the body. The disciples were later willing to die for their testimony concerning the Risen Christ and though they all had ample opportunity to recant none of them did. It seems unlikely that a band of dispirited disciples of Jesus could have got past a Roman Guard, roll away the stone and steal Christ's body. The transformation of Saul of Tarsus from persecutor to Apostle is best explained by having met the Risen Christ.
f) Jesus only fainted then recovered from his wounds.
Death on a cross made it unlikely that had Christ survived the experience he would have looked very convincing as a Conqueror over death. Many of Christ's enemies saw him die and the Roman soldiers had to be sure of this before taking him down from the cross.
g) The witnesses hallucinated
Hallucinations happen to individuals not to crowds or groups of people of such diverse personality types as are included in the list of 500 witnesses to the Resurrection.
Hallucinations can not explain the depth and power of the transformation effected in Christ's disciples from fearful despair to a confident missionary society that risked even death for the sake of its Lord.
h) The risen Christ was actually a different person to the cruicified Christ.
The disciples would have recognised the person they had been with every day for three years.
i) Jesus was a spaceman and the resurrection can be explained in terms of his alien physiology and the advanced medical techniques of his alien comrades. His life , works and resurrection represent the benevolent intrusion of an alien race far superior to our own into human civilisation and history in accordance with some purpose that they have in mind for the human race.
That Jesus never claimed to be a spaceman is an important consideration as are His I AM saying which would be blasphemous in that context unless He were Divine. The testimony of His message and works does very little to promote an alien cause and never alludes to it. Those who lived with Him all His life like Mary who bore Him in her womb and watched Him grow and those who saw Him in tears, hunger or fatigue knew Him as a human being who was at the same time much more than merely human. His death was witnessed by numerous hostilepeople who wanted to be absolutely sure he was dead. There is no absolutely solid evidence to support this theory.
2)What does it mean to say Jesus rose from the Dead?
So Jesus rose - so what? Of what significance is the resurrection? What changes as a result of knowing that Jesus rose? There are a number of implications.
1) Theological - implications to our understanding of God.
2) Missiological - implications to our understanding of mission.
3) Personal - implications for our own lives.
1) Theological Implications
The physical event of the resurrection was witnessed by people only in terms of its consequences and there are no eyewitness accounts of the precise chronology of happenings in the tomb. Thus it is a mysterious event that lies at the very heart of the mystery of faith and one which transcends and surpasses human history.
The resurrection was a Trinitarian event with each member of the Trinity involved. The Father raises Jesus from the dead and it thus testifies to the omnipotence of God who alone could have accomplished this deed. Jesus had the capability to lay down His life and then to take it up again as He does with the resurrection. Just as the Spirit brooded over the waters during creation He is there also at the resurrection breathing Divine life into Christ's dead humanity.
The resurrection confirms that Christs words and actions during His earthly ministry carried Divine authority and it vindicates the claims that He made concerning Divinity (John 8 v 28).
The fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies and of the words of Christ during His earthly ministry testify to a God who keeps His promises and one whose words can be trusted.
The resurrection of Jesus inaugurates a new age and a new order that is no longer bound by sin and death (defeated on the cross) nor even it seems (given the wonder of Christ's resurrection body) by space and time.
The resurrection is the basis of the believers hope that one day we also shall be raised in Christ and enter with Him into the very presence of God and into eternal life with Him.
2) Missiological Implications
As Romans 10 v 9 makes clear the confession of the resurrection is the equivalent of acceptance of the Lordship of Jesus Christ and a necessary condition of salvation. Thus no proclamation of the Gospel is complete without an affirmation of it.
The resurrection confirms that Christ has indeed got the Divine Authority to send His church out to make disciples of the nations. His death liberates us from sin. But His resurrection opens the way to a new life that reinstates us in God's grace and allows our filial adoption as Christ's Brethren.
We proclaim Christ as the source of our future hope that we too shall be resurrected in Him.
The irresistable power of His resurrected life is the source of our Christian confidence in the worst of times and the best. The joy with which he fills us is the joy of Eternity overcoming history, of meaning overcoming meaninglessness, of hope triumphing over despair.
3) Personal Implications
In the worst of times, when the pains of this world are all too obvious to us, the resurrection offers a taste of a Kingdom where there will be no tears or pain.
In a world where wrong seems altooften to win over right and where evil is the assassin of good the resurrection offers us evidence of the goodness and justice of God. The resurrection confronts us with a choice. By confirming Christ's identity it forces us to face head on His claims over our lives, are we His or not His? Do we wish to enter into the highest quality of life, for all eternity with Him, or do we prefer to choose the false pleasures and the corruption and the futility of an order and of an age that will pass away.
References:
Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, IVP,1992
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Geoffrey Chapman,1994
Easter:Myth, Hallucination, or History, Edwin Yamauchi
Evidence for the Resurrection, Josh McDowell
Easter and Jesus Christ's Death and Resurrection