Did Jesus Really Rise From The Dead?

Well, clearly the first followers of Jesus thought so. Just a few weeks after the crucifixion one of them told the crowds at one of the great Jewish religious festivals, 'You killed Jesus by letting sinful men crucify him. But God raised him from death, setting him free from its power, because it was impossible that death should hold him prisoner.' And later the speaker, Peter, adds, ' God has raised this very Jesus from death, and we are all witnesses to this fact. (Read The Bible, Acts chapter 2 verses 22-32 ).

Now, something must have made them believe this. No-one at that time believed that people rose from the dead like that: it wasn't expected to happen. The Gospel account makes it clear that Jesus' own friends were totally taken by surprise. They needed a lot of convincing that Jesus had really come back to meet them, and that he was there in a real, physical, body. Luke's Gospel tells of the followers of Jesus thinking he was a ghost, and of the things Jesus had to do to convince them he was real: read the story in The Bible, Luke chapter 24 verses 36-49 . John's Gospel tells us about Thomas, who said 'I'll believe it when I see it!' ... and did! (Read The Bible, John chapter 20 verses 24-29 .)

What made them believe it? Firstly, the fact that the tomb, in which Jesus' body had been placed on Good Friday, was found early on Easter morning to be empty. The Gospels give the details. Obviously, it was suggested that the body had been stolen. But by whom? All the people in power had an interest in producing the body if it had been taken from a tomb that they had sealed and guarded. To produce the body would stop the story of resurrection in its tracks. But no-one could produce it. Nor can we imagine the disciples stealing the corpse: had they done so, they would hardly be ready to face prison and even death for the sake of a lie.

But an empty tomb is only half the story. The followers of Jesus claimed to have seen him! And seen a real, living, man, not a ghost. Some of the appearances are detailed in one of the earliest documents of the New Testament, a letter Paul wrote to Christians in the Greek seaport of Corinth . Among these events Paul notes an occasion when Jesus was seen by 'more than 500 of his followers at once, most of whom are still alive ...' ( The Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 6 ). In other words, someone in Corinth who wanted to interview an eye-witness could still do so at the time Paul wrote. These are not things written down many years later to back up a legend: there were people around to confirm them.

We, of course, can't speak to the eye-witnesses. We can only read what they, and those they told about it, wrote down. Which is where we are with anything in the past. But something changed the fearful disciples into powerful witnesses to the resurrection. Something set in motion a movement that spread through, and beyond, the Roman Empire , and finally conquered its persecutors. The resurrection of Christ accounts for what happened later: nothing else can.

But dead men don't rise! That's the snag, for first century people ... and us. But suppose there is a God who made everything in the first place ... a God who sustains our life, and everything else, moment by moment ... And if the person the New Testament says was raised from death by the power of God was someone who had a unique relationship with God, and had come to earth to reveal God's power and love, then what wouldn't fit is for him to have died and not come back to show that God is stronger than death. It is incredible ... but nothing else fits.