Prove it! How many times have you heard a child say this? How many times have you said it? We constantly hear amazing claims. How about, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Or, “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.” Then, there is my favorite, “If you keep pulling that face, it’ll stick that way.” Recently, I read that 100% of fibromyalgia sufferers are helped by a certain treatment. By the way, none of the above is true.
What Jesus Said and Did
The Bible also contains some astounding statements. Jesus makes several. There is His repeated assertion that He is the Messiah and the Son of God (Mt 16:16-17). Elsewhere He says He is one with God (Jn 10:30) and the Son of Man who will return (Mk 14:62). And, in a totally politically incorrect move, in Jn 14:6, Jesus claims to be the only way to the Father. The people of the time knew exactly what Jesus saying, which is why they decided to stone him. He was claiming to be God (Jn 10:33). And, unless He is, that makes him crazy or a liar. Evidently, they decided He must be a liar. Even then one did not stone crazy people. Or God, for that matter. So, did Jesus prove He is God?
The Biblical narrative gives us some pretty convincing clues. Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, and controlled the weather. He also read peoples’ minds, cast out demons, and lived a sin-free life. Jesus both accurately predicted several events that happened after he died and fulfilled many of the prophecies that were given 700 or so years before he was born. That sure looks like proof, but only if one assumes that what the Bible says about Jesus’ life is true. Is there any other proof? As it happens, yes.
What Scholars Say
Reputable scholars and historians agree that Jesus existed and was crucified. We don’t need to discuss that. There is, of course, much evidence in the Bible, but there are also many references to Him in very early non-Christian sources: the writings of the Roman historian Tacitus, the Jewish historian Josephus, a letter by Pliny the Younger, and even a reference by Lucian, a Greek Satirist. For more about these, check bethinking.org. But, frankly, the historical proof that Jesus existed and was crucified does not prove He is God. Many people existed and were crucified. It is important to realize that, because Jesus Himself claimed to be God, if He cannot prove it, then, as was said in the GWW talk by Dr. Mike Licona, Jesus is a false prophet.
According to the Bible, Jesus Himself predicted that He would die and, after three days, rise from death (e.g. Mt 12:39-40, Mt 27:62-64, Jn 10:17-18). If your best friend were to tell you this, what would you think? Maybe, “prove it?” More likely, you would try to get him help! For those with open, but not empty, minds (there’s a difference), if Jesus managed to pull this off, fulfilling both his own and older prophecies, that would irrefutably prove his deity. If He didn’t, then, according to St. Paul, our faith is useless (1 Cor 15:14).
At this point, we need to reason based on what we read in the Bible and what we know of church history. Obviously, we cannot rely on non-Christian or allegedly impartial sources to refer to Jesus’ resurrection. As Dr. Licona said, a person who acknowledges that Jesus rose from the dead and still is not a believer is not someone to take seriously. So, let’s look at the known facts. 1. Jesus lived. 2. Jesus died. 3. The tomb was empty; there was no body. “Stop,” you may say, “How do you know? Prove it!”
Did the Resurrection Happen?
Here we need to read the accounts in the four Gospels and then think through the various possibilities. First, the Bible tells us that Jesus’ tomb was empty. The first people to discover the empty tomb were women and only afterwards did Peter and John go and confirm that the body was missing. This lends credibility to the report because women were not considered good witnesses. If this were a fabricated story, the Gospel writers would have altered that unlikely detail. Then, in Mt 28:11-15, we find the Romans and the Chief priests trying to figure out how they could explain the fact that the tomb was empty. Interestingly, at any point, it would have been very simple to stop this troublesome new religious movement by simply producing the body. No one did. So, what happened to it?
Various theories have been advanced, all of them pretty hard to believe. The first is that maybe the women and the disciples went to the wrong tomb. But, there was at least one guard there, too. Presumably, he knew where Jesus was buried. Since the tomb belonged to Joseph of Arimathea, it seems unlikely that no one ever figured out where it was. Another theory is that maybe Jesus only fainted on the cross after being flogged, nailed through the wrists and feet, and then stabbed in the side, puncturing his heart. Once in the nice cool tomb, He woke up, pushed the stone away, and appeared. Amazingly, He required no medical attention and convinced folks He rose from the dead. Believing that requires some faith! Muslims posit that Jesus was spirited up to Heaven while alive and that the person who died on the cross was an unfortunate substitute, but do not explain the empty tomb. Finally, some suggest that maybe Jesus’ body was stolen. But why—what was the motive?
Three groups of people had a vested interest in Jesus’ state. Two of these found the empty tomb very inconvenient: the Romans and the Jewish leaders. The soldiers assigned to guard the tomb could well have been put to death for losing the body. They had no motive for stealing and hiding it. The Chief priests wanted to be rid of Jesus and also had no reason to steal the body and enable his disciples to claim He rose. In fact, they would have been very motivated to produce the body. But they couldn’t.
The Chief priests found the empty tomb so inconvenient that Mt 28:11-15 tells us they bribed the Romans to say that the disciples stole the body. Only a little reflection reveals that this is an unlikely explanation for the missing body. The disciples had thought that He was the Messiah, even though the disgrace of crucifixion would have made them doubt. Nonetheless, stealing and hiding their leader’s body would be a very disrespectful act. Furthermore, stealing Jesus’ body would mean that later the disciples were knowingly lying when they claimed He rose from the dead. Most of the disciples were martyred. Would they do that for a claim they knew to be a lie? Amazingly, not one of them ever broke ranks. Nearly 2000 years later we still do not have evidence that Jesus’ body was stolen or hidden. The highest echelons of politicians could not keep Watergate a secret; is it likely that the disciples stole the body and no one ever found out? No.
Jesus lived. Jesus died. The tomb was empty; there was no body. Could it be that Jesus Christ actually did rise from the dead, just as He predicted? I’ll address this question next time.