He is Risen! The Scriptures state, “17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:17-19).”
The resurrection of Jesus is essential to the Christian faith. If there is no resurrection, those that witnessed the risen Lord, agreed that there is no hope, and that they should be pitied. And, likewise, anyone today, if the resurrection didn’t happen, have a false hope and should also be pitied. Yet, those early disciples proclaimed that Jesus was indeed raised from the dead, and subsequently were killed for that proclamation.
But we are about 1,991 years removed from that first Easter Sunday experience. None of us are eye witnesses like Peter, James, John, Matthew, and Paul were. How then can we objectively believe that Jesus actually rose from the dead?
I say objectively, because, we might have personally experienced Jesus, and his word may transform us, but the thing about the resurrection, it either historically happened or it didn’t; there’s no subjectivity to it. The tomb is either empty because Jesus rose from it, or it isn’t, and his body is decaying in the ground.
So today, we’re going to look at three reason why we can objectively say the tomb was empty on that first Easter Sunday, and why the resurrection of Jesus is the only viable conclusion one can come to.
The first reason that we can believe the tomb was really empty, is because everyone knew where to find it.
The reason why the empty tomb has never been disputed, is because everyone knew where to find the tomb. The disciples knew where it was, the Jewish religious leaders knew where it was, the Romans knew where it was. So anyone who wanted to debunk the tomb being empty could go and examine it for themselves.
In the Scriptures were given the location, which was a garden near the crucification site. We’re given what type of tomb, newly carved with a stone that could be rolled to close off the entrance. And we’re given who’s family owned it, Jospeh of Arimathea (John 19:38-42).
In fact, about 300 years later, when Helena, Emperor Constantine’s mother went to Jerusalem to locate sacred sites, the bishop of Jerusalem pointed out the tomb’s location right away (https:// news.nationalgeographic.com/ 2016/10/jesus-tomb-opened-church-holy-sepulchre/). Everyone knew, so at anytime, anyone could visit the site, and they would find it empty, just as the Roman Guards, and the disciples found it on that first Easter morning.
Following that everyone knew where it was, and could investigate it themselves, the second of our three reasons is that, the emptiness of the tomb was never an issue. From the founding of Christianity, the Apostles Matthew, John, and, through Mark, Peter, all concur through their Gospels, that the tomb was empty. Luke, gathering his Gospel knowledge from research and interviews, also concurs that the tomb was empty.
We know this because of the language used to talk about the physicality of the resurrection. In John’s Gospel, chapter 20, verses 24-29, we’re told that Thomas physically touched Jesus; this lets us know Jesus was raised bodily and not simply spiritually.
Mark describes Jesus “reclining at the table (16:14a)” to reveal the physicality of Jesus after the resurrection. Matthew also describes Jesus in physical terms, when he writes, “And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him (Matthew 28:9d).” And in Luke’s account, Jesus says to the disciples, “‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ 40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41 And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate before them (24:38-43).”
So what the disciples described was a literal empty tomb, where no body could be found. If a body were able to be produced, then the whole idea of the empty tomb, and the resurrection itself, falls apart.
It’s here that we could say, well that’s what the disciples said, their biased, of course their going to say that the tomb was empty. And because of this very thought, Matthew includes a detail in this writing addressing this. Writing down his eyewitness account about 20 years after the whole situation, Matthew records a rumor that began to circulate, which is found starting in Matthew 28:11, “11 While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. 12 And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers 13 and said, ‘Tell people, “His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.” 14 And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.’”
We know that this type of rumor persisted, because in the medieval period a collection of stories about Jesus from a Jewish persecutive was brought together. This was a polemic or a rebuttal to the Christian teaching of who Jesus was, called the Toledoth Yeshu, or Life of Jesus. In, Johann Christoph Wagenseil’s compilation and translation of the Toledoth Yeshu, there is a confirmation that the tomb was empty. Except now it wasn’t the disciples who stole the body, but the gardener who decided to take it so that the disciples couldn’t steal it.
But no matter how you approach the tomb, everyone agrees that it was indeed empty. So, believer and non-believer you can be assured that the tomb was empty.
Finally though, we know the empty tomb was really empty, and that Jesus really physically raised from the dead, because it transformed the lives of the people that claimed to have seen Jesus after the empty tomb was found.
The main group of disciples were cowardly, the Gospels don’t hide this fact. Matthew records that they all left Jesus as he was taken away by the temple guards (Matthew 26:56b). John writes that they kept their doors locked, probably to keep anyone from just barging in and arresting them (John 20:26-27). Mark records Peter’s own testimony about how he denied even being associated with Jesus, to a servant girl (Mark 14:66-72). These were not people who had the guts to steal the body, let alone what happened after they not only saw the empty tomb, but also said they had seen the risen Jesus.
But after they said they saw a physically resurrected Jesus, they went from cowards, to boldly proclaiming that Jesus was not only the Messiah, but that he had risen from the dead. A claim that could be disproven. Peter told the people at the Temple, “But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses (Acts 3:14-15).”
When Peter and John were then arrested right after this, they were brought before the Jewish religious council. There they were told not to speak of Jesus again, but Peter replied, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, 20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard (Acts 4:19-20).”
That boldness meant that Peter would go on to be crucified upside down, John would be boiled in oil and banished to an island, Andrew was crucified on a X-shaped cross. Thomas was killed by a spear. Philip was crucified. Matthew was killed by swords, Nathanael’s skin was flayed with a whip, Matthias was hit with stones and then beheaded. James the Greater was beheaded by King Herod, while James the lesser, was clubbed to death. Jude was sawed in half, as was Simon.
The skeptic James, Jesus’ half brother, who said he saw the risen Lord, ended up leading the Jerusalem Church, and was later killed by being thrown off the temple. And Paul the zealot who took it upon himself to imprison and kill Christians, said he saw the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus, which changed his life to preaching about the resurrection, and was eventually beheaded for what he saw.
All these and more maintained their eyewitness account that Jesus had physically risen. Their transformed lives from cowards, skeptics, and murders, to faithful followers of Jesus unto death, gives us an objective reason to trust that the tomb was truly empty, and Jesus truly rose.
These three reasons are objective. No scholar or historian worth their salt, deny’s that the tomb was known, that it was empty, or that it changed the lives of Jesus’ disciples and enemies. The question is not was the tomb empty, the question is, what are we going to do with it.
We could deny it, like the Jewish leaders did, and in response to the objective truth, we can cover it up by saying that it was a fraud, it didn’t really happen. But we would just be denying objective truth for our subjective desire not to believe.
But if we accept the objective truth that the tomb was empty, then we are one step closer to understanding who Jesus is, what he taught, and who we truly are.
Jesus claimed that he was God come down (John 3:13, John 10:30). He taught that we need to repent, turning away from sin, to follow him, because he is the only way to heaven, (Matthew 4:17; Matthew 16:24-26; John 14:6), and that he will be returning some day to establish his eternal kingdom, (Matthew 24:29-31).
As we celebrate this Resurrection Sunday, we celebrate that the word of God is true, that Jesus our Savior has indeed risen from the grave as he said he would. This opened the way to the forgiveness of sin, and eternal life. If you cannot 100% say, that you know, that if Jesus returned today he would embrace you for eternity, not because you’re good, but because you repented of your sin, then today is the day to repent of sin and turn to Jesus.
It’s a simple thing to repent and accepted Jesus as Savior. It’s recognizing the sin in our lives, acknowledging that we cannot change ourselves or fix it to be good enough for God. Because we cannot repair what has been broken. But Jesus can. The cross represents God’s love to sinner, a mending to the broken. When we acknowledge our sin, we come to the cross where Jesus died. When we accept his forgiveness, we move our way through the grave to the empty tomb.
It’s at the empty tomb that we embrace his new life. A life that’s eternal, beginning now and lasting forever. It’s a life of becoming a disciple. A life growing in the teachings of the Bible and living by the Holy Spirit.
And through it all, the risen Jesus walks by our side and we receive the blessing that even those early disciples didn’t. For Jesus said to Thomas, as Thomas touched the very physical body of the risen Lord, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed (John 20:29).”
I don’t need to touch the risen Savior’s body because I know both objectively and subjectively that he has indeed been raised. His resurrection is the only possible reason for all of the evidence that we have.
My challenge this week for you then, is that you would know it as well. If you are a skeptic, I want to challenge you to read the book, Cold Case Christianity, by J. Warner Wallace. Don’t just say you don’t believe without taking time to dive deep into the evidence. And if you take that challenge, I will buy you the book myself, and all you have to do is promise to read it.
To the believer, I challenge you to see the blessing that Jesus gave you. You who did not see the empty tomb, yet walk this life trusting him. A simple prayer I ask you say with me everyday this week. “Lord, let me live my life in the reality of the empty tomb, that nothing of this world holds me as it didn’t hold you, as I embrace your path all the days of my life, help me to do so. Amen”
Let us be a people who hold to the hope that is found beyond the empty tomb, the Risen Savior himself, who will one day return to make all things new. Amen.
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