Christians claim that Easter Day is the day of Jesus’ resurrection, a defining day in human history. But did it happen and does it matter? Can we really believe that Jesus’ body returned to life on the first Easter Sunday? What do the facts of history and the words of Scripture have to say about this unprecedented event?
The Resurrection…and History Christians can cite three key pieces of evidence for the historicity of the resurrection: Firstly, there is no doubt that the tomb was empty. Today’s passage from Luke affirms that women went and saw that the stone had been moved. Luke also tells us that Peter inspected the empty tomb and found only grave clothes remaining. The Jewish and Roman authorities never produced the body of Christ, and grave robbers had no motive to carry off a corpse! The appearances of Jesus in the days and week’s following the discovery of the empty tomb provide the second major strand of evidence in support of. Its historicity. The four Gospels tell us that Jesus repeatedly appeared to his disciples, even eating breakfast with them on one occasion. And in 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul not only refers to his own encounter with the risen Jesus on the Damascus road, but also to one time when Jesus appeared to more than 500 of his followers simultaneously. And the third major piece of historical evidence is that the resurrection is the only realistic explanation for the total character transformation of Christ’s disciples. They went from being frightened, fearful men to bold apostles. They became confident witnesses to the resurrection, fearless in their testimony to Jesus and full of evangelistic zeal. There is no other credible explanation for the birth of the church and its explosive growth in the years following Christ’s death, unless he really rose again and commissioned his apostles to take his Gospel to the ends of the earth.
The Resurrection…and Christ So it really happened, but what does the resurrection tell us about Jesus? Firstly, it confirms his identity as the Son of God, it is the ultimate miracle that substantiates his claims to divinity. As Paul writes in Romans: “Jesus Christ our Lord…was declared with power to be the Son of God, by his resurrection from the dead” (Rom 1:4) Secondly, Christ’s resurrection confirms his work. It proves that his death on the cross was not pointless, but perfectly successful. The resurrection represents God the Father’s ‘stamp of approval’ on Christs’ Good Friday sacrifice. It confirms that Jesus’ death was a mission accomplished, a successful act of atonement for the sins of the world. As Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Cor 15:17). But Christ has been raised – we can be confident that our debt has been paid, our guilt has been atoned for in the eyes of God.
The Resurrection…and Christians But forgiveness of sins is only the beginning of the benefits that Christ’s resurrection bring to us. For a start, we are given a new status as citizens of Heaven. As Paul puts it in Ephesians 2 “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms.” For the time being we may continue to live on earth, but our true country is with Christ in glory. And in the meantime, the same power that raised Christ from the grave is at work in us. As Paul puts it in Romans 8: “The Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you” The same Holy Spirit who transformed Jesus’ physical body is now at work in us, helping us to resist temptation, grow in holiness, love others and, all in all, become more like Jesus. Perhaps most obviously, the greatest thing that’s Christ’s resurrection gives to us is a new hope – a hope of life everlasting, a confidence that death has been defeated – the grave could not hold Christ and will not hold his people. The apostle Peter was initially puzzled when confronted by the resurrection. But his confusion soon became firm faith. For in his first letter he wrote: “God has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet 1:3) Alleluia!
The Resurrection…and the World So the resurrection is wonderful news for every Christian. But it also has massive implications for the whole world. As I mentioned earlier, the resurrection represents God’s seal of approval on the person of Jesus – decisive confirmation that Christ is humanity’s rightful Lord and Saviour. A message that needs to be heard and heeded by every man, woman and child. As Paul puts it in Acts 17:“God has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31) Whatever their status or social background, people everywhere are called to get right with God through faith in his risen Son. Lastly, the resurrection of Jesus represents a foretaste, a down payment, a preview of what God will one day do for the who created order, the whole cosmos. Just as Christ’s physical body was renewed and glorified in that Jerusalem tomb, so shall the whole universe be transformed by God at the end of history. Christian ‘’eschatology” as it is called, looks forward to a new creation, a resurrected world, “A new heaven and a new earth”. What happened on a small scale one Sunday morning 2,000 years ago will one day be replicated on a truly universal scale. So as I finish, we should be in no doubt that the Resurrection has truly momentous consequences. It should shape of view of Jesus, our attitude to life today, and our hope for the future of the world.