MATTHEW
28:11-15
Now while they were on their way, some
of the guards came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had
happened. And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together,
they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, and said, "You are to say,
His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep."
And if this should come to the
governor's ears, we would win him over and keep you out of trouble. And they
took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was widely
spread among the Jews, and is to this day (NASB).
INTRODUCTION
The embalmed remains of Lenin lie in a crystal casket
in a tomb in Red Square in Moscow. On the casket it says: “He was the greatest
leader of all peoples, of all countries, of all times. He was the [savior] of
the world!”
All is in the past tense for Lenin.
How forward-looking, by contrast, are the triumphant words of Christ: “I am He
that [lives] . . . I am alive forevermore.”
THE GREAT
CONSPIRACY TO DENY
THE
RESURRECTION VV. 11-15
As the women ran to share the news of
the resurrection of their Master and Lord, the guards came into the city of
Jerusalem to tell the chief priests all that had happened. When the guards
revealed the mysterious news to the chief priests, they gave the soldiers money
and told them to explain that the disciples had come at night and stole the
body while they were asleep. They added that, if the governor hears this and he
would not be persuaded by your story, we will win him over and keep you out of
trouble. The guards then took the bribed
money and did as they had been instructed, and this story was widely spread
among the Jews up to this day.
Since the time of this great but bogus
conspiracy, many other theories have been formulated to explain away the
historicity and authenticity of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, I would like to deal with these theories and provide concrete
evidence to rebut them.
1. The
Conspiracy Theory.
This is the theory that is found in
this text, Matthew 28:11-15. The Apostle Matthew did not even bother to refute
this theory because it is obviously false. This theory does not hold water; it
does not ring true. What judge would listen to you in a court of law, if you
said that while you were asleep your neighbor came into your house and stole
your TV set? Who knows what goes on when he/she is asleep? A testimony like
this would be ridiculed in a court of law. Besides, the guards would have lost
their heads if they told the Roman governor, Pilate that they were asleep at
their post and the disciples came and stole the body. Furthermore, we are faced
with a psychological and ethical impossibility. Stealing the body of Jesus was
something totally foreign to the disciples and all that we know of them. It
would mean that they were perpetrators of a deliberate lie, which was
responsible for the deception and the ultimate death of thousands of people.
Each of the disciples faced the test
of possible torture and martyrdom for his statements and beliefs. People will
die for what they believe to be true, though it may actually be false. They do
not, however, die for what they know is a lie. If anything is clear from
the Gospels and the Book of Acts, it is that the apostles were sincere. They
may have been deceived, if you like, but they were not deceivers. Hypocrites
and martyrs are not made of the same stuff.
2. A Second
Theory is that the Romans moved the Body of Jesus.
The religious leaders would certainly
have had enough reason for doing so. They had heard that Jesus had talked of
resurrection, and were afraid of hanky-panky. So the argument runs, in order to
forestall trickery, they took the precaution of confiscating the corpse. But
when this is put into scrutiny, this conjecture also falls into pieces.
Having placed the guards at the tomb,
what would be their reason for moving the body of Jesus? If the authorities
moved the body of Jesus, why didn’t they bring it when the apostles were boldly
preaching about the resurrection in Jerusalem? The religious leaders did
everything in their power to suppress the preaching on the resurrection. They
even arrested Peter and John (Acts 4) and beat them, and threatened them in an
effort to silence them.
A few weeks of Jesus’ death, the
disciples were boldly proclaiming the resurrection. The news spread rapidly.
The new Christian movement threatened to undermine the stronghold of Judaism
and disturb the peace of Jerusalem. The Jews feared conversion and the Romans
detested riots. The authorities had before them one course of action. The
Religious leaders could have produced the remains of the corpse of Jesus and
published a statement of what they had done. They could have paraded the body
of Jesus through the streets of Jerusalem, if indeed, they had it, and that
would have smothered Christianity in its cradle.
3. The
Wrong Tomb Theory
This theory states that the women
distraught and overcome by grief missed their way in the dimness of the morning
and went to the wrong tomb. In their distress they imagined that Christ had
risen, because the tomb was empty. If the women went to the wrong tomb, why didn't
the high priest and others go to the right tomb to produce the body of Jesus?
At least two of the women had seen
where Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had laid the body (Matt. 27:55-61).
They had even watched the whole process of burial, “sitting opposite the
sepulcher.” The same two Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus returned
at dawn, bringing with them Salome, Joanna, and the other women, so that if one
mistook the path of the tomb, she is likely to have been corrected by the others.
And if Mary Magdalene went to the wrong place the first time, she can hardly
have repeated the same error when she returned in the full light of morning and
lingered in the garden till Jesus met her.
Furthermore, it is inconceivable that
Peter and John would also run to the wrong tomb. Joseph of Arimathea and
Nicodemus, who saw to the burial of Jesus’ dead body, would not have become the
disciples of Jesus if they knew that Jesus’ body was still in the grave. Joseph
of Arimathea, owner of the tomb in which Jesus was buried would have solved the
problem. Moreover, the location where Jesus was buried was not a public
cemetery; it was a private burial ground. There was no other tomb nearby that
would have allowed them to make this mistake.
4. The Swoon Theory
The word “swoon” means, partial or
total loss of consciousness. In this view the enemies of Christ say that Jesus
did not actually die. He was mistakenly reported to be dead, but had swoon from
exhaustion, pain, and loss of blood. When He was laid in the coolness of the
tomb, He revived. He then came out of the tomb and appeared to His disciples,
who mistakenly thought He had risen from the dead. This is a theory of modern
construction. It appeared first in the eighteenth century. It is significant that
not a suggestion of this kind has come down from ancient times among various
attacks, which have been launched against Christianity. Let us assume that
Christ was buried alive and swooned. Is it possible that He would have survived
three days in a damp tomb without food or water or attention of any kind? Would
He have survived being wound in spice-laden grave clothes? Would He have had
the strength to extricate Himself from the grave clothes, push the heavy stone
away from the mouth of the grave, overcome the Roman guards, and walk miles on
feet that had been pierced with spikes? Such a belief is more fantastic than
the simple fact of the resurrection itself. Even if this theory were correct,
Jesus Himself was involved in flagrant lies.
5. Hallucination
Theory.
The proponents of this theory say that
the resurrection was just wishful thinking on the part of Jesus’ friends. The
stress of His death led them to hallucinate His resurrection. Hallucination is
the ‘apparent perception of an external object when no such object is present,’
and it is associated most frequently with someone who is at least neurotic, if
not actually psychotic.
This theory is extremely subjective
and individualistic. For this reason, no two people have the same experience.
In the case of the resurrection, Christ appeared not just to individuals, but
also to groups, including one of more than 500 people. Paul said that half of
them were still alive and could tell about these events (1 Cor. 15:3-9).
Hallucinations usually occur at particular times and places, and are associated
with events fancied. However, these appearances occurred both indoors and
outdoors, in the morning, afternoon, and evening. In order to have an
experience of this kind, one must so intensely want to believe that he projects
something that really is not there and attaches reality to his imagination. If
the disciples were hallucinating the religious leaders and the Roman government
would not have taken them serious, and would not have persecuted and put them
to death. They would have rather confined them to psychiatric hospitals. The
faith of the disciples of Jesus was grounded upon the hard facts of verifiable
experience. However, the disciples were persuaded beyond any reasonable doubt
that Jesus had risen from the dead.
Evidences
for the Historicity and Reliability of the Resurrection
1. Eyewitness
Testimony
Over 500 people witnessed the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Every reader of the Gospels knows that they
include some extraordinary stories of how Jesus appeared to His disciples after
His resurrection. We are told of ten separate appearances of the risen Lord to
what Peter calls ‘chosen witnesses.’ It is said that Jesus appeared to Mary
Magdalene, the women returning from the sepulcher (tomb), to Peter, to two
disciples on the road to Emmaus, to the ten gathered in the upper room, to the
eleven including Thomas a week later, ‘to more than five hundred brethren at
one time,’ to James, to some disciples including Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel,
James and John by the sea of Galilee, and to many on the Mount of Olives near
Bethany at the time of the ascension. Paul includes himself at the end of his
catalogue in 1 Corinthians 15 of those who saw the risen Jesus, referring to
his experience of the Damascus road. We cannot lightly dismiss this body of
living testimony to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2. The Changed
Lives of the Disciples
Perhaps the transformation of the
disciples of Jesus is the greatest evidence of all for the resurrection,
because it is entirely artless. The death of their Master left them despondent,
disillusioned, and near to despair. However, they emerge in the Book of Acts as
men who risk their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and who turn the
world upside down. What has made the change? What accounts for their new faith
and power, joy and love? The resurrected Christ sent the Holy Spirit on the Day
of Pentecost to infuse them with power and dramatic transformation.
It is difficult to account for the
dramatically changed lives of Simon Peter (John 18:15-27; Acts 2-4, and Jude
and James, the brothers of Jesus (Mark 3:21; John 7:5; James 1:1; and Jude 1)
apart from their belief that they had indeed seen Jesus alive from the dead. It
was the resurrection, which transformed Peter’s fear into courage, and James’
doubt into faith. It was the resurrection which changed the Sabbath into Sunday
and the Jewish remnant into the Christian church. It was the resurrection which
changed Saul the Pharisee into Paul the apostle, the fanatical persecutor into
a preacher of the very faith he previously tried to destroy.
Church tradition affirms that all the
apostles, except John (the brother of James) were martyred for their faith in
Jesus Christ. It is unimaginable that they would die for what they knew to be a
lie. Christians throughout the years have affirmed their own experience with
the risen Christ.
3. Physical
Evidence
The empty tomb was within close
proximity both in time (7 weeks) and space (a short walk) to verify Peter’s
claim at Pentecost (Acts 2:22-24). There can be no doubt there was an empty
tomb. What about the burial clothes? The burial clothes had not been touched,
folded or manipulated by any human being. The position of the clothes and the
absence of the body were concurrent witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection.
4. Corroborating
Circumstantial Evidence
The proof of the centuries is that the
Christian church has continued to thrive and the Bible is respected through the
centuries. The dating of the calendar by Jesus’ birth and Sunday as the day of
worship in honor of His resurrection—the first day of the week underscore the
historicity of Jesus life and resurrection. It is evident in passion plays and
in Christian baptism.
I agree with C. S. Lewis that Jesus
was either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. Which one do you choose today? Why
is the resurrection of Jesus so crucial? Without the resurrection our meeting
here this morning is meaningless. All the preaching that great men and women
have preached across the centuries is in vain. Without the resurrection, we are
all lost sinners and will die in our sins. However, the truth is that Jesus is
risen. He has changed my life. He has changed your life; He has changed the
lives of millions of people around the world. Since Jesus is alive, there is
hope for those who trust in Him. There is absolute hope for those who have
placed their faith in Him. Not only that, there is hope for those who have died
in Christ since He is risen. Happy Easter
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