Did the Resurrection Really Happen? --Part 2 of 3
Posted by: henkf <henkf@...>
Part 2 of 3
Did the Resurrection Really Happen?
I. The Body Had Gone (John R. W. Stott, Basic Christianity, Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 1971, pp. 47-51).
A. The women went to the wrong tomb.
1. They knew which tomb was the correct one.
a. The women were there when Jesus was buried (Matt. 27.57-61).And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary [the mother of Jesus], sitting opposite the grave (Matt. 27.61).
b. Would they so easily forget where their loved one had been buried just 36 hours later?
c. The women were not hysterical, “blinded by tears of remorse,” when they went to the tomb (Stott, p. 48). These “devoted and businesslike women” had come for the purpose of properly anointing the Lord’s body after it had been hurriedly done before due to the Sabbath.
d. This was not a public cemetery, but a private burying ground (Wilbur M. Smith, Therefore Stand: Christian Apologetics. Grand Rapids: Baker: 1965, p. 382; quoted in McDowell, p. 258).
2. The angel clearly identified this as the correct tomb (Matt. 28.1, 5-8).
a. The angel told them that “He is not here, for He has risen” (Matt. 28.6).
b. The grave clothes were still there when Peter and John came.
3. Would Peter and John also have gone to the wrong tomb (John 20.3-8).
4. The preaching of Jesus’ resurrection began seven weeks after His crucifixion. Would the women have waited seven whole weeks before telling the Apostles concerning their visit?
a. The women were commanded by the angels to “go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead” (Matt. 28.7, 8). On their way, Jesus appeared to the women (without Mary Magdalene, for she didn’t know where the body of Jesus was) (see John 20.13). The group [of women without Mary Magdalene] could now report to the disciples not only the empty tomb and the words of the angelic messenger (Matt. 28:7-8; Mark 16:7; Sec. 246), but also that they themselves had seen their risen Lord (Matt. 28:10) (Thomas and Gundry, A Harmony of the Gospels (NASB version), p. 255, note c).
b. Mary Magdalene apparently ran ahead of the other women (probably not having spoken with the angels at all) (Matt. 25.5-8 = Mark 16.2-8 = Luke 24.1-8 = John 20.1) and told Peter and John first (John 20.1, 2) that Jesus’ body was missing.
B. The Swoon Theory. Jesus didn’t really die, but feigned death, having survived the cross.
1. Pilate was apparently surprised to hear that Jesus had died so soon (about 3 to 6 hours) after being crucified (Mark 15.44-45).
a. Obviously Pilate was sufficiently convinced enough to give permission for the body to be removed. b. The centurion verified His death, having already seen Jesus die (Mark 15.39) and likely having witnessed the piercing of Jesus’ side with a spear (John 19.34).
2. There is no possible way that Jesus survived the scourging and crucifixion.
a. The Swoon Theory is at variance with modern medical knowledge. According to Mayo Clinic pathologist, William D. Edwards--- Clearly, the weight of historical and medical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead before the wound to his side was inflicted and supports the traditional view that the spear, thrust between his right ribs, probably perforated not only the right lung but also the pericardium and heart and thereby ensured his death. ... Accordingly, interpretations based on the assumption that Jesus did not die on the cross appear to be at odds with modern medical knowledge (William D. Edwards, MD [pathologist], etc., “On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ,” JAMA Vol. 255, No. 11 (March 21, 1986), p. 1463).
b. It is very unlikely that a person would be able to endure the scourging, much less the crucifixion.
1) Jesus was already in a weakened condition prior to His scourging and crucifixion. He most likely had not slept in over 24 hours, had been beaten, spit upon and ridiculed all night long, and knew that he was about to endure the crucifixion, each aspect of which was intended to produce intense agony.
2) The instrument used to scourge the criminal was a short whip with pieces of bone and metal balls at the ends of several strings. The man was stripped and tied to a post while one or two Roman soldiers lacerated his back, “producing quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh” (Edwards, et al, p. 1457). The scourging prior to crucifixion served to weaken the condemned man and, if blood loss was considerable, to produce orthostatic hypotension and even hypovolemic shock (Edwards, et al, p. 1460).
3) Thomas James Thornburn, among others, observes: It would be difficult to imagine even the most powerful of men, after enduring all these, not succumbing to death. Moreover, it is recorded that the victims of crucifixion seldom recovered, even under the most favorable circumstances (Thomas James Thornburn, The Resurrection Narratives and Modern Criticism. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1910, pp. 183-185; quoted in McDowell, p. 233).
c. The physical needs of Jesus.
1) Jesus would have needed medical attention.
2) Who would have moved the boulder in front of the tomb?
3) Where did He get His clothes from?
4) How could He have not appeared weak and sickly and hungry to His disciples, thus giving them the impression that he had conquered death?
a) They would have recognized that he had not really died but merely survived the crucifixion.
b) Doubting Thomas saw Jesus and acknowledged Him as His Lord and God, not as a mere man who had survived the crucifixion.
c) He must have been a powerful leader to have not really conquered death, even though He said He was going to, and still have persuaded His apostles to go into all the world, even being willing to die for Him (see John 21.18, 19).
C. Thieves stole the body.
1. Security of the tomb.
a. Measures were taken to make sure the body was not stolen (Matt. 27.62-66).
1) The huge stone with a seal.
2) The guards.
b. How could the thieves have gotten past the Roman guards or moved the huge stone?
2. The grave clothes were still there.
a. The body was gone.
b. Why would thieves leave the grave clothes?
c. Why would thieves leave the grave clothes in a neat and orderly fashion?
D. The disciples removed the body.
1. Security of the tomb.
a. Measures were taken to make sure the body was not stolen (Matt. 27.62-66).
1) The huge stone with a seal.
2) The guards.
b. How could the disciples have gotten past the Roman guards or moved the huge stone?
c. The empty tomb has to be explained somehow.
2. The testimony of the soldiers was unquestioned.
a. The soldiers reported the incident of the earthquake and the appearance of the angels to the elders (Matt. 28.2-4, 11-15).
b. The elders believed them.
1) The soldiers could get into serious trouble, even killed, because of the missing body (Matt. 28.14).
2) Is it likely that the entire Roman cohort fell asleep?
3) The elders did not verify their story. They had no reason to doubt the soldiers.
4) A fabricated story was supplied in the place of the soldiers’ story (Matt. 28.12-15).
3. If the apostles had actually stolen the body, then they preached all over the world that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, even giving their lives for their cause. Impossible!
E. The Roman or Jewish authorities took it into their own custody.
1. The advantages and disadvantages.
a) According to the theory, the Roman and Jewish authorities would have had reason for taking Jesus’ body, so as to avoid any claims that Jesus had been raised from the dead. This would be to their advantage.
b) Nevertheless, to their disadvantage, His apostles began to proclaim that He had been resurrected from the dead. The Jews feared conversions; the Romans riots (Stott, p. 51).
2. Course of action.
a) Produce the body and remove all doubt.
b) Persecute the Christians.
1) The Church was founded upon the resurrection.
2) The body of Jesus would destroy the very foundation of the Church and the Apostles’ teachings (Luke 24.46; Acts 3.18, 21-22, 24; 8.30, 35; 17.2, 3; 18.28; 16.23; 1 Cor. 15.1-4).
3. The authorities’ silence is as eloquent a proof of the resurrection as the apostles’ witness (Stott, p. 51).
II. The grave clothes tell the story (Stott, Basic Christianity, pp. 52-53).
A. The grave clothes were undisturbed (John 19.38-42).
1. The body cloths, under the weight of 100 pounds of spices, once the support of the body had been removed, would have subsided or collapsed, and would ... be lying flat.
2. A gap would have appeared between the body cloths and the face-cloth, where his face and neck had been.
3. And the napkin itself, because of the complicated criss-cross pattern of the bandages, might well have retained its concave shape, a crumpled turban, but with no head inside it [Stott seems to believe that the body “vaporized” out of the grave clothes. The language of John 20.3-8 does not imply this, I don’t believe].
B. What the Apostle John saw (John 20.3-8).
1. John saw the linen wrappings “lying.” Lying is in the emphatic position in John 20.5.
2. The head napkin, i.e., the face-cloth, was “not lying with the linen wrappings, but ... by itself” (John 20:7).
a) There should have been a break between the coverings for the body and the head piece.
3. The face-cloth was “not lying ..., but rolled up in a place [i.e., together]” (John 20:7). The word aptly describes the rounded shape which the empty napkin [face-cloth] still preserved” (Stott, p. 53).
4. John “saw and believed” (John 20.8), according to his eye-witness account.
a. The layout of the grave clothes indicates the nature of the resurrection.
b. The position of the clothes, especially the face-cloth, and the obvious absence of the body persuaded the Apostle to believe in the resurrection.
III. The Lord Was Risen (Stott, Basic Christianity, pp. 54-58) (Acts 1.3).
To these He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3).
A. Not an invention.
1. Certainly the Evangelists would have worked to avoid the “complicated jigsaw puzzle of events” of the Gospels.
2. Stories of the race to the tomb and of the walk to Emmaus are too vivid and real to have been invented.
3. Downplay or entirely write out the apostles’ doubts and fear.
4. A more dramatic account of the resurrection itself (as in the Apocryphal Gospels).
a. No-one actually saw the resurrection happen.
5. Would Mary Magdalene be the ideal witness? (see Mark 16.9).
6. Maybe the New Testament writers were “tragically misled,” but “they were definitely not deliberately misleading” (Stott, p. 56).
B. Not hallucinations.
1. Mary Magdalene and the other women are accused of being overly excited.
a. Certainly they were very excited when the angel spoke to them and then when Jesus appeared to them.
b. Nevertheless, they still reported the information of His resurrection to the Apostles (Luke 24.9-12).
2. Disbelief was rampant at first.
a. The apostles did not believe at first. And these words [of the women] appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them (Luke 24.11). Only Peter and John made attempts to verify their story (Luke 24.12; John 20.3-8).
b. Thomas did not believe (John 20.24-29).
c. Upon Jesus’ ascension, some worshiped Him while others doubted (Matt. 28:17).And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful (Matt. 28.17).
3. The hallucination theory is not plausible because it contradicts certain laws and principles to which psychiatrists say visions must conform (McDowell, p. 248).
a. Jesus appeared in many different places with many different group sizes (Stott, p. 57). Appearance after appearance varied in person, place and mood.
1) Mary Magdalene was weeping (Mark 16.9-11 = John 20.11-18).
2) The women were afraid and astonished (Matt. 28.9-10).
3) Peter was full of remorse (John 21).
4) Thomas refused to believe (John 20.24-29).
5) The Emmaus pair were distracted by the events of the week (Mark 16.12-13 = Luke 24.13-32). 6) The seven Apostles were distracted by their fishing (their lack of success at it, no doubt) while in Galilee (John 21.1-9f).
b. It is impossible to dismiss these revelations of the divine Lord as hallucinations of deranged minds (Stott, pp. 57, 58).
4. Although doubts did creep into the minds of His disciples, these doubts were overcome (Luke 24.48; Acts 1.8; 2.32; 3.15; 5.32; 10.39; 13.31). “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses” (Acts 2.32).
5. Jesus did not make an appearance before Pilate or the Sanhedrin.
C. The resurrection of Jesus actually happened.
CONCLUSION (part 2 of 3).
I. Spiritual reenactment (Rom. 6.3-11).
A. Christ died, was buried and then resurrected,
B. We are dead to sin, are buried and then resurrected.
…..
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