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DID JESUS REALLY RISE FROM THE DEAD? Belief in the resurrection of Jesus is at the heart of the Christian faith, so this question is hugely important. The Gospels contain four accounts, drawn from different sources, of Jesus' various disciples meeting him after his resurrection. They all agree that the tomb of Jesus was found empty on the Sunday morning after his crucifixion, to the absolute consternation of the disciples. None of them had been prepared for Jesus' arrest and crucifixion, and it seems that none of them were now prepared for his body to go missing from the tomb. In fact, the Gospels tell us that the disciples were traumatised and fearful that they might "be next" and had gone into hiding. The likelihood that they had a any sort of plan to fake Jesus' resurrection seems extremely remote. The Gospels conclude with many different appearances by Jesus to his disciples, either individually or in groups – click here to find out more about the key witnesses, and to read the resurrection accounts themselves. These reports have a genuine feel to them, with down-to-earth details and authentically raw human emotions. The encounters with Jesus initially produce shock, fear, surprise, terror and confusion. The group of disciples reject the first sighting of Jesus as "nonsense", and one of the disciples – Thomas – pours scorn on the idea even when all the others tell him they have seen Christ for themselves. These negative first impressions immediately fall away, though, as the witnesses encounter Jesus for themselves. They are then filled with joy and amazement. The book of Acts picks up the story from the end of the Gospel of Luke. It tells us that forty days after the crucifixion, the disciples were a transformed group. They had come out of hiding and were now preaching the resurrection publicly in Jerusalem – and were being beaten and imprisoned for doing so. What could explain this turnaround, so soon after the trauma of seeing Jesus crucified? Clearly, they had been through a powerful event which had transformed them as a group, and their own explanation for it was the resurrection of Jesus. The earliest written reports of the resurrection in the New Testament are in the letters of Paul, who said he had met the risen Jesus for himself. Paul was a leading opponent and persecutor of Christians before meeting Jesus, so his conversion is hard to explain if this meeting never happened. Similarly, Jesus' own brother James did not follow him when he was alive, but was converted when he encountered the risen Jesus later. In the thinking of the time, the crucifixion of a supposed Messiah immediately discredited his cause and claims, and made it dangerous to be one of his followers. In every case other than that of Jesus, it was the end of the movement. But in the case of Jesus, we know that many of his followers were put to death for preaching the resurrection (Stephen, James the disciple, James the brother of Jesus, Paul and Peter), and only one of those first followers is known to have lived to old age (John). If they knew the resurrection was a fake, this would show an incredible degree of commitment against the facts. The report of a sermon of Peter, given 40 days after the first Easter, gives the flavour of the first Christians' transformation by the resurrection. It was preached to a crowd in Jerusalem... Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. Acts 2:22-24 More FAQs |
  Click here to follow Easter on rejesus. |
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