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My dad died when I was 16. I know he died. I was there. I saw him die, I went to his funeral, And I saw him being buried. But at the same time, it was hard for me to grasp the reality of him actually dying. It was almost as if it was just some kind of elaborate cruel joke, a test, to see how I would handle the situation.
For several years after he died, I kept expecting him to come walking through the door. But it never happened. Or, when I would be out somewhere in a crowd of people, I would think I saw him, but after scanning everyone's face again to try and catch a glimpse of him. It was never him. He was not there. And finely after several more years, I begin to realize that it was not a joke, a test, or whatever. Dad was really dead, gone from my world forever.
Is this such an unusual story? No, I don't think so. Actually this type of thing happens a lot. Several years ago, there was this man, Elvis Presley. He died, and I remember there were all kind of reports of people seeing him. The rumor was that he faked his own death in order to get some well needed rest from his fans and life style. But now after several years, the Elvis sightings have all but ended. And the people are accepting the fact that he really did die.
And there are others.
People want to hang onto their heroes, even after they die.
So, is this what happened with Jesus? His disciples not willing to accept the fact that their hero, the Messiah, the Christ, the one that was going to restore the throne and be king of the Jews, had actually died on the cross?
First of all, Yes, He did die! He died on the cross, just like the Bible records. But like everything else in the Bible, there are some skeptics that think that Jesus never did die on the cross, that everybody just thought He did.
That the 'vinegar' (
Matt 27:46-50
&
John 19:28-30
) was actually some kind of drug that put Jesus in a coma, so everyone would think He died.
Is this what happened? I don't think so! This plan, if you could call it a plan, to sneak some kind of drug to Him in place of the vinegar might have worked, if it was not for that Roman soldier (
John 19:31-34
). Well, they might say that the soldier could have just wounded Jesus. No! A Roman soldier would not just haphazardly stab Jesus in the side. A Roman soldier is trained and knows where to pierce someone to make sure they are dead. And besides this, the Bible states that "blood & water" both came out.
He was dead!
Well, now let us look and see what the Bible has to say about whether Jesus came back to life or not.
(
Matthew 27:62-28:20
,
Mark 16:1-15
,
Luke 24:1-53
, &
John 20:1-21:25
)
First of all, we will see that this idea of Jesus coming back to life was not new. Look at (
Matthew 27:62-66
). Here we see that even the chief priests and Pharisees were afraid of the idea of Jesus coming back from the grave. And also afraid that if Jesus did not come back from the grave, that His disciples were going steal His body and then claim that Jesus came back to life. Which is exactly what they (the chief priests and Pharisees) claimed His disciples did (
Matthew 28:11-15
).
But, bottom line, what is the truth of the matter?
In the verses listed above, we have the multiple 'eye witness' accounts of people seeing Jesus after He rose from the grave. Now these were not just passing glimpses of someone, a face in the crowd. These were EYE WITNESS accounts. Many of these people knew Jesus quite well. They had just spent 3 years with Him as He went through out the country side teaching and performing miracles. It was Him. They walked and talked with Him (
Luke 24:15-32
), ate with Him (
John 21:12-15
), and even examined His now alive again body (
John 20:27-29
). This was really Him and not just some vision or ghost (
Luke 24:37-43
).
Also, as well as numerous scriptures in the Old Testament that predicted Jesus returning from the grave. And there are other scriptures in the New Testament that reaffirm that there were 'eye witnesses' that saw Jesus alive again. (
Acts 13:29-41
&
1 Corinthians 15:1-20
).
And besides all of this, if His followers had stolen His body, why did they continue preaching Jesus rising from the grave?
Because they were EYE WITNESSES to the fact that these things actually happened and as a result many of them were willing to suffer horrible deaths because they refused to deny what they knew was the truth.
I could go on, but instead I will leave you with this one last thought.
There is more evidence given to prove that Jesus rose from the grave than there is to prove He did not.
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