Now, if the rising of Christ from the dead is the very heart of our message, how can some of you deny that there is any resurrection? For if there is no such thing as the resurrection of the dead, then Christ was never raised. And if Christ was not raised then neither our preaching nor your faith has any meaning at all. Further it would mean that we are lying in our witness for God, for we have given our solemn testimony that he did raise up Christ—and that is utterly false if it should be true that the dead do not, in fact, rise again! For if the dead do not rise neither did Christ rise, and if Christ did not rise your faith is futile and your sins have never been forgiven. Moreover those who have died believing in Christ are utterly dead and gone. Truly, if our hope in Christ were limited to this life only we should, of all mankind be the most to be pitied! – I Corinthians 15:14 (Phillips Bible)
Even though Christmas is the biggest holiday in the USA, the most significant holiday for Christians anywhere is Easter. That’s because Christmas marks the birth of Jesus, while Easter celebrates His victory over death by rising from the grave.
Interestingly, the Mandarin Chinese word for Easter is Fùhuó jié, which literally translates to “Resurrection Holiday.”
But how can you be sure the resurrection of Jesus was real, and not a legend, lie, or just wishful thinking? Did you know there is actual, credible evidence that the resurrection was a verfiable, historic fact?
Here are just a few.
Women were first to the empty tomb and to report Jesus had risen. In Bible times in the Middle East, a woman’s testimony wasn’t worth much, and less than the word of a man. So, if people made up the resurrection story to trick people, they would write that men were first on the scene, not women.
No one would die for a cause they knew to be a lie. It’s believed, of Jesus’ main 11 disciples (not counting Judas Iscariot), all but John eventually died a violent, martyr’s death. People can be deceived, like the 900-plus cult followers of Jim Jones who in 1978 took their lives drinking the poisonous Kool-Aid in the jungles of South America. (That tragic event gave us the phrase, “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid.”) However, they were mislead and honestly believed their cult leader. If Jesus’ disciples had known the resurrection never happened, and that they were spreading a lie, they wouldn’t have laid down their lives for the cause.
The Tomb was empty. The powerful people who put Jesus on the cross clearly wanted Him to remain dead. The last thing they wanted was for reports to circulate that Jesus had risen from the dead. So, as recorded in Matthew 27:65-66, the Roman governor ordered a guard be placed to secure the grave from anyone trying to steal the body. Roman soldiers were infamous for their brutality and efficiency, and the punishment for sleeping on the job was death. So, with that tight security, how was the tomb empty?
Maybe the bigger question is, “If there is a God, can He perform miracles?”
Do you believe?
Go deeper: read “A Dozen Evidences for the Resurrection of Jesus”
