Is the Resurrection Just a Nice Story?

Is the resurrection just a nice story? In other words, did the bodily resurrection of Jesus really take place in space-time history or is it just an inspiring tale? 

In the twentieth century, the belief became popular that Jesus rose spiritually but not bodily from the grave, making of the Gospels a nice story, a myth. There is a book by two New Testament scholars, N. T. Wright and Marcus Borg, entitled: “The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions”. In the section on the resurrection, Marcus Borg argued for the spiritual resurrection of Jesus. He wrote, “Indeed, this seems to me to be the central meaning of Easter. Beginning with Easter, the early movement continued to experience Jesus as a living reality after his death, but in a radically new way. After Easter, his followers experienced him as a spiritual reality, no longer as a person of flesh and blood, limited in time and space, as Jesus of Nazareth had been.” 

The key question here is: Does the New Testament present the resurrection of Jesus in this way? Let’s look at one of the accounts of the resurrection and see. Let’s read together from Matthew 28:1-15… 

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. 

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” 

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 

Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” 

While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day. 

Is it true? Did Jesus really rise bodily from the grave? Is this what the Gospels present for our consideration? Let’s look at the evidence… 

First, there is the evidence of the stone. We are told in Matthew 27:60 that Joseph of Arimathea, one of Jesus’ followers, “rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb.” But then in Matthew 28, the women who come to visit Jesus’ tomb find the stone rolled away from the entrance. Setting this large stone in place was a relatively easy task. The stone would have been placed in such a way that it would roll down into a groove cut in the bedrock in front of the entrance to the tomb. But once it was in place, it would require several strong men to remove it. 

Years ago, English barrister, Frank Morrison, set out to disprove the bodily resurrection of Jesus, but in the end, he was stumped. Morrison ended out writing a book entitled, “Who Moved the Stone?” He called the stone at Jesus’ tomb “the one silent and infallible witness in the whole episode.” 

The question, “Who moved the stone?” leads us to a second piece of evidence we need to consider. That is the guard that was posted by Pontius Pilate. Many people down through the ages have suggested that Jesus’ own disciples stole his body. But how could a group of men slip past the Roman guard to move the stone and steal Jesus’ body? The story made up by the priests and the elders simply doesn’t make sense, as is the case with most made-up stories. If Jesus’ disciples came and stole his body while the guards were sleeping, how would the guards have known that it was Jesus’ disciples who stole the body in the first place? If the guards did wake up and see the disciples running away with the body of Jesus, why didn’t they stop them? And if the disciples did steal the body of Jesus, why would they risk breaking the Roman seal on the tomb? The seal was a sign of Roman authority. Whoever broke it would have to answer to the Roman authorities. Why would the disciples risk their lives to do this? And if the disciples did steal the body of Jesus, then why did they later give up their lives because of their belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus? The suggestion that the disciples stole the body of Jesus raises more questions than it answers. 

This leads us to the evidence of the empty tomb. The women who came to Jesus’ tomb early on that Sunday morning entered the place where Jesus’ body had lain the night before, and his body was no longer there. J. N. D. Anderson, former lawyer and professor of oriental law in the University of London once wrote, "The empty tomb stands, a veritable rock, as an essential element in the evidence for the resurrection. To suggest that it was not in fact empty at all, as some have done, seems to me ridiculous. It is a matter of history that the apostles from the very beginning made many converts in Jerusalem, hostile as it was, by proclaiming the glad news that Christ had risen from the grave—and they did it within a short walk from the sepulcher. Any one of their hearers could have visited the tomb … Is it conceivable, then, that the apostles would have had this success if the body of the one they proclaimed as risen Lord was all the time decomposing in Joseph’s tomb?” 

It is important to note that nowhere in the Gospel records, or in the annals of first century history, do the opponents of Christianity claim that the tomb was not empty. But of course, the empty tomb, in and of itself, does not prove that Jesus rose in a body from the grave. We must also look at the evidence of the appearances of Jesus. 

The New Testament affirms throughout that Jesus appeared, in a body, to his disciples, after his crucifixion. In Matthew’s account we read that as the women hurried away from the tomb, “suddenly Jesus met them.” Matthew says that they clasped his feet and Jesus spoke to them. How do you clasp the feet of a ghost or a spirit? Luke tells us that Jesus ate broiled fish in the presence of his disciples after his resurrection (Luke 24:42-43). This seems like a strange way to portray a merely spiritual resurrection. John tells us that Jesus asked Mary Magdalen to stop touching him, which infers that she was touching his risen body when she met him outside the tomb (John 20:17). John also tells us that Jesus invited Thomas to touch the nail wounds in his hands and the spear wound in his side. All these accounts of Jesus’ appearances to his disciples suggest something more than a merely spiritual resurrection. 

Some people have suggested that Jesus’ followers experienced a mass hallucination. However, as Josh McDowell has pointed out, “The hallucination theory is not plausible because it contradicts certain laws and principles which psychiatrists say visions must conform to.” Here are some factors to consider: 

• Usually, certain kinds of people hallucinate; some say hallucinations are most common among high-strung, imaginative, nervous people. But the appearances of Jesus were not restricted to persons of any one psychological make-up. 
• Hallucinations are usually very individualistic and extremely subjective. It is unlikely that two people would have the same hallucination at the same time. Yet Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15, that over 500 people saw the risen Jesus at one time. 
• Hallucinations are usually restricted as to when and where they occur. But the appearances of Jesus occurred in a variety of places. 
• Hallucinations require of people hopeful expectation. But the Gospels tell us that Jesus’ followers came to believe against their own wills. They didn’t expect the resurrection to take place. There was no precedent for such a thing happening. 
• Hallucinations tend to recur over a long period of time with noticeable regularity. But the New Testament tells us that the appearances of Jesus ended abruptly, six weeks after his death.

What can we conclude from all this? John Stott answers that question in this way: "The disciples were not gullible, but rather cautious, skeptical and ‘slow of heart to believe.’ They were not susceptible to hallucinations. Nor would strange visions have satisfied them. Their faith was grounded upon the hard facts of verifiable experience."  

Others suggest that the writers of the Gospels made up the story of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. But I must ask: Why would they do that? Why would anyone make up such a story and then sacrifice their lives instead of recanting a made-up story? All the aspects of these stories in the Gospels: the stone, the guards, the empty tomb, the nature of the appearances of Jesus, to my way of thinking, clearly present a unified story of bodily, not merely spiritual resurrection. 

Some people reject this story saying simply: “But we know dead men don’t rise up from their graves.” True, but just because we haven’t seen it happen, doesn’t mean it could not happen. If we believe in a God who was powerful enough to create the universe, then certainly that same God can intervene in the creation that he has made. Bodily resurrection is not too hard for God. 

But still people ask: what difference does the resurrection of Jesus really make? Is it relevant? I believe the resurrection of Jesus is relevant; it can make a difference to the way we live our lives every day. 

First, the resurrection of Jesus speaks to our human condition of guilt. We all feel guilty for our sin and long for forgiveness. Paul tells us in Romans 4:25 that Jesus “was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life on account of our justification.” Jesus’ resurrection shows that his death on the cross has really put us right with God. 

The resurrection of Jesus also speaks to our human condition of loneliness. It is the risen Jesus who says, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) Because Jesus is alive and well and reigning in heaven, he can send his Holy Spirit into our hearts. He has promised to be with us and never leave us. 

The resurrection of Jesus also speaks to our need for hope. 1 Peter 1:3 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” 

Allow me to close with a story. Earlier this year, one of our book groups read a book entitled Learning from Henri Nouwen and Vincent van Gogh. I think most people, when they hear the name van Gogh think of his sunflowers, or the story about him cutting off his ear, or the story of Vincent taking his own life. It is important to note that the story about his ear and the story about his suicide are questioned by biographers today. What many people don’t know is that Vincent van Gogh was raised in the church, in a Christian home, and that his father was a pastor. Vincent served as a missionary for a time. He later departed from the organized church, but Vincent remained a deeply religious, a deeply spiritual man. Many of his paintings were based upon New Testament stories. And I believe one color came to represent Vincent’s spirituality, and Vincent’s hope: Yellow. One of Vincent’s most famous paintings is Starry Night. And what do we remember most about that painting? We remember the swirling moon and stars. Intriguingly, the village depicted in the painting has many points of light in various homes, but in the village church, there is no light. I think this portrays the fact that Vincent didn’t see much of God’s light in the church of his day, but he did see light, hopeful light, in God’s creation, and in people. 

Then there is one fascinating painting by van Gogh that many people have never seen. It is his painting of the resurrection of Lazarus. Jesus is not represented in the painting. Instead of Jesus, there is a big yellow sun. Instead of Lazarus’ sisters, Vincent depicted two women who were important to him. And for Lazarus’ face, Vincent used his own self-portrait. This painting, more than any other by van Gogh, is suffused with yellow. I think it is one of van Gogh’s most hopeful paintings. I believe Vincent had the hope that one day Jesus would raise him, just as he raised Lazarus. 

 And that can be our hope today too. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:20, just 20 years after Jesus’ death on the cross… “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” What Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 15 is that because of Jesus’ bodily resurrection we can be sure of our own resurrection, if we put our faith in him…