In the end, it all comes down to the resurrection. There are a host of other arguments that could be made in support of the Christian faith – we could review the cosmological, ontological and teleological arguments for the existence of God, study the archeological and bibliographic support for the New Testament, ponder the brilliance of Christ’s ethics, calculate the odds of anyone accidentally fulfilling the Messianic prophecies he did, or pour over the stories of the hundreds of millions of people who claim Jesus changed their lives. There is real value in all of these. But in the end, it all turns on the resurrection. Did Jesus rise from the dead or not?

Christ did not claim to be a great teacher who should be listened to, he claimed to be to the Creator of the universe who should be worshipped. Part of that claim included the promise to defeat death. Either he defeated death or he didn’t. If he did, we have every reason to believe all of his other claims – i.e., he is Lord, God and King.  If he did not, then all bets are off – he’s an interesting figure but little more. In fact, if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead then the only material difference between him and all of the other would-be Messiahs is that he not only failed to liberate the Jews, he also got caught in a wild and malicious lie. After all, he claimed to be God and they did not.

As the early church announced, Jesus is either God or a bad man, and everything turns on the resurrection.

So, did Christ rise or didn’t he?

Here is what virtually everyone agrees on, including honest skeptics.^[1]

• Christ died around three o’clock on Friday afternoon.
• In the few hours between his last breath and sunset – when Sabbath laws would prevent law-abiding Jews from touching a corpse – his body was taken off the cross, treated with seventy-five to eighty pounds of spices, wrapped in a linen sheet and placed in a garden tomb.
• The next morning Pilate agreed to the Jewish leaders’ request to have a military unit guard the tomb. They did this to ensure that no one stole the body.
• Nevertheless, when Mary, Mary Magdalene and Salome arrived at the tomb on Sunday morning they discovered that the stone sealing its entrance had been rolled away and the body was gone. They also reported that Jesus appeared to them, that he was alive and well, and that he had instructed them to go tell others.
• Over the next few weeks hundreds of other people reported seeing, talking to and touching Jesus.
• The belief that Christ had risen from the grave launched the Christian faith.

The critical question is: what happened to the body – where did it go? Millions of people have wrestled with this question. Thousands have devoted years of their lives to studying it. A number of different theories have been advanced; in the end they break into six camps.^[2]

Option One: Jesus did not die on the cross

Some people contend that Jesus did not die on the cross – he simply fainted from a loss of blood and later revived in the cool of the tomb. This is known as the Swoon Theory.^[3]

In order to embrace this option we must believe that:

• Though Jesus was exhausted, traumatized and hemorrhaging immense amounts of blood, he merely lost consciousness on the cross. Indeed, he remained alive even after the Roman executioner thrust a spear into his side.
• Neither the professional executioner nor those treating his body ever noticed that he was still alive.
• He not only survived being mummified and then sealed in a tomb without food, water or air for around forty hours, he somehow got better.^[4]
• After he regained consciousness he was able to wriggle out of his tightly wrapped shroud, push back the massive stone, overpower the Roman soldiers and walk several miles on pierced feet.
• Instead of reaching the obvious conclusion – i.e., Jesus had somehow survived a botched crucifixion – those who saw him were tricked into believing that he had entered a glorious new dimension of life.
• After being hailed the risen Son of God he slipped away to live the rest of his life in obscurity.

Beyond the obvious weaknesses of this theory, several more emerge with additional study.

• We need to remember that Jesus was not simply crucified; he was first beaten and flogged. The latter was so brutal that many died from it alone. In fact, it was widely held that no one could survive forty lashes – Jesus received thirty-nine. Without immediate medical care he likely would have died from the flogging and infection that followed, even if he had not been crucified.^[5]

• Roman executioners who failed to kill their prisoner were killed for their incompetence. They were not known to make mistakes.

• Pilate did not initially accept Joseph of Arimathea’s claim that Jesus was dead; instead he asked the guards confirm it. When the executioners checked on Christ they determined that he had already died and consequently did not bother to break his legs as was the custom. Nevertheless, one of them rammed a spear into his side, producing a flow of ‘blood and water.’ Modern medical experts suggest that these symptoms point in one of two directions: either the trauma Christ experienced caused fluid to build up in the pericardial sac surrounding his heart, or the blood inside the heart itself had started to separate into plasma and red blood cells. Either situation was a clear indication of death.^[6]

There are other problems with this theory – it requires us to believe that the world’s greatest ethical system was established by a con man, and suggests that Christ fulfilled all of the Messianic prophecies by chance. But these are enough to doom it.^[7]

Option Two: It was a group hallucination

The second theory goes something like this: the disciples were so disappointed when Jesus died that they refused to accept it. Instead they collectively willed themselves into imagining that he rose from the dead.

As theories go, this one is easy to suggest but hard to defend.  To start with, it does nothing to explain the empty tomb or the fulfilled prophecy. Additionally, it violates almost everything we know about hallucinations.

• Hallucinations are typically associated with people who are either neurotic or actually psychotic, but those who claim to have seen Jesus not only include “the distressed women but also the hot-tempered John, the aggressive Peter, an ordered public servant like Matthew, a brilliant intellectual like Paul and a stubborn skeptic like Thomas.”^[8]

• Hallucinations usually occur in favorable settings and at times when a person is wrapped in sentimental feelings. But hardly any of the reported appearances fit those circumstances. They were not in places where Jesus had spent time with his followers; instead they occurred in places filled with stress and confusion.

• Hallucinations are individual experiences tied to a person’s own subconscious. Yet the New Testament reports that Jesus not only appeared to individuals, he also appeared to groups of two, three, seven and at one point over five hundred. In each case, everyone reported seeing the same thing. This is not how hallucinations work. It may be that many people hallucinate at the same time – Woodstock comes to mind – but they do not share the same hallucination.

Some moderns wrongly imagine that the citizens of the first century were unsophisticated naïfs who readily – and easily – embraced the resurrection. This is not true. The followers of Jesus were initially skeptical of Christ’s appearances. The women who had gone to the tomb had done so to embalm Jesus, not embrace him. When the women told the disciples that he was alive the disciples did not believe them.^[9] Thomas went so far as to say, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”^[10] And Mark reports that Jesus later “rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.”^[11]

Paul’s vision of Christ came after the excitement of seeing Jesus had died down. And far from wanting to believe the earlier reports, Paul was on his way to arrest those who were spreading them. He was convinced that Christ’s resurrection was a deadly lie.  His vision of the risen Christ was not the result of wishful thinking. It was about the worst news he could imagine. He only believed it because the evidence persuaded him that it was true.

Option Three: The Women Went to the Wrong Tomb 

In 1907 a British scholar named Kirsopp Lake advanced a new idea. He claimed the three women going to care for Christ’s body had gone to the wrong tomb. Overwhelmed with grief and unable to see clearly in the dim light of the early morning, they had become lost. Spotting a cemetery worker they asked for directions. The caretaker responded, “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth. He is not here.” He then pointed to the correct tomb, but the women misunderstood him, decided that he was actually an angel and that he had been sent to announce that Christ had risen from the dead.

This theory gets points for creativity, but not many for viability. Three factors overwhelm it.

First, Mark 15 reports that two of the three women had been present for Jesus’ burial just thirty-six hours earlier. They “saw where he was laid.” The word translated “saw” represents a person who looks on “with interest and for a purpose, usually indicating a careful observation of details.”^[12] Having recently returned from Israel I can add that the Old City of Jerusalem is small and the first-century burial sites are quite close. A fifteen minute walk (at most) takes you to them.^[13] It’s hard to imagine anyone getting lost in an area they would know so well, or anyone accepting the resurrection without checking out the tomb themselves.

Second, Lake bases his theory on some creative editing of Mark 16, which reports that after entering the tomb:

The women saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

Lake leaves most of the text out – starting with the angel’s announcement that Jesus was risen.

Finally, in order for the Wrong Tomb theory to be true, it’s not just the women who need to get it wrong, everyone else must as well. When Peter and John heard that Jesus had risen from the dead they ran to the tomb to see for themselves. The sun would have been up by then. Are we to suppose that they also went to the wrong tomb? One of the Marys later returned to the tomb. Did she get it wrong a second time? What about the Roman guards – were they posted at the wrong tomb? What about Joseph? He owned the tomb. Are we to imagine that he never went to the right tomb and discovered the body?  For that matter, what about the Jewish and Roman authorities? They were motivated to discredit Christianity. Without the resurrection this new sect would collapse. They possessed the means, motive and opportunity to find the body and put an end to everything. Are we to suppose that none of them ever went to the tomb to check things out for themselves?

It’s worth adding that even if everyone went to the wrong tomb, this theory does nothing to explain the post-resurrection appearances of Christ, his fulfillment of Messianic prophecies or the transformation of the disciples.

Option Four: Jesus Had a Secret Look-a-Like

The fourth theory is based on the idea that someone who looked exactly like Jesus had been waiting in the shadows to step in at the appropriate moment. This person (a twin?) either died in Jesus’ place as the ultimate stunt double, or he presented himself as Christ after Jesus had been crucified.

This theory has never gained much traction for a handful of reasons. First, there is absolutely no evidence for it. Second, anyone wishing to present themselves as the risen Christ needed to dispose of the real Christ’s body first. This immediately brings us back to the Roman guards standing watch at a sealed tomb. How were they overcome? Third, it is hard to believe that someone other than Christ could persuade those who had been close to Christ – i.e., the disciples, Mary, etc. – that they were Jesus. He had only been away for a few days. If your best friend went away for a three-day weekend and then someone else tried to take their place, do you think they impersonator could trick you? Fourth, Thomas only believed after he put his hands in the holes in Christ’s hands and feet. Did the imitation Christ inflict these wounds on himself? The list goes on – where did the substitute go after forty days? How were Christ’s miracles performed? Why was any of this done? As I noted, this theory has been panned by most everyone.

Option Five: Someone Stole the Body

From the very earliest days some have argued that Christ’s body was stolen. Those in this camp accept that he died, was buried in Joseph’s tomb and that the body disappeared before Sunday morning. But they do not believe that he rose from the dead. Instead, they contend that one of four groups stole the body: the Roman authorities, the Jewish leaders, a group of grave robbers or the disciples. Let’s consider each group separately.

The Roman Authorities: The idea that Roman leaders had Christ’s body removed is a nonstarter for one main reason – there is no motive. The Empire depended upon stability. This is why they crucified Christ and posted a guard at his tomb. Additionally, they had enough problems in Judea without word leaking out that their executioners were inept and their legionnaires couldn’t guard a grave site. Pilate had literally and symbolically washed his hands of Jesus. He wanted everything about Christ to go away. Stirring things up was not a part of their plan. The Romans may have had the means and the opportunity to steal Christ’s body, but they lacked anything approaching a motive.

The Jewish Leaders: This theory also dies before it starts. And once again it dies for lack of motive. An empty tomb was the Jewish leaders’ worst fear. Christ had promised that he would rise on the third day. His integrity and identity now depended upon it. The members of the Sanhedrin only needed to ensure that the body was still in the grave on the fourth day. This is why they had asked Pilate to post a guard at the tomb.

After the body went missing the Jewish leaders had those who spoke about it arrested, imprisoned, threatened and flogged. All of this would have been unnecessary if they had the body. In fact, they could have shut the whole movement down by putting Christ’s body in a cart and wheeling it into the center of Jerusalem.

If the Jewish leaders had stolen the body – or had any idea where it was – they could have put a quick end to their problems. They did not. As the Scottish theologian Andrew Fairbairn has said, “The silence of the Jews is as significant as the speech of the Christians.”^[14]

Grave Robbers: Very few people rob graves, and those who do would not steal the body, they would steal the gold, jewelry and other valuables buried with it. In the off chance that someone was unbalanced enough to steal a body, it’s unlikely they would decide to rob the one tomb that is being guarded by Roman soldiers. It’s equally unlikely that they would take time during the theft to unwrap the body from its burial shroud, neatly refold the sheet and then leave it in the tomb.^[15]

The disciples:  The idea that the disciples stole the body is one of the earliest explanations put forward. In fact, it’s found in Matthew 28, where we read:

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.

Were the disciples capable of stealing the body?  It seems unlikely for a handful of reasons. First, the task required a level of leadership, planning and courage they had failed to display when Christ was alive. It seems doubtful they could pull off something this bold in his absence.

Second, a review of the details suggests that the disciples not only lacked the means, they also lacked a motive. Some skeptics have mistakenly looked at the wealth of the church today and assumed that the disciples were selfishly motivated to keep the movement together – that there were assets to protect, money to be made and power to be gained by persuading people that Jesus was still alive. This is not true. Believing that the disciples stole the body not only requires us to assume that they were willing to lie to everyone, it also ignores the perils they faced in promoting the idea that Christ did rise. From an earthly perspective, the only thing the disciples got out of claiming that Christ rose from the dead was a hard life and an early death.

The final reason to dismiss this theory is the steadfast convictions of the disciples over the next thirty years. During this time they were hated, scorned, excommunicated, beaten, imprisoned and tortured. Ten of them were martyred. And yet, at no point did any of them waiver from their claim: the tomb was empty because Jesus was God. Few people will die for the truth. Are we to believe that these men died for a lie?^[16]

The late Charles Colson, who served as chief counsel to President Nixon before being sent to prison for his role in the Watergate scandal, dismissed this idea in light of his own experiences. He writes:

In my Watergate experience I saw the inability of men – powerful, highly motivated professionals – to hold together a conspiracy based on a lie… Yet Christ’s followers maintained to their grim deaths by execution that they had in fact seen Jesus Christ raised from the dead. There was no conspiracy. Men do not give up comfort – and certainly not their lives – for what they know to be a lie.^[17]

Some are willing to die for something they believe to be true (and countless have done so). But nobody is prepared to die for something they know to be false.

It is possible that the disciples were mistaken about Christ’s resurrection. But the transformation of their lives and the unwavering nature of their testimony make it clear that they believed Christ rose from the dead.^[18] They did not steal the body.

Option Six: Christ Rose From The Dead

The final explanation for the empty tomb is the one found in the Bible itself. It is the belief that Jesus is who he claimed to be – the Savior of the World and Son of God – and that he did what he promised he would do – defeat death and rise again.

Here are eight of the many reasons to hold to this view.

One: The resurrection pulls everything together. It’s worth taking three steps back and reviewing the big picture. The Bible is a collection of sixty-six books written over sixteen hundred years by forty different authors in three languages and on three continents – and the whole thing pivots around the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Everything written before these two events is pointing ahead to them; everything written later is pointing back. Those who discount the resurrection are not harmlessly ignoring a trifling matter, they are yanking on the thread that unravels the entire tapestry. If you throw out the resurrection, the only thing you are left with is questions: If Jesus wasn’t the Son of God then who was he? Where did he get such profound wisdom? How did he pull off his miracles? How did he turn twelve also-rans into a force that humbled the Roman Empire? How could he fulfill so many prophecies? Who started the story that he rose from the dead? How did the tomb end up empty?

Two: The initial eye-witnesses were women.  Women were not allowed to testify in first-century Jewish or Roman courts because they were not believed to be trustworthy witnesses.^[19] It follows that if someone had set out to fabricate the resurrection they would not have had women be the first to view the risen Christ, especially a woman with Mary Magdalene’s questionable past. They would have had a highly influential male leader instead.^[20]

Three: The Gospel accounts sound authentic. The Gospel reports of Christ’s resurrection read exactly like what they claim to be – first and second hand accounts of a real event. For instance, Mark reports that when the women entered the tomb, “they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side.” Luke reports that after they discovered the tomb was empty, “two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.” Matthew’s account mentions “an angel of the Lord” who was at the tomb.” Which is it? Were they angels or men? Were there one or two?

Some have pointed to these verses^[21] as a contradiction in the Bible.^[22] Those who are used to reading multiple accounts of a single event see these reports as authentic accounts. In fact, far from being troubled with the initial discrepancies, they are leery of multiple accounts of the same story that are too perfect. To put it simply – whenever everyone is saying exactly the same thing, someone is copying off of someone else, or they all agreed beforehand on what they were going to write. These accounts sound like authentic reports from firsthand and second hand witnesses.

Four: Something happened to change the date of worship. The first church gatherings were comprised exclusively of Jews or Jewish proselytes. Their understanding of the fourth commandment – to say nothing of their practice over thousands of years – led them to worship God on Saturday. Something major had to happen to cause them to move their sacred day of rest and worship.

Five: Something happened to change the object of worship. It’s not just that the Jews moved their Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, they extended their worship to include Jesus as well. This is extraordinary. At the very top of the list of Jewish affirmation is the understanding that there is only one God. And yet, even before anyone had articulated the Triune nature of God, the Jews began worshipping the Son of God alongside the Father God.

Six: Jesus had predicted his resurrection. Christ had frequently alluded to his death. This is unremarkable in itself; after all, everyone is going to die, so predicting your own death is an exercise in stating the obvious. However, Christ went beyond this. He never spoke about his death without also claiming that he would rise again. He even pinpointed how long he would be dead before he would rise.^[23]

Seven: The changed lives of the disciples. Most legends start generations after the death of the first hand witnesses. The Christian faith did not. In fact, it started right after Pentecost and it was started by those closest to the events. As was noted above, the disciples morphed from timid and clueless followers to bold and fearless witnesses. They did this in response to their belief that Jesus had risen.^[24]

Eight: Christ was the most amazing person to ever live. Finally, it’s worth reminding ourselves that the resurrection was not a remarkable ending to an otherwise un-remarkable life; it was the capstone miracle of the most amazing life ever. As we noted in the first chapter, Jesus stands above all others. He lived a sinless life. He taught with authority, healed the sick, multiplied food, walked on water, quieted storms and raised the dead. Claiming that Christ conquered death is not like claiming that you or I did. That would be amazing. Jesus is the most interesting and important person who has ever lived. He did the most amazing things that have ever been done. He claimed to be God, predicted his death and promised to rise again on the third day. Given all the facts, it would have been more remarkable if Jesus hadn’t defeated death.

So Now What?

There is more that could be said, but I believe it’s time to call the question. You have a decision to make. Sherlock Holmes said, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”  C.S. Lewis brought that logic to the person of Christ, writing:

We are faced, then, with a frightening alternative. The man we are talking about was and is just what he said or else insane or something worse. Now, it seems to me obvious that he was neither insane nor a fiend; and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that he was and is God.

Are you persuaded? I hope so. I believe that Christ’s claims, warnings and promises are all true, and that placing your faith in him is the best decision you could ever make. Through Christ, God will forgive you and welcome you into his family as an adopted son or daughter. You will gain eternal life, be filled with God’s Spirit and become part of the expanding Kingdom of God.

One of the reasons these studies were written was to persuade you to do just that. Taking a next step does not require a blind leap of faith. As I hope is clear by now, there are good reasons for you to believe that Jesus is God.^[25]

This does, however, require you to take action – to go beyond giving a simple head-nod to God or affirming that Christ is God. Becoming a Christ-follower involves repenting of your sins and placing your hope in Christ. It engages both your mind and your heart. God is not forcing your hand. There is not enough evidence to persuade those who chose not to believe. But there is an open invitation for those who do. If you would like to take a next step, I invite you to pray the following prayer.

Lord Jesus Christ, I am sorry for the things I have done wrong in my life. I am sorry for my selfishness, greed, pride, anger and many other sins. Please forgive me. Thank you for dying on the cross so that I could be forgiven. I now turn from everything I know that is wrong. Spirit of God, thank you for coming to live in me now. Please guide and direct my path. Help me to become more like you. Thank you. Amen