But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. Matthew 28:5-6
Every year on this Sunday, people professing faith in Christ around the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. I am thankful the masses are recognizing the most important event in history on this day, but I hope that recognition carries over to their daily lives. Truly, apart from this event, human existence is meaningless (1 Corinthians 15:16-19). Humanity is hopeless apart from the risen Savior. Sadly, most will live and die without trusting in and laying hold of this hope.
Notice all that is at stake in these few verses from the pen of the apostle Paul. First, if Christ is not risen, our faith is futile. This is the bedrock of every hope we have as, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1). This term means the “substructure or basis” of something. If Christ was not raised, then our faith is futile, and our hope is baseless. Second, we are still in our sins, which is humanity’s greatest problem. Sin earns us death and destruction, and apart from His resurrection, there is no hope of pardon because we have no Mediator (1 Timothy 2:4-5; Hebrews 7:24-25; 1 John 2:2). Third, our loved ones who have died in Christ have perished, leaving us to mourn hopelessly as others do (1 Thessalonians 4:13). It is little wonder that Paul described those hoping in Christ absent the resurrection as the most pitiful lot on earth.
Thankfully, Paul is emphatic that Jesus was in fact raised from the dead guaranteeing those who are His will follow (1 Corinthians 15:20ff; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). There is overwhelming evidence that He in fact did rise from the grave, the greatest of which is the empty tomb. In Matthew 28:11-15, we see the earliest efforts of His opponents trying to explain this away as the Jewish leaders bribed the soldiers to say His disciples came and stole His body. Similar attempts have been made through the centuries since, but one remarkably powerful evidence to the contrary is the testimony of the apostles.
It is not simply that they claimed to see the resurrected Lord, but they all truly believed such. Even skeptical scholars concede this reality. Joseph McCabe admitted, “Paul was absolutely convinced of the resurrection; and this proves that it was widely believed not many years after the death of Jesus.” Shirley Jackson Case said, ““The testimony of Paul alone is sufficient to convince us, beyond any reasonable doubt, that this was the commonly accepted opinion in his day—an opinion at that time supported by the highest authority imaginable, the eyewitnesses themselves.” Paula Fredrickson stated, “I know in their own terms what they saw was the raised Jesus. That’s what they say, and then all the historic evidence we have afterwards attest to their conviction that that’s what they saw. I’m not saying that they really did see the raised Jesus. I wasn’t there. I don’t know what they saw. But I do know that as a historian that they must have seen something.”
All these are unbelievers conceding that the apostles and other early believers truly believed in the resurrected Jesus. This is significant as they were not believing some story they heard from others. They were the source of the information. Some accuse them of fabricating this story, but the price they paid for their alleged “hoax” denies this. While people will die for a lie they believe in, it is absurd to think they would die for a lie they knew was a lie. Yet, most of the apostles willingly died for the testimony they gave of the resurrected Jesus. Such is a bridge too far for the honest student of the case. The reality is that the tomb is still empty, they in fact saw the resurrected Jesus, and the skeptic has no answer for this reality. So, rest well my fellow believers because your Lord is in fact alive and well and interceding for you (Hebrews 7:23-25).