Daily Broadside | Maybe Jesus Didn’t Really Die on the Cross and Come Back to Life

It’s Good Friday and I always take a break from the political nonsense going on in our country to deliberately reflect on what is ultimately important in this life — a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. (See 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023.)

Because I don’t write on the weekends, I never specifically write about Easter Sunday and the resurrection of Jesus, which are inextricably bound up with the events of Good Friday. I want to do that today by examining some of the explanations posited by unbelievers who object to the idea of a physical resurrection from the dead.

To claim that Jesus was put to death and was really, indisputably dead — no heartbeat, no pulse, no brainwaves, no breath, fixed pupils, cold to the touch, completely unresponsive to any stimulation — and that he remained that way for some 40 hours and then came back to life, is extraordinary. It defies our reason, logic and experience.

When my father died, I was there. He was really, indisputably dead. If I had been told that he was up and walking around a few days later, it would be inexplicable and frightening and “unbelievable.” In our world, there is no “coming back” from the dead. Death is final. Dead is dead.

Yet we have four documents that describe an individual named Jesus who died and came back to life some 2,000 years ago. Could it be? Is it true?

Those who don’t believe say that what the Bible claims is impossible, and there must be another explanation. It was a hoax that the disciples pulled off by stealing and hiding the body; His appearance after death was a hallucination; Jesus didn’t die on the cross but was revived later; the entire story is a myth.

To say the disciples stole the body and just claimed Jesus was alive doesn’t stand scrutiny because they all went to their deaths proclaiming that Jesus was alive. One might die for something he believes to be true, but twelve will not die for something they know to be false.

Same with the theory that the appearances of Jesus were hallucinations driven by a fanatical wish for it to be true. But the Bible says that Jesus appeared to groups of people, including a crowd of more than 500. Individuals may hallucinate, but groups of people don’t all hallucinate the same thing at the same time.

As far as the whole story being a myth, the textual evidence doesn’t support the theory. A myth requires time to develop, so the closer a writing is to actual events the less time there is for the truth to be contaminated by mythology.

For example, in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 Paul refers to a creed, a creed being a formal statement of belief.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.

Paul wrote 1 Corinthians in the mid-50s. In this passage, he’s referring to an even earlier statement about Jesus’ life, death, burial and resurrection. Paul likely “received” this creed directly from Peter and James, both of whom were eyewitnesses and with whom he had met following his conversion. The features of Paul’s language dates the creed to the 30s, probably within a couple of years of Jesus’ death, which precludes any legendary developments.

So Jesus’ resurrection isn’t a myth, it wasn’t the product of mass hallucinations, and the disciples didn’t steal the body. What about the theory that Jesus simply passed out but recovered after he was removed from the cross?

It’s known as the “swoon theory” and it collapses under close scrutiny. Rather than summarize it for you, I’ll let the writers at CARM do it:

The Swoon theory falls apart quickly when you consider that Jesus had undergone six trials, was beaten, then scourged with 39 lashes that left His back raw, exposed, and bloody.  He had a crown of thorns forced upon His head, ripping His scalp.  He had been crucified with nails in the hands and feet; he hung there for six hours bleeding and dehydrating; his spear-pierced side emitted blood and water.  He was left in a tomb for three days and was tightly wrapped up.  Was anyone in this condition able to revive, get himself out of the tight wrappings, and then walk on pierced feet?

Could he single-handedly move a large stone with hands that were unusable due to the wrist piercings which severed the median nerve and paralyzed them?  Could he then somehow get by the armed guards given the charge of watching the grave-side?  Are we to believe further that Jesus managed to walk a long distance on feet which had been pierced and then appear to the disciples as a victorious conqueror of death?  The Swoon theory makes no sense.  In fact, it would take more to believe this ridiculous conjecture than it would to believe that Jesus rose from the dead.

Exactly so.

The resurrection of Jesus is the lynchpin of the entire Christian faith. If Jesus is still dead, then the entire ediface collapses. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:17-19,

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins … If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Fortunately, the tomb was empty and the only reasonable explanation is what the Bible declares: we have a risen Savior.

Happy Easter!

Daily Broadside | Finding the Good in “Good” Friday

Daily Verse | 2 Kings 8:19
Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever.

Friday’s Reading: 2 Kings 9-12
Saturday’s Reading: 2 Kings 13-14

Friday, but not just any Friday. Good Friday.

Good Friday?

On that Friday, Jesus suffered the indignity of a show trial during which false witnesses testified against him.

Good?

Jesus was accused of blasphemy for telling the truth that he was the Son of God when charged under oath to admit if he was the Messiah.

Good?

Jesus was slapped, punched, and spit in the face by the chief priests and the Sanhedrin, who then mocked him for good measure.

Good?

Jesus was brought to the Roman governor, Pilate, to be executed—because the Jews weren’t allowed to do it themselves.

Good?

Jesus was sent to Herod, who ridiculed and mocked him, then sent him back to Pilate.

Good?

Jesus was traded for an imprisoned murderer, Barabbas, whose name ironically means “son of the father.”

Good?

Jesus was flogged, a lashing with nine leather straps laced with pieces of splintered animal bone and lead weights that ripped the flesh open across the shoulders, back, and legs to a depth of one inch, pulling ribbons of muscle out through the lacerations.

Good?

Jesus was mocked, dressed up in a scarlet robe with a coil of inch-long thorns jammed onto his head and a wooden staff in his hand. After humiliating him that way, the soldiers spit on Jesus and beat him on the head with the wooden staff.

Good?

Jesus was nailed to a wooden beam by his wrists, then hoisted up onto a vertical beam sunk in the earth. His feet were then nailed to the upright beam, and he was left there hanging. Breathing in wasn’t a problem, but to breathe out, he had to pull himself up by his nailed wrists while pushing up with his legs on his nailed feet.

Good?

Jesus was crucified between two thieves, being “numbered with the transgressors.”

Good?

Jesus was insulted by one of the thieves hanging there with him.

Good?

Jesus’ clothes were taken by the soldiers.

Good?

Jesus was sneered at by the religious leaders.

Good?

Jesus was mocked again by the soldiers.

Good?

Jesus was taunted, insulted and mocked by passersby.

Good?

Jesus wondered why he had been abandoned by God.

Good?

Jesus hung from his wrists on the cross from 9:00 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon.

Good?

Jesus died, condemned by his own and executed by proxy.

Good?

Jesus’ body was taken down from the cross and placed in a tomb not his own.

Good?

Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:4-6

Good?

Yes! Good.

Have a good weekend—and a very happy Easter.

Morning Links | 10 Apr 20

TODAY IS GOOD FRIDAY. TAKE TIME TO REFLECT ON WHAT THE DEATH OF JESUS CHRIST ACCOMPLISHED.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8