Resurrecting the resurrection story - the evidence

I was listening to a very revealing interview with Bono the other day and he was speaking about his faith in Christ. The interviewer really pressed him to try and determine what kind of Christian he was(1). It went something like this:

 

Interviewer: Therefore you believe he [Jesus] was divine?

Bono: Yes

Interviewer: And therefore you believe he rose literally from the dead?

To his credit Bono answered that he believed in the literal resurrection of Jesus and that he has no problems believing in miracles. I respect him for this because it is becoming increasingly rare for the modern western man to maintain belief in a literal resurrection from the grave. The modern reader has a tendency to erase everything from the Bible that cannot be explained from a naturalistic vantage point. This poses serious challenges when confronted with the resurrection story of Jesus. It is often the resurrection part of the story which is the sticking point for the naturally sceptical man.

Having said that we now have a serious problem because this story is an indispensable part of the Jesus story. We cannot rewrite the story of the life of Christ without a resurrection. Jesus made it that way. During his life Jesus not only predicted his own death and resurrection but he trumped it up as THE definitive sign of his true identity as the son of God. 

One of the many times in which Jesus spoke about his resurrection as a the defining sign of his true identity is found in Mat 12:38:
“Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”" 

Why is it so important that he be the Son of God? Why can’t he just be like a Confucius from Galilee? He fits in so neatly with all the other moral teachers like Muhammad, Ghandi and Budda, why make him something special? The thing is, God has spoken many times through prophets but he has only ever sent one son. He only ever HAD one son. The purpose and the importance of the resurrection was to make it perfectly evident to us that this was no ordinary man, this was the one and only son of God. He was God’s last ditch effort to reach us with the message of reconciliation.

So if, as the story goes, Jesus died and rose physically back from the dead again, what evidence is there to support the claim? If such a thing had to happen in our modern times, what evidence would we look for that could give any credibility to the whole affair? Well, it would be an unusual case for sure because you couldn’t very well look for any physical evidence to prove it when the something that you are looking for is claimed to have both risen from the dead and ascended to heaven. Obviously if you could find the dead body of the man that would prove definitively that the claim were not true, but the empty grave only proves that something very untoward transpired.

In the absence of an abundance of physical evidence, what about witnesses? Were there any people who saw anything that could testify to Jesus’ bodily resurrection? Fortunately in this regard we are treated to a veritable treasure trove of evidence for the case. In any court of law today, witnesses are cross-examined to determine their reliability as witnesses in order to determine the weight that should be attributed to their testimony. What about the witnesses to the resurrection of Christ? How would they stand up to a robust cross-examination? There were very many people that witnessed the resurrected Jesus and went around boldly testifying to the fact [over 500 people at one time! 1 Cor 15:6]. Were they liars?

I personally find it impossible to believe that all of these eye-witnesses went about fabricating a story about Jesus’ resurrection simply because of the manner in which most of them died. They did not go to their graves as wealthy fraudsters having pulled off the most far-reaching and history-altering deception of all time. To illustrate, let me describe the end fate of just a few of these witnesses of Christ.

Simon (called Peter): Died 33-34 years after the death of Christ.  He died in Rome during the Neronian persecution, A.D. 67, 68. He was crucified. He felt himself to be unworthy to be put to death in the same manner as his Master and was therefore, at his own request, crucified upside-down.

James the son of Zebedee:  Was put to death by Herod Agrippa I, shortly before the day of the Passover, in the year 44 or about 11 years after the death of Christ.

Andrew: A variety of traditions say he preached in Scythia, in Greece, in Asia Minor and Thrace.  He is reported to have been crucified at Patrae in Achaia.

Thomas: Preached in Parthia or Persia, and was finally buried at Edessa. His martyrdom whether in Persia or India, is said to have been by a lance.

James Alpheus: Lived at least five years after the death of Christ. According to tradition, James son of Alpheus was thrown down from the temple by the scribes and Pharisees; he was then stoned, and his brains dashed out with a fuller’s club.

Here are a few words from Simon/Peter: “We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” (2 Peter 1:16) These men were not just followers of Christ, they continued to preach that Jesus was God’s son even after Jesus was killed. Not only that but they did so under the threat of death. Now I ask you, would a fraudster continue to circulate an obvious fabrication at the expense of his own life? Even if this were plausible for one particularly unstable or dysfunctional individual, could the same case be made for all of these first-hand witnesses?! I cannot bring myself to believe this.

The evidence of these witnesses alone make a strong enough case but there is one more testimony that I want to mention because of what it means for the rest of us, and that is the testimony of Paul. His is an interesting story because he started out as a “member of the prosecution” in this hypothetical case of Christ’s resurrection. He went about actively persecuting and combating the testimony of the early apostles before a very unusual thing happened – he had a personal encounter with the resurrected Jesus! He tells the story like this,

“I journeyed toward Damascus to take those [Christians] also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished. As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ And I answered, ‘Who are you Lord?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’”

Now this may sound like a rather unlikely story but there are two facts which are verifiable: 1. He was a persecutor of the early Christians. 2. He wrote almost half of the New Testament testifying to the bodily death and resurrection of Jesus and became one of the most powerful proponents of the gospel of Christ.

This evidence alone does not prove that he met the resurrected Jesus but let’s be honest, what other explanation could there be? Is it plausible to believe that he went about killing and abusing the followers of Jesus (fact), then fabricated a story about meeting Jesus (lie), then became a powerful proponent of the gospel of Jesus (fact), and then finally ended up beheaded by the sword near Rome somewhere between 62 and 67 AD for proclaiming the very same gospel of Jesus (fact)?

Now this is the really exciting part. People are meeting the resurrected Christ everyday. I know because I am one of them. People are still engaging with him and conducting a meaningful relationship with him. The resurrection of Jesus is by far the most exciting and terrifying part of the story because of the implication that it has for us living today. The resurrection is the greatest evidence for the claim that Jesus made to be God’s son and it is the greatest hope for humanity today. It is the hope that through the living Christ we can find the truth about God and be transformed from the selfish and hurtful individuals that we are into the self-less and loving disciples that Christ himself is. The gospel message of Christ is not the wisdom of a venerable sage from Galilee, it is the life-giving power that ensues from a resurrected messiah.