I love Easter!
It is my absolute favorite holiday, for many reasons....springtime...flowers...the colors...the candy....the new dresses....and of course, the resurrection! Without Easter, without the resurrection....there would be no love, no hope, no joy...no new life! How depressing that would be!
In 1 Corinthians 15: 12-22, Paul says:
But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith...But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
I can honestly say that I agree with Paul and believe in the resurrection 100%, with all of my heart.
I actually wrote a paper in seminary on the very topic of the validity of the resurrection, so I could probably go on and on about why I believe that Christ did indeed rise from the dead, but I don't want you to fall asleep on me, ha!
So I will tell you the one thing I discovered that leads me to believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that Christ is alive today...
the lives and deaths of his disciples....not just Paul, who wrote the above passage, but also Peter, James, John, Stephen, John the Baptist, the list goes on and on of men, who dedicated their entire lives to preaching Christ risen!
And as a result...they were beaten, tortured, imprisoned and eventually died horrible, humiliating deaths...all for a man who was the supposed Son of God, who supposedly rose from the dead after being brutally killed, without saving himself, and was then left in a forgotten tomb?
Why in the world would these men risk their lives for such a cause? Why would they give their lives for this crazy man? You see, you can't just say that Jesus Christ was a good man. I mean he claimed to be the Son of God for crying out loud?!!? You have to draw one of two conclusions...either he was crazy, or he actually is who he claimed to be. There is no in between here.
You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. {C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)}
You know one theory related to the empty tomb is that the disciples stole Jesus' body and disposed of it so that they would not be thought of as fools. This theory was spread by the Roman soldiers who were supposed to be guarding his dead body.
SOOOO...you are telling me that the same disciples who were running scared for their lives the night before the crucifixion when Jesus' was arrested...the very disciples who betrayed Jesus' and went into hiding while he was crucified and buried....then decided to steal his body and hide it so as not to appear foolish...are all of a sudden, 3 days later, preaching Christ risen and dying for a cause that they know is not true because they stole his dead body?!!?
Sorry, not buying it. Obviously, something drastic happened during those 3 days that gave the disciples overwhelming confidence and power for them to stop running scared and instead boldy proclaim, as Peter did, that Jesus is in fact "the Christ, the Son of the Living God!" And I can tell you that it wasn't the dead body of a crazy man.
It actually makes more sense to me that maybe, just maybe...the shady Roman government did in fact pay off the soldiers to spread the lie that the disciples hid the body, which was never found by the way...so that they, the government, the very leaders of the Roman Empire, would not appear to be fools...since they were the ones who had the Son of God crucified and then carelessly misplaced his body.
Think about it for yourself and while you are at it, ponder this passage from Romans 5:6-9:
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 man, though for a good man 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. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
It still amazes me that God "sent his one and only son," JESUS, to die for an undeserving sinner like me. And all we have to do to be forgiven and have eternal life in Heaven with him, is to
"confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead!"
I pray that the resurrection becomes real in your life, no matter your circumstances...all God asks is that we come to him, he has already worked out the details!
Happy Easter and Praise God for "He Is Risen!"
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