Tag Archive for: resurrection

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What Happened on the Remarkable Passion Week

Passion Week is the eight days that begin with Palm Sunday and end with Easter. Here’s what the four Gospels tell us happened each day.

Palm Sunday: Matthew 21:7-8

Palm Sunday

“Go,” Jesus tells two disciples. “In that village, you’ll find a donkey tied with her colt. Untie them and bring them to me.”

They find the donkey and colt just as Jesus said. Quickly, they untie them and bring them to Jesus. Then they lay their cloaks on them.

The large crowd at Jerusalem’s gate had heard Jesus was coming. They want to see this miracle worker who raised a man dead four days to life. Could he be the Messiah, the long-awaited King who would rule forever? Will he now lead an army to beat back Rome?

Jesus mounts the donkey colt, never before ridden. He arrives, not on a war horse but on a donkey colt, in peace. Nevertheless, the crowd sees him and rushes to place their cloaks on the road before him. Some run to cut palm branches from nearby trees and spread those before Jesus too. It is an honor fit for a king.

“Hosanna to the Son of David!” they shout. Hosanna means “God save us,” but Jesus knows they do not realize his true identity. Still, Son of David means they think he is the Messiah. They continue: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

But even his disciples miss the full significance of what Jesus does. It is not until later that they realize he has just fulfilled the words of the prophet Zechariah:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
   Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
   righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
   on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Zechariah 9:9
Passion Week: Monday John 12:22

Passion Week: Monday

On Monday of Passion Week, Jesus taught the crowd gathered at the temple for Passover. When he heard that God-fearing Greeks sought him, he said this:

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

John 12:23-24

Those listening did not understand the significance of three things in his statement. First, “Son of Man” can mean simply “human,” but Jesus reveals elsewhere that he means the divine Son of Man whom Daniel prophesied about here:

I saw in the night visions,
   and behold, with the clouds of heaven
      there came one like a son of man,
   and he came to the Ancient of Days
      and was presented before him.
   And to him was given dominion
      and glory and a kingdom,
   that all peoples, nations, and languages
      should serve him;
   his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
   and his kingdom one
      that shall not be destroyed.

Daniel 7:13–14

Second, they did not know he meant he had come to die. The people wanted an earthly king who would deliver them from Roman rule. But Jesus was also the suffering servant about whom Isaiah wrote:

By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?

Isaiah 53:8

Third, they did not know that Jesus came to save non-Jews. But this is what Isaiah prophesied about the suffering servant:

It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

Isaiah 49:6

Jesus is the grain of wheat that fell into the earth and died. Then he rose and bore much fruit, bringing to God both Jews and non-Jews. While he died as the suffering servant who cleanses people’s transgression, he arose in glory. For he is also the Divine Son of Man whose dominion is everlasting.

Passion Week: Tuesday

Jesus’s words were puzzling: “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified” (Matthew 26:2). Whatever could he mean?

He had just been teaching about the kingdom of heaven and the final judgment. His disciples believed he was the Messiah—the anointed king who would rule forever. Surely, he meant something symbolic, as when he said they all must take up their cross and follow him.

Among his followers, perhaps only two glimpsed the reality: Mary of Bethany and Judas Iscariot.

Mary of Bethany Anoints Jesus

That night, Mary’s family held a banquet in honor of Jesus. Not long before, he had raised her brother Lazarus to life after he had been dead four days. Jesus, Lazarus, and the other men reclined at the low table, leaning on one arm, feet stretched out behind them. Mary’s sister Martha served the meal..

Customarily to honor a guest, a host anointed the guest’s head with olive oil and provided a servant to wash the guest’s feet with water and a towel. The Jews considered touching someone’s feet to be degrading, so the lowliest servant was assigned the job.

To Mary, olive oil, water, a towel, and the lowest servant did not honor this guest enough.

Mary approached Jesus with a creamy white alabaster flask in her hand. It contained a pound of ointment perfumed with nard, an expensive oil. She broke the flask’s long, thin neck and the spicy, earthy fragrance permeated the house. She poured the scented oil first on his head—just as a king was anointed with oil at his coronation. The scented oil flowed from his hair onto his body.

Then she poured the remaining nard on his feet and wiped them with her hair. She honored Jesus in every way she could and showed herself a servant to Jesus.

Judas Iscariot Betrays Jesus

Judas Iscariot indignantly demanded why such an expensive ointment hadn’t been sold so the money could be given to the poor. But his indignation had a hidden meaning, for he was in charge of the moneybag and often helped himself from its contents.

Jesus rebuked him.

“Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me … She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial.”

Mark 14:6,8

Angry, Judas departed and went to the Jewish leaders. He asked how much they would pay him to deliver Jesus to them. They were delighted. After all, they had already decided that the only way to stop the huge crowds from following Jesus was to kill both him and Lazarus..

And stop him they must. For if Jesus led an insurrection, the Romans would take away the Jewish leaders’ political power. It was also the only way they could get back all the followers they had lost to Jesus. Jesus, they reasoned, could not be the Messiah. He taught there was a resurrection, contradicting the Sadducees. And he belittled the Pharisees’ many rules as mere traditions of men. No, the real Messiah would be submissive to them. The crowds were foolish and should be listening to them. Jesus must be stopped.

Passion Week: Wednesday (original poem)

Passion Week: Wednesday

Wednesday seems quiet, with the Gospels not identifying anything for that day. Was Jesus preparing for what was to come?

(Find the full text of An Easter Poem here.)

Passion Week: Thursday Matthew 26:28

Passion Week: Holy Thursday

Jesus gathered his disciples in a large upper room of a house. There he removed his outer garment, tied a towel around his waist, and washed his disciples’ feet—normally the duty of the lowest household servant. Then he told his disciples that just as he served them, so must they serve each other.

The group then ate the Passover feast, commemorating how years before, lamb’s blood protected the Israelites from death so they could journey to the earthly promised land. Jesus testified that one of them would betray him. Peter motioned to John to ask Jesus who. John reclined next to Jesus and leaned over and asked quietly. Jesus replied, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it” (John 13:26). Then he dipped the morsel, gave it to Judas, and told Judas, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” Judas left to betray him.

Then Jesus told the Eleven that now he would be glorified. He began to teach them urgently:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”

John 13:34

Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take, eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup of wine, gave thanks for it, and passed it to them, saying:

Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

Matthew 26:28

Afterward, they went to a garden where Jesus frequently met with his disciples. It was not long before Judas appeared, leading a band of soldiers.

FUN FACT: This day is sometimes called “Holy Thursday” or “Maundy Thursday.” “Maundy” comes from the Latin mandātum, from which we get the word “mandate.” “Novum mandātum” refers to the new commandment Jesus gave.

Good Friday John 19:18

Good Friday

Peter and John follow the soldiers at a distance. The rest of the disciples flee. John knows the high priest and gets them entrance to watch them try Jesus. Trials at night were illegal, but the Jewish leaders seem to have found a loophole. The former high priest Annas questions Jesus, trying to get him to incriminate himself. That is illegal too, and Jesus exhorts him to question witnesses instead. It is an opportunity to repent. But an officer strikes Jesus for impertinence and Annas sends him to the current high priest, Caiaphas, who sends him to the governor, Pilate, for crucifixion.

Pilate Interrogates Jesus

Pilate knows the Jews have delivered Jesus out of jealousy. So he sends Jesus to be flogged with the lightest form of flogging, the fustigatio. The soldiers put a crown of thorns on his head and a purple robe on his shoulders. They mock and beat him. Pilate shows the beaten, wounded Jesus to the Jews, demonstrating he is no threat and has now been publicly humbled. He declares Jesus’s innocence and his decision to release him. But the Jewish leaders threaten to report him for releasing someone who claims to be the Messiah, a king. Pilate takes Jesus within his headquarters again and asks him if he is king of the Jews. Jesus replies:

“My kingdom is not of this world.”

John 18:36

Torn, Pilate offers again to release Jesus, but the Jews will have none of it. Finally, Pilate gives in and sends Jesus for a second flogging, this time the most severe, the verberatio. It is the flogging that precedes crucifixion, ripping away flesh and exposing bones and muscles.

Soldiers Crucify Jesus

Pilate’s soldiers crucify Jesus, pounding nails through his wrists and feet, attaching him to a wooden cross. Two criminals hang on wooden crosses beside him. Above Jesus’s head, Pilate attaches a placard describing the crime for which he must die: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.

Soldiers gamble for his clothes. The Jewish leaders mock him for not being able to save himself after all his claims.

Of the Eleven, only John witnesses the day’s horrific events. The women who travel with Jesus are there, as is Jesus’s mother. Seeing her, Jesus tells John to take her home and care for her as his own mother. He leads Mary away to his home. Even in Jesus’s time of greatest suffering, he cares for others’ needs.

“It Is Finished”

At noon, darkness covers the land. Sometime after, John leaves Mary and makes his way back to the cross. He hears Jesus say, “It is finished,” and watches him die. Just then, the curtain of the temple tears in two and a great earthquake shakes the land. The sun’s light returns.

The Jewish leaders want the bodies taken down because the next day is a Sabbath, a day of rest. So the soldiers break the legs of those crucified with Jesus so they will die quickly, no longer able to lift themselves to breathe. When the soldiers see that Jesus is already dead, they leave his legs unbroken. Instead, they pierce his side with a sword. John witnesses the blood and water pouring out. For as the Old Testament declared, the Passover Lamb’s bones could not be broken, and they will look on the one they have pierced (Exodus 12:46; Zechariah 12:10).

Two followers who were among the Jewish leadership, Nicodemus and Joseph, take down Jesus’s body and place it in a new tomb belonging to Joseph.

To his disciples, nothing seems to be going according to plan.

Passion Week: Saturday John 19:40,42

Passion Week: Saturday

On Saturday, Jesus’s bewildered followers wept in sorrow. They hid from the religious authorities as they tried to make sense of the crucifixion of their beloved leader. They had thought Jesus was the Messiah, the righteous king God had promised would rule forever (Isaiah 9:7). He had even affirmed privately that he was the Messiah.

Jesus had also seemed to be the promised prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15). All the signs were there, including miracles greater than had ever been seen before. He was a godly man and a brilliant teacher with the power to heal, cast out demons, and even raise the dead.

But now he lay dead in the tomb of a rich man, having been crucified between two criminals. He now seemed more like the Suffering Servant than the Messiah who would rule forever:

And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Isaiah 53:9

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Saturday was dark. But Sunday was coming.

Easter Sunday Matthew 28:5-6

Easter

“He is risen,” said the angel.

On the day of the Feast of Firstfruits, Jesus rose from the dead.

At the temple that Sunday, Jews would offer the firstfruits of barley that had risen to life in their fields. Most did not know that Jesus had that morning become the firstfruits of people to rise to life from this earth. As the firstfruits of barley anticipated the greater harvest to come, so the resurrection of Jesus anticipates the greater resurrection to come:

Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

1 Corinthians 15:20

.Just as seed lay in the ground until life raised it up, so Jesus lay in the tomb until life raised him up. Just as the Jews raised the firstfruits of their harvest on Sunday before the Lord, so Jesus raised himself as the Firstfruits of the harvest of God’s children on Sunday.

He is risen!

Resurrection on Firstfruits during Unleavened Bread Feasts
“The Angel and Women at the Empty Tomb” by Gustave Doré (public domain)

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Evidence for the Resurrection Part 2

In my last post, we began to look at evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. We covered three key facts that ancient primary source documents tell us regarding Jesus and the events surrounding his death. They were:

  1. Jesus died by Roman crucifixion.
  2. Jesus’s tomb was found empty.
  3. Soon after the crucifixion, people said they saw Jesus alive. This included the apostle Peter, the church persecutor Paul, and the skeptic James the brother of Jesus.

Today, we’ll look at one more key fact, and then we’ll consider what conclusions we can draw.

4) Jesus’s followers were willing to die for their belief in the resurrection.

After Jesus’s crucifixion, his scared and confused followers scattered and hid. But then something amazing happened: they claimed they had seen Jesus alive again! Suddenly, they were transformed. They spoke boldly and publicly about Jesus being raised from the dead. Even after Jewish leaders and Roman officials threatened them with punishment, torture, and death, they refused to recant their testimony about seeing Jesus alive.

The biblical books tell us of some of the persecution, but extra-biblical sources tell us about the martyrdoms of Peter, Paul, and James (Sean McDowell, The Fate of the Apostles: Examining the Martyrdom Accounts of the Closest Followers of Jesus , 91, 113, 134).

Martyrs testified to the resurrection
Many early Christians lost everything (Konstantin Flavitsky, 1862, public domain)
  • Peter went from denying he knew Jesus to boldly proclaiming Jesus’s resurrection. Rome crucified Peter.
  • Paul transformed from persecuting Jewish Christians to claiming he saw Jesus alive. He boldly spread news of the resurrection throughout the Roman empire. Rome beheaded him.
  • James the brother of Jesus changed from thinking his brother was crazy before the crucifixion to claiming the resurrected Jesus appeared to him. He became a leader of the Christian church (Acts 15:13; 21:18; Galatians 2:9). Jewish leaders executed him.

The disciples’ willingness to testify that they saw Jesus alive after he died despite threats against them is evidence that the disciples had experiences that they sincerely believed were appearances of the resurrected Jesus.

Don’t people die for lies?

But don’t people die for lies they believe are true? Yes, but there’s a crucial difference between them and those who claimed to see Jesus alive. Gary Habermas and Michael Licona explain:

No one questions the sincerity of the Muslim terrorist who blows himself up in a public place or the Buddhist monk who burns himself alive as a political protest. Extreme acts do not validate the truth of their beliefs, but willingness to die indicates that they regarded their beliefs as true. Moreover, there is an important difference between the apostle martyrs and those who die for their beliefs today. Modern martyrs act solely out of their trust in beliefs that others have taught them. The apostles died for holding to their own testimony that they had personally seen the risen Jesus. Contemporary martyrs die for what they believe to be true. The disciples of Jesus died for what they knew to be either true or false.

Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2004), 59.

The conclusion of skeptics

That is why skeptic Bart D. Ehrman writes,

Historians, of course, have no difficulty whatsoever speaking about the belief in Jesus’ resurrection, since this is a matter of public record. For it is a historical fact that some of Jesus’ followers came to believe that he had been raised from the dead soon after his execution. We know some of these believers by name; one of them, the apostle Paul, claims quite plainly to have seen Jesus alive after his death.

Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 231 (emphasis mine).
Ascension of Christ after resurrection
Rembrandt: The Ascension of Christ

It is also why atheist Gerd Lüdemann writes,

It is certain that something must have happened after Jesus’ death which led his followers to speak of Jesus as the risen Christ.

Gerd Lüdemann, What Really Happened to Jesus? An Historical Approach to the Resurrection, trans. John Bowden (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1995), 26.

Scholarly consensus

In fact, Gary Habermas surveyed more that 1,400 sources on the resurrection since 1975 and concluded this:

Perhaps no fact is more widely recognized than that early Christian believers had real experiences that they thought were appearances of the risen Jesus. A critic may claim that what they saw were hallucinations or visions, but he does not deny that they actually experienced something.

The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, 60.

What Best Accounts for These Facts?

Here are some of the options that skeptics put forth.

The resurrection is a legend?

The claims about the resurrection occurred too soon after the crucifixion for a legend to arise, and the disciples’ willingness to die shows they believed they saw the risen Jesus.

Jesus swooned?

A team of medical experts examined what we now know about scourging, crucifixion, and the account of Jesus’s death. Scourging resulted in severe blood loss. The crucified victim sometimes lived for days in tremendous pain. To exhale, he had to push up on his nail-pierced feet and wrists. Thus, when the soldiers wanted to hasten the death of the two men crucified with Jesus, they broke their legs. When they saw that Jesus was already dead, they pierced his side with a sword, causing a flow of blood and water. Here is what the medical team concluded:

Clearly, the weight of historical and medical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead before the wound to his side was inflicted and supports the traditional view that the spear, thrust between his right ribs, probably perforated not only the right lung but also the pericardium and heart and thereby ensured his death… Accordingly, interpretations based on the assumption that Jesus did not die on the cross appear to be at odds with modern medical knowledge.

William D. Edwards, Wesley J. Gabel, and Floyd E. Hosmer, “On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ,” JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 1986, 255:1463.

More problems with the swoon theory

Resurrection came after the crucifixion
“The Three Crosses,” by Rembrandt, 1653

Even if Jesus had somehow survived, he could not have rolled away the heavy stone, made it past the guards, and walked on injured feet to find the disciples. And if he had, the disciples would have thought that he survived, not that he was resurrected. They would have had to get him medical care and nurse him back to health. A weak and wounded Jesus would not have inspired the disciples to risk their lives proclaiming Jesus was raised from the dead.

Finally, this theory can’t account for the radical transformation of James and Paul.

The disciples hallucinated?

By far the most popular theory today among skeptics today is that the disciples only hallucinated what they thought were actual appearances of the resurrected Jesus.

But the hallucination theory doesn’t work because hallucinations are individual experiences of the mind, like dreams. Therefore, they cannot be shared. Yet, many of the testimonies about Jesus’s appearances were to more than one person at a time. Jesus appeared more than once to the eleven (John 20:19,26; 21:1), to two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-31), and on one occasion to more than 500 people (1 Corinthians 15:6).  Interestingly, when Paul writes about the appearance to the 500, he claims “most of whom are still alive,” implying, “You can go ask them yourselves.”

Indeed, for their experiences to be hallucinations, John would have had to have hallucinated Peter talking to Jesus while Peter hallucinated talking to Jesus when John passed by, both hearing the same words. While Thomas hallucinated Jesus telling him to put his hands in his wound, the other ten disciples would have had to have hallucinated watching the conversation.

Hallucinations aren’t shared

In fact, when U.S. Navy SEALS train, hallucinations are common due to extreme fatigue and sleep deprivation. But no two hallucinations are alike:

Most hallucinations occur while the candidates, as a team, paddle in a raft out in the ocean. One believed that he saw an octopus come out of the water and wave at him! Another thought he saw a train coming across the water headed straight toward the raft. Another believed that he saw a large wall, which the raft would crash into if the team persisted in paddling. When the octopus, train, and wall were pointed out by the candidates to the rest of the team, no one else saw them, even though they were all in the same frame of mind. Most of them hallucinated at some point, but none of them participated in the hallucination of another.

The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, 106-107.

The disciples stole the body?

Then they died for what they knew was a lie, and no one does that. People die for what they think is true that turns out to be false. But if they stole the dead body, then they were proclaiming a resurrection they knew didn’t happen. No one dies for what they know is a lie.

resurrection
“The Resurrection” ~ woodcut by Dore

In addition, this doesn’t account for the conversion of the two skeptics, James and Paul. Neither believed Jesus was the Messiah before the crucifixion. Both had experiences that they thought were appearances of Jesus. Both were willing to die rather than recant their testimony that they saw Jesus alive after the crucifixion.

Habermas and Licona write,

If the direct witnesses really believed that he rose from the dead, we can dismiss contentions that they stole the body and made up the story. In fact, virtually all scholars agree on that point, whatever their own theological positions.

The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, 62.

That Jesus really was raised from the dead?

This best accounts for the historical facts: Jesus really was raised from the dead. That’s why we can trust him and what he said.

That Jesus really was raised from the dead best accounts for the historical facts. Click To Tweet

Interested in the evidence that Jesus fulfilled Old Testament promises, prophecies, & types? See my book, Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament.

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Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Part 1

Is there evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Or is Christianity simply a matter of blind faith?

It claims not to be. According to the Gospels, Jesus said his being “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” would be the “sign” that he came from God in fulfillment of Old Testament scriptures (Matthew 12:39-40). This is an obvious reference to his death, burial, and resurrection on the third day. Paul said that God “has given proof…to everyone” that he would judge the world by Jesus “by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). He also wrote, “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14).

If the resurrection is supposed to prove so much, what evidence do we have today that it really happened?

Quite a bit.

The Testimony of Ancient Documents

Crucifixion before Resurrection
The Crucifixion (Rembrandt [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

We possess many ancient documents that tell us about the beginnings of Christianity. Scholars call these primary source documents. A primary source document is a first-hand account of a topic. Some of the primary source documents are extra-biblical (outside of the Bible).

The four Gospels, Acts, and 1 Corinthians are also primary source documents. They record Jesus’s death as well as eyewitness testimonies of Jesus’s subsequent resurrection.

A few skeptics object that these documents have not been accurately transmitted. That is, they claim the biblical sources must have been altered over time. But this is not true. Scholars use what’s called the bibliographical test to gauge how accurately ancient documents have been transmitted.

The bibliographical test examines the reliability of ancient manuscripts.

This test compares the number of surviving manuscripts of ancient documents and how much time elapsed between the earliest surviving copy and the date the original manuscript was handwritten.

Clay Jones explains:

The bibliographical test examines manuscript reliability, and for more than a generation Christian apologists have employed it to substantiate the transmissional reliability of the New Testament. The bibliographical test compares the closeness of the New Testament’s oldest extant manuscripts to the date of its autographs (the original handwritten documents) and the sheer number of the New Testament’s extant manuscripts with the number and earliness of extant manuscripts of other ancient documents such as Homer, Aristotle, and Herodotus.

Since the New Testament manuscripts outstrip every other ancient manuscript in sheer number and proximity to the autographs, the New Testament should be regarded as having been accurately transmitted. 

Clay Jones, “The Bibliographical Test Updated,” The Christian Research Journal

In other words, the bibliographical test shows that the biblical texts were accurately copied.

Ancient Documents Establish Key Facts

Now let’s move on to key facts that the primary source documents establish. Even skeptical and atheist scholars agree on a surprising number of basic facts.

1) Jesus died by Roman crucifixion.

Resurrection came after the crucifixion
“The Three Crosses,” by Rembrandt, 1653

That Jesus was crucified around AD 30 is a fact of history attested to in multiple primary source documents, including documents written by those who didn’t believe Jesus rose from the dead.

For example, the Roman historian Tacitus (56–120) wrote,

Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus.

Tacitus, Annals

Of course, the “extreme penalty” is crucifixion.

Skeptic and co-chair of the Jesus Seminar John Dominic Crossan writes,

That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be.

John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1987), 179 .

The biblical sources also record the crucifixion: Matthew 27:32-31; Mark 15:21-47; Luke 23:18-54; John 19; Acts 2:23, 36; 4:10; and 1 Corinthians 1:23; 2:2; 2:8. Dr. Gary Habermas and Dr. Michael Licona write that the evidence for this and other data we’ll look at

are so strongly evidenced historically that nearly every scholar regards them as reliable facts.

Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2004), 48.

2) Jesus’s tomb was found empty.

The four Gospels record that Jesus’s dead body was laid in a tomb, but the tomb was found empty days later. Here’s what else they record.

A Jewish leader placed Jesus’s dead body in a tomb.

Angel in tomb after the resurrection
“The Resurrection” ~ woodcut by Dore

All four Gospels record that a member of the Jewish ruling council named Joseph of Arimathea removed Jesus’s dead body from the cross and laid it in his own tomb (Matthew 27:57-60; Mark 15:42-46; Luke 23:50-53; John 19:38-42). This is significant because it is highly unlikely that the Gospel authors would fabricate this detail since it would have been easily verifiable by people alive at the time. Additionally, the early Christians blamed the Jewish leaders for the crucifixion, which makes it incredulous that they would invent a story about one of them attending to Jesus’s body.

Details like these are why cofounder and president emeritus of Internet Infidels, Jeffrey Jay Lowder, writes,

The burial of Jesus by Joseph of Arimathea has a high final probability.

Jeffrey Jay Lowder, “Historical Evidence and the Empty Tomb Story: A Reply to William Lane Craig,” in The Empty Tomb: Jesus Beyond the Grave, ed. Robert M. Price and Jeffery Jay Lowder (Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2005), 265–66.

The tomb was found empty.

Next, the four Gospels report that on the third day after burial, women found the tomb empty (Matthew 28:1-15; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-12; John 20:1-10). Clay Jones explains the significance:

That the Gospels record women as being the first to discover the empty tomb makes it likely because of what is called the “criterion of embarrassment.” The criterion of embarrassment is a type of critical analysis where authors are presumed to be telling the truth if they record something that might be embarrassing to them or their cause. In short, no one in first-century Palestine would concoct a story with women taking the lead in the most vital discovery of Christianity!

Clay Jones, Immortal: How the Fear of Death Drives Us and What We Can Do About It (Oregon: Harvest House, 2020).

They record that after that, two disciples found the tomb empty (Luke 24:12; John 20:2-7).

The Jews claimed the disciples stole the body.

Matthew wrote that the Jewish leaders paid the guards who were watching the tomb to say that the disciples came at night while the guards slept and stole the body (Matthew 28:11-15). Extra-biblical documents attest to this report too. Justin Martyr (100–165) in his dialog with the Jew Trypho wrote:

You have sent chosen and ordained men throughout all the world to proclaim that a godless and lawless heresy had sprung from one Jesus, a Galilaean deceiver, whom we crucified, but his disciples stole him by night from the tomb, where he was laid when unfastened from the cross, and now deceive men by asserting that he has risen from the dead and ascended to heaven.

Justin Martyr, “Dialog with Trypho,” in Ante-Nicene Christian Library: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers, vol. 2, Justin Martyr and Athenagoras, trans. Marcus Dods, George Reith, and B.P. Pratten, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Edinburg: T&T Clark, 1879), 235.

Why would the Jewish leaders claim Jesus’s body was stolen unless the tomb was empty? Additionally, if the Jewish leaders weren’t saying this, why would Matthew report this embarrassing detail?

Without an empty tomb, Christianity wouldn’t have begun.

Finally, if the tomb wasn’t empty, all the Jewish and Roman leaders had to do to quell Christianity was to produce Jesus’s body. Habermas and Licona note,

In the arid climate of Jerusalem, a corpse’s hair, stature, and distinctive wounds would have been identifiable even after fifty days.

The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus , 70.

Christianity’s critics nowhere claimed to have found his body. Instead, they claimed the disciples stole the body. That is why

…roughly 75 percent of scholars on the subject accept the empty tomb as a historical fact.

The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus , 70.

3) Soon after the crucifixion, people said they saw Jesus alive.

The primary source documents tell us that Jesus’s followers and two former skeptics all saw Jesus alive.

Ascension of Christ after resurrection
Rembrandt: The Ascension of Christ

Jesus’s followers claimed to see Jesus alive.

After Jesus’s crucifixion and burial, his confused and scared followers scattered and hid. But something happened that emboldened them.

Matthew recorded that he and the other ten disciples saw and spoke to the resurrected Jesus as a group (Matthew 28:16-20).

John wrote that the risen Jesus appeared to him, the other ten disciples, a woman, and others, often in groups (John 20:11-31).

Peter proclaimed to thousands that he was a witness to the fact that God had raised Jesus from the dead, as the non-Jewish historian Luke recorded (Acts 2; Acts 3:15; 4:10; etc.). Peter also wrote about the resurrection (1 Peter 1:21).

Former skeptic James saw Jesus alive.

Before the crucifixion, Jesus’s brother thought Jesus was “out of his mind” and tried to stop him from teaching publicly (Mark 3:21; John 7:5). According to an early Christian creed, the resurrected Jesus appeared to James (1 Corinthians 15:7).

Former Christian persecutor Paul claimed to see Jesus alive.

Paul (also known as Saul) was a devout Jew and a member of the strict Pharisee sect. He persecuted Jews who became Christians (Acts 8:3). Then one day he had an experience which he described as an encounter with the resurrected Jesus (Acts 9:1-9).

Jesus’s followers proclaimed the resurrection soon after the crucifixion.

I mentioned an early Christian creed. Paul quoted it here:

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas [Peter], then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

1 Corinthians 15:3-8

Paul wrote 1 Corinthians around AD 55 (The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, 52). He wrote that he had earlier “delivered” to them what he had “received.” That means Paul received the creed before his earlier visit to Corinth.

Based on this, skeptic Gerd Lüdemann writes,

We can assume that all the elements in the tradition are to be dated to the first two years after the crucifixion of Jesus.

Gerd Lüdemann, Resurrection of Jesus: History, Experience, Theology (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1995), 38.

Likewise, atheist Michael Goulder notes that Paul’s testimony

…goes back at least to what Paul was taught when he was converted, a couple of years after the crucifixion.

Michael Goulder, “The Baseless Fabric of a Vision,” in Resurrection Reconsidered, ed. Gavin D’Costa (Oxford: Oneworld, 1996), 48.

To Be Continued

We’ve looked at key three facts that primary source documents support. That’s all we have room for in this post. So I’ll continue with the last one and the conclusions we can make from them in my next post.

The last one’s a doozy you won’t want to miss!

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Interested in the evidence that Jesus fulfilled Old Testament promises, prophecies, & types? See my book, Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament.

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7 Tips for Interpreting Psalm 2 (and Uncovering its Hope)

Psalm 2 addresses the reality that those who want to live according to God’s word dwell among those who don’t. Some people rebel against the laws God gives to protect and bless us, and their rebellion causes suffering.

Our newspapers display the evidence daily. Terrorists murder and maim. Con artists bilk the elderly. The rich exploit the poor. Abusers scar children. Liars lock the innocent behind bars. Each of us has our own stories of wrongs perpetrated against us and our loved ones. And we know in our hearts we’ve hurt others.

When discouragement starts settling in my heart over all the icky things of this world, I turn to Psalm 2. There I find the hope of King Jesus’ return to bring all who trust in him into his kingdom forever. Sin, temptation, and anyone who rejects Jesus’ rule cannot pass its gates.

But Psalm 2 presents a few challenges on a first read-through. So here are seven tips for interpreting Psalm 2.

Tip 1: Read the Entire Psalm

Psalm 2 text

Figure 1: Psalm 2

First we need to get the big picture by reading the whole psalm at least once through. Figure 1 shows Psalm 2 with the background color changing at stanza breaks. (Click Figure 1 to open in a new tab.)

If you’re familiar with the Old Testament historical books, you’ll recognize that it’s about kings descended from King David. If you’re familiar with the New Testament’s teachings about Jesus, you’ll realize it’s also about one particular King: Jesus.

Tip 2: Identify Psalm 2’s Type

We call psalms about kings descended from David royal psalms. This one declares that God gave David’s descendants authority to rule. That makes it perfect for coronations, which was its main use for four centuries.

The New Testament applies Psalm 2 to Jesus, a descendant of David through Mary (Revelation 19:13-16). Since the psalm foretells the crowning of Jesus the Anointed One (“Messiah”), it is also a messianic psalm.

Tip 3: Look Up Unfamiliar Terms

If there are any unfamiliar words or historical references, check those out next. A study Bible with cross-references helps. My book, Discovering Hope in the Psalms, covers Psalm 2’s background in detail, showing how it applied to Solomon and his rebellious brother, to Jesus and the plotting Jewish and Gentile leaders, and to Jesus in the kingdom of heaven. So here, I’ll just briefly explain a few terms.

  • Decree: Psalm 2:7 begins, “I will tell of the decree,” and the stanza following summarizes the decree poetically. What it’s talking about is God’s promise to David in 2 Samuel 7:5-16. God decreed that King David would have a dynasty in which his “throne shall be established forever,” beginning with his son Solomon (2 Samuel 7:16; 1 Chronicles 28:6).
  • Anointed: As part of the coronation ceremony, a priest and/or prophet anointed the new king with oil, so he was called the “Lord’s anointed.” Messiah comes from the Hebrew for “anointed one” and Christ comes from the Greek for it. God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38).
  • Zion: The Davidic kings ruled from Jerusalem on Mount Zion. When applied to Jesus, Zion refers to the “heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22).
  • Son: In 2 Samuel 7:14, God decreed that he would be a father to all the kings descended from David, and they would be his sons. Some translations don’t capitalize “son” so readers catch this reference. Others capitalize “Son” to make sure readers see it also applies to Jesus, who descended from David through Mary and was also the only begotten Son of God.
  • Kiss: “Kiss the Son” in verse 12 means submit to him as ruler. Think of the way people might bow and kiss Queen Elizabeth’s hand.

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Tip 4: Identify the Participants in Psalm 2

The first two verses name all the participants: the psalmist, the Lord, the Lord’s anointed king, and the people who rebel against the Lord and his king.

Tip 5: Identify the Arrangement of Psalm 2

This is something I didn’t have room to include in the chapter on Psalm 2 in Discovering Hope in the Psalms.

It helps to identify a psalm’s arrangement by looking for related elements. Psalm 2’s arrangement is straightforward. We can divide it into five stanzas by main speaker. The psalmist is the main speaker in the first stanza. God is the main speaker in the second stanza. The king being crowned speaks in the middle. The king quotes God in the fourth stanza, making God the main speaker there, too. The psalmist is again the main speaker in the last stanza. So this is the order of the main speakers:

Psalmist / God / New King / God / Psalmist

We call this layout (A B C B’ A’) a chiasm (pronounced “KEY-azm”). If we put each speaker on a separate line and indent related stanzas equally, we get this:

Psalmist

God

New King

God

Psalmist

See how that makes it easy to compare related parts? Figure 2 summarizes Psalm 2’s stanzas in this kind of layout. I added the addressees and summarized each speech for you. Notice how easy it is to see the message flow now.

Psalm 2 Arrangement

Figure 2: Psalm 2 Arrangement

Tip 6: Identify Links in Psalm 2

Psalm 2 Links

Figure 3: How the 4 participants view God, his King & rebels

Once we discover that a psalmist arranged a psalm in a chiasm, finding links becomes easy. In a chiastic psalm, the theme is in the center. Often, stanzas equal distance from the center are linked and share elements. That’s clearly the case in Psalm 2. Look back at Figure 2 above and compare stanzas equal distance from the center (I gave them the same background color to make comparison easier).

While Figure 2 shows the main links, this psalm has so many repeated elements that I put them in a chart to make them clearer. Figure 3 compares how each speaker views God, the King, and the rebels. (Since the psalmist quotes the rebels, I list them on a separate line for clarity. Click Figure 3 to open in a new tab.)

Tip 7: Look up How the New Testament Uses the Psalm

The New Testament quotes Psalm 2 quite a bit. For example, Acts 4:24-25 says the Lord spoke this psalm through the mouth of David by the Holy Spirit. Acts 4:25-27 and 13:33 say Jesus’ crucifixion was a plot to reject Jesus’ rule, but it was in vain because God raised Jesus from the dead. Revelation 12 symbolically describes Satan initiating this plot. Revelation 19 depicts Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords in the same words as Psalm 2, and the next three chapters describe how he ends all rebellion and takes his throne in the new heavens and earth.

So how does this psalm bring me hope when I see the world has run amok? It reminds me that Jesus denies entrance into his kingdom to the unrepentant terrorists, con artists, oppressors, abusers, and liars. Their place is the lake of fire, and they can’t harm God’s children ever again. He’s resurrecting the repentant sinners into bodies that have never sinned and have never been sinned against. He’s rewarding us for all that we did of eternal worth, for no one can take from us anything of eternal value from us. He’s bringing us into his kingdom, where there will be no more mourning or sin or death. We’ll live with him forever.

This world is but a stepping stone to eternity. The kingdom of God awaits. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

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Will there be Sorrow in Heaven over Unsaved Children? Part 2

In Will there be Sorrow in Heaven over Unsaved Children? Part 1, I began to address a reader’s question about sorrow in heaven over unsaved children and I listed three approaches to it that don’t work. In this post, we’ll look at the first of three consideration that shed light on the issue.

3 Helpful Considerations About Sorrow in Heaven

The first consideration pertains just to parents of adult unsaved children, while the next two in Part 3 address knowing any unsaved loved one is in hell.

1) Blood Relationships with Saved & Unsaved Children Will Change

That the question asked about a parents’ sadness over adult unsaved children is due, perhaps, to the fact that most people view parental love as the one that mourns loss most.  On earth, there are some complicating factors that make loss of children especially difficult. Some of these complicating factors will be replaced or disappear in the afterlife, and that may lessen sadness so that it becomes more like the loss of other loved ones.

a) The Instinctual Part of the Parent-Child Bond May Cease

When I was 11, I excitedly told schoolmates on the bus that our family dog, a German shorthaired pointer named Gayleene, had puppies. Two children wanted to see the puppies, so I brought them home. I opened the front door to the smell of damp fur and milk. I beckoned them to follow. But as I rounded the corner from the short hallway into the living room, I heard a roar and froze. Gayleene half rose, the four speckled puppies attached to the front of her chest dropping loose with a sucking sound while others further back kept feeding. Her roar—a mix of a howl and deep growl—emanated from her dappled chest, pulsed through her tautly stretched neck, and reverberated out her whiskered mouth opened in an “O” just below quivering nostrils. Her chocolate ears pressed back and her brown eyes bulged wild and wide.

I put out my hand to stop the others. “This isn’t a good idea,” I whispered, and they nodded, turned, and left. I shut the door and peeked back around the corner. Gayleene had lain back down and was busy nuzzling her little ones back into place so they could feed. I gingerly approached and sat in a chair not far from her while I pondered the sudden change in her personality. She ignored me, apparently not considering me a danger.

That day I learned that female animals have a strong instinct to protect their young. Later, I learned that both male and female humans generally have such an instinct, too. The Bible calls this instinct God-given and observes that ostriches have less of it (Job 39:14-17) while she-bears are ferociously endowed (Proverb 17:12).

The Mama-bear Instinct May Cease

Sorrow in heaven over unsaved children

Detail of Book of Life in “Last Judgement” by Michelangelo (Web Gallery of Art: Public Domain, Wikimedia)

Instincts are behaviors that are innate rather than learned. In fact, the Bible likens people who act on passions alone to animals who act on instinct rather than reason (2 Peter 2:12; Jude 1:10). Thus instincts seem to be part of our physical makeup—our “flesh and blood”—rather than our minds. Since “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 15:50), I suspect that purely physical instincts that have no use in the next life will disappear with our earthly bodies.

This may include whatever is purely instinctual about the parent-child bond; for example, the mamma-bear instinct that causes parents to rush to defend their children. In humans, this protecting instinct ensures a family’s survival on earth, but such a drive is unneeded in the coming kingdom where there is no more death. If that instinct to protect our own disappears, then it would no longer drive emotions to greater heights.

b) Corruptions of Parental Love Will Cease

Although the instinctual parts of the parent-child relationship may desist, love will not, for “Love never ends” (1 Corinthians 13:8).  On the other hand, certain corruptions of parental love that increase grief on earth will cease. Fire will reveal and burn these away (1 Corinthians 3:12-15):

  • The pursuit of immortality through offspring that causes the loss of an only child to also be the loss of preserving one’s memory
  • The pursuit of self-worth through being needed that results in loss of purpose when children leave or die
  • The idolizing of children that may result in abandoning God if family expectations aren’t met (Matthew 10:38)

c) A Sibling Relationship Will Replace the Parent-Child Relationship

Jesus considered blood ties to have less significance than spiritual ties (Matthew 10:37; 12:49-50). This particularly makes sense when we consider that in the kingdom of heaven our family relationships actually change, especially the parent-child relationship, because God adopts those who are born again (Romans 8:23). When someone adopts a child, her parental ties to the birth parent end.

In the kingdom of heaven, everyone will be a child of God the Father, and the earthly parent-child relationship will become a heavenly sibling relationship.

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Will There Be Sorrow in Heaven over Unsaved Children? Part 1

A reader asks about sorrow in heaven over unsaved children:

If we who are in Heaven have memory of our life back on earth, how can there be no mourning from parents who may not see their children in Heaven? But if our children are not with us in Heaven that would be a painful reminder that seems to interfere with Revelation 21:4.
Steve

The Problem of Sorrow in Heaven

This is a great question, Steve. I assume your question is about adult children since most theologians think young children are saved, as Dr. Clay Jones argues in Why Does God Allow Evil?: “Although Christians differ about whether all children will be saved, many of them, including apologists such as Norman Geisler, William Lane Craig, and Greg Koukl, have argued that all who die before the age of accountability (see Deuteronomy 1:39) will be saved” (2017: 90).

Revelation 21:4 says, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” How can there be no more mourning or crying if Christian parents in heaven remember beloved unsaved adult children?

God’s Heart on Sorrow in Heaven

Let me begin with a story. One evening our foster daughters’ rebellion discouraged my husband and me greatly. We’d poured our lives into them, we’d done everything we knew to help them, we’d sacrificed for them, but they weren’t leaving destructive ways. So my husband went walking on the hill next to our house among the frames of partially constructed homes so he could pray. With tears in his eyes, he asked, “Lord, what if these girls never come to know you?” Immediately, the words came to mind: “Then you will know the fellowship of my suffering” (Philippians 3:10). At that, we understood better what it is like for God to love those who reject him. That helped immensely.

When we talk about sorrow in heaven over lost loved ones, it’s important to remember God’s heart. He desires all to be saved (Ezekiel 18:23; 1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9). Jesus grieved over the lost (Matthew 23:37; Luke 19:41). He told us, “there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10). The Bible describes Jesus as “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” which assures us that “as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too” (Isaiah 53:3; 2 Corinthians 1:5). He shares our sorrow over lost loved ones.

3 Common But Unworkable Approaches to Sorrow in Heaven

Sorrow in Heaven depicted in Last Judgement

“Last Judgment” by Michelangelo (Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Here are three common approaches to this problem.

Sorrow in Heaven Approach 1: Universalism

Some argue like this: Perfect joy in heaven cannot exist if loved ones reside in hell; the Bible says there will be perfect joy in heaven; therefore, everyone must go to heaven. But universalism contradicts Jesus’ teaching about eternal punishment (Matthew 25:46) and about salvation coming only through him (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).

Sorrow in Heaven Approach 2: Memory Loss

This argument also contends that we cannot have perfect joy in heaven if loved ones are in hell, but resolves the problem by saying we won’t remember our earthly lives or even that we had children. But what would it mean for Jacob to be “gathered to his people” if he doesn’t know who “his people” are (Genesis 49:33)? Also, how can the deeds of the saved follow them (Revelation 14:13) if they don’t remember those deeds? To remember Corrie ten Boom’s faithfulness in the face of the Holocaust requires remembering the evil of the Holocaust, too.

Sorrow in Heaven Approach 3: Beatific Vision

The saved shall see God face-to-face and know him fully (1 Corinthians 13:4). We call this seeing and knowing the “beatific vision.” Particularly during the middle ages, many believed that in heaven the saved gaze and contemplate on God eternally. They’re so filled with joy that they’re unconcerned with anything else, including the lost. But Revelation 6:9-10 says “the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God” cried out, “how long before you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on earth?” Also, in Jesus’ parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), the rich man is in Hades, yet Abraham knows his history and talked to him over a chasm.

There you have three common approaches that don’t work. In Part 2 and Part 3, I’ll cover three considerations about sorrow in heaven that do work. Part 2 addresses just the issue of parents knowing adult children are in hell. Part 3 addresses any unsaved loved ones.

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Questions about the Women at the Resurrection

Questions: Why did Mary Magdalene ask where Jesus’ body was when earlier an angel told her Jesus had arisen? Why do the gospel accounts differ as to which women went to the tomb and which saw Jesus alive?

Several questions arose in my church’s women’s Bible study about differences between the gospel accounts regarding the women at the resurrection who saw the empty tomb and witnessed Jesus alive.

Why did Mary Magdalene ask the man she thought was a gardener where Jesus’ body was (John 20:15) when earlier an angel had told her Jesus had arisen (Mark 16:6)?

When we read that the angel told Mary and the other women that Jesus had arisen, we know what the angel meant: Jesus had risen from the dead and was alive. But Mary didn’t know that.

Questions about Magdalene and women at the resurrection

“The Mourning Mary Magdalene” by Colijn de Coter (1493-1506)

When Jesus told the apostles he was going to die and rise again, they didn’t understand what he meant (John 16:17, 20:9). When the angel told Mary and her friends that Jesus had risen, she likewise didn’t know what he meant, perhaps thinking he spoke of Jesus’ soul. She remained intent on finding Jesus’ body so she could properly anoint it with spices.

Why do the gospel accounts differ about which women went to the tomb?

Matthew tells us of Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James the younger—one of the apostles—going to the tomb (Matthew 28:1); Mark mentions the two Marys and Salome (Mark 16:1); Luke describes the two Marys, Joanna, and other women (Luke 24:10); and John speaks only of Mary Magdalene (John 20:1).

We’ve all experienced recounting something that happened to us only to see our listener’s eyes drift towards an exit, and none of us likes that. So when we relate events, we choose important details and often mention just people our listeners know.

For instance, Clay and I told my father-in-law that while traveling with Craig Hazen (whom he knows), we met the pastor of his church. We didn’t mention we were also traveling with J. P. Moreland because my father-in-law doesn’t know him.

That’s the way we all tell the stories of our lives. We can’t give every detail: life’s too short. When writing, we trim down to what we think will make our point without overwhelming our readers with non-essentials that wouldn’t interest them. And that’s what the gospel writers did. They picked what they considered the most important details and mentioned the people their readers knew. All mentioned Mary Magdalene, who was a wealthy, well-known leader of the women who had ministered to Jesus and who had the honor of being the first to see the risen Lord.

In John’s case, he tells us he wrote of the miraculous signs Jesus did in the presence of his disciples (John 20:30), so one of the reasons he may have told of only Mary Magdalene’s experience, and not those of the other women, is he was sharing what he directly experienced: Mary came directly to him and Peter when she returned from the empty tomb, he and Peter then ran to the tomb and when John came out, he saw Mary standing outside weeping.

Why do the gospel accounts differ as to which women saw Jesus alive?

Matthew tells us of Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James the younger seeing Jesus (Matthew 28:9), while Mark and John tell us Mary Magdalene was the first to see Jesus alive (Mark 16:9, John 20:15-18).

Mary Magdalene was the first to see Jesus alive, and the other Mary joined them later. The gospel writers chose to emphasize different encounters. All describe Jesus appearing to the eleven remaining disciples, and some describe additional encounters.

Other New Testament books tell us Jesus appeared to more than 500 people, including Jesus’ brother James, Joseph called Barsabbas, Matthias, and Paul (Acts 1:21-23, 1 Corinthians 15:4-8). Most of the people are unnamed, and only a few of the encounters are described.

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. ~John 21:25

 

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An Easter Poem

I wrote this poem in celebration of Easter and all Jesus accomplished through his life, death, and resurrection. May you be blessed in this remembrance of Jesus Christ, the resurrected King.

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“The Resurrection” ~ woodcut by Dore

He came to us having counted the cost—
Teller of parables, seeker of lost.
Ears do we need to hear words he does teach,
Deep into hearts must his truths fully reach.

Calmed he the storm and on water he walked;
Crowds gathered ‘round him whenever he talked.
Food he did multiply, crowds so to feed;
Man among tombstones from demons he freed.

He called to life little girl who was dead;
Drink is his blood and his body is bread.
He said, “Deny self: a cross you must bear,
I came from heaven and God’s words I share.

My words obey and of death you’ll not see;
God is my Father: he glorifies me.
I’m resurrection and life—do believe
So of eternal life you can receive.”

He proved his words and his might did amaze,
When he raised Lazarus dead for four days.
Donkey he then to Jerusalem rode;
Shouts of “Hosanna!” on him crowds bestowed.

Passover shared he with followers dear,
Knowing the time for his great work was near.
“I to my Father’s house go to prepare
Room for you,” he said, “for I’ll take you there.

I am the way and the truth and the life;
Peace I give you, but the world gives you strife.”
Then to Gethsemane walked they to pray;
“Father, not my will but yours,” did he say.

Soon his betrayer on cheek gave a kiss;
Now the disciples fled—all was amiss.
High priest condemned him and said he must die:
“Blasphemy!” claimed he, “not Son of God high!”

Peter denied him and rooster did crow;
And unto Pilate did Jesus then go.
He bore their mocking while his back was torn,
Scourged was he, beaten, and crowned with sharp thorn.

Soldiers then crucified him on a cross,
Nailing his wrists and his feet—such blood loss!
Lifted on high for onlookers to see
Mockers threw insults: “Won’t God rescue thee?”

Sun hid its face from the land all around
Passover Lamb’s blood from cross dripped to ground.
Cried he, “My God, my God, why are you gone?”
“Will he be saved?” shouted those who looked on.

Burst from his lips, “It is finished”—and then
Died he, and sun gave its light back to men.
Earth did then quake, temple veil was torn
For by his death, he our sins had now borne.

Spear pierced his side and from wound now did spill
Water and blood onto Calvary’s hill.
Followers laid his cold body in tomb
Mourned they and wept, crying, “Why came this doom?”

Dark were their hearts as they struggled to see—
Till came the first rays of dawn on day three.
Angels did roll from the grave the large stone;
There lay the grave clothes, but no body prone!

He had arisen: him death could not hold;
Came he to Mary, who now was consoled.
Peter then saw him, and five hundred plus;
Said he, “For witnesses you’ve been called thus.”

Finally heavenward he did ascend;
There he abides till he comes in the end,
Gathering all to him who do believe,
That of eternity they may receive,

Living and loving with Savior and Friend,
Who conquered death that their life would not end.
Lamb who was dead, but who now lives above,
Died he to save us, so great was his love.

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