Maybe you or someone you love are not sure that the resurrection really happened. Maybe you believe that the resurrection is just a myth. If that's you, you’re in good company. Lots of people ask, “Why should 21st century people believe in the resurrection of Jesus?”
Let’s just be careful of what Christian writer C.S. Lewis called “chronological snobbery.” It's easy for us to think we’re smarter than the people that lived in the ancient world. So, we’re skeptical about a bodily resurrection while believing that those ancient people were more likely to believe a fairy tale. They were gullible; we’re not!
But think about it: Not even one of the followers of Jesus was expecting the resurrection. The women went to the tomb with spices to anoint a dead body. And when the women came back and said He was alive, the men thought they were nuts. The idea of a person being resurrected was inconceivable to 1st century people, just like it is to us.
So, why do we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ each spring?
1) An empty tomb. No one would have believed these stories for a minute if the tomb wasn’t empty. If the tomb wasn’t empty, the enemies of Christianity could have easily produced the rotting corpse of Jesus. That would have stopped the faith. But they didn’t produce the dead body because they couldn’t.
2) Eyewitnesses. Only 15-20 years after the life of Jesus here on earth, one of His followers named Paul wrote these words: Christ died for our sins…He was buried… He was raised on the third day… He appeared to [Peter], then to the twelve. Then He appeared to more than five hundred… at one time, most of whom are still alive (I Corinthians 15:3-6, ESV).
This was in a public letter that was read out loud. And an invitation was clear. Anyone living at that time who doubted that Jesus had risen could go and check it out. Take a trip and stand face-to-face with not just one or two people, but with eyewitness after eyewitness after eyewitness. 500 of them. That’s about the number of people on the main level of the auditorium of Cuyahoga Valley Church in Cleveland. 1 or 2 people? Maybe it’s a hallucination. 500? I don’t think so.
As Tim Keller writes in his book The Reason for God, "If there had been only an empty tomb and no eyewitnesses, no one would have said there was a resurrection. People would have assumed that the body was stolen. If there had only been eyewitnesses and no empty tomb, no one would have said it was a resurrection. People would have assumed that the so-called eyewitnesses were hallucinating," doing the wishful-thinking-thing. But there were eyewitnesses and there was an empty tomb.
3) Transformed lives. The followers of Jesus just kept on telling others over and over what they had seen. They were transformed. Before the resurrection, they were cowards, hiding out and hoping that they wouldn’t suffer the same fate as Jesus. They didn’t want to die on a cross, too. But after the resurrection, they stopped mourning the loss of their dead leader; they stopped hiding; they started telling everybody about Somebody who rose from the dead.
4) Disciples who were willing to die. Most of the followers of Jesus were persecuted and killed because of their faith. People don’t die for a lie. One man said, “I believe those witnesses that get their throats cut.” It’s really hard to believe that these people would sacrifice their lives for a hoax.
5) The birth of the church that was led by (are you ready for this?) a bunch of Jews. Jewish people who had always worshipped on the Sabbath [that's Friday evening through Saturday afternoon] started worshipping on Sundays. Why? Jesus rose on the first day of the week. And these Jewish people who had always believed that there was only one God started worshipping Jesus. Why? Jesus had risen from the dead! They began to understand that this one God they had been worshipping has revealed Himself as God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ!), and God the Spirit. And the early church chose to celebrate the resurrected Jesus on the first day of the week. That's truly momentous!
Take any one of these reasons to believe in the resurrection and the evidence might seem underwhelming. But add them together? That Jesus rose from the dead seems to be by far the most reasonable explanation of the facts of history.
And again, as Keller writes, "Even if you don’t believe in the resurrection, you should want it to be true." Why? The resurrection gives meaning to our suffering and hope for our future.
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Why not test yourself and your family on these truths? That way, if you ever get into a conversation with someone about the veracity of our faith, you'll have some ammunition to fulfill I Peter 3:15.
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