What It&#39;s All About

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This is the main event. This is what it's all about. This is why we're here. Christians do not believe that Jesus was merely resuscitated after what we might call a “near death experience” only to die again another day. Nor do Christians believe that Jesus simply lived on in the memory of his followers, who continue to draw inspiration from his life and his teaching. Rather, Christians believe that Jesus died and was raised with a new physical body and entered into a whole new mode of existence. This is what it's all about.

The problem is that people from the first century right on down to the 21st have struggled to believe it because we all know that dead people stay dead. But the fact that the dead do not normally rise again is actually not an argument against the Christian claim; that's part of the claim itself. Christians believe that what happened to Jesus was unique, and that is why Christians worship Jesus as God.

The Apostle Paul perhaps put it best when he said that if Jesus has not been raised, Christians are of all people most to be pitied. If Jesus hasn't been raised, it means that our faith is all in vain. We're still trapped in our sins, and even worse, it suggests that we are guilty of misrepresenting God because we're claiming that God did something that he apparently didn't, if he didn't raise Jesus from the dead. So the real question is can we believe it, and what difference does it make? This is the hinge upon which Christianity turns. If you take the resurrection out of Christianity, the whole thing falls apart, and let's face it, I've gotta get a new job. So let's consider if we can believe it and the difference it makes. Here's what I'd like to do. I would like to give you: 1) Three facts to inform your mind, 2) Three details to encourage your heart, and 3) One story to inspire your imagination.

¹Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. ²So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” ³So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. ⁴Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. ⁶Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, ⁷and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. ⁸Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; ⁹for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. ¹⁰Then the disciples went back to their homes.

¹¹But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. ¹²And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. ¹³They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” ¹⁴Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” ¹⁶Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). ¹⁷Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” ¹⁸Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.

John 20:1-18

Three Facts to Inform Your Mind

First, let me give you three facts to inform your mind. Let's start with what we can know for certain. Even the most skeptical of scholars would agree that these three facts are historically secure: 1) Jesus really did die, 2) The tomb really was empty, and 3) The earliest Christians really did believe that they saw the risen Jesus.

Jesus Really Did Die

Now, some have suggested that perhaps Jesus didn't actually die on the cross. Maybe he merely fainted, and then he revived after he was laid in the cool of the tomb, and then he left of his own accord. But there are a few problems with that.

Let's remember that, number one, a man named Joseph of Arimathea requested to be able to take the body of Jesus down from the cross, from Governor Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate did not give permission to remove the body of Jesus until he confirmed with the centurion that Jesus was actually dead. The Roman soldiers were trained executioners. They certainly would've known whether they had gotten the job done or not. Then finally, when Pontius Pilate did give permission for the body to be taken down from the cross, he made sure that the tomb was sealed by Roman guards who would've faced the death penalty themselves if they failed in their duty.

So personally, I find it much harder to believe that after being beaten, flogged, tortured, and crucified, Jesus survived 36 hours in a cold, dark tomb without food, water, a blanket, or medical attention, and then revived with sufficient strength not only to remove the boulder that sealed the tomb but also to escape detection by the guards and then convince his followers, not that he had been beaten within an inch of his life, but that he had conquered death itself. Talk about a conspiracy theory. I think that the very best historical argument is that Jesus really was dead.

The Tomb Really Was Empty

All the earliest accounts that we have of Jesus' life and death tell us that there was a group of women, which included Mary Magdalene, who watched Jesus die, and then they saw where Jesus was laid in the tomb. They are the ones who go to the same tomb early in the morning on the first day of the week after the Sabbath had passed, not expecting to find a risen Jesus, but expecting to find a very dead Jesus in need of a proper burial. But when they arrive at the tomb, the body is not there. The tomb is empty.

Now, some people have suggested perhaps they went to the wrong tomb, but that's very unlikely because these women saw where Jesus had been laid, and the tomb was sealed by guards. Others have suggested that perhaps the most logical explanation is that the Romans did not allow Jesus to have a proper burial, and therefore they simply discarded Jesus' body or allowed it to be eaten by dogs. But there is one serious problem with that, which is that all the authorities would have had to have done in order to discredit the early Christian movement is to say that that's what they did — that they didn't allow a proper burial, and here's where they dumped the body. But no one ever did. To the contrary, the first century Jewish historian Josephus wrote that the Romans allowed the people to keep their local customs, including burying their dead. So it's very unlikely that Jesus' body was simply discarded or eaten by animals.

The only counterargument that was offered by the critics of Christianity at the very beginning was that perhaps Jesus' disciples had stolen the body. But that would mean that the earliest followers of Jesus knew that they were participating in a lie, and that is virtually impossible because all but one of the original apostles died for their faith. How many people do you know that will die for a lie? Many people will die for something they mistakenly believe to be true, even if it's not. No one will die for something that they certainly know is false. There's a very big difference between martyrs and liars.

So what we're left with is that the tomb really was empty, and I find it intriguing that, unlike the founders of many other religious movements, there's no record of Jesus' followers venerating his tomb or turning it into a shrine. Why? They didn't bother because they knew that Jesus wasn't there.

The Earliest Christians Really Did Believe That They Saw the Risen Jesus

So number one: Jesus really did die. Number two: The tomb really was empty. And number three: The earliest Christians really did believe that they saw the risen Jesus. Now, you don't have to believe it, but you have to understand that they believed it. They believed that they saw the risen Jesus. And how do you account for that? How do you account for the belief in the resurrection of Jesus that sprung up suddenly overnight and then spread throughout the Mediterranean world like wildfire?

Where did this belief come from? Some argue that perhaps the followers of Jesus just experienced hallucinations. But do large groups of people experience the same hallucination at different times over the span of 40 days? The Gospels tell us that Jesus appeared to his followers on at least 10 different occasions — to different people, in different locations, under different circumstances, and in different states of mind. Sometimes Jesus appeared to individuals. Sometimes, to small groups. At one point he appeared to 500 people at the same time, all of whom were known to the community and who could have been interviewed.

And it's noteworthy that these visions of Jesus stopped as abruptly as they started. They were limited to a particular period of time. And these people certainly didn't think that they were hallucinating. We need to give ancient people a little credit. Ancient people knew about ghosts, and they knew that sometimes people had visions of loved ones whom they had lost. But even if these visions occurred on a somewhat regular basis, the person having them knew that the body of their loved one was in the tomb, and that this must just be a vision or a ghost. But when it came to Jesus, that wasn't the case. His body wasn't in the tomb, and they didn't think that they were talking to a ghost, because they could hold his body. Do you see in this passage from John, Mary clings to Jesus. They could touch his body. They could see the marks of his wounds. They not only watch him cook but eat breakfast. I don't know about you, but I don't know ghosts that do that.

Now these three facts on their own don't mean a whole lot, but taken together, they provide a compelling argument for why the belief in the resurrection suddenly sprung up and spread throughout the Mediterranean world. So how do you account for that, especially when no one was expecting a resurrection and there is no precedent for it?

The biblical scholar who will be joining us next week, N.T. Wright, has argued that no one from either a Greek or a Judean background would've expected anything like the resurrection of one single individual in the middle of history. The ancient Greeks were dualists, meaning that they prized the soul over the body. So the idea of a person being resurrected with a new physical body to a Greek would be considered a curse, not a blessing. And it's true that there were some people from a Jewish background — some, but not all — who believed in a general resurrection of all of God's people at the end of time when God would eradicate all sin, evil, and injustice and make the world new. But no one was expecting the idea of one single individual being raised to new life while the world continues to spin. If you said to a Jewish person “A single person has been raised in the middle of time,” they would say, “What are you talking about? How could the resurrection have taken place if there's still so much sickness and sorrow and suffering and pain and death?” It wouldn't have made any sense.

So how do you account for the sudden emergence of belief in the resurrection without any expectation for it or any precedent? If you reject the belief in the resurrection, then the onus is on you to come up with a historically plausible alternative explanation for the rise of the early Christian movement. So you need to take these three facts and let them inform your mind. They are about as historically secure as anything else we know from the ancient world.

At this point, many people might say, “Well, I don't know how to explain the facts. All I know is resurrections don't happen.” That's fine. I understand. I get it. And actually, I appreciate that. Because you know what? You can't argue anybody into believing. So in addition to these three facts to inform your mind, let me also give you three little details to encourage your heart.

Three Details to Encourage Your Heart

Let me show you three little details in this gospel passage that may at least lead you to think again. Those three little details are: 1) The attestation of Mary, 2) The condition of the grave clothes, and 3) The transformation of the disciples.

The Attestation of Mary

The attestation of Mary refers to the witness, the testimony of Mary. All the Gospels tell us that women — and Mary in particular — were the first eyewitnesses of the empty tomb and the risen Jesus. Now, what's striking about that is that almost every scholar will tell you that in the first century, women were not allowed to give testimony in a court of law. They weren't allowed to serve as witnesses because they were considered to be too credulous, too emotional. They weren't trustworthy.

Now, consider that background. If that was what ancient first century society was like, then you can imagine that the Gospel writers must have been under enormous pressure to change this one little detail. “Maybe we should make one of the male disciples the first witness of the empty tomb or the risen Jesus, because that will make our story sound more credible, more plausible to our contemporary readers.” But the fact that no one did that, the fact that all four Gospels insist that Mary was the first witness of the empty tomb and that she was the first one to meet Jesus, suggests that these accounts are not invented. They couldn't have been made up.

The Condition of the Grave Clothes

Then secondly, consider the condition of the grave clothes. When Mary first arrives at the tomb, she looks and she sees the tomb is empty. And so then she immediately runs back to the disciples to tell them that someone must have taken the body of Jesus. Then Peter and John (also known as the disciple whom Jesus loved) raced back to the tomb. And when Peter stoops and looks in, he doesn't see the body, but he does see the grave clothes.

Now think about that. That would be really strange. Why would you leave the grave clothes behind if you were going to steal the body? Not only does he see the grave clothes, he's struck by the condition of the grave clothes. In other words, the grave clothes have not been unfurled, but actually they're all still intact. He can see the grave clothes that had been wrapped around Jesus' body, and then there's a gap where Jesus' neck would've been, and then there were the grave clothes that were wrapped around his head. We’re told that they were folded in one place. Literally the word means they were all twirled up.

Do you realize what Peter saw? It wasn't as if Jesus unwrapped the grave clothes from around him, but rather his body passed through the grave clothes leaving them intact, almost like a butterfly emerging out of its chrysalis without doing any damage to the chrysalis itself. And that's why, when John comes and looks into the tomb and sees the condition of the grave clothes, that's all it took. He sees, and he believes. Now he understands what happened. He must have been resurrected.

The Transformation of the Disciples

So consider the attestation of Mary, consider the condition of the grave clothes, but then finally consider the transformation of the disciples. People often say it's the winners who write history, but if that were true, when it comes to the Gospels, you would think that the Gospel writers would've tried to make the disciples look good. But that's not the case. As we read through the Gospels, consistently the disciples come across very poorly. They never understand what Jesus is talking about. They don't have any faith. They're constantly confused, and they're consistently jockeying for position. And even here, on that first resurrection day, do you notice that when Mary tells Peter and John that Jesus isn't in the tomb, they race to the tomb. They try to get there first. They want to see who can get there first. Who's the first? Who's the best? They're still competing with one another.

Before Jesus' resurrection, the disciples are constantly letting Jesus down. After the resurrection, they are completely changed. Now, of course it's possible that they made it all up. But if so, not one, not a single one ever broke down and said it was all a lie. Now I'm with Blaise Pascal who once said, “I believe those witnesses who get their throats cut.” Those are the people you can trust. And so if the resurrection didn't happen, then how do you explain the transformation in the disciples’ lives and character and behavior? Something must have happened. If it wasn't a resurrection, something must have happened of equal force and intensifying electricity. Something must have happened in order to transform their fear into courage and their doubt into faith. How do you account for this?

So pay attention to these three little details. Let them encourage your heart. Of course, I can't prove the resurrection happened, but I can provide you with good reasons for believing it. And the reason why this matters is because we're not just talking about the random resurrection of one single person 2000 years ago. No, this has implications for us, because all four Gospels emphasize that the resurrection took place on the first day of the week. And this is a deliberate echo of Genesis 1. We're meant to understand that the resurrection of Jesus represents the first day in the New Creation. God has promised to do for us at the end of history what he did for Jesus in the middle of history. For those who are united to Jesus by faith, God has promised that he will raise us up with new physical bodies to enjoy life in a new physical world.

Now even if you can't accept that, you should want it to be true. And I want to help you see that by telling you one story to inspire your imagination.

One Story to Inspire Your Imagination

The author G.B. Shaw once wrote, “Heaven, as conventionally conceived, is a place so inane, so dull, so useless, so miserable, that nobody has ever ventured to describe a whole day in heaven, though plenty of people have described a day at the seashore.” He's claiming that the life that God has promised in the future is boring — not even worth writing about. But that's not true. Many people have.

So let me tell you one story — a short story written by J.R.R. Tolkien, published in 1947, which is somewhat autobiographical. It describes his own inner struggle as he's trying to finish his saga, “The Lord of the Rings.” And this short story is called “Leaf by Niggle.”

The story is about a man named Niggle who is a painter, but he's not a very successful one. Part of the problem is that he is prone to worry and procrastination. He is never satisfied with his work. He can always imagine ways that it could be different or it could be better. And then on top of that, he spends most of his time focusing on small, insignificant, unimportant details, and he loses sight of the big picture. The word “niggle” actually means to be overly concerned with petty, unimportant things.

Well, the problem is that Niggle is about to go on a long journey, and that long journey means death. He knows that this trip is coming, but he's not ready. And the reason why he's not ready is because he hasn't completed his life's work. He's dedicated himself to painting a painting of a beautiful tree — an enormous tree with forests and mountains in the background. The canvas is so large he has to use a ladder to get to the very top. He just wants to finish this painting before going on his trip. But there are two primary things that stand in his way and prevent him from getting anything done.

One problem is Tolkien describes him as the kind of painter who is good at painting leaves but not trees. He was really good at obsessing over getting that one leaf right, and it took up all of his time, and it made it almost impossible to finish the whole composition.

The second problem that stood in his way is that he was kindhearted, but he was kindhearted in a particular way. Other people's problems were more likely to make him feel uncomfortable than to make him feel like he should do anything about it. So sometimes he would help other people, but it was always an annoyance to him. He saw it as an interruption that kept him from pursuing his work. And even when he did help other people, it didn't prevent him from grumbling and complaining and losing his temper and even swearing at himself.

The biggest problem was his next door neighbor, Mr. Parish, who frequently made requests of him. And he found Parish to be especially annoying because Parish didn't appreciate him, he didn't appreciate his gifts, he didn't appreciate his work, but he was always asking for help. Begrudgingly, one day he sets his work aside and rides his bicycle out in the cold rain in order to fetch a doctor for Parish's wife who's fallen sick. But as a result, you know what happens? He catches a fever and dies.

So after Niggle dies, people take possession of his home, which they had always wanted, and they ridicule him for never focusing on the important things in life. But there was at least one person who lived nearby who just happened to find a little piece of the canvas that he'd been working on. It had been ripped off the corner, and it had blown away in the wind and landed in the field. And this little piece of canvas just depicted one beautiful leaf by Niggle. That was it; just one leaf. He admired it, and so they put it up in the Town Museum, and that's what they called it: “Leaf” by Niggle. But only a few people noticed it or cared, and then afterward, it was completely forgotten.

Meanwhile, Niggle is taking his long journey to the heavenly country by train. And when he arrives, he gets out of the train, and to his surprise, he finds his bicycle — his own bicycle with his name on it. And so he hops on the bicycle and he rides downhill in the spring sunshine. But then something catches his eye. It seems strangely familiar. A sweep of grass. The curve in the landscape. And then he sees it, and he is shocked. He falls off his bicycle, and he looks up and he sees it: his tree. It's his tree, but now it's full. It's complete. It's not missing a single detail. And it's real. Somehow his tree has made it into the New Creation.

He went on looking at the Tree. All the leaves he had ever laboured at were there, as he had imagined them rather than as he had made them; and there were others that had only budded in his mind, and many that might have budded, if only he had had time. Nothing was written on them, they were just exquisite leaves, yet they were dated as clear as a calendar. Some of the most beautiful – and the most characteristic, the most perfect examples of the Niggle style – were seen to have been produced in collaboration with Mr. Parish: there was no other way of putting it.

Now, why do I share this story? Well, I share this story because sometimes, like in math and science, we have to use our imagination to grasp the truth. And you see, Tolkien wrote this story because this story wouldn't be possible, this story wouldn't happen unless Jesus was raised from the dead. And this is why you should want it to be true. You see, if Jesus has been raised from the dead, it means that there is forgiveness for the past, there is hope for the future, and there is meaning in the present.

See, first of all, if Jesus has been raised, it means that there's forgiveness for the past. At one point, Tolkien describes the condition of Niggle's heart. He says his heart was in the right place, but it didn't function properly. And isn't that true of all of us? Our heart might be in the right place, but it doesn't function properly. We don't love people in the right way and at the right times. But the beauty of it is that as Niggle makes his journey to the heavenly country, he's forgiven. He's forgiven for all those past mistakes and failures. As he's making that journey, he's filled with all these regrets, and he thinks about how he should have been a better friend. He should have been a better friend to Parish and his wife. He meant to, but he never got around to it. And yet he is not only forgiven for those past sins, but he's also reconciled to Parish. Parish arrives in the heavenly country, and not only are they reconciled in their relationship together, but now they work together in the New Creation, and the best leaves on that tree — the ones that are truest to the Niggle style — are the ones made in collaboration with Mr. Parish.

And isn't that what we all want? We all know that our hearts might be in the right place, but they don't function properly. And we've all done things that we know that we can't change, we can't take back, we can't undo. And you see, if Jesus has not been raised, well then he’s a human being like the rest of us, and he can't do anything about our sin. But if Jesus has been raised, then it means that it vindicates the claims that he made about himself — that he really is the Son of God who takes away the sins of the world, and therefore we can be forgiven, and we can not only be reconciled in relationship to God, but we can also be reconciled in relationship to one another. And that is what we most want.

Our love relationships form the very core of our identity, and the one thing that we can't stand to think about is the thought of being forever separated from the ones that we love and to remain unreconciled to them. But you see, the promise of the New Creation is that those who cling to Jesus in faith need not be separated from the ones we love. And we will not just meet again as immaterial spirits. No, we'll be raised with new physical bodies, which means we will be reunited with one another's faces and voices and bodies. We will see that smile, we'll hear that laugh, we'll feel that embrace. This is not the end.

So if Jesus has been raised, it means that there's forgiveness for the past. It also means that there is hope for the future. Tolkien was right. God's goal is not to remove us from this world; God's goal is to renew this world. He's not going to just throw this world out and start all over again. No, he's going to make this world new. So the New Creation is not a consolation prize for a world that we once lost, but it's this world renewed.

Here's what I find, then, so fascinating about Tolkien's vision of that ultimate future. He's right. Many times we devote ourselves to things. We pour our whole heart and soul into them. Raising a family, starting a company, fighting for justice, writing a book, leading a church. We throw ourselves into all kinds of things, but we never get around to doing everything that we had hoped, and nothing ever quite meets our expectations. There's always something that eludes us. There's always something that falls short of our dreams, and so many projects remain unfinished. But what we're being told here is that perhaps in the New Creation, not only will we accomplish all that we imagined, but we'll accomplish all that we would have imagined if we'd only had more time.

And you see, that's why the resurrection not only gives us forgiveness for the past and hope for the future but also meaning for the present. If Jesus has been raised, it means that this world is not the end. This world, this life, it's just the beginning. This is just the cover and the title page before the real adventure begins.

In the old world, before Niggle's death, very few people recognized him or appreciated his work. It was soon forgotten. But in the new world, his work becomes part of the permanent real world that can be enjoyed forever, and that is so true to the gospel message. What the Gospels tell us is that if Jesus really has been raised from the dead, then everything we do now in service to Jesus somehow, some way, will find its way into the New Creation. Nothing will be lost. Nothing will be wasted. Everything matters. Everything counts. And that's why the Apostle Paul ends his magisterial chapter on the resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15, by saying, “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” Everything we do now in service to Jesus somehow, some way, beyond our wildest dreams, will find its way into the New Creation.

So consider those three facts. Let them inform your mind. Consider those three little details. Let them encourage your heart. And consider this one story, and let it inspire your imagination. Do you want to be forgiven for the past? Do you want hope for the future? Do you want meaning in the present? This is where you get it. And you can't get this anywhere else. Christ is risen!

Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for this resurrection Sunday as we consider the fact that Jesus really was dead, the tomb really was empty, and the earliest Christians really did believe that they saw the risen Jesus. And though it may be hard for us to accept, let us consider the witness of Mary, the condition of the grave clothes, and the absolute transformation of the disciples, and let that fire up our imagination to consider the real possibility that Jesus was raised, and therefore he will make all things new. And we can be a part of it, beginning now. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

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