Why I Believe in the Resurrection

I grew up in the church, even went to a private Christian school for several years, but sometime around my freshman year in high school I began to ask a lot of questions about my faith.  Since then I’ve actually never been able to quite turn the questions off.  They just keep coming.  I’ve never been comfortable with blind faith.  It’s like my mind needs to give my heart permission to believe.  I’ve also never been comfortable with groupthink.  I find it helpful, beneficial even, to question the status quo and push on things a bit…even when it makes others uncomfortable.  So there I was as a freshman, and I was really struggling with validity of the resurrection.  Why should I, or anyone for that matter, believe that Jesus actually rose from the dead?  I wrestled with that question for several years and eventually landed on an answer, but I remember being really frustrated at certain times.  Every Easter I’d attend church with my family hoping that the speaker would give some reasons for believing this wild claim actually happened, and no speaker ever did.  They just assumed it happened, and then blabbed on about its significance. 

So if you are anywhere near where I was, if you need some reasons to anchor your faith this Easter, here are some of my reasons for believing in Jesus’ resurrection:

1).  The empty tomb.

No one actually disputes the claim of the empty tomb.  This is primarily due to the fact that the disciples could not have preached that Jesus rose from the dead if the tomb was not empty.  If someone wanted to prove the disciples wrong (and many did), all they had to do was point to the tomb with Jesus’ body inside.  But no one ever did.  In fact, even the first century Jews inadvertently admitted that the tomb was empty by accusing the disciples of stealing Jesus’ body (Matt. 28:13).  Moreover, the empty tomb is attested to and confirmed by numerous early sources.  Not only are there no known sources denying the empty tomb, but we have 5 independent & primary sources (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, & Paul) and 11 secondary sources from the 1^st century that either explicitly refer to or presuppose the truth of Jesus’ resurrection—that’s 16 first century sources—some of which can be dated to within 20 years of the resurrection itself!  This is why few scholars, even those who don’t believe in the resurrection, argue that the tomb wasn’t empty.  Few dispute the claim. 

2).  The post-resurrection appearances. 

Jesus proved he had risen from the dead by appearing in post-resurrection form.  When you put all of our primary sources from the NT together—the four gospels and Paul in 1 Corinthians 15—you end up with 12 different people or groups of people that experienced a post-resurrection encounter with Jesus.  You’ve got Paul’s story 3x in the book of Acts and in 1 Cor. 15:7.  You’ve got Mary Magdalene in John 20:11.  You’ve got the “other women” with Mary Magdalene in Matthew 28:9-10.  You’ve got Peter in Luke 23:34.  You’ve got two unnamed disciples in Luke 24:13-32.  You’ve got Thomas and the other disciples in John 20:26-30.  You’ve got seven apostles listed in John 21.  You’ve got all the Apostles present in Matthew 28:16-20 and Acts 1:4-9.  You’ve got 500 people mentioned in 1 Cor. 15:6.  You’ve got James, the brother of Jesus listed in 1 Cor. 15:7.  Lastly, you’ve got 10 apostles mentioned again in Luke 24:33-49.  And some of these are particularly noteworthy.  Take Paul.  Before Paul was the leading missionary in the NT church, he was the leading persecutor of the NT church.  And the single greatest event that brought about this transformation in Paul was his personal encounter with Jesus in post-resurrection form.  Consider James, the brother of Jesus.  He seemed rather hostile to Jesus in the gospels.  And hey, I don’t blame him…it probably wasn’t easy with the Son of God for a brother!  But in 1 Cor. 15 we find out that James was one of the first people Jesus appeared to—that, and James became one of the key leaders in the NT church (Acts 15).  Jesus’ appearing to the 500 also deserves special attention.  Paul specifically mentions this appearance to challenge his readers, “If you don’t believe me, ask one of the 500.  They were there and can validate what they saw.”  Not only do you have all these appearances, but Jesus also did specific things to prove the legitimacy of his resurrection from the dead during his appearances.  In John 20, for example, Jesus invites Thomas to touch his hands and side.  In Luke 24, Jesus eats a piece of fish to prove the physicality of his resurrection.  All of this leads me to believe the post-resurrection appearances were legit.   

3).  The origin of Christianity. 

Several considerations regarding the way Christianity got its start lends to the credibility of the resurrection.  One example would be the transformation of the disciples.  Throughout the gospels they are presented as rather cowardly.  In fact, pretty much everyone (except John) deserts Jesus at his death out of fear.  Even after Jesus’ death the picture you get is a group of people that are absolutely terrified and trying to keep a low profile.  But all of that changes when they encounter Jesus resurrected from the dead.  They go from cowardly and scared to leading a movement that eventually turns the Roman Empire upside-down!  Not only that, but all of them (except John) were willing to be martyred for their faith, which also lends to the credibility of their testimony.  Few people would die for a story they made up.  But these men did.  Finally, it’s worth pointing out that there are many incriminating details within the gospels that you wouldn’t expect to see if the story had been fabricated.  In addition to several details that paint the disciples as rather cowardly, women are actually the first ones to stumble across the empty tomb.  This is significant because women were not considered valid witnesses.  Why include this if you are making it up?

4).  The uniqueness of the resurrection. 

I won’t spend a lot of time here except to point out that the kind of resurrection presented in the gospels is entirely independent of Jewish and pagan influence.  Jews believed that there would be one resurrection that would take place for all people at the same time.  The disciples suggest that the resurrection took place for one person—namely, Jesus—as a foreshadow of what is to come for the rest of humanity.  This concept of the resurrection is entirely new and original, which lends towards its credibility.  No one would have thought of resurrection along these lines (or Messiah) if this weren’t how it actually happened. 

5).  Alternative explanations require more faith.

Everyone exercises faith.  When you get in a car, for example, you don’t know for sure you won’t get in an accident or that your brakes will work.  You simply trust they will.  It’s like this with all kinds of things.  We exercise faith all the time.  But the question is, “What do you put your faith in?”  And, based on all the reasons above, I would argue that it requires more faith to believe that Jesus didn’t rise from the dead.  Various theories have popped up over the years, none of which are faith-free.  The Conspiracy Theory essentially argues that the disciples made the entire thing up.  But based on #3 and #4 above, this is highly unlikely.  The transformation of the disciples, the incriminating details, and the originality of the concept of resurrection in the gospels all pose major challenges to such a view.  The Legendary Theory basically argues that Jesus existed, even did some great things, but over time legendary-like characteristics were attached to him and that’s now what we have in the gospels.  Pretty much every point above (#1 - #4) creates problems for this view.  But additionally, it’s worth mentioning that: (1) First century Judaism was an un-ideal, even hostile, cultural climate for legendary developments; and (2) Given the dating of the gospels, you simply don’t have enough time for a legend to develop.  The Hallucination Theory argues that all the post-resurrection appearances were hallucinations.  The problem with this theory is that it only deals with one of the points above (the post-resurrection appearances), but doesn’t deal with any of the others.  Moreover, the theory is highly unlikely.  Hallucinations are typically private (not public), but Jesus appeared to over 500 people at once.  Hallucinations also tend to be short in duration, but according to Acts 1:3 Jesus stayed with his disciples for over 40 days. 

In the end, you have to exercise faith.  There is no way around it.  If you believe in Jesus or you don’t, you have to exercise faith.  You have to go beyond the data available, and believe something.  There is no faith-free position here.  My point in this blog is that believing that Jesus rose from the dead is not a blind faith.  There are reasons, good reasons.  Happy Easter!