Kedo Peseyie
When we say that Jesus lived and died and rose again from the dead, sometimes we tend to think (falsely) that all of these events happened outside space, time and history. Jesus was a historical figure and His life, dead and resurrection are all recorded as historical facts. Someone said, “It may be said that the historical evidence for the resurrection is stronger than for any other miracle anywhere narrated.” (William Lyon Phelps)
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the most important event in the New Testament. Everything in the New Testament, and everything else we do today as Christians, revolves around the fact the Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. Paul said something like this, “If the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not true, then let us eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die without any hope.” He also said, “If the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not true, then Christians are the most miserable people in this world.”
You take away the resurrection and you take away the Christian message. And because the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical event—meaning that it took place on a certain day, a certain year, and at a specific location in the world map—it has much more meaning, limitless blessing and implications for us as we live in our present space, time and history.
It may not be very difficult to prove a miracle. Scientists agree that miracles are possible. Supposing you know a person who is blind for ten years. For ten years you have been around him even helping him in his blindness. Suddenly one day he can see you. And people whom you both know also testify that the blind man can now see. Skeptics would be proven wrong because there is hard “eye”- witness evidence.
None of us were around when Jesus rose again from the dead. That happened 2000 years back in history. Back then there were a lot of reliable eyewitnesses to the resurrection and Jesus appeared to many of his disciples after his resurrection. If the evidence for the resurrection is so strong, some people might even say that Jesus was probably half-dead when he was taken down from the cross and buried, and that he did not really die, and so gained consciousness on the third day. But again this is not likely.
When they crucified Jesus on the Cross, they made sure that he died. They even pierced his side with a spear to make sure that he was dead. Then they buried him in the tomb of a rich man and sealed it with the seal of the Roman Empire. Anyone who dared to touch or tamper with the seal would invoke the wrath of the Roman Empire. And they placed guards at the tomb of Jesus.
Then Jesus rose again from the dead and appeared to his disciples and many different people. From among these people, four of them wrote the four gospels in the New Testament—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—to record the life, dead and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Supposing it was a lie they were making up. But a lie is always full of contradictions, and their different records about the life, dead and resurrection of Jesus would be full of contradictions. But there is an amazing coherence and unity in their report about this controversial man-Jesus.
But again let’s say—for argument sake—that they all agreed to tell the same lie, because by our own experience we know that it is not at all difficult for people to agree to lie. But would all of them agree to die for this lie putting their families, their occupations, and their community at high risk? All the disciples of Jesus were martyred, beaten, hanged upside-down and murdered because they preached the fact that Jesus Christ rose again from the Dead. People may be willing to live with a lie. But I do not think that any sane person would be willing to die for a lie!
The resurrection of Jesus is the most important event in the New Testament. That’s why I said earlier that everything in the New Testament, and everything else we do today as Christians, revolves around the fact the Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. Let me close with a few teaching points.
Because He lives:
Prayer has a point. We are praying to a God who is alive and who listen and answers. He is our contemporary and not some ancient person who lived and died after starting a religion.
Death can be handled. Death has no victory over us. We believe in a God who rose again from the dead. The Bible says that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us too.
The future can be faced with courage. Who can forget the old missionary lady and her daughter who sang in the funeral of her husband and sons who were burnt alive because they believed in Jesus Christ risen from the dead. And who can claim that their hope is an imaginary and illusory hope, or that their comfort is ill informed. “And life is worth the living just because He lives…”
The great commission takes more urgency. Because He lives, His command to us is more pertinent and urgent, “Go into all the world and make disciples of all men…”
