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Somewhere or other I heard of a Sunday School teacher who
had just finished telling her third graders about how Jesus was
crucified and placed in a tomb with a great stone sealing off the
only way in or out. Then, wanting to share the excitement of the
resurrection, and the surprise of Easter morning, she asked: "And
what do you think were Jesus' first words when he came bursting
out of that tomb alive."
A hand shot up into the air from the rear of the classroom.
It belonged to a most excited little girl. Leaping out of her
chair she shouted out excitedly, "I know, I know, I know."
"Good," said the teacher, "Tell us."
Extending her arms high in the air she sang out: "TA - DA!"
"The third day he rose again from the dead." Wow. Someone
has suggested that if the cross was a heart-breaker, the
resurrection is a MIND-breaker.(1) Absolutely.
It WAS for the ones who heard about it first. They knew
what had happened. They were eye-witnesses, albeit from a
distance. The arrest, the trial, the torture, the murder. And
murder it surely was. Jesus was dead. Dead as a doornail. If
the crucifixion had not done him in, that spear through the side
had settled the issue.
After the horror was over, a caring friend named Joseph, of
the town of Arimathea (which is no longer on any map), requested
of Pilate that he be granted Jesus' body for burial. Pilate
acceded to the request, the remains were removed from the cross,
wrapped in a white linen shroud, and laid in Joseph's own new
tomb. A large stone was rolled in front of the entrance to
prevent unwanted intrusion.
There were still issues though. The religious leaders who
had instigated the crucifixion came to Pilate and reminded the
governor, "Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was
still alive, 'After three days I will rise again.' Therefore
command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise
his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, 'He
has been raised from the dead,' and the last deception would be
worse than the first."(2) No problem. Pilate assigned some
soldiers to guard the tomb and seal that stone.
The body lay there from Friday evening until Sunday morning,
three days, by Jewish reckoning. And then suddenly, the tomb is
empty, the body gone. TA - DA!
How is that possible? Perhaps he was not really dead to
start with. Perhaps he only went into a deep swoon on the cross,
and regained consciousness while in the cool damp of the borrowed
tomb. He awoke, got up, rolled the stone away, and walked off.
Right past the Roman guards, men for whom falling asleep at their
post was a capital offense. Uh-huh. Listen, as badly beaten up
and wounded as Jesus was, having lost an incredible amount of
blood, having gone without food or water for several days, and as
dangerous as it would have been for those legionnaires, that
requires more of a leap of faith than coming back from the dead.
Perhaps some wild dogs got in there and ate the corpse -
gruesome, but not unheard of in those days. Still, those would
have had to be some incredibly fastidious animals, not leaving
even a shred of meat or bone or hair on the floor for someone to
notice. And which of the dogs would have folded the cloth that
had covered Jesus' head, rolled it and laid it carefully to one
side - one of them must have done it, because that is what Peter
and John found when they came into the tomb.(3) Talented dogs.
Another leap of faith, eh?
Of course, there is the possibility that Jesus' friends came
to the wrong tomb. As the ladies came into the garden at dawn on
the first day of the week, their grief had so disoriented them
that they went to the wrong place, jumped to a hasty conclusion,
then ran back to tell the others. But that would mean that Peter
and John would have been equally directionally-challenged because
they certainly could have and happily WOULD have corrected the
ladies in their error, if they had made one.
One more obvious possibility: the one that the religious
leaders tried to disseminate - Jesus' friends simply stole the
body, reburied it in some secret location, and began to circulate
this incredible tale of resurrection, the stone miraculously
rolled away, strange angelic beings saying things like, "Why do
you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has
risen."(4) Amazingly, for folks who were pulling a gigantic hoax,
this is the story they would ALL stick to, everyone of them,
without anyone ever breaking ranks, and which would finally cost
most of them their lives. A hoax? Yeh. Sure.
You know, for me it takes less faith to believe that Jesus
was raised from the dead than to believe any of those stories
that would try to explain the miraculous event away. "I
believe...The third day he rose again from the dead."
Do you believe it? Really? John Killinger suggests that we
have three possible answers to that question:(5)
Now, from the viewpoint of those closest to Jesus, it did
happen. There can be no doubt about that. They knew that people
do not normally revive after they have died - especially after
three days. This is why they reacted as they did. Running
hither and thither, like chickens with their heads cut off.
Will Willimon tells the story of a boy in his high school
chemistry class.(6) During some experiment gone wrong, there was
an explosion in the back of the room. Nothing serious, just a
loud bang. And this young lad, seated at the front, bolted out
the door, ran down the hall, and was not heard from again that
day.
"What on earth were you thinking about?" the teacher asked
him the next day.
"I wasn't thinking about anything," he said. "I was just
running. I didn't know what to do, so I ran."
Mary, what were you thinking about when you found the tomb
empty and heard the angel say, "Do not be afraid; I know that you
are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he
has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay."
What were you thinking, Mary?
"I did not know what to think, so I just ran."
Peter, John, what were you thinking when the women came to
you with the report of the empty tomb?
"What COULD we think, besides the fact that they were
probably crazy? We just ran."
We know what they found.
Did the resurrection occur as we have always heard? I say
YES. There are four major pieces of evidence. First, there was
the empty tomb. No fewer than four followers saw the empty tomb
and reported it. We have already noted the attempts to explain
that away, but, in my view, none are in the least compelling.
Second, there were all the appearances of the risen Christ -
to Mary in the garden; to two disciples on the road to Emmaus; to
ten of the disciples in the upper room; to those ten again, plus
Thomas a week later; to several disciples by the Sea of Galilee;
and then to more than five hundred followers at once.
Third, there was the incredible change in the attitudes and
behavior of the followers. Before the crucifixion, they acted
from cowardice and confusion. After the resurrection, they were
transformed into pillars of power; they were courageous and
decisive, ready to die for their faith. The same Peter who, in
saving his own skin, had denied he even knew Jesus, just weeks
later would stand on a balcony in the heart of Jerusalem and
boldly proclaim,
Something had happened to Peter. Something had happened to
all of them. Something changed them. And we know what it was.
Fourth, there is the very existence of the church. These
friends of Jesus - faithful, monotheistic Jews, every one - had
been raised with the understanding that one thing and one thing
alone cemented their identity before the world as the people of
God - the observance of the Sabbath. Now, they begin a tradition
of worship on the 1st day of the week instead of the 7th. They
took this extraordinary step of changing the holy day from
Saturday to Sunday and calling it THE LORD'S DAY. Only a mind-boggling event could have been responsible for such a shift. And
we know what that event was: "The third day he rose again from
the dead."
So saying, there are still questions to which we have no
answers. Scripture never tells us HOW Jesus was resurrected,
just that it happened. And what about Christ's resurrection
body? It appears to be the same as before but there must be
something different. It could pass through locked doors
unhindered. In almost every account Jesus is not recognized at
first - not by Mary, not by the two disciples going to Emmaus,
nor by the bigger groups of disciples gathered in the upper room
and beside the Sea. Why? I do not know. What I DO know is
this: Jesus "was crucified, dead, and buried; the third day he
rose again from the dead."
Killinger suggests that we opt for one of three
possibilities: it did not happen; it happened, but we do not
understand; it happened because divine power MADE it happen. For
me, I would like to opt for both the second and the third. I
admit I do not fully understand the nature of the world we live
in, and I am convinced that God intervened in an unusual way to
rescue Jesus from the grave. "I believe...the third day he rose
again from the dead."
And I believe one more thing. I believe Jesus was telling
the truth when he said, "Because I live, you will also live."(8)
Throughout our study we have been insisting that as we
believe, so we behave. What difference does our belief in Jesus'
resurrection make? Primarily this: death is not the final word.
Not for him. Not for us. That means we never need fear death
again, for we know that death is not a period but a comma, not
the end, but the beginning.
There was a young boy named Philip, who was born with Down's
Syndrome.(9)
Philip was a happy child, but he knew he was not the
same as other children. He did not have many friends. Philip
went to Church School every Sunday and was in a class with nine
other 8-year-olds. At times the children teased Philip because
he was different. Yet the teacher was very careful to include
Philip in all the activities and, in time, the children too tried
to include him in what they were doing, but Philip was not really
part of the group. Philip did not want to be different, he just
was.
On Easter Sunday the teacher had a great idea for a lesson.
The teacher collected twelve of the plastic containers that
pantyhose come in, the ones that look like big eggs. Each child
was given one. It was a beautiful spring day and each youngster
was asked to go outside on the church grounds and find a symbol
for new life, put it in the plastic egg and bring it back into
the classroom. Then they would open their egg and share the new
life symbols one by one. As you can imagine there was quite a
commotion as they leaped and jumped out the door into the yard.
They ran all around gathering their symbols of new life and
shortly they returned to the classroom.
They put the big eggs on a table and the teacher began to
open them one by one. In the first one there was a flower and
the children oo-ed and aah-ed. He opened another and there was a
tiny pussy willow bud.
He opened another and there was a small rock inside. Some
of the children laughed and said, "That's crazy. How's a rock
supposed to be new life?"
The little girl whose egg it was spoke up, "I knew all of
you would get flowers and buds and leaves and butterflies and
things like that. So I got a rock because I wanted to be
different, and for me that's new life.
The teacher went on opening eggs. He opened the last egg,
and there was nothing in it. Some children said, "That's silly.
Somebody didn't do it right."
The teacher felt a tug on his shirt and looked down. Philip
was standing beside him. "It's mine, it's mine."
One of the children said, "You don't ever do things right,
Philip. There's nothing there!"
"I did so do it. It's empty. The tomb is empty."
There was a silence in the room until one of the children
said, "What a terrific idea. Philip had the best surprise." And
all the children gathered around Philip. From that time on
Philip became a real part of that group.
The next summer Philip died. His family had known since the
time he was born he would not live out a full life span - there
were many things wrong with his tiny body. Philip was buried
from the church. And on that day at the funeral nine 8-year-old
children processed right up to the altar, not with flowers, but
with an empty plastic egg. They placed it on the altar in
celebration of Philip's new life.
"I believe...the third day, he rose again from the dead."
Amen!
1. Chad Walsh quoted by John Killinger, You Are What You Believe: The Apostles' Creed
for Today, (Nashville: Abingdon, 1990), p. 70 2. Matthew 27:63-64 3. John 20:7 4. Luke 24:5b 5. Killinger, p. 67 6. William Willimon, "Getting to Easter," 3/30/97, via Internet,
http://www.chapel.duke.edu/sermons/MAR30SER.htm 7. Acts 2:22-24 8. John 14:19 9. From Beth Marie Murphy, via Presbynet, 4/7/93 - This is a story that comes from the
curriculum, "The Whole People of God" (Unit 5,'93)
You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say:
Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with
deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through
him among you, as you yourselves know - this man,
handed over to you according to the definite plan and
foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the
hands of those outside the law. But God raised him up,
having freed him from death, because it was impossible
for him to be held in its power.(7)
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