The Empty Tomb

“... He has risen: He is not here;
behold, here is the place where they laid Him”
Mark 16:6

Central Theme
The resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead is the key part of the Gospel message. See 1 Corinthians 15. If this message is not true it should be rejected, but if it is true it must be accepted. There is no middle ground.

The Empty Tomb
If you have not accepted this message, how would you explain the empty tomb? Consider the facts:

(1) The body was missing. If enemies stole it, they certainly would have produced it on the first Pentecost after the crucifixion. On that occasion the apostles proclaimed a risen Lord. Enemies would surely have produced the body to discredit the message if they could have done so. They stopped short of nothing to prevent the spread of the Gospel, even murdering those who preached.

(2) If the disciples stole the body, they would have known that they were proclaiming a falsehood. Men do not willingly die for a cause they know to be false.

Faith of the Disciples
The faith of those who proclaimed the risen Lord is astounding! Disciples who ran away when Jesus was arrested, later proclaimed the resurrection with great boldness (Acts 2:24-32). They were convinced not only by the empty tomb, but by seeing Jesus alive after His burial; not only once nor twice, but many times over a period of forty days. They saw Him in groups of two, seven, ten, eleven and five hundred!

Hallucination?
Could the resurrection appearances have been hallucinations? Different groups do not continue to see the same hallucination, nor would five hundred people have the same hallucination at once. Hallucinations are usually experienced by individuals who are anticipating some unusual occurrence. The disciples were not expecting the resurrection and tended not to believe the first appearances of the risen Lord.

The Swoon Theory
Was Jesus really dead when they buried Him? Roman soldiers broke the legs of the thieves to insure their deaths before the beginning of the Passover. But they found Jesus already dead. One soldier, in order to be certain, delivered a mortal spear thrust (John 19: 31-37). We may be certain Jesus was dead when Joseph of Arimathea placed the body in the tomb.

Records Latter Expanded?
Were the records later expanded to include the resurrection in an effort to glorify Christ? It is a matter of historical record outside the Scriptures that the first century Christians believed it and preached a risen Lord. The first century historian, Flavius Josephus mentioned Christ and the resurrection (Antiquities, Book 28, Chapter 3). Josephus was not a Christian, yet his writings and the writings of others clearly indicate the first century proclamation of the risen Lord. The Scriptures were not later expanded to accommodate the resurrection.

The Results
If Jesus had remained in the tomb: Peter, James and John would have returned permanently to their fishing nets. There would have been no New Testament record and no church. The evidence for the resurrection is overwhelming. The empty tomb found by the women puzzled them. The only plausible explanation is that given by the angel, “He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay” Matthew 28:6.

“But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that He raised Christ from the dead. But if He did not raise Him: if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for in this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men,”
1 Corinthians 15:12-19

Please contact me, Dennis Crawford, at BibleTruthsToU@gmail.com, or 253-396-0290 (cell) for comments or further Bible information, or for the location of a congregation belonging to Jesus Christ near you. .