Even as a young believer in Christ Jesus, I have often wondered about this fact. The more I read the Bible, the more I listened to the sermons in my church and the more I watched my favourite preachers on television, this strange truth has baffled me over the years. Believe me, I’m not a Christian by birth. I was a Hindu born to Hindu parents. Did Jesus really rise from the dead? Yes, He sure did. Why? Because the Bible said so. There ended the matter for me, we do not question the Word of God in the Bible. If it said in the Bible that it was made of iron and not paper, then it really was made out of iron. The debate ended even before it began.
Still, the reality of Jesus rising back to life has continued to intrigue me even today. Because nowhere in the history of the world do we hear a person rising from the dead. Jesus was the only human who rose from the dead. Why is it so important to believe that Jesus indeed was raised from the dead? Because only then can we believe that if we confessed and believed that Jesus had died for our sin and rose again, we too will go to Heaven to be with our loved ones who had died before us. This was a promise that was made in body and blood by Jesus himself. He took so much pain to tell us that our real life begins after our bodies die. Remember He proclaimed boldly “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die like everyone else, will live again.” There were many witnesses to his death and also to His coming back to life and walked among his disciples for days together. The disciples had touched Him, eaten with Him and were seen moving with Him for a whole 40 days after that. This is the life giving promise given to all us Christians for more 2000 years till now.
Even so there are sceptics who firmly believe that the resurrection of Jesus was a myth. They say it was a story that grew with time and that there was no real evidence to prove it. To probe further we need to look into History and make our own judgement. It is a pity that great philosophers like Russell and others were not even willing to look into the evidence.
Let us look at it more closely. Jesus had Himself prior to His death told the disciples that He would be betrayed by one amongst them, that He would be tortured and killed. The most crucial was that Jesus said He would come back to life after 3 days! Now don’t you think this was an odd extraordinary plan? As one great Bible scholar had written “Only a fool will say that He will come back to life after 3 days.” Jesus was that sure of his coming back to life that he gave a detailed forewarning about it. Was there anyone in the history of the world, be it any religious leader or thinker or layman who had made such an outlandish or weird claim? It only means if Jesus had not come back again in 3 days to live among His people, He could have been called a crook or a fake.
We know what happened on that fateful Good Friday. Just as He had predicted, Jesus was betrayed by His treasurer disciple Judas, He was given a terrible mock trial, He was given a terrible beating and lashing and He was finally nailed to the Cross. He died several hours later on the same Cross. He was offered as a sacrifice in body and blood for the sin of all mankind. We know He was buried; His body was kept under tight security. But then on the third day, something wonderful happened! His body was missing. He could not be missing or just vanished into thin air. The disciples could not have stolen His body with all these guards around all the 24 hours. There were several eyewitnesses to Jesus walking among them after the third day. His disciples saw Him many times. He showed to one of his disciples His wounds on the palms and feet. He then appeared to more than 500 followers. We know how the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and started talking in tongues and were seen doing the same miracles as Jesus did by healing the sick and making the blind see and the lame walk.
Yes, my dear brothers and sisters – The resurrection of Jesus is true. His glorius coming back to life hit first the Jewish church then, then the Roman Empire and finally all the people who came to the world till now. Christianity had arrived when Jesus had risen from the dead just as He said He would.
Today we believe all that He had said and did. Why? Because He rose from the dead. His resurrection was real and not a myth. Halleluiah! Glory to God!
Bible commentator: Sunder Venkataram
