Jesus is indeed risen

One Friday afternoon before the Jewish feast of Passover almost 2000 years ago there died a leader of a religious movement, crucified by the Romans. As the man’s friends, Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus, took him off the cross and laid the tortured body to rest, the story of the rabbi Jesus of Nazareth was expected to end.

The Nazarene preacher seemed set to slip into obscurity, like most other nonconformist religious leaders, self-proclaimed messiahs and diverse charlatans of the day.

His supporters, those not based in the Jerusalem area, prepared to make their way back home, defeated and dejected. Two of them set off home to the nearby town of Emmaus.

Peter and others of the group around Jesus of Nazareth doubtless contemplated their future after the heady times of following their now dead master. All 11 of them must have wondered what more they should or could have done to preserve the life of their leader, and questioned their own individual stories of cowardice.

Peter, who had been a successful personality in the fishing trade of Capernaum, might already have drafted a new business plan for future commercial ventures, when the depression over the events in Jerusalem would allow him.

As the despondent followers of Jesus the Messiah who seemed to promise so much and yet died in the most ignominious circumstances on Golgotha dispersed, an exciting but soon to be forgotten chapter of religious fervour in Judaism seemed closed.

Then something utterly inconceivable happened. The tomb in which Jesus’ lifeless, broken body had been interred was found empty, with the burial garments left behind neatly folded.

Then the man who just days before had been tortured and publicly executed appeared in the flesh to women, a curious choice of encounter.

If it was his intention to prove that he was alive, the choice of women to serve as heralds for his resurrection was peculiar, for women’s testimony was not considered credible. But he needed no proof for what was readily apparent.

He proceeded to meet hundreds of people, including his apostles. One of them, Thomas, was incredulous until he received positive proof that before him stood the risen Jesus.

Paul, a convert to the nascent Christian movement, visited Jerusalem three times within a few years of the death and resurrection of Jesus. For many years he lived in Antioch, to where many of Jerusalem’s incipient Christians had migrated. In his first letter to the Corinthians, written long before the gospels, Paul notes that Jesus “appeared to over 500 of our brothers [and sisters], most of whom are still alive, though some have died” (1 Cor 15:6-7).

Students of what is often called the historical Jesus are sceptical about all manner of accounts of sayings and miracles attributed to Jesus in the Gospel. There is no consensus on the resurrection either.

Alas, all of the more than 500 witnesses are long dead and unavailable to consult in our academic pursuits.

However, we can accept their testimony by common sense: it would have been a peculiar gambit for Paul to advertise hundreds of still living witnesses if he did not know that he could produce a credible number of them on demand.

Likewise, unless something quite astonishing had happened, it is unthinkable that the apostles should have exposed themselves to the mortal dangers of propagating an already crushed messianic theology, and galvanise multitudes of others in following them on their thankless and materially rewardless course.

Many of the first believers in Jesus’ divinity died for their conviction of having encountered the risen Christ in flesh and blood. What was their motivation for accepting martyrdom if not their encounter with the risen Christ?

Who can doubt the Resurrection? And who can believe that one who can rise from the dead is not who he said he was: the Son of God, who by his death and resurrection offers us everlasting life?