Mark's thoughts: Impossible lie - The resurrection of Jesus Christ

 

Charles Colson served as Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1973.  He was one of the “Watergate Seven” – Nixon advisors and aides who were indicted for the Watergate scandal.  Eventually Colson served seven months in a federal prison.  The experience proved to be a turning point in his life as he became a Christian and then became involved in a number of Christian ministries.

Needless to say, Colson had some experience with trying to keep a conspiracy secret.  He provides an interesting perspective on the resurrection of Jesus Christ that we are celebrating during the season of Easter.  Colson said:

“I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.”

In fact, we can expand the number of people involved considerably beyond the twelve mentioned by Colson.  In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul writes:

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. (1 Corinthians 15:3-8).

In the history of the world, many people have been willing to die for something they believed to be true.  This has often been an explanation provided by skeptics of the resurrection – that although Jesus did not rise from the dead, the disciples really believed that he had.  However the New Testament evidence will not allow such an explanation.  The interaction with the risen Lord occurred not just on one morning or day, but over the course of forty days (Acts 40:3).  It occurred in different locations such as at the tomb (John 20:11-18), on way from the tomb (Matthew 28:8-10), on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), in a house in Jerusalem on two occasions (Luke 24:36-48; John 20:19-23; 20:24-29), on a mountain in Galilee (Matthew 28:16-20), at the Sea of Tiberias (John 21:1-25), and at his ascension outside Jerusalem as far as Bethany (Luke 24:50-51; Acts 1:6-11).  As Paul reports in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, it occurred for a large number of people.

There was no mistaking whether Jesus had risen or not.  That returns us to the understanding that either the first disciples have foisted a lie upon the world or their witness is true: Jesus really did rise from the dead.  Leaving behind the difficulty of keeping the lie that Colson rightly notes, there is a more fundamental problem.  If the disciples built the Christian faith on a lie, then they were the most devious sort because they were knowingly persuading people to suffer and die for nothing.  Perhaps one could argue that they were giving themselves a place of importance in the new group.  Yet the problem with this whole line of argument is that these are the same people who in the New Testament have produced an ethical teaching  that all recognize is a paragon of excellence – one that prizes honesty, truth and love for the neighbor. 

In fact, the first disciples directly addressed the charge that it was a lie and what it would mean if Jesus had not risen from the dead.  St. Paul wrote:

For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. (1 Corinthians 15:16-20)

Christianity stands or falls with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Because Jesus Christ has risen from the dead we have forgiveness, life and hope.  Because of the resurrection we do not have to have the answer to every difficult question. The resurrection provides the guarantee that there are answers, even if we don’t have them right now.

The resurrection means that the Gospel – the message about the crucified and risen Lord - is God confronting an individual with his saving claim upon each person.  It also means that when people reject the Gospel they are rejecting God’s love and salvation.  They are rejecting God himself.  John wrote of this:

If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:9-12).

Instead, Christians know that according his great mercy God “has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).  The resurrection of the Lord Jesus gives us peace in the present and hope for the future.  It provides the reason that we can speak this Gospel to others with boldness and confidence.