In my last post I highlighted how the Bible gives us two versions of the creation that taken together tell the story better than could be expressed in a single narrative. When we get to the story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection the Bible will again offer us multiple tellings. The difference is that when Jesus rises from the dead, we will hear the same basic facts described now in quadruplicate.
The four gospel writers: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John allow us to hear Jesus’ story four times in the New Testament. If you read each of these side-by-side, you’ll discover that while there is considerable overlap, each gospel maintains the personality of its individual author and varies in terms of the aspects of Jesus’ life that receive the most stress in the narrative.
When we get to the discussion of Jesus’ last week, however, these accounts start to line up with remarkably consistent details. All the gospels record Jesus’ triumphal ride into Jerusalem on a donkey (what Christians now call Palm Sunday) – an Old Testament sign acknowledging His claim to be the Messiah. Messiah in Hebrew equates to “Christ” in Greek and names the One promised in the Scriptures who would be specially anointed to save Israel. All the gospels discuss how the Jewish religious hierarchy brings Jesus to trial because most believed He had no right to the title. Without political authority to carry out capital punishment, the majority of the Jewish high council agrees to trump up charges against their prisoner that would earn Him the condemnation of the Roman governor. Rome didn’t care who called himself a god but it refused to truck political challengers like people claiming to be the rightful King of the Jews.
All four gospels go on to explain that while Jesus receives a sentence of death by crucifixion – Rome’s preferred method of criminal execution – basically all His handpicked apostles abandon Him (only the Gospel of John shows John standing at the cross). At the same time, all place many of Jesus’ female disciples as witnesses to His dying. Again the details of the crucifixion line up among these accounts. Jesus is nailed to the cross and placed between two criminals. The crowd jeers at Him through His ordeal. Though the particular words differ, each gospel acknowledges Jesus speaking from the cross. All count the torment lasting six hours.
Once the Roman guards pronounce Jesus’ death and cut him down from the cross, all the gospels explain that one of the dissenting members of the Jewish high council procures the right to take care of the body from Roman governor Pilate. Joseph of Arimathea wraps Jesus’ corpse in a linen cloth and places it in an unused tomb, sealed with a rock, against the smell of decay. They all note that the burial required haste as the Sabbath – when no work could be done – was approaching with Friday’s sunset.
Finally all the gospels record that the women who had stood and mourned for Him as He suffered on the cross, made haste to come to Jesus’ tomb early Sunday morning – having had to wait through the Sabbath day – in order to finish the job of anointing the body with burial spices and oils. According to all accounts these women found the tomb empty, with the heavy boulder sealing it inexplicably rolled out of the way. As these distraught women flee in terror and dismay, messengers appear and remind them that Jesus had promised to rise from the dead. They are to tell their brother disciples the good news.
While the four gospels narrate a variety of scenes in which Jesus appears to His disciples, the details of these sightings again sync up. At first the male disciples have difficulty believing what the female disciples have seen and heard. Ultimately, however, each gospel finishes with Jesus charging His followers with spreading the word about His life, death and resurrection throughout the earth.
Beyond these four witness accounts of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the New Testament offers us the words of the apostle Paul, writing at least a decade or two before the composition of the first gospels. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul reiterates for his audience “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living” (1 Corinthians 15:3-6 NIV). Paul then goes on to contend, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Corinthians 15:14 NIV). Without a belief in the actual resurrection of Jesus’ body there is nothing to Christianity.
When you want to report an important actual event, especially one that will strain the credulity of your audience, you stick to concrete facts and verifiable details. This is exactly what the New Testament gives us in its rendition of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
At the end of the day, the reality of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead remains an article of faith for any believer. But the effort to allege that the Bible allows us to interpret the resurrection as a figurative and not literal event cannot be founded in a close reading of the text.
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