Easter

I didn't get to finish my Easter Sunday School yesterday, so I'll finish it now.

First let me review.

There are five indisputable facts about Easter. By indisputable facts I mean that more than 90% of all experts, liberal and conservative, Christian and atheist, agree on these five facts. You may be surprised by some of them.

1. Jesus was killed by crucifixion.
2. The tomb was empty.
3. The disciples truly believed that Jesus had risen from the death.
4. The conversion of the persecuter, Paul of Tarsus.
5. The conversion of the brother of Jesus, James.

That led me to four implications of the Resurrection. If the Resurrection is true than
1. our religion is objectively, historically true.
2. Jesus is God Himself.
3. death is defeated.
4. we can live victoriously.

There are three objections to Easter that are currently popular. Actually there are more than three, but I chose three to refer to in Sunday School.
1. The Quran claims that Jesus never died, but was taken off the cross by Allah. However, the Quran was written centuries after Jesus died. It is inherently less historically reliable than the Gospels that were written within decades of Easter. In addition, Jesus said He would die and be raised again. If the Quran is right, than he didn't die and was a false prophet. But the Quran claims that he was a true prophet. So either the Quran is wrong or the Quran is wrong.

2. Baigent, author of the Jesus Papers, claims that Pilate saved Jesus' life because Jesus was friendly to Rome and advocated paying taxes. Baigent is a very popular author, but an unreliable historian. Pilate's job and life were hanging by a thread at the time of Jesus death. He desperately needed to keep the Jews happy. In addition, Paul was killed by Rome, but his writings were clearly pro-government. Baigent claims that Pilate gave Jesus a drug to imitate death and then Jesus was revived after he was taken down. However, Josephus tells of three friends who were taken down off crosses, given the best medical treatment Rome had to offer. All three died. Baiegent's story doesn't match historical facts.

3. The Discovery Channel claimed that they had discovered Jesus' family tomb. Their argument is based on names and marriage. The names in the tomb were Jesus son of Joseph, Joseph, Mary, Matthew, Marianme Mara, and Judah son of Jesus. The claim is that the names indicate that it could only have been Jesus family. However, Mary was an extremely common name -- one in four or five women had that name. 1/7 men were named Joseph, 1/11 were named Jesus, 1/10 were named Judah, and 1/20 were named Matthew. Based on the population of Jerusalem, there were 1,000 "Jesus son of Joseph"s in Jerusalem and 11 men in Jerusalem who would fit the whole tomb. Thus it would not be necessarily the Messiah's tomb. The name that supposedly clinches it is Marianme Mara. The Discovery Channel claims that this is Mary Magdalene, that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, and the Judah was their son. However, Marianme is a variation of Mary and Mara is a varition of Martha. There is no reference to Magadala. There is also no evidence that Jesus was married.


There are two perspectives on the Resurrection. There are those who claim that Jesus' resurrection was only spiritual resurrection that gave hope after death. How can a spiritual resurrection give hope? Paul Harvey tells of sailors who were afraid to sail on Friday the 13th. Employers finally tired of it. They built a boat called Friday the 13th. The building began on Friday the 13th. The boat was launched on Friday the 13th. The boat began it maiden voyage on Friday the 13th. And thus the superstition about Friday the 13th was ended. Of course the ship, Friday the 13th, sunk on that maiden voyage and was never seen again, but it conquered the sailors fears. Why? The story does not make sense. It makes no more sense than a dead man who never lived again would take away the fear of death. If Jesus only rose spiritually, then he is still dead. He didn't conquer death, death conquered him. How do you build a religion that has no fear of death from that beginning?

We believe that the resurrection was physical. Jesus physically rose from the dead, conquering death, and is truly alive today. What evidence do you give? I think of stories where a person is missing and loved ones waiting are sure they are still alive because their heart says so. Often, in the stories, they are right. But the people in the story are usually not impressed with such "evidence." In order to persuade someone of a historical, physical event, then we need historical physical evidence. Eyewitnesses who saw Jesus. People whose lives were changed by their encounter with the risen Jesus. Opposition who couldn't deny the empty tomb. This is the evidence needed for historical facts. "He lives within my heart" is not evidence of a historical resurrection, but only of a spiritual experience. Unfortunately, most religions have spiritual experiences that are meaningful to them. That makes all religions true in a postmodern world. Only Christianity has a historical basis for its truth.

Each of us has a single choice. Do we accept the historical fact of Easter, accept Jesus' sacrifice for us, and acknowledge His Lordship over our lives, or do we reject it?