The empty tomb
The enemies of the Christian Faith have always tried to make out that Jesus was not raised from the dead on Easter Day and that therefore the Christian Faith is false.
Bribery of the soldiers
Indeed, they set to work within a few hours of the Resurrection itself. At dawn on Easter morning, the soldiers who had been on guard at the tomb came and told the Jewish rulers how an angel, before their very eyes, had rolled away the stone from the mouth of the tomb, and that the body of Jesus had gone. So the Jewish rulers bribed the soldiers with a large sum of money and told them what they were to say. “You must say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep’. … So they took the money and did as they were directed” (NRSV, Matthew 28:11-15).
As you can see, it was a very poor story, though probably the best they could think of at short notice. It is obvious that, after the Crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday, the disciples had lost their nerve. They had already run away in Gethsemane, and now, after their Master had been tortured to death before their very eyes, their spirit was broken. They were in no state to plan and carry out so daring a scheme as that of moving the stone, unwrapping the body of Jesus and taking it away – all within a few feet of the armed guards. Besides which, the whole thing would have been completely pointless because, even if they got away with it, they would have gained nothing by it.
The body of Jesus never found
We may be quite sure that the Jewish rulers turned Jerusalem upside down in their efforts to find the body of Jesus, because they had only to produce it to prove that the Resurrection had never happened. But they never did find it because it was not there to be found. It had changed into a spiritual, heavenly body, leaving behind the linen grave cloths in which it had been wrapped.
The appearances
Even when the Apostles found that the tomb was empty, they didn’t realise what had happened. That was why, when Jesus appeared to them that evening in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, they were terrified and thought it was a ghost. Then, as they recognised Jesus, their fear turned into joy (Luke 24:37, 41; John 20:19,20). He saw them again on the following Sunday in the same place, and then met them in Galilee by the Lakeside, early one morning.
The 11 Apostles were not the only people to see the Risen Jesus. Mary Magdalene and the disciples on the road to Emmaus saw him. And after Jesus had ascended into Heaven St Peter recognised the need to find a twelfth Apostle to replace Judas and that person was chosen from a group of Jesus’ followers who were witnesses to the Resurrection (Acts 1: 15-26). And St Paul, writing to the Christians in Corinth, taught them about the appearances of Jesus after his Resurrection and how he “…appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died” (NRSV, 1 Corinthians 15:6).
The enemies of the Christian Faith have been hard put to it to explain all this away. They have said that the disciples saw things that were not there at all. But this will not do. It is just possible that one highly-strung person who wants to see something may work himself up into such a state that that he thinks he actually does see it, even though there is nothing there. But practical people do not suddenly see and touch and speak to someone who is not there, and that, not once, but several times. And not only did the Apostles all see him together, but the whole thing took them by surprise. As they sat in the Upper Room, with the door securely bolted, they were expecting a visit, not from Jesus, but from the police. And when Jesus did appear, they did not immediately recognise him.
The Apostles
Evidence of the Twelve Apostles
In a Law Court, after all the evidence has been given, it is left to the jury of 12 people to arrive at the truth and to give their verdict. So we can think of the 12 Apostles as the jury who, with all the evidence of Our Lord’s Resurrection before them, gave their verdict. Let us look at what St Peter said to the people: “…you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses” (NRSV, Acts 3:15). Or St Paul, “…if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead …” (NRSV, 1 Corinthians 15:14,20).
The changed lives of the Apostles
And so, instead of returning to Galilee to earn their own living and enjoy a comfortable old age, the Apostles spent their lives travelling all over the Roman Empire, carrying the news of Our Lord’s Resurrection and planting the Church in every place as they went. All they received in return, so far as this world was concerned, were hardships and poverty and sufferings and beatings and imprisonments and, in the end, martyrdom. So St Peter was crucified, St Paul was beheaded. And why? Because as St Peter said, “We must obey God rather than any human authority”. “ we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard” (NRSV, Acts 5:29; 4:20).
The Church and the Eucharist
And so the Good News of Our Lord’s Resurrection spread, with the Church, to every part of the world. And we ourselves have the proof of it in our midst today. The Church, to which we belong, is the one which the Apostles gave their lives to found. We, like them, keep Sunday as a day of worship and rejoicing in honour of Our Lord’s Resurrection on the first day of the week. And Sunday by Sunday we, like them, take part in the Eucharist in which Jesus is present in his Risen Body in the Blessed Sacrament.
For it is only because God raised Jesus from the dead that we today have the Church, and Sunday, and the Eucharist, and the Blessed Sacrament. “Peace be with you”, the Apostles heard Jesus say in his well-known voice on the first Easter Day. And that is echoed still at the Eucharist today – the Risen Lord’s greeting to his own (1):
“The peace of the Lord be always with you”. (2)
SUMMARY
1. Enemies of the Christian Faith have always tried to make out that Jesus was not raised from the dead on Easter Day and that therefore the Christian Faith is false. But despite all the theories about the empty tomb, the fact remains that the body of Jesus was never found. It was not found because it was not there to be found – it had been changed into a spiritual, heavenly body.
2. After his Resurrection Jesus appeared to many people, to individuals and to groups.
3. The Apostles spent their lives travelling all over the Roman Empire, carrying the news of Our Lord’s Resurrection and planting the Church in every place as they went. As a result, they experienced all kinds of hardship and pain and many were martyred.
4. It is only because God raised Jesus from the dead that we today have the Church, and Sunday, and the Eucharist, and the Blessed Sacrament.
References
1. Dix, G. (1945) The shape of the liturgy, Westminster: Dacre Press.
2. ©The Archbishops’ Council (2000) Common Worship. Holy Communion, Order One. Available from: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/commonworship/texts/hc/orderone.html (Accessed 21 August 2010) (Internet).