Let’s open our Bibles this morning to Matthew chapter 28. I want to read for you verses 11 through 15, the text of our message as we look together to God’s Word. Matthew 28 beginning at verse 11, we read: “Now when they were going, behold some of the guard came into the city and showed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. And when they were assembled with the elders and had taken counsel, they gave much money unto the soldiers saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him and secure you. So they took the money and did as they were taught and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.”
Now it is obvious that just a preliminary reading of that passage that it is all about a bribery, it is all about a lie regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I like to call this particular portion which is included only in Matthew’s gospel, “The Lie that Proves the Resurrection.”
G. B. Hardy, a Canadian scientist some time ago, wrote a book. It was a book about destiny, it was a book about life, about philosophy. And it asked two very important questions. This scientist said, “I have only two questions to ask. One, has anyone ever defeated death? Two, did he make a way for me to do it also?” This scientist found the answer to his question in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And he found the hope for his own resurrection in it as well.
Yes, someone did defeat death, Jesus Christ did. And yes, He made a way for you and I to defeat it as well. In fact, there is no hope of life after death, there is no hope of heaven, there is no hope of eternal blessing and joy without the resurrection of Christ.
Still in spite of the fact that the resurrection is the only hope of salvation for man, the only key to eternal life, the majority of people reject it. To reject the resurrection for whatever reason is to commit a kind of spiritual suicide. It is to forfeit all hope of a future life. It is to damn your own soul to an eternal hell without God. And in so doing, you not only lose the future but you lose the meaning and the value of the present. For if the future has no meaning, then how can the present have any meaning?
Furthermore, to deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ and therefore deny the hope of eternal life goes against the grain of the human heart. Solomon in Ecclesiastes 3:11 said, “God has set eternity in their heart.” There’s something inside man that reaches out for immortality, that reaches out for eternity, that is not satisfied with life only on a temporal level. The religions and philosophies and personal anticipations of the human race throughout all of history reflect this desire for immortality. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ becomes the key to that hope of eternal life for Jesus said, “Because I live, you shall live also. I am the resurrection and the life, he that believes in Me though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” And the Bible says, “If Christ did not rise, then no one has any hope. But if Christ be risen from the dead, then we have hope for future life.”
But in spite of that, in spite of the fact that to deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ literally is committing spiritual suicide. Men continue to do that very thing. And not only irreligious men but even religious ones. Through the years there have been a myriad of explanations offered to explain away the truth of the resurrection. I want to suggest some of the theories to you.
First of all, and a somewhat common theory, is the “swoon theory.” This is the theory that Christ never really died, that the reason He got out of the grave was because He was never really dead to begin with. Shock from the loss of blood on the cross and the wounds and all that went on sent Him into a semi- coma. And when they took Him off the cross and put Him in the tomb, the aroma of the spices and the coolness of the tomb revived Him. And when He came out of the grave, the disciples assumed that He was resurrected.
Now that theory doesn’t work. In the first place, it wasn’t even dreamed up until 1600 by a man named Vintorini(?). Furthermore all the records are emphatic, the early records, about the fact that Jesus was dead. The women who carefully wrapped His body in linen and anointed Him along with Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus with 75 pounds of spices, they must have known whether or not He was dead. That proximity to the body and that tender loving care offered to that body would have revealed any life that was there.
Furthermore, history will stand the test of scrutiny that the Romans knew when someone was dead. They were experts at execution. They were proficient at determining death. And when they came by and did not break Jesus’ legs because He was already dead, it was because they knew that. And then they rammed a spear into His side and out came the blood and the water around the heart, again indicating that He was dead.
Furthermore, if this theory is true, it means that Jesus successfully survived severe beating and loss of blood, crucifixion and further loss of blood, the spear thrust into His side, again draining the blood out of His body through a gaping wound. He survived entombment with 75 pounds of spices on His already weakened body. He survived three days with no food or water. Woke up without any medical assistance having lost most of His blood, moved the stone, walked out and convinced everyone that He was fine and alive from the dead. Once He got outside, overpowered the Roman guard and then walked seven miles to Emmaus on feet that had been pierced with nails. Ridiculous…that’s absurd.
There’s a second theory that we could look at, that’s the “no-burial theory.” This is another theory that’s been offered by those who deny the resurrection. It’s the no-burial theory that says Christ was never put in the tomb so obviously He wasn’t there on Sunday. Since He wasn’t there Friday or Saturday, we don’t expect Him on Sunday. They thought He would be in the tomb and that’s why they thought He had left the tomb. But the truth was, He was thrown in a pile in a pit with a lot of other criminals.
This theory doesn’t work either because there’s no evidence to indicate that that happened. The testimony is all contrary to that. Furthermore, why did the Jewish leaders then seal the tomb? And why did they post a Roman guard? If the body was thrown in a pile, they could have easily disproved the resurrection by going back to whatever pit that was and bringing the body and saying, “Here it is.” Why not just produce the body? No, the no-burial theory doesn’t work.
The third and somewhat common theory is the “hallucination theory,” that everybody who thought they say Jesus after His dead hallucinated. It was a pathological problem. They thought they saw Jesus because they wanted to see Him so badly. I can remember reading that when I was in seminary. The argument that these people had such an anticipation of resurrection that they were so excited about Jesus rising that they actually projected their own hallucinations because of this strong desire.
Well, this theory doesn’t work either. How could the church be built on hallucination? How could 500 people have the same hallucination at the same time? And since they didn’t even believe or expect a resurrection, where was this strong desire that brought them to hallucinate? The New Testament is clear that they had no anticipation of the resurrection.
And furthermore, we ask the question: if this was all it was, just a hallucination, then where was the body? Where was the body? I mean, all of these theories have to answer the question: where was the body? Show us the body.
Then there is the “telepathy theory” that’s been suggested by some, that there was no physical resurrection but God sent back mental images. He sent back mental pictures by some divine slide projector and put them on the minds of people so they would think He was alive.
That theory doesn’t work either, it makes God a deceiver. It founds Christianity on deceit. It makes liars out of the Apostles. And it must have been a telepathic movie because it ran for seven miles, from Jerusalem to Emmaus. It also held a conversation with the people and even ate with them. It’s absurd.
Furthermore the disciples at first didn’t even recognize Jesus, could it be that God’s projector was out of focus? And again you’ve got to go back to the same problem, where’s the body? If this is just telepathy, if this is just hallucination, where’s the body? If He was just thrown on a pile of criminals or in a pit somewhere, where’s the body? Then produce it. You can easily discredit the resurrection.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
