Easter Explanations
I hope everyone has had a great easter holidays. The following is part of a talk I gave to my church on easter sunday. It is giving three stories, one for each of the common alternate 'explanations' that is commonly put forward to try and explain the 3 widely accepted facts (Accepted by most christian and non-christian scholars) that Jesus died on the cross, The tomb was empty, and the disciples lives were transformed because they believed they saw the risen Jesus.

1) Swoon: Jesus didn’t die on cross
The Roman soldiers take down Jesus, who having survived being beaten, scourged, having nails driven through his hands and ankles, cruxifixion and a spear thrust to his side, is unconscious. Jesus is taken to the tomb of Joseph of Arimethea, wrapped in a burial wrapping and covered with over 30 kilos of spices, including over his face. The cold air of the tomb revives Jesus and he pushes off the suffocating spices escaping the burial wrapping. Then, not having had anything to eat or drink in over 3 days and in spite of his nail pierced hands and feet and his ruined back muscles, he pushes the 2 tonne stone up hill away from the tombs entrance. He quickly overpowers the highly trained Roman guards and despite his crippled feet, makes his way 10km down the road to the village of Emmaus. After a brief meal he then returns another 10km to Jerusalem, still on his crippled feet and slips quietly and unnoticed into the locked room the disciples were hiding in. When he finally announces himself the disciples are so awestruck in his frail, near death type appearance that they are convinced he has risen from the dead and so become bold and brave, defending the belief of a risen Jesus even to the point of death.

2) The Disciples Stole the Body
When Jesus is arrested and sentenced to death, his disciples are terrified and they flee in all directions, finding whatever hiding place they can find to keep them from the authorities. Later that day, Jesus dies on the cross and is taken the tomb of Joseph of Arimethea where he is wrapped in a burial wrapping and covered with over 30 kilos of spices. Then, at some point on Saturday night, the disciples, having gotten over their terror and regrouping, go to the tomb and overpower the heavily armed and highly trained Roman guards. They then push the 2 tonne stone away from the entrance of the tomb and steal the body of Jesus. A short time later, the disciples resolve to proclaim that Jesus rose from the dead and in spite of the extremely low value of a woman's testimony, they decide that Mary Magdelene and Mary the mother of Jesus should play the part of the first witnesses of the resurrection. The disciples also manage to convince Saul of Tarsus, the fanatical persecutor of Christianity to convert to Christianity and over the next 50 years they all endure constant persecution, poverty, imprisonment, torture and eventual execution because of their continued evangelism, yet even though they knew their profession of a risen Jesus is patently false, not a single one of these disciples recants on their resurrection claim.

3) The disciples Hallucinate Jesus back into circulation
Jesus is arrested and sentenced to death, his disciples are terrified and flee in all directions, finding whatever hiding place they can find to keep them from the authorities. Later that day, Jesus dies on the cross and is taken the tomb of Joseph of Arimethea where he is wrapped in a burial wrapping and covered with over 30 kilos of spices. Sunday morning, Mary Magdelene, Mary the mother of Jesus, Salome and other women go to the tomb and when they get there share an hallucination of the empty tomb and an angel telling them that Jesus has risen in spite of the fact that hallucinations are always individual occurrences and only certain personality types get them. A little later, after a visit from the women, the disciples also share a hallucination of the risen Jesus. Another hallucination of the risen Jesus is also received by, James and Thomas the skeptics and 500 people at once and another by Saul of Tarsus. These hallucinations, normally uninspiring events, transforms the lives of the disciples and Saul and they boldly preach a risen Jesus to the citizens of Jerusalem. The Jews, seeing the explosive growth of the Christian church based on this preaching, decide against going to Jesus’ nearby tomb and bringing out his bones to show the preaching is based on a lie; they instead claim that the disciples stole the body of Jesus.

All these make it obvious that attempts to explain away some of the facts fall short of fitting all the facts. This is why the resurrection of Jesus is still the most reasonable of possible explanations.

As J.N.D. Anderson who read Law at Harvard, Cambridge and Princeton said, "It can be asserted with confidence that men and women disbelieve the Easter story not because of the evidence, but in spite of it."
- posted by Alan Grey @ Tuesday, April 18, 2006