Dr. Barclay with Something to Think About - THE FACTS

 

Once again we are approaching Easter, the time when we remember Christ’s sacrifice and subsequent resurrection. The fact is, however, that Easter, per se, has no real association with Christ, His death, or resurrection. In reality, Christ died at the time of Passover, not at the festival of Isthar (Easter) and most likely not on a Friday.  Nor was He likely resurrected on a Sunday. But regardless, the fact is, He was a real person who lived and walked on this earth in the first part of the first century.*

It is also fact that He died a cruel and painful death on a cross under Roman authority around 30 AD. Some sources seem to indicate that the short time He was on the cross may mean that He did not really die as He seemed, but that He somehow survived the ordeal. Many, however, are surprised that He even lived to be on the cross considering the torture that He suffered before His walk to Golgotha. In his book, The Crucifixion of Jesus A Forensic Inquiry, Dr Frederick Zugibe outlines the condition Jesus must have been in prior to the crucifixion. In fact, his survival was most likely only possible because of the Roman soldiers.  They were trained in keeping prisoners alive until the time of crucifixion and ensuring they were truly dead before being removed from the cross.**

Another fact is that He was alive again after being in the tomb for three days and three nights. This timing is significant for two reasons at least. Jesus had said previously, that only the sign of the prophet Jonah would be given to the generation to which He was speaking, “…And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights”( Jonah 1:17).  After three days in the grave, an ordinary body would have begun to decompose (e.g.: Lazarus) and “…by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead 4 days” (John 11:39).  The fact is that Jesus exited the tomb, just before Sunday after three days and three nights, and He was essentially as He had been before.

The fact of His early life is really not in question, nor really is His death on the cross disputed by any who has really studied the situation; and in fact, neither is the resurrection.  In addition to the many evidences in the Bible, there are the multiplicities of reports from non-Bibical sources on the subject of His life, death, and resurrection. Perhaps the most succinct s from Gilbert West, an 18th century theologian, who is mentioned in Michael Green’s book Man Alive.  In this text it is stated that: “the evidence points unmistakably to the fact that on the third day Jesus rose”*** However, the most impressive evidence may have come from the disciples themselves in the transformation that occurred after seeing Jesus alive following the crucifixion. From being unsure men, hiding behind doors during and just after Christ’s death, they became dynamos for the gospel; fearless in their approach and behaviour after seeing the resurrected Christ. The activities of these mostly uneducated disciples challenged the Jewish and Roman societies and changed the world forever.

The facts are these: Christ lived on earth, died on the cross, and lived again after the resurrection. Before, however, our heart can rejoice in such facts, our mind must be willing to accept them, and for that reason we must be willing and able to look for the true aspects of the faith and not be confused by other influences that have evolved. The disciples focused on one primary event as Paul states in 1 Corinthians 1:23: “[B]ut we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness…”

The difficulty today is that too many people still consider the event foolish and refuse to consider the facts. Perhaps it’s because the facts dispute man’s desire to do what each one considers his/her right; to be their own person and to be self made. This is siimilar to the time in Judges when “…everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).  In addition, accepting the facts would also mean that there is a God above us and to whom we must eventually give account. And that’s a fact we should certainly be thinking about.

*Did Jesus Exist by Bart D. Ehrman.  Professor of Religious Studies University of North Carolina

**The Crucifixion of Jesus A Forensic Inquiry by Frederick T. Zugibe, M.D., Ph.D.  Former Chief Medical Examiner of Rockland County N.Y.

***Gilbert West as noted in Man Alive by Michael Green and mentioned in The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Joel McDowell pg 219.