Jesus’ life is bracketed by two impossibilities: a virgin’s womb and an empty tomb. Over the years unbelievers and sceptics have come up with several proposed explanations for the empty tomb. For example:

• It is sometimes said, Jesus was only unconscious and he later revived. But a Roman soldier told Pilate that Jesus was dead (Mark 15:44-45); the reason the soldiers didn’t break Jesus’ legs was because he had already died. You remember one of them pierced Jesus’ side with a spear. And Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus wrapped Jesus’ body and placed it in the tomb. (John 19:32-34, 38-40)
• It has been suggested that the women must have made a mistake and gone to the wrong tomb. But Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw Jesus placed in the tomb (Matthew 27:59-61, Mark 15:47, Luke 23:55). And on Sunday morning Peter and John also went to the same tomb. (John 20:3-9)
• Some say that unknown thieves must have stolen Jesus’ body. But the tomb was sealed and guarded by Roman soldiers. (Matthew 27:65-66).
• And if for some strange reason the Roman or Jewish authorities had removed the body from the tomb, well then they would have produced it as soon as Jesus’ followers claimed that he was alive again and the Christian church would have collapsed on the spot.
• Some even think what the witnesses saw was a hallucination. But that’s not possible because so many people saw the risen Jesus at different times, including natural sceptics like ‘doubting Thomas.’ In fact there are over 550 eye witness accounts of the resurrection in the New Testament, including once by over 500 people at one time, and when the apostle Paul recorded this well over half of those were still alive and could confirm the fact (see 1 Corinthians 15:6).
• Before Jesus rose from the dead his followers hid behind locked doors ‘for fear of the Jews’ (John 20:19). Yet a few weeks later they risked persecution, imprisonment, torture and even death because they had seen Jesus alive again. People sometimes die for something they believe to be true but nobody is prepared to die for something they know is false, especially if they concocted the lie.
• As author John Blanchard writes: ‘The Christian church is the largest religious body the world has ever known (over two billion and growing by the thousand every day) and no other group, religious or otherwise, has made a greater contribution to the well-being of humankind. Yet the church is not based on the moral example Jesus set, nor on his death, but on his resurrection. For 2,000 years this has been its driving force and the only explanation for its existence. The first Christian church was known as ‘the Way’ (Acts 9:2), but if Jesus had remained in the grave ‘the Way’ would have become a dead end! As one preacher put it, ‘The Grand Canyon wasn’t caused by an Indian dragging a stick, and the Christian church wasn’t created by a myth.’

Jesus’ life is bracketed by two impossibilities: a virgin’s womb and an empty tomb. Over the years unbelievers and sceptics have come up with several proposed explanations for the empty tomb. For example:

• It is sometimes said, Jesus was only unconscious and he later revived. But a Roman soldier told Pilate that Jesus was dead (Mark 15:44-45); the reason the soldiers didn’t break Jesus’ legs was because he had already died. You remember one of them pierced Jesus’ side with a spear. And Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus wrapped Jesus’ body and placed it in the tomb. (John 19:32-34, 38-40)
• It has been suggested that the women must have made a mistake and gone to the wrong tomb. But Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw Jesus placed in the tomb (Matthew 27:59-61, Mark 15:47, Luke 23:55). And on Sunday morning Peter and John also went to the same tomb. (John 20:3-9)
• Some say that unknown thieves must have stolen Jesus’ body. But the tomb was sealed and guarded by Roman soldiers. (Matthew 27:65-66).
• And if for some strange reason the Roman or Jewish authorities had removed the body from the tomb, well then they would have produced it as soon as Jesus’ followers claimed that he was alive again and the Christian church would have collapsed on the spot.
• Some even think what the witnesses saw was a hallucination. But that’s not possible because so many people saw the risen Jesus at different times, including natural sceptics like ‘doubting Thomas.’ In fact there are over 550 eye witness accounts of the resurrection in the New Testament, including once by over 500 people at one time, and when the apostle Paul recorded this well over half of those were still alive and could confirm the fact (see 1 Corinthians 15:6).
• Before Jesus rose from the dead his followers hid behind locked doors ‘for fear of the Jews’ (John 20:19). Yet a few weeks later they risked persecution, imprisonment, torture and even death because they had seen Jesus alive again. People sometimes die for something they believe to be true but nobody is prepared to die for something they know is false, especially if they concocted the lie.
• As author John Blanchard writes: ‘The Christian church is the largest religious body the world has ever known (over two billion and growing by the thousand every day) and no other group, religious or otherwise, has made a greater contribution to the well-being of humankind. Yet the church is not based on the moral example Jesus set, nor on his death, but on his resurrection. For 2,000 years this has been its driving force and the only explanation for its existence. The first Christian church was known as ‘the Way’ (Acts 9:2), but if Jesus had remained in the grave ‘the Way’ would have become a dead end! As one preacher put it, ‘The Grand Canyon wasn’t caused by an Indian dragging a stick, and the Christian church wasn’t created by a myth.’