How much of the Resurrection story is factually true, and what does it mean for us? I don’t know. I’m certain the New Testament was intended to contain accounts of real events, things that really did happen, yet the details about the Resurrection and what happened afterwards are mysteriously vague. Why did Jesus appear in a form that was unrecognisable to his closest disciples? Who was the man dressed in white who addressed Mary at the tomb? What happened during that period between Jesus’ resurrection and departure, and where did He really go?
On the surface, it’s more plausible there was either trickery involved, the Apostles had some kind of shared vision or hallucination, or the Apostles fabricated the story, but serious problems arise when attempting to marry facts with those hypotheses. The alternative, that Jesus truly was the resurrected son of God, seems absurd and irrational today, as it seemed to the skeptics and pagans during the 1st century.
What I think is different in today’s society is our tendency to focus on the provenance of the accounts while overlooking meaning. Resurrection is a confirmation that Jesus’ crucifixion wasn’t the end of His mission, that there is something that transcends even death, that there is no error or injustice that cannot be rectified, that there is an ultimate source of justice and mercy.
My own belief is based almost entirely on Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, which, as far as I know, is the closest we have to a first-hand account that was verifiable at the time, and the absolute conviction in the resurrected Christ turned twelve scared fugitives into brazen evangelists prepared to face hardship, imprisonment, torture and execution.
The Burial of Jesus
I think it’s safe to assume that Jesus, at least approximately as described in the New Testament, was an historical person, that the authorities made an example of Him by crucifixion, and that He was totally dead when taken down from the cross. Even if Jesus had somehow survived the Crucifixion, as some hypotheses posit, it’s almost certain He would have died shortly after. Basically there’s no conceivable way Jesus could have visited the disciples several days later without a miracle.
All four Gospel authors are consistent in their description of how Jesus was laid to rest – the details of this must have been commonly known among them, as these parts of the Gospels were authored independently and from different sources. Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy member of the council and secretly a disciple, asked Pilate for Jesus’ body. Wrapping it in linen, Joseph placed this body in a tomb, which was sealed with a large stone.
Matthew tells us that guards were placed near the tomb, because the Pharisees thought it likely that disciples would steal the body and claim Jesus was resurrected, so ‘[…] they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.‘ This guard could have consisted of one or several soldiers, and the seal might have a warning inscribed. The scriptures don’t say.
The Empty Tomb
There are variations between the four Gospels in the details of how the tomb was discovered empty, but generally this is what’s written: Mary Magdalene, perhaps accompanied by an unknown number of women, visited the tomb during the early hours of Sunday morning. The tomb was already opened, and at least one unknown man, dressed in white, was present – the soldiers that were apparently guarding the tomb were in fear of him. This man told Mary that Jesus was not dead, and had travelled ahead to Galilee, where He would meet with the disciples.
Mary immediately left and informed the Apostles that Jesus’ body was missing, and Peter and John went to see for themselves. At this point it didn’t seem to have occurred to anyone that Jesus was resurrected, but rather that the body was stolen – this is what the disciples initially seemed to believe.
The two likely explanations that come to mind are: a) Someone who wasn’t connected to the authorities or the Apostles removed the body, and b) Mary, Peter and John were looking in the wrong tomb. In any case, we can be certain that Jesus’ body was missing, since nobody could claim there was a resurrection without that having been established.
Appearance to the Disciples
Up until this point, the Gospels are more or less consistent as we could expect from second-hand accounts, written from different perspectives, decades after the fact. The Gospel accounts of what occurred afterwards, however, are vague, inconsistent and difficult to discern.
I think the best evidence we have that the first Christians sincerely believed they witnessed a resurrected Jesus, tenuous though it might be, is Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. This was written around AD50, and it not only gives the order in which Jesus appeared to the disciples, but also pointed readers to numerous witnesses who were still alive – the Apostles, Jesus’ brother James, Peter and several hundred followers. The passage appears to have been the first creed, which was the common affirmation of belief among Christians within a few years of the Resurrection:
‘For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.‘
The following version of events is told only in the Gospels of Luke and John, and hinted at in verses later added to Mark:
Two disciples were travelling to Emmaus when they were joined by a third man neither of them recognised. When queried about recent events, the disciples told the stranger what had happened, that Jesus, a prophet they hoped would redeem Israel, was executed by the Romans by the demand of the chief priests – apparently this was a widely known event at the time. The three men continued travelling, and it wasn’t until they’d reached their destination and started eating together that the two men recognised the stranger as Jesus. He disappeared in front of them.
Immediately the two disciples went to the Apostles, who were assembled in a locked room, fearing retribution from the authorities, and reported what they’d experienced. While they were discussing this, Jesus appeared in the room, his first words being ‘Peace be with you.’
Understandably, the men were shaken up, thinking they were seeing a ghost, and Jesus, being aware of this, said to them: ‘Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.‘
Thomas wasn’t present on that occasion, and when he returned and was told about what happened, he was naturally skeptical: ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.‘
And that’s exactly what happened a week later, when the Apostles and Thomas were assembled in the room, still hiding from the authorities. Jesus again appeared to them, this time proving to Thomas that he was physically there and that His wounds could be seen and felt.
Quite clearly the Apostles were proclaiming a resurrection that was unmistakeably a physical one, not spiritual. And for all intents and purposes the disciples were interacting with a living person, not an hallucination or apparition.
Gospels End
Though it’s stated in the opening chapter of the first book of Acts that Jesus spent another forty days with the disciples, little is written about this period, and the story ends rather abruptly. There are two events of note: In the Gospel of John, where it interestingly ends with a story of Jesus spending time with the disciples by the sea of Galilee. This is where Jesus commissioned Peter to lead the Church, and John writes about himself in the third person. At the end it says that Jesus did many other things, and the Gospel ends with the statement that Jesus did many other things.
The Gospel of Matthew ends with simply a few lines, in what seems a hastily-added conclusion to the story. There, Jesus meets with the disciples on a mountain in Galilee, and he commissions them to preach to the world.
The original version of Mark’s Gospel says very little about the Resurrection, and the sections later added state that Jesus commissioned the disciples to preach to the world, then Jesus was taken into Heaven. Luke’s Gospel states that Jesus was taken into Heaven and the disciples stayed at the temple for a while after. Hence my earlier question: What actually happened to Jesus, and where did He really go?
The ending of John’s Gospel is slightly different, however, being an account of what John told the Gospel’s author. John 21 is quite detailed in telling the story of how the disciples went fishing, met Jesus on the shore, and they all sat around a fire to eat. After they were done eating, Jesus tells Peter to be the shepherd for his followers. Jesus and Peter walk off together, with John following them. There the story ends.
A Catholic Commentarium 