3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 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. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. (I Cor. 15:3-9)
It must be surprising for people outside the Christian faith to discover that Christians believe the Easter story is real. They may assume that we believe in this story but see it as an instructive and hopeful fable, a myth to guide our lives and comfort us in troubles. They may assume however much we celebrate, that we are tongue in cheek about it. However, the church has made belief in the visible, bodily resurrection of Jesus a core doctrine since the very beginning. You must believe it to be a Christian. Leave it out and you have a Jesus-esque philosophy that competes with other human philosophies on equal ground. Belief in the real resurrection of Jesus defines a Christian, and always has.
Why would people educated in the modern world believe such a story? Should a story about one day in history really drive a world religion? Shouldn’t we be suspicious of a story told by a small group of very close disciples of Jesus? Modern people immediately go to a number of possibilities when twelve close-knit people say they saw a dead man walking. Did they conspire? Did they take a hallucinogenic drug and see similar things? Did they wish something so much they felt his presence? We are blessed with more than one piece of evidence in the scriptures to help us answer this.
1 Corinthians 15:3-9 tells us that the story gets better than just Easter Sunday. There were, in a manner of speaking, multiple “Easters”. There were many appearances to many people over multiple days.
The passage above mentions three individual appearances (Peter, James and Paul), and two corporate appearances to the 12 disciples and to a group of more than 500 men and women. This is a different historical claim than saying Jesus appeared only to his close band of followers one time. There were individual appearances probably to take care of some personal business (Peter’s three denials). There were corporate appearances that built solidarity and provided assuring proof. The claim of Paul of more than 500 witnesses at one time (perhaps at the ascension) overcomes the suspicion of a Passover plot where a conspiracy was hatched among Jesus and the twelve to keep Jesus’ teaching alive. I notice that some of the witnesses were women, including in the band of 500. That means something to me as I appreciate the diversity of this band of witnesses. If only men had seen him, it would seem strange to me today!
3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:3)
This verse gives shape to the account of Paul by letting us know that these appearances were repeated over many days, and that he gave many proofs of his resurrection. These included things like teaching them about the kingdom of God, and eating with them.
Perhaps we should be greeting each other with “Happy Easters” (I’m joking - that would be a little weird). As much as we think about the passion week events, we might spend some time thinking about a 40-day period that was important to the spread of the Christian gospel. In those forty days, Jesus persuaded his followers that he had both died on the cross (the flow of water and blood from his side, the wounds of the cross and the spear), and that he rose with a real physical body.
Just a few decades after all these events, while many of the witnesses were still around to edit the stories, the accounts were put down in writing, copied, and distributed to churches in the ancient world. The testimony of these witnesses was often tested through intense suffering. These reliable accounts answer questions and assure us in our faith.
With believers since day one, we gladly proclaim, “on the third day he rose again from the dead...”
In Him,
Don Ward