Newsflash!

Good evening! We interrupt the series on "Beginnings" with news of a dramatic event outside the city of Jerusalem. Actually, the event occurred almost 2,000 years ago, but its effect is still felt throughout the world today. I refer, of course, to the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, who had been crucified, and entombed, just a couple of days earlier. This was stupendous news then; it is equally stupendous news now. Well, it is if it is true! But what if it is what would nowadays be termed "fake news"?

There have certainly been those who have made that claim, and offered alternaive "theories" for what happened at the time. For example, there are those who claim that Jesus didn't actually die. What really happened, they claim, is that He swooned and, in the cool atmosphere of the tomb, He revived, made His way out, and claimed that He had risen from the dead!

Well, it may sound reasonable - but let's look a little more closely. This is a man who, prior to His crucifixion, suffered beating and lashing. The latter consisted of a whip, like the (in)famous "cat o' nine tails" (the true origin, by the way, of the saying: "There isn't room to swing a cat" - nothing to do with cruel treatment of our feline friends!). However, the Roman equivalent had the pieces of bone, and of metal, tied into the thongs. These cut deeply into the back of the victim - and many died from that treatment alone. Jesus was then forced to carry the crossbeam od the very cross on which He would be crucified, to the place of the execution of the death penalty. He was already, in His physical body, so weak that He was stumbling, and the Roman soldiers - not renowned for the pouring out of "the milk of human kindness" - eventually forced an onlooker to carry it for Him. It certainly wouldn't do for the condemned Man to die before His time! At Golgotha, the crossbeam was attached to the vertical post; the victim was thrown down on to it (not gently laid!) and by the use of ropes and nails, fastened to it. The cross was then raised, dropped into a prepared hole (try to imagine the physical agony thus generated!), and made steady with heavy stones that were put into the hole. 

The victim was left hanging, naked (the loincloth which Jesus is usually portrayed as wearing is a matter of respect, not authenticity!), while the soldiers of the execution squad shared out the belongings among themselves. Death could take as much as three days - and two days were apparently common - but, because it was close to Shabbat (that commenced at sunset), the Jewish hierarchy asked that the Roman soldiers speed things up. This was done by the simple expedient of breaking the legs of the victims. which meant that the victims could no longer push themselves up, and allow themselves release from slow suffocation. However, it wasn't as easy to do as one might think and, when they came to Jesus, they realised that He was already dead. Of course, just to make sure, they stabbed Him with a spear. An eye-witness account states that "... when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water." (John 19:33-34). 

Now, I confess that, when I was a great deal younger, and much less knowledgeable, I pictured that as being similar to the Mr Softee Ice-cream Machine with a choice of vanilla flavour, strawberry flavour, or a combination that issued from the appropriate nozzle as a single flow that was half of each flavour. However, modern medical science indicates that what John saw - from a distance of several yards - was blood that had gathered in the space between the chest wall and the lung. This, in a dead body, would have separated with the heavier red blood cells at the bottom, and the lighter, clear, plasma above. The red cells would have issued first, followed by the plasma which would have looked (certainly to a 1st century fisherman!) just like water! The point is that, unwittingly, John provided irrefutable evidence that Jesus was dead!

There can be no doubt about it. The Jesus Whose wonderful resurrection we remember, in a special way, today, was dead when Hios body was laid in the tomb.

Tyere are a number of other theories offered - but not one of them stands up to inspection. This post is now quite long enough, so I shan't look at any others. However, I may manage, if the Rapture is delayed, and I am still alive and well, to look at another one (or two!) next year! For now, I end with the age-honoured  declaration: "Jesus is risen!" "He is risen indeed!". "Glory, Hallelujah!"

The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed!

So Sunday has arrived!  The day on which the early disciples discovered an empty tomb, and a risen Lord.  Of course, there are those who have tried to explain away the resurrection of the Christ.  I deal with the major attempts in my book "Foundations of the Faith", but permit me to share a brief synopsis on this Resurrection Day.

One of the “alternative theories” that is offered is the one that claims that Jesus didn't really die! All that happened, it is suggested, is that He lost consciousness (or swooned) and then, in the cool of the tomb, He revived, made His way out, and showed Himself to the disciples as if He had risen from the dead! So, let's take a brief look at the evidence.

Think, first of all, of all of the physical torture that He had already endured. He had been awake for more than thirty–six hours (since the previous morning), and possibly closer to forty–eight when we remember that, two millennia ago, people tended to rise even before the sun. This would leave anyone physically exhausted. However, He had also been subjected to a number of ‘trials’ in which He was man–handled and abused. After all of that, He received a Roman flogging. This was certainly no picnic. He would have been stripped, at least to the waist; tied to a stake; and whipped up to thirty–nine times with a whip that had pieces of metal and bone attached to each of its many thongs.

However, more was to come. He now had to carry the crossbeam of the very cross on which He was to be crucified, all the way to Golgotha (Calvary), the place at which the death penalty was to be executed. Already, He was recognised by the Roman soldiers who escorted Him, as being so physically weak that they quickly compelled a visitor to Jerusalem, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the heavy crossbar on His behalf. Then, at Golgotha, He was tied, and nailed, to the cross which was raised to the vertical, and left hanging there in pain and agony, bruised and bleeding from the thorns that had been pressed into His skull; the lashes that He had received from the whip; the wounds made by the nails.

The final act in this drama was when the soldiers decided to “speed things up” by breaking the legs of the three victims (Jesus and the two thieves) in order that they might not find any relief by pushing their bodies upright and easing the suffocation by their own blood that was just one of the causes of death. When they came to Jesus, they were doubtless relieved to discover that He was already dead. However, as a form of insurance (because they were responsible, with their own lives, for the full execution of their gruesome task), one of them pushed his spear into Jesus' side, at an angle, that would almost certainly ensure that the heart would have been pierced.

Eventually, at the request of Joseph of Arimathea, the body was taken down. However, we have already noted that when he went to Pontius Pilate, the latter was surprised that Jesus was already dead and sent to the centurion in charge to check if this was so. The centurion, like the members of the execution squad, knew about death. None of them would have been easily fooled. They all knew that their own lives were forfeit if a prisoner escaped – even if it was by having revived from a swoon – and would, when ordered by the Procurator, have been extremely careful. Yet they allowed the body to be removed. This Man was most certainly dead!

However, let us, for the sake of argument, imagine that He had somehow fooled everyone. We must now assume that, having been wrapped up in the grave-clothes, and laid in the tomb, and the great stone rolled across the entrance to the tomb, He revived and, without any assistance managed, from the inside, and in His physically weakened state, to escape from the grave-clothes in such a way as to leave them looking undisturbed; roll the stone disc – probably some five feet (one hundred and fifty centimetres) in diameter, and six inches (fifteen centimetres) thick – up the slight incline that kept it in place; get past the guards who were on duty; find some suitable clothing; and appear to His disciples.  I would suggest that, to believe that all of that was possible requires a greater degree of ‘faith’ than to believe what the Gospel records teach!

Another suggestion is that it wasn't Jesus Who hung on the cross; that one of the disciples took His place so that He could appear as if He had risen from the dead (the usual Islamic explanation)! This requires a number of factors to come together. Jesus was not some non-entity. He was well known to the authorities. Accordingly, His ‘substitute’ would have had to be identical in build and appearance. This man would also have to be one of the disciple band. However, at this stage, the number of followers was relatively small, and most of them would have been known by others. Certainly, if there had been a ‘double’ that man would already have been marked out. Such a man would also have had to agree to take the punishment and death that was ahead. People at that time were all too aware of what crucifixion involved – let alone the previous flogging and other suffering – and it would have been an unusual man who would have volunteered to take another's place. Finally, there is the matter of the empty tomb – one aspect of the record that appears never to have been seriously questioned! Where was the body of this amazing ‘substitute’ going to be hidden while Jesus went around claiming to have risen from the dead? No, once again, the proposed ‘solution’ requires a greater leap of faith than does accepting the Biblical claim.

Yet again, there are those who suggest that the disciples stole the Body of Jesus, and then went about with these wild stories of His alleged appearances. This does have, at first sight, a measure of feasibility that is missing from the previous suggestions, and is the story which the Roman guards were bribed to repeat. They were even assured that they would not suffer the usual penalty for having ‘lost’ a prisoner (their own deaths) as the chief priests would square things up with the governor! (Matt.28:11–15).

Certainly, it could be argued that the disciples had a motive for so doing (although, remembering that they were scared for their own lives, such an action seems unlikely). But any police officer will assure us that, in investigating a crime, motive alone is insufficient. So, we must also ask about opportunity. How could the disciples have got past the guard and remove the body – and done so without disturbing the grave–clothes in any way? And is it reasonable to expect that a group of people, whose morale was completely gone, who were shattered and frightened, who were locked away “for fear of the Jews” (John 20:19), would have made such an attempt in any case?

Of course, it is always possible, as others argue, that the authorities – Roman and/or Jewish – could have removed the body to a different location in order to ensure that the tomb did not become a focus point for other dissidents! There would have been no problem with the guards, and they could have arranged for the safe disposal of the body. However, if that had been what happened one must ask why, when the reports of the resurrection started to circulate, they did not simply produce the body and parade it around Jerusalem! Such a simple action would have stopped the spread of the Christian Church right at the beginning. The irrefutable fact that they didn't do so, is evidence enough that they had not removed the body!

What we may state, with certainty, is that none of the ‘alternative’ explanations for the resurrection of Jesus - and there are others! - stands up to any sort of serious investigation, and we are left with only one conclusion; one that explains so much more – the later appearances of Jesus; the amazing change in the disciples; the very existence of the church. It is simply this: “... the third day, He rose again from the dead ...”.

The Christ's resurrection is proved as well as any historical fact, and in that, on this Resurrection Day, we may rejoice!

What's so "good" about Good Friday?

It does seem to be a strange way in which to refer to the day in which the focus for so many is the excruciatingly painful death, of an apparently innocent man, almost 2,000 years ago.  "Bad Friday"; "Black Friday"; even "Miserable Friday"; would surely be much more accurate!  So why "Good Friday"?

To understand this, we must go back to the very beginning of the human race, in that beautiful Garden "... in Eden, in the east;" (Gen 2:8).  Have you ever stopped to imagine it?  Planted by the Creator Himself, in a world in which there was no sin - in which mankind could meet with, and converse with, his Creator in a perfect relationship.  Truly paradise on earth!

However, such an idyllic state of affairs didn't last for long.  The story is there for all to read (Gen.3:1ff).  mankind - male and female - the pinnacle of creation, disobeyed even a simple command, and sin entered the world.  What could be done?  Mankind was punished; but a promise was given.  In what theologians refer to as the protoevangelium (literally, the first gospel), Almighty God says to the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." (Gen 3:15).  That "seed" is Jesus - the Christ (Messiah); and it is He Who hung upon that cross on that first Good Friday.

And that is why it is good!  The essence of the Gospel is that God loved the world so very much that, in Jesus, He paid the penalty that we owed; He took upon Himself the punishment that we deserved; He made it possible, again, for us to enjoy close communion with Him.  But it all depends on that Figure on the Cross at Mount Calvary (Golgotha).  Centuries before, the Jewish prophet, Isaiah, was granted a peek into the mists of future time.  He wrote, concerning the Lord Jesus: "He was despised and rejected by men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. By oppression and judgement He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made His grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence,and there was no deceit in His mouth.  Yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief; ..." (Isa. 53:3-10).  And for us - you and me - that's Good News!

Hallelujah!  What a Saviour!  Praise Him for this Good Friday!