As we continue our
Easter celebration, I thought it might be a good time to revisit the
Resurrection as an event. How do we know it happened? What is the evidence
we look for, and what are theologians saying about it?
Over the past few
years I have read many articles and books on the Resurrection of Jesus.
Some simply state the Resurrection as fact and talk about its
significance. Others question the historical reality of the Resurrection.
Was it just an expression of the faith of the apostles? Would
anyone else have been able to see Jesus? Did it really happen?
St. Paul tells us in
his letter to the Corinthians: "And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching
is void and your faith is empty, too. Indeed, we should then be exposed as
false witnesses of God, for we have borne witness before him that he raised up
Christ; but he certainly did not raise him up if the dead are not raised.
Why? Because if the dead are not raised , then Christ was not raised; and
if Christ was not raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in your
sins, and those who have fallen asleep in Christ are the deadest of the dead.
If our hopes in Christ are limited to this life only, we are the most
pitiable of all men." (I Cor. 15:14-19)
So the Resurrection is
a fact. But what was Jesus like after the Resurrection? Was he just
a ghost or did he have bodily form?
To answer some of
these questions let's look at the evidence. First is the empty tomb.
The fact that the tomb of Jesus was empty does not in itself prove
anything. There can be other explanations for the empty tomb. One
is that the disciples of Jesus came in the night a stole his body. This
is what the Sanhedrin feared would happen and why they insisted that Pilot
place guards at the tomb. What the empty tomb can tell us is that the
Resurrection, if it happened, was a bodily Resurrection. In other words,
Jesus was risen in his body. His body no longer lays in the tomb but is
resurrected. He was not a ghost when he appeared to his disciples.
The fact that Jesus
first appeared to women is another piece of the evidentiary puzzle.
Women, at the time of Christ, had no real rights. Their testimony
could not be used as evidence in court. If the Resurrection was a faith
experience, or a fabrication by the apostles, they would not have had him
appear first to the women at the
tomb. In fact, the apostles themselves did not believe the testimony of
the women. Why should they expect anyone else to? The women were the
first to see Jesus and, therefore, the first to proclaim the Resurrection.
A thing that was simply not part of the cultural experience of the times.
It is the post
Resurrection appearances that give us the most data about the historical
reality of the event and what the nature of the resurrected Jesus was.
Recall that when Jesus first appeared to the disciples that first Easter
night, they thought they were seeing a ghost. Jesus assured them, using the
evidence of his hands and feet, that it was he and that he was not a ghost.
He upbraided them for not believing the women. He would appear to
them at least two more times, as well as appearing to others.
The nature of these
appearances and the activity Jesus is involved in during them shed some light
on his own resurrected nature. Jesus eats with the disciples. He
allows them to touch his wounds. He cooks for
them. All this indicate that Jesus rose in bodily form. It was the same
body he had before the resurrection. But is was also very different.
Jesus was no longer confined by space and time. He could appear
suddenly through locked doors. He could disappear just as suddenly as he
did with the disciples in Emmaus. Clearly he was not
bound by the human condition they way we still are and the way he was before
his resurrection. Jesus still had the same body he had before but his
body was now glorified. His is a resurrected body, not simply a
resuscitated one. His body was now free from all human defect and was no
longer bound by natural law. But it still was a physical body that could
be seen by the doubting disciples and could still perform such human activities
as eating and touching.
As the CATECHISM OF
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH states: "Given all these testimonies, Christ's
Resurrection can not be interpreted as something outside the physical order,
and it is impossible not to acknowledge it as an historical fact."
CCC#643
Jesus rose from the
dead, body and soul, a physical event that can be verified empirically.
The apostles saw him and retold the stories of his presence among them after
his Resurrection. His body, the same one he had before his Resurrection
was no longer bound the laws of nature but still retained his wounds of
crucifixion. As Christians, the historical accuracy of the Resurrection
is central to our belief.
As St. Paul says,
"If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is worthless."
