Reading the Gospels Together

The Resurrection – Part 1

We have seen how all four gospel writers share the common facts that Jesus was crucified at Golgotha between two others, that he died as any other human being dies, and that his dead body was buried in a rock-hewn tomb. There is no hint in any of the gospels that this might have been an illusion or that somehow Jesus might have survived through the ordeal. His death was no different than anyone else’s death. Of that we can be sure. It is the testimony of all four gospel writers. All four gospel writers also proclaim to their readers that Jesus was raised from the dead. Readers of each of the gospels are not surprised by this since each author has told them that it would happen. On the other hand, it seems clear that the resurrection came as a huge surprise to the followers of Jesus – it was the last thing they expected to happen. Even though the gospel writers claim that Jesus had predicted that he would rise again, apparently his followers did not believe him or did not comprehend what he said. There is not a hint in any of the four gospels that any of the followers of Jesus anticipated or expected the resurrection. We will need to think about why this is the case and what that might mean.

As with the crucifixion we might expect that the gospel writers would all agree with one another about the resurrection. Once again that is not the case. They all tell different stories. I have mentioned in the past how the tension in all of these stories with their differences was a serious faith struggle for me personally. I wondered if any of the stories were believable if these witnesses couldn’t get this story straight. If they couldn’t agree about this crucial story how could I trust any of what they had to say? Thinking our way through all of these differences is a challenge for us. But, as we have learned along the way, we can be led to the right questions and grow from hearing these four witnesses. So we move ahead to hear their distinctive story and ask the most important question, “Why did they tell the story as they did?” In this section we will need to consider Mark 16:1-8, (We will not look at the alternate endings of Mark’s gospel except to comment briefly on them); Matthew 28:1-20; Luke 24:1-53, Acts 1:1-11; John 20:1-21:25 and 1 Corinthians 15:3-11 (which of course is not one of the gospels but provides an important reference from Paul regarding the resurrection).

Before we proceed it is important that we notice that there are two types of resurrection stories – stories of the empty tomb and stories of bodily resurrection appearances of Jesus. All four gospel writers provide their readers with the first type – the empty tomb. Mark provides his readers with only an empty tomb story. Matthew, Luke, and John all provide their readers with both types.

It is important for us to consider as well what readers of the gospels might have been thinking about with respect to what “resurrection” meant to them. This is a very difficult thing for us to do since we are so far removed from their time and we have our own concepts to deal with. But we need to make an attempt. First of all, if we think about the non-Jewish world, there is no evidence that anyone in that world of ideas believed in a bodily resurrection. No one had ever come back from the dead. In the mythology of that world people did imagine that there was a “place of the dead” which was usually called Hades, but that place was an underworld where one’s existence was sometimes thought of as being in limbo or sometimes being in some kind of paradise. It was certainly a place that no one would return from. There were some who believed in the concept of an immortal soul that continued on after the death of the body. But that soul would never return to its previous body. Perhaps it would migrate to re-unite with god. Perhaps it may even migrate into another body. Or, one might somehow become “one of the gods” as the emperors sometimes claimed for their predecessors and even for themselves. What that existence might have been like no one knows but certainly it was not a new existence in the same body as one had in this life. Bodily resurrection was not something any non-Jewish person believed. At least in the early years of Judaism a similar concept prevailed. The Israelites called it Sheol – the place of the dead. For most Jews this was a murky place where one’s existence was unknown and you did not return from Sheol. In the hundred years or so prior to the coming of Jesus Jews began to believe that there would be a resurrection at the end of this age when God established God’s kingdom. One of the main factors driving this belief was the Maccabean revolt 165 years before the birth of Jesus. Many righteous people lost their lives in the slaughter of Antiochus Epiphanes and people began to believe that it was not just that they were robbed of their life prematurely. God must be just and so God will provide a way for those righteous ones who died to enjoy God’s kingdom in a resurrected body. By the time of Jesus most Jews believed in this resurrection. It was a resurrection that would happen in the culmination of time when God established God’s kingdom. It was not an automatic continued existence but a life that God would give. Some thought God would only give resurrection to the just who, by God’s goodness, would have a chance to enjoy the life they were deprived. Others began to believe that God would raise all people at the last day and that the just would receive the good life in God’s kingdom and the unjust would be sent to eternal punishment. None of the Jewish people believed in the immortality of the soul – they did not separate soul from body. The idea that the soul of a person would automatically live on after death was a foreign concept for Jewish people. No Jewish person would have believed in the bodily resurrection of a person before the great and terrible day of the Lord when God would establish God’s kingdom. We see this idea in the response of Martha to Jesus regarding Lazarus. Martha has no trouble believing the Lazarus will be raised on the last day. She cannot comprehend that Jesus will raise him on that very day – it simply was not in her thoughts. The point here is that the concept of resurrection was a part of the majority of Jewish people’s belief system at the time of Jesus but it was a resurrection that would be delayed to the end of time and it was something only God could grant. That Jesus should have been raised after three days was something they did not expect and so they were taken by complete surprise. That Jesus had died and that Jesus was raised bodily is the testimony of the four gospel writers and of the first Christians. It was the one distinctive thing about their belief and the crux of the matter. So we are dealing with a very crucial idea in these stories – it was an unexpected event, a new event, and a life-changing event. The resurrection of Jesus is what gave birth to the Christian church. So with that in mind we proceed to listen to the gospel writer’s stories.