Title: Jesus Sightings
Text: Matthew 28:1-10 (11-15)
Thesis: Sometimes the least likely are most likely to catch a glimpse of the risen Christ.
Introduction
On a flight to Florida, an educational psychologist was preparing her notes for a presentation to a parent-education seminar in Miami. An elderly woman was seated next to her and as she chit-chatted she explained that she was returning to Miami from Boston where she had spent two weeks visiting her six children, eighteen grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.
The grandmother then asked her seat companion what she did for a living and the psychologist told her about her work and was bracing for the usual onslaught of usual questions and probing for free professional advice. Instead, the elderly woman sat back, opened her magazine and said, “If there’s anything you want to know, just ask me.” (Homiletics, April 2010, P. 68)
So much for being an expert!
On May 10, 2005 ABCNews correspondent Elizabeth Vargas hosted Resurrection, a 20/20 news special that asked: “What really happened after Jesus’ crucifixion?” She asked scholars, theologians and archeologists the questions millions of people have wondered about: “Was the tomb empty? Did Jesus physically rise from the dead and walk around on Earth after his death? Or were his followers simply highly imaginative?” (http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Resurrection/story?id=744818&page=1)
In an interview with beliefnet, Vargas spoke of her interest in the resurrection. And she added her belief that there are many people who think the resurrection of Christ is one of the single most important events in the history of humankind.
She spoke of how she had interviewed a range of biblical scholars and leading theologians from the evangelical, Jewish and Catholic worlds. Her research included scholars with a liberal bent as well as representatives from the Jesus Seminar. She noted that while there may be vast differences between what they believe, they all agreed the tomb was empty, including non-believers. (http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Movies/2005/05/Investigating-The-Resurrection.aspx)
In her report on the resurrection, Vargas quoted many scholars and among those quoted were:
1. William Lane Craig of Talbot School of Theology who stated: “He [Jesus] probably literally got up and walked out of the tomb.”
2. Kathleen E. Corley of the Jesus Seminar stated: “I think it was visions and hallucinations.”
3. Daniel Schwartz of Hebrew University in commenting on the resurrection of Christ stated: “Something definitely happened.”
Whatever you may think of expert witnesses, there is plenty of evidence beginning to surface in the literary world that calls experts and expert studies into question. In fact David Freedman, in his book Wrong: Why Experts Keep Failing Us rattles off factoids that include statements to the effect that two-thirds of the findings published in the top medical journals are refuted within a few years. He says there is statistically a 1 in 12 chance that a medical doctor’s diagnosis will be so wrong that it causes the patient significant harm. (Kayla Webley, Experts and Studies: Not Always Trustworthy, Time Magazine, June 29, 2010)
Of course Freedman himself cites numerous experts so I guess it is likely that much of his findings are hokey as well.
But I think the point is well taken, researchers can pretty much research and manipulate their finding through selectivity to support whatever they want to prove.
However, it is interesting to me that if we just set aside all the biblical, theological and archeological scholarship, if we just set aside all the collected wisdom of all the experts and simply look at the story of the resurrection of Christ and listen to the simple testimony of people who were there… maybe it isn’t all that hard to arrive at the truth.
The most credible of witnesses are eyewitnesses.
I. The most credible witness to truth is an eye witness
So the women hurried away from the tomb afraid, yet filled with joy, and ran to tell the disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They ran to him, clasped his feet and worshipped him. Matthew 28:8-9
A. The resurrection is the linchpin of our faith.
On the farm you are likely to see just about anything imaginable used to tie things together. Bailing wire is always good for a make-shift, stop-gap solution. But if you were hooking a tractor and an implement together you use a reliable and substantial link... otherwise the implement may come loose and a run-a-way farm implement is not a pretty sight.
There are all kinds of hitching mechanism but a linchpin is a popular means of connecting and holding things together. A linchpin is a locking pin that once in place and locked will not slip out.
The resurrection is a linchpin to the Christian faith. Without the resurrection there is no hope of eternal life left for Christianity.
Paul wrote in Corinthians, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified that God has raised Christ from the dead. But if he did not raise him, if in fact the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, our faith is futile; we are still in our sins. If Christ has not been raised those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” I Corinthians 15:13-19
Removing the resurrection from our faith and hope is like removing the linchpin that holds it all together. Without it our faith comes apart. Our faith disconnects without the linchpin fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. But, as Paul stated, “Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” I Corinthians 15:20
B. Eyewitnesses secure the linchpin of our faith.
Whenever we want to discover the truth about something we turn to the experts. Experts assess and diagnose. Experts uncover and explain. Experts dig in and dig up and display what they find. Experts analyze and finalize truth. But whatever conclusion the experts make, it is hard to discount the testimony of a simple eyewitness.
Our story says that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were the first to encounter the risen Christ on Easter Sunday Morning. It is not surprising that Jesus revealed himself to them before anyone else.
1. Mary and the other Mary were at the cross. “Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.” Matthew 27:55-56
2. Mary and the other Mary were at the tomb when Jesus was buried. “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.” Matthew 27:61
3. And Mary and the other Mary, bringing spices, went to the tomb on Easter Sunday morning to properly prepare the body of Christ for burial. The bible says the stone had been rolled away from the tomb opening and they went to look into the tomb.
But instead of finding the bruised and broken, hastily wrapped, stone-cold and stiff body of Christ resting on a slab… they saw an angel from God who said to them, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples.” ( Matthew 28:5-7) And it was as they hurried away to tell the disciples the news of Christ’s resurrection that Jesus appeared to them and talked to them.
Eyewitnesses are critical to knowing the truth.
A man with a gun went into a bank and demanded their money.
Once he was given the money, he turned to a customer and asked, “Did you see me rob this bank?” The man replied, “Yes sir, I did.” The robber then shot the man.
He then turned to a couple standing next to him and asked the man, “Did
you see me rob this bank?” The man replied, “No sir, I didn’t, but my wife did.”
Eyewitnesses are critical to knowing the truth.
One of the most powerful proofs of the resurrection is recorded in I Corinthians 15 where Paul wrote, “For this is what I received… 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 Peter…
And that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also.”
I have occasionally been privy to hearings and court cases. I have found the jury selection to be an extremely tedious and thorough process designed to assure the citizenry that the truth is known and justice is served. And I have found that the examination and cross-examination of witness was equally tedious, thorough and time consuming.
In the case of the resurrection of Christ, that means that if the prosecution and defense attorneys were to examine and cross-examine 500 of those eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Christ, for a minimum of 15 minutes each, it would take 125 hours. If they began their testimony this morning at 8 a.m. and continued non-stop, day and night for 125 hours, their testimonies would conclude next Saturday, April 30 at 2 p.m. in the afternoon.
It is very difficult to discredit the testimony of over 500 eyewitnesses but there are always those who try. Fortunately,
II. The truth cannot be squelched.
When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldier a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’” Matthew 28:11-15
Isn’t it interesting how some people can hear the truth and still conspire to deny it?
Body-snatching and grave-robbing are age old and grotesque practices that have been lucrative to those who deal in the sale of cadavers or the pilfering of artifacts and personal effects for profit. It did and does happen. It is not all that far-fetched.
So the religious leaders concocted a bazaar story of how body- snatchers robbed Jesus’ grave in an attempt to convince everyone that since his body was missing, he must have risen from the grave.
That scenario might be plausible if it were not for the fact that a ruse cannot explain the fervor and faithfulness unto death that characterized those early followers of Christ. And that scenario might be plausible if it were not for the changed lives and ongoing presence and power of Christ in the lives of his followers over the centuries.
Lee Eclov, in his sermon Which Watchers? states, “Like those chief priests and guards, surrendering to the resurrected Christ is costly – it requires humility and maybe more. It means saying you were wrong and bowing to what the bible calls, ‘the foolishness of the cross.’ A lot of people would rather lie to themselves than face the fact and the meaning of the resurrection of Christ.”
J. Vernon McGee was a well-known pastor, bible scholar and radio preacher who founded Through The Bible Radio Network. He had a very large and faithful following before his death in 1988. One amusing anecdote from his years of radio ministry is of how on one occasion a woman wrote to him following hearing her pastor preach on Easter Sunday that Jesus had simply swooned on the cross. Her pastor had said Jesus did not really die and that his disciples had stolen his body and then nursed him back to health. She wanted J. Vernon McGee to respond.
J. Vernon McGee wrote, “Beat your pastor with a leather whip 39 heavy strokes. Nail him to a cross. Hang him in the sun for six hours. Run a spear through his heart. Embalm him. Put him in an airtight crypt for three days. Then see what happens.”
There is a point when unbelief is not the result of rational thought but a stubborn heart. The evidence is such that you could say that those who refuse to believe are not deep thinkers but people who have stopped thinking.
In 2006 the documentary film An Inconvenient Truth won an Oscar at the Academy Awards for Best Documentary. The film earned $49 million at the box office (the sixth largest documentary box office earner in history) and is credited with raising international public awareness of climate change around the world. Whatever you may think of the documentary the fact is, it was and is an inconvenient truth to those who do not and who do not want to believe in climate change and global warming.
For the naysayers to the resurrection, the resurrection of Christ is a very inconvenient truth.
Conclusion:
What does all of this mean to me?
In an interview with Prism Magazine, German Theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg stated, “The evidence for the resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things: First, it is a very unusual event. And second, if you believe it happened, you have to change the way you live.”
Dave Dorr wrote in his blog of a firefighter in his church who told of a fellow firefighter who said Jesus was for weak people.
Dorr wrote of the fire hydrant on the corner in front of his house and of how it never occurred to him to be embarrassed to have a fire hydrant in front of his house…. as if only weak people need a fire hydrant. It never occurred to him that he did not need a fire hydrant and that should his house catch on fire he should be able to handle the fire all by himself. Only a weak person would need a fire hydrant and firemen to help him douse the flames if his house was on fire. (Dave Dorr, Cincinnati, Ohio, on Resurgence.com)
That kind of reasoning is irrational and ridiculous. And it is equally irrational and terribly presumptuous to assume you do not need God. The resurrected and living Christ invites us to bring our stuff and ourselves to him:
1. Our Stuff, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
2. Our Selves, Jesus said, “Come, follow me.” Matthew 4:19
As we bring our stuff and ourselves to Christ we too come face to face with the living and life-changing Christ. And it is the witness of personal experience upon personal experience upon personal experience over the centuries, that continues to attest to the reality of the living Christ.
That’s when the least likely are most likely to catch a glimpse of the risen Christ.
