Meet the Real Jesus by John Blanchard

Author:John Blanchard [Blanchard, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Evangelical Press
Published: 2014-01-10T00:00:00+00:00

7

The man who came back

Jesus died when he was in his early thirties, and if that had been the end of the story this book would never have been written. What forces it into print is the Bible’s insistence that within three days of his execution he rose from the dead.

Needless to say, those eleven words trigger off a barrage of questions. What does ‘rose from the dead’ mean? How can we be sure that he did? What are the implications? Is there a more straightforward explanation for what the Bible says? There are many others. In this chapter we will look for the answers.

Narrative in a nutshell

Shortly after Jesus died, a wealthy follower called Joseph, from the town of Arimathea, got Pontius Pilate’s permission to remove the body. After getting help to take it down from the cross, he wrapped it in linen and placed it in his own private tomb, carved out of rock in a nearby garden. At least two women (both called Mary) watched the burial take place. The entrance to the tomb was then covered with a huge stone.

On the following day, Jewish religious leaders reminded Pilate that Jesus had prophesied that he would rise from the dead in three days. To prevent his followers removing the body and then claiming that he had done this, Pilate agreed to provide extra security. A detachment of soldiers was posted at the tomb and Pilate’s official seal was attached to the stone covering the entrance. Jesus died at about 3 p.m. on Friday and, as a devout Jew, Joseph made sure that he was buried before the Sabbath began at 6 p.m. But when the two Marys, with another woman called Salome, returned to the garden on Sunday morning, there was no guard, the seal was broken, the stone was rolled away from the entrance—and the body had gone. Suddenly, an angel appeared and told the women not to be afraid, because Jesus had risen from the dead exactly as he had prophesied. They were on their way back into the city to tell the disciples when Jesus himself appeared to them and told them to inform the disciples that he would meet them later. The Gospels and Acts then record eleven separate occasions when Jesus met with individuals or groups of people over the course of the following seven weeks. After a final conversation with some of them near the town of Bethany, ‘He parted from them and was carried up into heaven’ (Luke 24:51).

Missing person

So much for the outline, now for the detail. We begin with something over which there can be no argument: on that Sunday morning the body had gone. At least five people who visited the site that day confirmed this, and not a single person is known to have denied it. Within a few weeks Jesus’ friends were risking their lives on the streets of Jerusalem by preaching that he had come back to life. Yet if the tomb was not

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