Page 146 - Advanced Life of Christ - Student Textbook

The ladies carried the message to the unbelieving disciples. Peter and John ran to the tomb. John
arriving first, waited outside, but Peter charged into the tomb to discover that the strips of cloth were
lying by themselves and Jesus was not there.

The Gospels agree that Jesus rose bodily on Sunday, the first day of the week. They also agree that
Mary Magdalene was the first witness of the empty tomb, and probably the resurrected Lord. This is an
important piece of historical evidence, since the testimony of a woman was of no legal value in ancient
Jewish society. Had some early church writers invented the story of the resurrection, they certainly
would not have emphasized Mary’s witness in the narrative.

Only Matthew mentions the earthquake during the crucifixion and only Matthew mentions again the
earthquake at the resurrection. This second earthquake shows the equal significance of the resurrection
to the crucifixion. The resurrection validated Christ’s death on the cross.

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I Corinthians 15:14-20 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is
in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised
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Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not
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even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in
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your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in
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this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the
firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

It is hard to understand the wickedness of most of the members of the Sanhedrin. The sixteen Roman
guards came to them to testify that an angel appeared and opened the stone that had covered the
mouth of the tomb. They had seen it with their eyes. Matthew tells us that when they heard the
testimony of the guards, they devised a wicked plan, gave the soldiers a large sum of money, and
demanded that they fabricate a lie concerning the event. They even promised protection for their lives
if word got back to Pilate. These religious leaders had broken the law in the trial of Jesus, lied to Pilate
with trumped charges, watched the day turn into night, viewed the veil in the temple ripped in two, felt
the earthquakes, heard of people raised from the dead, and heard the testimony of Christ’s resurrection
from the guards. Yet, after experiencing all this evidence to the valid claims of Jesus, they persisted in
spreading lies to the masses rather than admit that they had killed the Messiah.

Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene, then to the other women who had come to the tomb. He
appeared to the two disciples traveling to Emmaus, to Simon Peter, and to all the disciples, except
Thomas.

What is the importance of the empty tomb?
From the earliest apostolic period, the reality of the empty tomb—the biblical truth that the tomb of
Jesus of Nazareth was found empty by His disciples—has been at the center of the Christian
proclamation. All four Gospels describe, to varying degrees, the circumstances surrounding the
discovery of the empty tomb (Matthew 28:1–6; Mark 16:1–7; Luke 24:1–12; John 20:1–12). But are
there any good reasons to think that these claims are historically accurate? Could a fair-minded
investigator conclude that, in all probability, Jesus’ tomb was found empty on that first Easter morning?
There are several arguments that have convinced a good many historians that the tomb in which Jesus
was buried was indeed found empty on the Sunday following His crucifixion.

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