The Best Evidence For The Resurrection
This is a short devotional I wrote for my church today, but since you probably don’t go to church with me I thought I’d share it with you here.
How do you know the resurrection actually happened?
Can you prove it?
If so, how would you do that? What sort of evidence would you use?
An empty tomb is certainly a good start, but there are lots of empty tombs all across Jerusalem these days and have been for centuries. Yes, you say, they’re empty now, but have they been that way for 2,000 years? Perhaps not, but do you know which one of those empty tombs belonged to Jesus of Nazareth? Sure, there’s a big, old church built around one empty tomb, but there’s another empty tomb in a garden in another part of the city. But regardless of which option you choose, no one in the first century etched into its walls “this is the tomb where Jesus was buried.”
There’s obviously no video evidence or photographic proof of the resurrection happening either. But, you say, there are eyewitness testimonies! Yes, others might say, but they were written decades later. Memories get fuzzy, people misremember things and remember what they want to believe. Even the oldest testimony of the resurrection originally ends simply with an empty tomb. Originally, Mark didn’t tell us exactly why the tomb was empty or what happened to its former occupant.
Perhaps more glaringly and most challenging for any belief in the resurrection of Jesus is that his resurrected body is conspicuously absent from sight today. If he really did conquer the grave and continues to live to this day, why can’t we see him with our own eyes? Why isn’t he walking the streets of Jerusalem this very moment or traveling the preaching circuit or sitting down for dinner with friends?
Where exactly is this risen savior?
Is there any proof at all that he actually rose from the dead?
Anything we can point to and say, “See! There is the proof that all things are being made new!”
Allow me to suggest that there is good evidence from the truth of the resurrection and it doesn’t require a trip to Jerusalem or a degree in biblical theology.
In fact, it’s as close as your reflection in the mirror.
The best evidence we have for the truth of the resurrection and its audacious claim that the tomb is empty because Jesus walked out of it one morning and into the dawn of a world being made new, the best evidence we have that the transforming power of the resurrection is real and at work in the world isn’t found in a sophisticated theological argument or archeological evidence.
It’s found in you.
And me.
It’s found in the people of God faithfully living out the good news each and every day of our lives.
Proof of the resurrection is found whenever we love our neighbor. Whenever we show kindness to a stranger. Whenever we help those in need or welcome someone who has been excluded. It’s found whenever we feed the hungry or give the thirsty something to drink. It’s found whenever we clothe the naked, care for the sick, visit those in prison, or treat the least of these as if they are the resurrected Lord himself.
The truth of the resurrection will never be something we can prove in the sort of way we can prove dinosaurs existed or that Caesar once ruled Rome.
The truth of the resurrection will only ever be made evident in the world when we incarnate its transforming power in our lives through the grace of the Holy Spirit and join with our Creator in the incredible work of making all things new.
Which means if we really believe that a dead man from Nazareth came back to life, if we really believe that the resurrection matters, that it has a genuine, tangible, transforming effect here and now on earth as it is in heaven, then we cannot afford to simply sing songs about it or argue its plausibility with others.
We must choose to live out that truth.
We must choose to live as if death really is no longer the final answer, as if the gates of heaven really have been flung open, as if the power of the resurrection is not just a warm fuzzy feeling but the pivot point around which all of creation turns.
We must live as Jesus lived and continues to live.
Otherwise, what proof will there be that the resurrection ever really happened?
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