Well it’s Easter Sunday and you know what that means, colored eggs, chocolate bunnies, marmalade glazed hams and Easter baskets.  Oh, and it wouldn’t be Easter without chocolate malted Robins Eggs.  Well of course that stuff is all nice and fun, but the most valuable part of all these traditions is that all of the Easter candy will be 50% off at Target on Monday.

By now you have probably guessed where this is going, the resurrection of Jesus.  Yes, it’s been written about thousands of times or more and people still want to dismiss it and argue about the origin of “easter” and take you down lost rabbit trails of the fertility blah, blah, blah…

Well here’s the deal: Jesus asked us an all important question” “Who do you that I am?” (Matt. 16:16 cf. Luke 9:20, Mark 8:29).  Peter answered the question identifying Jesus as the Christ, Messiah, Son of the Living God (Jehovah, OT).  If Jesus rose from the dead, then this question matters and every person must answer for themselves while they are here on Earth.  Not only that, but we must consider all of His teachings such as John 3:16-18 or Matthew 25:31-46 and so on.  Scripture tells us that everyone will eventually answer this question correctly, some of us will do it joyfully and gladly and others will do it begrudgingly, probably with fear.  “At the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:10-11 cf. Is.45:23)

Well can we know for sure whether or not Jesus rose from the dead?  Absolutely we can, the evidence is overwhelming.  [Before I go on, I think it is important to state that while we can arrive at conclusions through some form of verification, we are still talking about faith.  Intellectual consent and saving faith are two different things, but not mutually exclusive; Christianity is not a blind faith].  The resurrection of Jesus is largely considered the single most verifiable event of antiquity.  That is to say that if we reject the resurrection of Christ, we must also reject every other historical event of antiquity from the Gallic Wars, the Rise and Fall of Rome, the works of Plato and Aristotle, the Trial of Socrates and so on.  If you are not sure what you believe or what you think of Jesus, then I would challenge you to pursue this understanding in the quest for faith.  There are many good resources available and you can see some of them on my Goodreads “Resurrection” shelf.

It is well known that people will die for what they believe in, they will die for what they love, they will die for their faith, but people will not die for what they know to be a lie.

Lastly I would just share this about my faith journey.  When I became a Christian, it was the resurrection of Jesus that got my attention.  I was a freshman at Arizona State University taking a Roman history class and as we studied the emergence of Christianity, one question haunted me.  It is well known that people will die for what they believe in, they will die for what they love, they will die for their faith, but people will not die for what they know to be a lie.  People will not give up their lives for what they know to be false.  Peter wrote “we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” (2Peter 1:16)  Peter who once denied Christ, even after walking on water with the Lord, would later be crucified to death for preaching the gospel and refusing to denounce the risen Christ.  Paul gives a complete understanding of the gospel of the resurrection in 1Cor 15 and reiterates the testimony of the eyewitnesses, as many as 500 people at once, who saw the public execution of Jesus and now witnessed the risen Jesus.  Christianity is unique in many ways when compared to the religions of the world, but one thing I believe to be most worthy of note is this: Christianity is the only faith whose primary truth claim is historically verifiable, and by the way, that truth claim is a miracle in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Christianity is truly faith founded on fact!