The longing to escape mortality has defined human existence ever since Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden. The Preacher of Ecclesiastes declared that “God has placed eternity in the heart of man” (Ec. 3:11).
The hunger for eternal life has spawned countless quests for elixirs, formulas, fountains of youth, and now the manipulation of DNA in hopes of defeating death.
Yet nature and science have failed to forestall the inevitable march of death. The human spirit cries for deliverance from this fate – almost every people group has stories of life beyond the grave in some form or other. Many cultures report myths of dying and rising gods and goddesses whose fictional lives mirror the rhythm of the agricultural seasons – the death of winter followed by the new life of spring. While as Christians we recognize the futility of these religions, we nevertheless can affirm the spiritual hunger for life that defeats death. And, we may believe that in God’s providential designs, He Himself has sent these “religious dreams” into the human psyche around the globe to prepare mankind for the true gospel, where indeed not in mythology but in the real world God sent His Son to be the dying and rising Savior for all humanity.
The resurrection of Jesus is not a “cleverly devised myth” (see 2 Peter 1:16) or wishful thinking, but an event in history. His tomb was found empty three days after death, though carefully guarded. He appeared over a span of some forty days to hundreds of followers, showing them the scars of his crucifixion, breaking bread with them over meals to prove he was no ghost, shining with a vitality unthinkable for one who had been whipped mercilessly, nailed to a cross and then speared in the side to ensure his death just weeks earlier. Against their settled convictions about the finality of death, the disciples became believers in the resurrection of Jesus.
While most Jews in Jesus’ day (with the exception of the Sadducees) acknowledged the “resurrection on the Day of Judgment”, there is no historical record of any Jew believing that the resurrection of any individual might occur in history prior to the eschatological judgment. Thus, when Jesus assured Martha, “Your brother [Lazarus] will rise again,” she very naturally replied, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (John 11:23-24). But Jesus then declared that his own presence had changed all calculations when it came to death and resurrection: “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.”
The disciples were predisposed, along with all other Jews, to expect that the tomb of Jesus would continue to hold his lifeless corpse until the Day of Judgment. Only highly convincing proofs could upend their prior convictions. “Doubting” Thomas has been saddled with the nickname for all time, but the other disciples also had doubts. Even at the close of Matthew’s Gospel, we read: “The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him; but some doubted” (Mt. 28:16-17).
Once their encounters with the resurrected Jesus “sank in” and they became convinced that God indeed raised Jesus from death to a new, invincible life and were filled with his life-giving Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, they were transformed into fearless ambassadors of the Risen Lord. Their words and deeds reverberated across the Roman Empire.
The resurrection of Jesus proves at least three things: First, it vindicates the life and ministry of Jesus, who was unjustly executed for fulfilling his Father’s mission; second, it confirms that the crucifixion of Jesus has broken the back of sin and death, and assures that those who take refuge in him will in the end triumph over the grave and the power of evil; third, this invincible resurrection power is even now available and at work in those who surrender their lives to Jesus (Eph. 1:19-20) to remake our spirits increasingly into his perfect image (Rom. 8:29).
Easter proclaims the most monumental miracle in all human history. The truth of the resurrection, fulfilled in Jesus, answers the deepest longings of the human heart. No longer barred from the Garden of Eden and its Tree of Life, we are welcomed by God our Father and invited to taste even now of the eternal life won for us by Him who is the Resurrection and Life. Presently we sip from this cup, but one day we will drink deep draughts of this unending life, because of Jesus, the Pioneer and Perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2)!