Old Headlines... Breaking News

I'm not a big magazine person.

The only time I pick up a magazine is really at the hair place to find what sort of new back-lit 80's cut I want. I never read Newsweek. Never have. It stays on the magazine shelf next to Time, Life, People just to the right of Cosmo and to the left of Men's Health. Yet the magazine, Newsweek, knows what sells during this time of year. Controversy! And not just any controversy, controversy of faith. As I peruse the magazine aisle I see how I can get abs in six weeks. I see 10 things that men crave in bed. I see the man of the year, and Britney's bald head… And then I see a headline that is nearly 2000 years old. “Did Christ Rise From the Dead?” This year it had to do with bones, last year it had to do with the “Davinci Code”, the years previous they questioned whether the Bible is really accurate…I caught a glimpse of next year's cover and they're working on a theory that the spikes were really rubber, right now they are setting up a documenting process starring David Blane in a re-enactment of “The Passion”. But the question that gets asked, the question that sells Newsweek, is the very question certain people didn't want you to ask nearly 2000 years ago. 'Was Jesus Resurrected?'

In Matthew it says 'The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate "Sir," they said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again. 'So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first."' So they stationed a guard to keep watch. They didn't think that it would happen, a man rising from the dead. They just thought that those crazy fishermen would be nuts enough to drag a dead body out of his grave and make some grand claim of resurrection.

When whatever it was that happened that night, happened, the guard came racing back from the tomb to say that it was empty. According to Matthew, the Chief Priests and the Pharisees bribed them to spread the rumor that the disciples had stolen the corpse under cover of darkness. Pocketing the cash, the soldiers did as they were told, and "this story," Matthew concludes, made 'Newsweek'. And it's been making Newsweek for nearly 2000 years.

What happened to the body? Turns out the gospels don't have much to say about how the body of Jesus disappeared from the tomb. All that is said is, by the time the women got there, the stone had been rolled back and it was empty. What followed was chaos – dim figures flickering through the dawn, voices calling out, the sound of running feet. When the women got back to Jerusalem and gasped it all out to the disciples, Luke says that the disciples considered their words "an idle tale and they did not believe them." The cover of Newsweek seems to be much more plausible than a dead man rising.

Who knows what the truth of it was? Maybe like a mystery novel "Night of the Jesus Snatchers", somebody really did steal the body at night while the guards were asleep, and Matthew is only attempting to explain it away. Or maybe the tomb was empty because Jesus had never been there in the first place but was just thrown into a common ditch with the two thieves who were crucified with him. Or maybe it is the New Testament account with its picture of confusion and disbelief that rings most authentically – The thing is, no one may ever know because nobody was there to see it.

The Magazine Article is written. It is a story of a guard standing outside of an empty tomb. Nothing is in there. Nothing but cloth. This guard has been bribed to lie to you…or maybe not. Answering your question… “Was Jesus Resurrected? Is He alive?” You ask, “WHERE IS THE BODY?”… and he tells you the disciples came while he was asleep and moved a huge rock and stole Jesus from his resting place. What do you think? It's pretty plausible.

The magazine aisle, however, rarely will include the earliest reference to the resurrection. That of Paul. Funny thing is, he makes no mention of an empty tomb at all. The fact of the matter is, in a way, it hardly matters how the body of Jesus came to be missing because in the last analysis what convinced the people that He had risen from the dead was not the absence of His corpse, but His living presence. And so it has been ever since.

Something happened. Something happened between Friday and today to create that chaos. Something happened that changed a denial ridden hothead fisherman named Peter. During the trial Peter had denied that he had ever known Jesus - Three times! Peter and the other disciples had anxiously met "together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews". Within days he was preaching with such extraordinary power that "three thousand people were added to their number that day" and baptized. Peter talked about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Soon he was calling all hearers to repentance, healing the lame, challenging the Sanhedrin, and suffering persecution on behalf of this testimony. What happened? It is not just that something had happened, but that everything had changed. It is unconvincing to hypothesize that a non-event, a cipher, a story, or magazine article elicited this change. Peter met with the living presence of Jesus Christ.

Same story with Jesus' brother James…"Didn't believe in him" in John 7. But after he met with the living presence of the Christ, James became a major figure among those attesting to the resurrection. Mr. Doubting Thomas… The story of our lives… our twin. The man who said as many of us do, "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.” Something changed in this man that led him to India to tell them about a living Christ who is risen!

The primary evidence for the resurrection today remains: changed lives, walking testimonies, people willing to proclaim the good news the world over.

I would love to convince you of "the facts." The Evidence! What really happened. I would love to play you a clip that made it solid in your mind. Or even write you a magazine article. But it actually doesn't matter. Because you can learn all you want about that fateful Easter Morning. But until you meet with the living Presence of Jesus, you won't know Easter. All you have is book knowledge; possibly a strong form of the latest headline news.

The fact is, you knowing the facts do as much good to your heart as a guard standing outside an empty tomb. It's empty…what do you need to guard? What are you guarding from? The fact is it is only from the inside out that change can happen; lasting change at least. It is only through meeting a living Jesus that the location of the dead body doesn't matter. It is only when you have experienced the Living Jesus, Easter actually takes off. It is only through meeting a living Jesus that your religion is no longer contingent on the latest findings in the news, but your heart begins making the news.