Can I Get a Witness?

The scriptures referred to are 1 Corinthians 15:1-11.

One thing you think would be a casualty of the internet would be conspiracy theories. With access to most of the knowledge in the world in a computer you can carry in your pocket or purse, you would think people would be better informed. But the problem is that not only can you look up what experts say on a matter, you can also look up crackpots. On You Tube and other websites you can read about or listen to or watch obsessed folks present their case that vaccines do more harm than good or that 9/11 was an inside job by the government or that the moon landing never took place. There are people who think that the earth being flat is more plausible than the fact that it is a sphere, deduced thousands of years ago by the ancient Greeks and confirmed by satellite imagery. There are still folks who think it makes more sense that President Kennedy was assassinated by Jimmy Hoffa and the Mafia or Fidel Castro or anti-Castro Cubans or CIA or the Soviets or LBJ or the Federal Reserve rather than by an unstable ex-Marine marksman.

The problem isn't that one can't find the facts; the problem is that people have always believed what they wanted to and cherry-picked the facts or theories that support them. The JFK conspiracy theory began long before the internet, as did the moon landing. Google just makes finding birds of a feather easier, even if the birds are cuckoos.

Before mass media, the way to verify that something happened was to hear it from people who were there. One of the Great Courses I am listening to is one where key points in history are examined in detail using eye witness accounts whenever possible. I am also reading Rodney Stark's The Triumph of Christianity, which frequently explodes myths about Church history simply by citing documents of the times. For instance Stark demolishes the idea that the Middle Ages was the “Age of Faith” by quoting bishops and even Martin Luther about how seldom people went to church and how little the average person knew about the faith. Stark similarly refutes the label “The Dark Ages” by citing how much innovation took place during that period. He also shows that far from being suppressed, science was supported by the Church and was largely done by devout Christians and especially clergy, and in particular, bishops. They felt that since the universe was created by a rational God and since humans were created in his image, it was possible to examine nature and figure out the principles behind it. They believed that all truth is God's truth. Behind these mistaken beliefs about earlier eras were the assertions of secular Enlightenment figures who wanted to show that their rationalism and sciences were the results of a revolution against the benighted Catholic church rather than the outcome of a natural evolution of human thought, observation and innovation that had been going out ever since the fall of the Roman Empire.

Whereas usually historians do take the word of those who lived through an historical experience, there is a tendency to doubt everything when it comes to the writings of the Bible. That is especially true when it comes to Jesus. Skepticism about him is so high that New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman felt compelled to write a book called Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth. He did it to counter those who claim that not only wasn't Jesus divine, he was entirely fictional. Ehrman is not a believer but he is too good a scholar to believe that the central person on whom the world's most successful faith was built was a figment of the imagination. Unlike, say, King Arthur, whose first mention appears 400 years after he would have lived, accounts of Jesus appear within 20 years of his earthly life. And it took Arthur several more centuries to go from a battle leader to a full fledged king. It would be unprecedented for Jesus to go from crucified carpenter to Creator God in a mere 2 decades.

Today's passage from 1 Corinthians is actually the earliest account we have for the facts of the resurrection, an event skeptics feverishly try to explain away. Paul's correspondence precedes the composition of the first gospel, Mark, by a decade or so. In the earliest letters we have from Paul, the two epistles to the Thessalonians, he is already calling Jesus the son of God who was raised from the dead. (1 Thessalonians 1:10) He mentions the resurrection in the first verse of Galatians, written soon after. (Galatians 1:1) And here in 1 Corinthians he gives us the very first rundown of who saw the risen Jesus. And he does so in a way that makes it really hard to deny.

Before getting into it I want to deal with a glaring omission. Paul doesn't mention the women, who are credited by every gospel as being the first witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. It is possible that he didn't know. The gospels were written later and although one was written by Luke, one of Paul's companions, the traditional date of when it was composed is long after Paul's death. Paul does say that he is passing on what he received and what he received from the Twelve may have left out the women and the fact that when they returned from the empty tomb, no one believed them at first. At this time and in this culture, the testimony of women was not accepted in any court. In fact, it is more remarkable that the gospel writers included the women because this allowed critics to discount their report of Jesus rising from the dead. The fact that the gospels all include the women's account can only be construed to show that's what actually happened.

Paul begins by putting the resurrection in context: “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures...” It's not that Jesus died a natural death and didn't stay dead. He died for a reason. He was executed in our place. He was a sacrifice for the sins of all.

A lot of people today get squeamish about this. Unlike the people Paul was writing to, animal sacrifice is not a normal thing for us. We also don't think of giving up something permanently when we sin. We do not generally see all the ways we violate God's laws as deserving of death. I think it is because we have the luxury of being able to distance ourselves not just from death but from the consequences of what we do. We live in a wealthy, very safe democracy. We don't know or see the animals we eat and we certainly don't have to kill them as the first step in preparing a meal. We also don't live in a society that requires almost military discipline in order to survive. If everyone in the tribe or the village didn't do their job—planting and harvesting the food, feeding the livestock, guarding the gate, etc—the whole community was in danger. Slack off in farming or storing food and everyone could starve. If someone forgets to close the city gates at night, the next thing you know a raiding clan or an army has seized the city, killed the men, and enslaved the women and children. Even in cosmopolitan Corinth, there was no police force, no welfare, no OSHA workplace standards, no disability payments, no effective healthcare, no women's shelter, and no adoption agencies—none of the buffers we rely on to help us in times of misfortune. The man of the family literally had the power of life and death not only over his slaves but over his children. Practically all unmarried women were fair game for any man's appetites. The way to survive was to scrupulously obey society's rules. And that merely increased your odds of living; it didn't guarantee it. It only made sense that even minor offenses against God would also have dire consequences.

But thanks to Jesus, that is no longer true. He died for all our sins, once and for all. His life and death reveal God's great love for all people. He is all forgiving and merciful. Those who trust Jesus live by grace. And Paul emphasizes it was “in accordance with the scriptures.” It is all there in the only scriptures early Christians had, the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament. People did not see it until Jesus fulfilled them in ways that no one expected.

Jesus was buried and then he was raised on the third day. And again it was all predicted in scripture. God is playing the long game. This was not a fluke or Plan B. Even when his creatures killed his son, God was not stymied. He is the Lord of life and he used the death and resurrection of Jesus to give eternal life to all who live through Christ.

Of course, this is easy for Christians to assert. But if someone told you that God had become a man, died and rose again from the dead, you'd want evidence. And that's what Paul offers. He tells us that Jesus “appeared to Cephas.” That's the Aramaic version of Peter. Calling him Cephas would be like calling a celebrity by his or her real name, rather than the stage name they were known by. Jesus gave Simon his nickname, essentially "Rocky," and I imagine his wife and family and friends kept using the original form, rather than the Greek. This indicates Paul and Peter knew each other well. Paul is saying, “I know this guy and I believe him when he says he saw the risen Jesus.”

Then Christ appeared to the twelve, says Paul. I am assuming Paul is including Matthias who was selected to replace Judas as a disciple. He was “one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, beginning from John's baptism to the time Jesus was taken up from us,” and he was “a witness with us to the resurrection.” (Act 1:21-22) So these were twelve men who lived with Jesus for 3 years and thus knew that who they saw on Easter Sunday was the same man who had died that Friday. None of them recanted, not even when they were persecuted. They are the reason that the Greek word “martyr” no longer merely means witness but one who is willing to die for his belief. When Paul wrote this, at least one, James, the brother of John, had been executed by Herod Agrippa. They all knew death to be a possibility. Nevertheless they kept proclaiming that Jesus was the risen Lord.

“Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.” This is Paul's gutsiest claim. We are not talking about a conspiracy of 12 guys claiming their leader was alive again. The resurrected Jesus was seen by enough people to fill this church 5 times over. And most of them were still alive at the time Paul was writing. He is saying, “If you don't believe me, ask them.”

In fact, I think that is what kept the gospels from being written earlier than they were. At this time there were many living witnesses to Jesus' life and resurrection. They could come and speak to the churches. They were living gospels, if you will. But after the Great Fire in 64 AD that devastated 10 of the 14 districts of Rome, Nero blamed the Christians and started the first imperial persecution of the church. He is responsible for the deaths of Peter and Paul among many others. I think that is what motivated John Mark, who worked closely with both men, (Philemon 24; Colossians 4:10; 2 Timothy 4:11; 1 Peter 5:13) to write down a basic outline of Jesus' life. Later Matthew and Luke would build their gospels on Mark's and even use large sections of it, along with additional material they had access to. Finally John writes his gospel, barely touching on what the other gospels cover, as if it was unnecessary to repeat the same material, and instead adding things about Jesus he felt needed to be preserved.

This is really hard for skeptics to dismiss. It is difficult to say that Jesus' resurrection was made up, when not just his inner circle but 500 people saw the risen Jesus. And they did not encounter a ghost, which everyone back then believed in, but Jesus in the flesh, his wounds palpable. Even secular historians are at a loss to explain why, out of all the followers of all the messianic pretenders, those of Jesus did not melt away but grew exponentially despite the very real threat of torture and death. It takes really loopy conspiracy theories, like The Passover Plot, or that he never existed, to come up with a counterargument to the Occam's razor of “Jesus rose.”

Paul writes, “Then he appeared to James....” He is referring to the brother of Jesus. Our Lord's brothers were not believers at first. (John 7:5) Their reaction to hearing about his ministry is to go “to take charge of him, for they said, 'He is out of his mind.'” (Mark 3:21) Perhaps this is why Jesus bestows the care of his mother upon his beloved disciple. (John 19:26-27) But Jesus does not forget his kin and appears to James, and quite probably to all of his brothers and his mother, for they are listed in the first chapter of Acts as joining in prayer with the apostles and the women in the upstairs room. (Acts 1:14) James later becomes the head of the church in Jerusalem. (Acts 15:13-21) He too will die for his belief that the brother whom he grew up with was in fact God's son.

Paul says that Jesus then appeared “to all the apostles” possibly thinking of the time when Thomas was with them. (John 20:26) Paul then says, “...and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me as well.” The awkward phrase “untimely born” usually means a miscarriage or abortion. Paul is comparing himself to a dead fetus. Seeing the risen Christ brought about a new birth for Paul. And Paul does count this not as a vision but as an actual bodily appearance of Jesus. But seeing as he persecuted the church and had Christians arrested and thrown into prison, and that he approved the stoning of Stephen, Paul calls himself “the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle.” His calling and all the work he has done is due entirely to God's grace.

So what does what happened 2000 years ago have to do with us today? For one thing we would not even know of this obscure carpenter and preacher had he not risen from the dead. But more importantly it vindicates what he said. Before his death, his disciples believed him to be the Messiah, albeit primarily in a prophetic role and possibly as the royal ruler of God's kingdom on earth. But they didn't see his role as the Lamb of God, not until they saw and touched and ate with Jesus over and over for 40 days. It was then that he opened to them the scriptures that foretold how the Messiah would die for the sins of the world and rise to give life to those who answered his call.

And the resurrection means this: there is no situation so hopeless that God cannot reverse it, nor any act so evil that God cannot use it to redeem people. When we, like Jesus at Gethsemane, pray in great distress about an ordeal we are about to undergo, when we, like Jesus at Golgotha, are stumbling and bearing our cross up a steep grade, when we, like Jesus at Calvary, are hanging in pain and suffering and even humiliation, we can know that not only will this pass but that we will know joy and triumph and new life again. As Paul says elsewhere, “...in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else is all creation, will be able to separate us the love of God in Christ.” (Romans 8:37-39) In the solid reality of the risen Jesus, the God of life and love, find your courage and go forth into a death- haunted world to sow the seeds of its resurrection.