The Reality of the Resurrection
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And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:21-22)
Mysteriously, Jesus appeared to the disciples as they cowered in fear behind locked doors. It was to those frightened men Jesus appeared to, stood in their midst and said: “Peace to you.”
As a confirmation, Jesus showed them His hands and His side. He wanted them to know that it was real. Jesus wanted them to test it. Jesus has said to humanity ever since, “It’s OK to test the evidence. I want you to test it.” He wanted them to know it was real.
Still, through the centuries some people have disagreed with the reality of the resurrection. Many of these skeptics who determined to look at the evidence fairly were persuaded in the process that the gospel accounts are true – that their evidence stands up, that Jesus of Nazareth did in fact rise from the dead.
One famous example was an attorney named Simon Greenleaf, who was one of the principal founders of the Harvard Law School. He originally set out to disprove the biblical testimony concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was certain that a careful examination of the internal witness of the Gospels would destroy the so-called myths at the heart of Christianity. So, this attorney and legal scholar did his research, weighed the evidence just like they would in a court of law – and he concluded that the witnesses were reliable, and that the resurrection of Jesus Christ did in fact happen. After being persuaded that the resurrection was real, he became a Christian.
Jesus invites you today to accept it as real for you – His life, death, and resurrection life. Like any historical event, it can’t be repeated in a laboratory. We can’t imagine Jesus in a lab, surrounded by scientists who want him to die and rise again repeatedly so that they can study the phenomenon. Nothing in history happens that way – but things really happen, and the resurrection of Jesus is one of those things that really happened.
Instead of the laboratory, we have the witnesses – just like in a court of law. Because of the reliable testimony of those witnesses, you can reasonably and rationally put your faith in who Jesus is and what He did to make you right with God.
You see, the resurrected Jesus is real. He is real whether you believe it or not. The resurrection was real before Jesus visited His disciples in John 20 – they just didn’t benefit anything from it. Your faith in Jesus doesn’t make Him real, but it lets you benefit from the real resurrected Jesus. You get to be part of the greatest thing in history.
Click here for David’s commentary on John 20