Easter

In the magazine Biblical Archeology Review, Ben Witherington wrote an intriguing article about the Resurrection. He is professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky and a member of the Doctoral Faculty at St. Andrew’s University in Scotland, all of which is to say that he’s a lot smarter than I am. His article was entitled “Making Sense of the Unlikely Easter Story”. I’m sharing with you a very condensed version:

“When you know the context of the New Testament texts — you quickly realize that sometimes the unusual aspects in the story testify to their historical authenticity. The real sticking point for Jesus’ followers is that the culture of the Middle East at that time (and still today) was an honor and shame culture, and crucifixion was the most shameful way to die in that world. It was not seen as a noble martyrdom of any sort. On that basis, Jesus was a scoundrel.

“It wouldn’t make sense to create a story about a crucified and risen man being the savior of the world – — unless you really believe it was historically true — because it would be sheer nonsense to the Gentiles. Furthermore if you want to start a world religion in a highly patriarchal world, you don’t make up stories about all the male disciples abandoning Jesus and the women being the chief witnesses, women are last at the cross, first at the empty tomb. The witness of women was considered suspect by most in that first-century world and indeed, Luke 24:11 says that the male disciples thought it was an old wives’ tale when the women came and breathlessly claimed that the tomb was empty and Jesus was risen.

“How is it that a band of defeated and depressed disciples, who had abandoned hope after the crucifixion became galvanized and inspired enough to carry the good news of Jesus from Jerusalem to Rome and beyond?”

Well, only if the whole story of the Resurrection is true! If you lived in Jesus’ day and were really working overtime to invent a story about a “Savior”, you would never make up one like this. It violated all the culture’s conventions. But the Gospel was written because it was true, and is true, and shall forever be true.