HILLFAITH STUDIES: Why the Empty Tomb Points to Jesus’ Literal Resurrection

All four of the New Testament gospels report that, when the women who were the first to visit the tomb of Jesus on the third day following His death and burial, arrived there, they found it empty and wide open.

When John and Peter subsequently ran to the tomb, they also found it empty.

So how do we explain the empty tomb? To grasp the importance of this question, consider Paul’s statement at I Corinthians 15:14 that ^“if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” Put simply, without the literal resurrection of Jesus from death, there is no Christianity.

But is the resurrection the most reasonable explanation for the empty tomb or merely one of several possibilities? Here are five reasons, based on the evidence, both from scripture and secular sources, and logic, to conclude that the tomb was indeed empty because Jesus was literally resurrected:

• The Seal and the Guard:

Matthew 27:62-66 tells us that “the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, ‘Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.’  Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.’ So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.”

Among much else, this passage tells us two crucially important facts: The tomb was sealed with Pilate’s authority and it was guarded by a unit of the Roman Legion known as a “Kustodia,” typically four highly-trained men but possibly more than that number, given the political significance of the executed Jesus.

The seal was a chord stretched across the smaller rock leaned against the large boulder that closed the tomb. To move the large boulder, the smaller rock would have to be moved, thus breaking the seal, which warned of severe punishment to anybody breaking it.

The Roman Legion penalty for failing a night-guard duty was often death because the consequences of such a failure could be calamitous for a resting army in the vicinity of an enemy.

In other words, the tomb was closed, sealed and guarded in such a way as to preclude it being compromised by any of the candidates for doing so, Jesus’ enemies, grave robbers or Jesus’ friends, the disciples.

It has been argued by some critics that Jesus’ enemies secretly moved His body to a different location out of fear the disciples would steal it and then proclaim the resurrection. But if His enemies had possession of His body or knew its location, they would have rolled it down Jerusalem’s main street as soon as the disciples began telling people Jesus was alive.

As for grave robbers, they were at least smart enough to avoid such a well-guarded tomb and, even if there was no guard, they had no reason to attempt it because Jesus had no wealth or status to be buried with, so there was nothing in the tomb to be stolen.

So what about the disciples?

• The Scattered and Scared Disciples:

The Gospel of Mark 14:50 tells us the reaction of the disciples when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane – “And they all left Him and fled.” These men were terrified that they would also be arrested if they were found to be with Jesus. And Peter, though bold enough to go near the Palace to watch the proceedings against Jesus, three times denied even knowing Him, much less being a disciple.

There is no evidence that any of the disciples had any military background or training. Even if they did have such training, there is no evidence to suggest they somehow recovered their courage sufficiently to plan and execute successfully an attack to overcome the Kustodia.

In short, the disciples were the last group one might reasonably view as capable of defeating a crack group of Roman Legion soldiers, while suffering no wounds or casualties, and then stealing Jesus’ dead body in order to perpetuate a lie about the resurrection. And nobody thinks the women who followed Jesus stole His body.

• The Women at the Tomb:

It is a fact of immense importance that all four of the Gospels put women at the empty tomb before any of the men among the disciples on the morning of the Resurrection. Jewish law of the time did not permit women to be witnesses in a court of law on an issue of such magnitude.

If the disciples who wrote the Gospels and established the early Christian church, which consisted mainly of converted Jews, did so on the basis of a lie about the resurrection, they would have had men be the first witnesses to the empty tomb and to the risen Jesus. The fact they didn’t is a strong indication of their devotion to telling the truth, regardless of  the consequences.

Finally, there is …

• The Silence of Jesus’ Enemies:

There is no record anywhere in the New Testament or in secular histories of the period that either the Jewish leaders or the Roman leaders publicly contested the disciples’ claim that Jesus had been resurrected from the dead.

In his “Evidence That Demands A Verdict,” Josh McDowell quotes Professor J.N.D. Anderson of the University of London saying:

“Have you noticed that the references to the empty tomb all come in the Gospels, which were written to give the Christian community the facts they wanted to know? In the public preaching to those who were not believers, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, there is an enormous emphasis on the fact of the Resurrection but not a single reference to the empty tomb.

“Now, why? To me, there is only one answer: There was no point in arguing about the empty tomb. Every one, friend and opponent, knew that it was empty. The only questions worth talking  about were why it was and what its emptiness proved.”

And we haven’t even mentioned the hundreds of people who in the weeks following the Resurrection claimed to have talked to, eaten with, walked alongside, and listened to the living Jesus! Luke makes clear in the opening of his Gospel that he talked to eyewitnesses and Matthew, Mark, John and Paul claimed to be eyewitnesses to the risen Jesus.

So, how do you explain the empty tomb?

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