By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM
Part 16
If we take the Gospels as simple historical records about the life of a Galilean preacher, we’ll find in them a remarkable entry: They say that the man died and rose again. He was crucified, had His side pierced after death, and was buried. No doubt about it. The tomb was found empty, and He was seen later by His apostles, shared a meal with them, and made His wounds available for touching by anyone who could not believe his own eyes.
Saul of Tarsus, renamed Paul the Apostle, a former enemy of Christ and of His Church, records that the Risen Lord was also seen by more than five hundred individuals, and by himself, Paul (1 Cor. 15:6, 8).
Very well. Now, does it make sense to believe in such stories? To investigate the issue in an objective, quasi-scientific manner, let us ask ourselves a few questions:
Were those alleged witnesses deceived, or deceivers? First of all, they had no purpose to deceive anybody. To incur in the displeasure of the Sanhedrin and of the Roman authorities, what for? To risk ending the same way Jesus did? They had nothing to gain by affirming His Resurrection, and yet they did. And a great many of them paid with their own lives for that affirmation. Now, we know that you do not give up your life for something you know not to be true: Nobody dies for a lie….You may die for something you believe to be true, but if you know it is not true, no, definitely not; you won’t. Nobody dies for a lie.
OK, you might say, fine, they were not deceivers, but could they have been deceived themselves? This supposition might hold some water if we were talking about a few children, but over five hundred people, most of them adults, who state the same story in the same way could not have been deceived, especially about something as unusual as a man who rises from the dead.
Moreover, the apostles received from God the confirmation of their certitude of Jesus’ Resurrection, as we can see in St. Peter’s power to perform miracles, which scared many in Jerusalem (Acts 2:43). He spoke in foreign languages without having studied them, cured the man who had been lame from birth, and was freed from prison in a miraculous way.
Even some among those who opposed Jesus and the apostles converted: There were priests among them (Acts 6:7)! Miracle! Some priests believed! They broke away from those who had condemned Him to death, and joined the ranks of the believers. Again, they had nothing to gain, everything to lose, in doing so. And they did it. They knew very well they would incur the hatred of their class and the scorn of their race, and why did they do it? Their conscience spurred them not only to believe, but to know that Jesus was the Messias prophesied by their ancestors. And they became Catholic.
Then we have the Roman soldiers. The story given by them to Pilate that the apostles had stolen the body would have made the governor laugh and condemn them to death for failing in their duty. A bunch of frightened fisherman would stand no chance against well-trained Roman soldiers. But Pilate had a guilty conscience and preferred to let sleeping dogs lie . . . so it was more convenient to let the guards accept the bribe given by the High Priests and hope that nothing would happen afterward. But lots happened.
St. Paul saw Christ and spoke to Him, and preached His crucifixion and Resurrection everywhere he could. And he was decapitated for that preaching. Again, nobody dies for a lie.
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It was the impious Voltaire, a great enemy of the Catholic Church, who made use of all sorts of accusations and vicious attacks against Catholicism, who seems to have been the author of this saying: “Lie, lie, lie: Something always sticks.” But he was not the first one to put it into practice: Some members of the Jewish Sanhedrin were champions of the strategy.
If the guards had told the truth about the apostles’ stealing the body of Jesus, why didn’t the guards prevent it? If they were asleep, how did they know that the ones who stole the body were the apostles, those frightened civilians who could not stand the military skill of the guards? Besides, the apostles did not help their Master while He was alive; why should they help Him when He was dead?
Moreover: to fall asleep on duty in the Roman Army would mean death to the soporific guards. But they were neither court-martialed nor killed. . . . No, not at all. The Sanhedrin bribed the guards to lie, lie, and lie, hoping that something would stick. But it didn’t.
“They were hallucinating!” is the common accusation of modern-day skeptics who hallucinate about evolution and creation from nothing without a creator. The fact is that one hallucinates about what one expects to happen. But the five hundred-plus disciples were not expecting Him to die before establishing the Kingdom, let alone resurrecting. When He was arrested, they ran away like chickens before the butcher’s knife, and were miserably crestfallen while He was in the tomb.
Even when they saw Him, they could not believe their eyes, and Jesus had to ask for something to eat in order to persuade them that He was there. Our famous doubting Thomas was deadly against the idea of His rising from the dead based on hearsay. He had to see in order to believe.
So, those people were not hallucinating, they were not expecting to see Him again. Besides, people who tend to hallucinate do so based upon their individual expectations, and each one sees things in their unique way. The five hundred plus disciples who saw Him saw the same thing, but hallucination does not happen in such circumstances. If they had hallucinated, they would have had different versions of the story, according to their individual expectations and perceptions.
The Record Makes Sense
Finally, there are those who say He did not die at all, just fainted into a swoon and later on tiptoed out of the sepulcher while the guards slept. . . . Absolutely ridiculous. A man, as wounded as He was, could have never moved the stone and passed the guards, with holes in his feet and hands and a big gash on his side.
No, the historical record on Jesus’ Resurrection makes sense. And we maintain the faith of His apostles.
Next article: Christ viewed as a man — His personality, gifts, and manners.
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(Raymond de Souza is an EWTN program host; regional coordinator for Portuguese- speaking countries for Human Life International [HLI]; president of the Sacred Heart Institute, and a member of the Sovereign, Military, and Hospitaller Order of the Knights of Malta. His website is: www.RaymonddeSouza.com.)
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