Whatever Happened to Him?

[Jareena Faye]

I wrote this about a year ago. I might rewrite it someday, but seeing as I posted something last Easter too... well, this seems appropriate.

 

***

"Oh, don't tell me you actually believe that for real," Colleen said as we sat down. "I mean, I understand that it's an important part of your faith. But Jesus didn't come back from the dead. You're smart; it would be just ignorant to believe that."

 

"In my opinion, it would be ignorant to believe otherwise," I replied.

 

Colleen rolled her eyes. "Come on!"

 

"Alright," I said. "What do you think happened?"

 

"The disciples stole his body and made up a story. I mean, duh. What else?"

 

"Okay," I said calmly, placing my Bible on the table between us. "Mind if I defend my beliefs?"

 

Colleen smiled. "You can try."

 

I flipped through my Bible to the gospels, looking for a certain part of the story. I found Luke 22: 54. Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance.

 

"Let's go back to when Jesus was arrested. All of the disciples ran for their lives--- except Peter, who followed at a distance and later denied knowing Jesus. These twelve guys were hiding out while Jesus was being hammered to a cross."

 

"So?" Colleen asked.

 

"Don't interrupt, okay?" I asked. "Now, let's skip to Jesus' burial. The priests were afraid that what you said would happen. So they went to Pontius Pilate... here, I'll find it."

 

I went to the back of my Bible to find some notes, where I had written down certain verses. (I can't remember these things on my own.) Using that as a reference, I found Matthew 27: 62.

 

The next day... the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. "Sir," they said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.' So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first."

 

"Take a guard," Pilate answered. "Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how." So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

 

"What do you know about Roman guards?" I asked.

 

Colleen, looking bored, shrugged and said, "I don't know. They carried spears and shields and wore feathers in their helmets."

 

"Well... kind of, yeah," I replied. "A soldier also carried a sword and a dagger, and body armor. Not to mention he went through serious physical training, and Romans really didn't like Jews. So tell me. How can twelve cowardly guys, who ran like chickens when their leader was alive, attack four-to-sixteen tough-as-nails Roman guards, win, and roll away a two-ton stone?"

 

"Well, there were twelve of them," Colleen said. "They probably could have taken care of the rock with a little effort. And the Roman guards could have been asleep."

 

"In the Roman ranks, the penalty for sleeping on the job was death," I replied. "Besides that, they probably slept in shifts. The disciples would have had to step over the sleeping guards in full view of the ones who were awake. No offense, Colleen, but your theory is impossible.

 

"You also have to consider the fact that most of the disciples were tortured and killed for believing firmly in Jesus Christ. They didn't get any wealth or kingship out of the deal. Why would they suffer for what they knew to be a lie?"

 

"Alright, alright!" Colleen said, looking annoyed and exasperated. I guess I'd been talking a lot. "So maybe it wasn't the disciples. Maybe the guards themselves took the body. You know, as a joke. Or maybe some had converted?"

 

"Once again, there's the death penalty," I said. "Hardly worth a little joke. And Roman soldiers weren't converted until years later. The Jews, including the disciples, believed that God's salvation was strictly for His chosen people."

 

"But it's still impossible," Colleen interjected. "He couldn't have risen from the dead. That's a lie. I mean, no offense! I like you and all. But how can you fall for this walking-on-water, parting-of-the-Red-Sea stuff?"

 

"It's easy," I replied with a smile. "Believing is seeing."

 

"Whatever that's supposed to mean."

 

"Well, alright. You tell me what happened to Jesus," I said. "So far I've been able to defend my beliefs--- you defend yours."

 

Colleen thought for a moment. "Maybe they found the wrong grave."

 

"Huh?"

 

"Those three ladies who came to visit Jesus on the third day? Maybe they just went to the wrong grave. They were probably already really stressed--- like you said, scared chickens--- and sad about the leader being killed and all. When they found an empty grave, they must have been eager to believe that Jesus was alive."

 

"Maybe," I said slowly.

 

Colleen smiled more. "See?"

 

"No," I replied. "First of all, those three women were there when Jesus was laid in the tomb. Secondly, they weren't stupid. They would have looked for Roman soldiers, or the Roman seal on the stone. Two of the disciples ran over immediately after the women announced Jesus' ressurrection. Coincidentally, they came to the same grave. And if it was simply a little mistake and Jesus was still buried, why didn't his enemies show them? Why did they instead bribe the soldiers to lie?"

 

Colleen looked disgruntled as I went to the back of my Bible again. "And here are all the verses showing that a lot of people knew exactly where Jesus' grave was---"

 

"Please," Colleen interrupted. "Don't look them all up."

 

I laughed. "Okay. Just so you know they're there."

 

Matthew 27: 59-60

 

Matthew 27: 61

 

Matthew 27: 62: 66

 

Matthew 28: 2 - 4, 11

 

"But wait a minute!" Colleen said desperately. "Rising from the dead is still impossible!" I didn't think so, but I decided to give her a chance to voice her opinion, too. "What if... hey! Maybe he wasn't really dead!"

 

"You mean, he just faked it for three days?" I asked, trying not to sound as sarcastic as I felt.

 

"Sure! It takes days to bleed to death on a cross. And Jesus supposedly died three hours after he was lifted up, right?"

 

"Something like that."

 

"So, they took him down, wrapped him up, stuck him in the tomb. Then, on the third day, he came out and told everyone he'd risen from the dead."

 

"You're forgetting about the guards again," I said.

 

"Maybe the disciples helped."

 

"Now we're back to the first thing!" I sighed.

 

Colleen laughed. "Hey, we're all friends here. I don't want to start an argument, okay? Why don't we just drop this?"

 

"Aw, but I've still got more to say!" I countered, afraid that once this conversation ended it would never start up again. Colleen needed to hear the truth, whether she believed it or not.

 

Colleen sighed and glanced at her watch. "Okay, but I don't want to be here for the rest of the day."

 

"Going back to the execution day. Jesus was knocked around all night. By the time he reached Pilate for trial, he'd already been awake for more than twenty-four hours, marched all over the city for secret, illegal meetings. When his sentence was given, he was whipped with a flagrum--- that's like a cat o' ninetails with sharp pieces of bone at the ends. It's amazing that Jesus survived that. Then the guards were mocking him, opening and reopening his wounds. Jesus was too weak to carry his own cross out of the city. They forced another man to bear it and basically dragged Jesus to Golgotha."

 

"Golgotha?" Colleen asked dully.

 

"The hill," I explained. "Now, you mentioned earlier that you know it takes days to die on a cross. You tell me why."

 

Colleen, looking very bored, began. "When the criminal is just hanging there, the pressure on his chest makes it impossible to breathe. So he pushes himself up with his legs to get air. When the pain in his legs is too great, he relaxes, and then begins to suffocate. So for a long, long time, the criminal keeps this up until the guards break his legs. Then, unable to breathe, he dies."

 

"Lovely," I said with a roll of my eyes, although I had heard it before. "In this case, the guards were breaking legs the day Jesus died. The criminals beside him suffocated, but they noticed that Jesus already looked pretty dead. Just to be sure, one of the guards drove a spear through his heart. Even if he missed the heart, he would have at least punctured a lung. The Bible also says that blood and water flowed out. Our blood is not separated from other body fluids unless we are dead.

 

"Supposing that Jesus was alive when he was laid in the tomb, after all that, don't you think he would have died? Besides, the place was probably air tight. No way three days' worth of oxygen was in there. And then, this man, this mortal, just happens to know when three days are up? He rolls back the stone, fights maybe sixteen guards, and stops to fold his jammies before leaving?"

 

Colleen sighed. "Look, I don't know how they did it! All I can say is, MEN DON'T RISE FROM THE DEAD. I'm tired of this argument! Can we go home now?"

 

I picked up my Bible and stood up. "Sure," I said, but I was stil arguing in my head. He wasn't a man. He was God. And God can do anything.

 

"Besides," Colleen said as we walked, "most of the evidence you've given me is from the Bible. The authors were obviously biased. How do you know fact to be fact?"

 

"Have you ever heard of Aristotle's Dictum?" I asked.

 

"I'm afraid to ask. What's that?"

 

"Aristotle was a Greek philosopher, as you probably know. He believed that the benefit of the doubt was to be given to any document. In other words, you assume it's true as you study it, until you are forced to believe otherwise."

 

"Well, it would be easy to believe otherwise," Colleen replied. "The Bible is full of contradictions and problems."

 

"Who told you that?" I asked. "Have you ever read it for yourself?"

 

"Come on!" Colleen yelled. "It's obvious that word-of-mouth changed stories like Jonah and the Whale, and the Ten Commandments!"

 

"Benefit of the doubt," I reminded her. "If there's a God, then any of those things could have happened. Colleen, did you know that the Bible passes both the internal and external tests better than any other document of its time?"

 

Colleen made a face. "I really wish this debate would stop, but, I'll bite. I think I've heard of those tests in science class or something. What are they again?"

 

"The internal test is used to see if a document contradicts itself. But most of the Bible's contradictions are mainly due to translation. They make perfect sense in their original language. All of the so-called contradictions can be explained by logic. They haven't nailed us yet."

 

"And the external test?" Colleen sighed.

 

"The external test asks the question: does the document contradict known historical facts? The answer is no. The Bible is one of the most reliable history books we have, actually. Atheists just hate to admit it. Archaeologists claim they find evidence that goes against what the Bible says. But more and more often, they have to take back those claims. A new discovery is made which ends up supporting scripture."

 

"I had no idea so much logic and science could be applied to fairy tales," Colleen said, shaking her head. "I mean, how can you believe in those Things Unseen and support them with scientific facts?"

 

"Faith and science walk hand in hand," I replied. "A lot of the world's leading scientists are Christians. And you have to have a lot of faith to believe anything scientific, creation- or evolution-wise."

 

"I remember reading that nothing can be scientifically proven," Colleen said thoughtfully. "A single contradicting piece of evidence can tear apart a scientific law overnight."

 

"Yeah!" I laughed. "Like, did you know that we still don't understand how flags ripple in the breeze?"

 

"Or why guys and girls seem to be from different planets and yet share the same origin?"

 

We both laughed. Still friends. "But before we change the subject completely," I said with regret, "do you suppose you could just give the Bible a chance? For me? Please?"

 

"I'll think about it," Colleen said. "But don't get your hopes up!"

 

"Aristotle's dictum lives!" I shouted into the sky, just for the sake of being weird. "---And so does Jesus!"

Edited April 9, 2004 by Jareena Faye

[Regel]

Faith is a hard thing to put inside someone else. I fear that even amongst his own followers some of them wouldn't believe this unless they saw with their own eyes and touched with their own hands. Thomas having heard of his masters sightings still had his doubts. It all boils down to one simple thing.

Do you believe in miracles?

I do.

 

Thank you Jareena Faye for sharing this with us.

[The Portrait of Zool]

We are all miracles.

 

Happy Easter.

[Xaious, Master of Time]

And the crowd says,

 

 

Amen.