AS CHRISTIANS prepare to celebrate Holy Pascha
is it a coincidence that new and sensationalistic claims about
Jesus have hit the media? Last year the rave was all about cracking
secret codes. More recently we have heard about lost tombs found
and bone fragments of Jesus, which if true would cast doubt
on the core message of Christianity.
To
doubt the resurrection of Jesus is nothing new. There was plenty
of doubt to go around among Jesus' own disciples. When the women
followers of Jesus brought the good news to the frightened and
hiding disciples they took the news as "leros" --
an idle tale. (Luke 24:11) Later, after the disciples themselves
had seen the risen Christ, they announced the news to Thomas
who retorted: "unless I see the print of the nails . .
. I will not believe!" (John 20:25) Whether in the first
century or the twenty-first, the magnitude of the resurrection
boggles the mind. The critical question is this: are we dealing
with honest doubts seeking to understand the mystery, or are
we dealing with pernicious doubts looking to undermine it?
The
most objectionable aspect of the recent so-called documentary
"The Lost Tomb of Jesus" (and a book that is to follow)
is its superficial and titillating approach. On flimsy evidence
the creators came up with unabashed spectacular claims. They
manipulated and squeezed every hint of possibility to lead the
unwary to the conclusion with which the filmmakers had started
-- that they had discovered the true tomb of Jesus and fragments
of His bones from which they had DNA extracted (!). [Then, disingenuously,
they claim that they only seek to put "the evidence"
before the public "for discussion." Let us be clear
about what these claims are. If these researchers are correct,
then finding the bones of Jesus means: (1) that Jesus never
rose from the dead, or (2) if Jesus rose from the dead after
the crucifixion, then at some point later on, he died a natural
death and was buried with his family members. Either of these
possibilities is completely incompatible with the Christian
Faith.]
Professional
archaeologists have debunked the claims. Amos Kloner, the first
archaeologist to examine and catalog the first-century tomb
found at Talpiot in 1980, some four miles south of Jerusalem,
declared that the filmmakers "had no credibility whatever,"
but thought that their claims "make for profitable television."
Other archaeologists called the venture "fantasy archaeology."
Here
are the main reasons that we should reject the sensational claims.
First, it is ludicrous to treat a subject very serious and dear
to billions with an Indiana-Jones approach. Second, the names
on the discovered ossuaries were common Jewish names and in
no credible way indicated that the family tomb of Jesus had
been found. Third, the inscriptions of several names could be
read in other ways that entirely collapse the film's conclusion.
Fourth, the ossuary allegedly belonging to Mary Magdalene cannot
be vouched for on the basis of a fourth-century apocryphal book
(The Acts of Philip). Fifth, the family of Jesus was poor and
from Nazareth in Galilee; they could not be expected to have
owned such a grand tomb as found at Talpiot located miles south
of Jerusalem. And sixth, the ossuary allegedly belonging to
"James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" was declared
a hoax in 2003 by the Israeli archaeological authorities --
the ossuary being of the first century, indeed, but its inscription
scratched on in the twenty-first century!
The
documentary rehashed the age-old charge that Jesus' followers
stole His body (Matthew 27:64) and buried it in another grave
-- which has now been found. Such a charge would turn the disciples
into outright liars and cynical deceivers of friends and compatriots.
Resurrection for the Jews in the first century meant resurrection
of the whole person -- no bones left behind. [Jesus showed Himself
proving this bodily resurrection in several instances in the
Gospels: when He invited the disciples to touch him, and when
He ate and drank with them during the 40 days.] But think about
it. How could a few fishermen perpetrate such a colossal hoax,
duping both friends and enemies of Jesus? Did they wholly deceive
St. Paul, too, the fanatical persecutor of Christianity who
later became the greatest preacher of the resurrection? [Didn't
the Glorified Jesus appear to him on the road to Damascus? This
miraculous appearance changed the murderous Saul into the devout
Paul. Could a fictitious story cause the powerful Saul to give
himself over to disrepute and martyrdom? Would any of the martyred
Apostles and disciples maintain such a perverse fantasy in the
face of their own degradation and death?] What did such Christian
leaders as Peter, James the Brother of the Lord, and Paul have
to gain [by claiming Jesus' resurrection and Divinity] except
expulsion from their own religious community, extreme hardships,
persecution, and eventual martyrdom? Where did they get the
courage to preach a risen Christ at the risk of their very lives?
The answer can only be that Christ truly rose from the dead.
The apostles beheld the risen Lord, they knew of the empty tomb,
and their lives were transformed by the saving power of the
resurrection of Jesus -- a full, bodily resurrection.
The
significance of Jesus' resurrection goes far beyond the stupendous
bare fact. Every reasonable contemporary of Jesus would have
regarded a rising from the dead an impossibility, a unique and
unprecedented event that, if true, could only have marked a
radical new beginning in history. Most Jews had long-awaited
God's great time of deliverance from the forces of evil and
its instruments in the world; [this would be a Divine] act of
God that for many included the resurrection of the dead. That
exactly was the view of the early Christians who experienced
Jesus' resurrection as a unique and decisive act of God in history,
the "first fruits" of a radically new age of salvation.
For
the early Christians, God's deliverance was not from the hands
of the Romans, as many expected, but from the corruptive bondage
[of man] to the evil powers -- sin, Satan, and death. In other
words, Jesus' resurrection marked the decisive start of what
St. Paul called the "new creation," a new and transforming
wave of grace rushing forward and destined in God's good time
to set free the whole creation "from the bondage of decay."
(Romans 8:21) The meaning of Jesus' resurrection is missed apart
from this explosive power of the new order of life launched
in human history by the ministry of Jesus crowned with His resurrection.
[Then, after 40 days, humanity's restoration was completed with
His glorious ascension -- body and soul -- for He is now seated
"at the right hand of the Majesty from on high." (Mat.
26:64; Mark 14:62; Luke 22:69; Col. 3:1; Heb. 8:1; 12:2). Thus,
there can be no bones in any tomb: Jesus Christ rose from the
grave and ascended into Heaven, where He rules as the Son of
God and the Son of Man. It is this crucial series of events,
from the beginning of Holy Week to the Ascension and then through
the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, that proves our
Faith and is the "blessed hope" of mankind, of which
St. Paul preaches (Titus 2:13) and the Gospels attest.]
As
we come to celebrate Holy Pascha, we ought to know that as Christians
we too participate in this mighty wave of the luminous renewal
movement begun by Christ the fire-starter ("I came to cast
fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!"
Luke 12:49). In the first century Jesus' rising from the dead
shook the cosmos and put it on a new track in history. It also
demonstrated God's seal of vindication of the truth of the saving
work of Jesus: where His enemies said "No" and rejected
Him, God thundered a "Yes" and established the new
era of salvation. The resurrection transformed and empowered
the disciples to accomplish, against all odds, a spiritual triumph
unknown in history. For those who commit their hearts and lives
to Christ, the power of the resurrection is still at work today
waiting to be tapped to its fullest. The risen Christ lives
and rules forever ("Jesus Christ is the same yesterday
and today and for ever." Hebrews 13:8). The final evidence
is in our own transformed lives and a vibrant life of the Church
in the world -- Therefore, we joyfully share the Paschal greetings:
"Christ is risen!" and the universe replies: "Truly
He is risen!"
