Throughout human history, people across cultures have sought to flee oppression and escape persecution. A recurring theme in Western literature and in modern classics, such as Superman and Disney originals, which revolve around the struggle between good and evil, is the need for and critical role of a rescuer or savior.
Easter is the celebration of the finished work of the messiah Jesus Christ, the ultimate rescuer and savior for mankind who sacrificed his life to provide forgiveness of sin—enabling all who believe in Christ to have a direct relationship with God.
That no other religion makes the claim that it was founded by a messiah makes Jesus the most revolutionary figure of human history.
Still, some assume Christianity is like other religions that require followers to perform specific works and rituals acceptable to God. Not so with Jesus, for he implores us in Matthew 11:30 that, “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” When a learned Jewish Pharisee, whose life required living up to stressful “dos and don’ts” of the Mosaic law, asked Jesus which was the greatest commandment in the law, Jesus answered simply that if we love God and love our neighbor as ourselves, we will have fulfilled all the laws.
Christ is absolutely unique in other ways. First, he is the only person in history who was pre-announced starting a thousand years before he was born, with eighteen different prophets between the tenth and the fourth centuries BC predicting his coming birth, life, and death. Hundreds of years later, the details of Christ’s coming birth, life, betrayal, and manner of death validated those prophecies in surprisingly accurate and minute detail. One thousand years BC, David prophetically wrote about the crucifixion of Christ, at a time when crucifixion was unknown as a means of execution.
The death of other religious leaders—such as Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Mohammad, or Confucius—brought anticlimactic endings to their lives and work. But Christ came into the world as God’s son to die and pay the price for man’s iniquity. His sacrifice was the ultimate climax of his life, done for the benefit of mankind—opening the way, for all who believe—to earthly fulfillment and certain joyful afterlife.
The essence of Easter’s celebration of the Resurrection is that Christianity’s founder, Jesus, is still alive, having overcome death. No Jew ever believed that, after Abraham died and was interred, his tomb ever became empty. After the Buddha died, no disciple ever claimed to have seen or spoken to him again. As for Mohammed and his teachings that are the basis of Islam, he never appeared to his followers after he had died at age sixty-one. His occupied tomb located in Medina is visited by tens of thousands of devout Muslims every year.
The “seeing is believing” evidence of God’s power and love, is that Jesus was brought back from being dead in a tomb to being alive—resurrected—so that people would have living proof of who he was.
The New Testament provides accounts from multiple sources who witnessed Jesus firsthand after the resurrection. Jesus made ten separate appearances to his disciples between the resurrection and his ascension into Heaven—forty days. Those appearances were to individual disciples, several disciples at the same time, and once to five hundred people at one time. It is noteworthy that there were no accounts or witnesses who came forth and disputed these appearances, or called it a “hoax”—not even one. Nor is there any record of any contradictory witness accounts.
Skeptics of the biblical account of Jesus must come to terms with the fact that there is more reliable historical evidence for his life, teachings, miracles, death, and resurrection than for any other historical figure of ancient times. Consider, for instance, that the authenticity of Alexander the Great, who was born some 350 years before Christ, is based on two original biographical accounts of his life by Arrian and Plutarch, which were written approximately 400 years after Alexander's death. The manuscripts of Virgil and Horace, both of whom lived within a generation of Christ, were written more than four centuries after their deaths. Yet no one doubts Virgil and Horace lived and authored great poetic masterpieces. Similarly, the historical record of Alexander the Great is unquestioned.
The reliability of ancient history is determined by three variables: the number of eyewitness accounts, the lapse of time between the eyewitness accounts and the written record, and the number of surviving manuscripts of that written record.
Looking at that big picture there are about one thousand times more manuscripts preserving the deeds and teaching of Jesus in the New Testament (about twenty-five thousand) than there are preserving other classical ancient works of historic figures who lived at approximately the same time, with the exception of Homer, whose Iliad is backed by eighteen hundred manuscripts. However, that is still less than one-tenth the number of ancient manuscripts that support the authenticity of Jesus’ life as recorded in the New Testament.
We know the historical Jesus through four different accounts known as the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—not written hundreds of years later, but within a generation or two of Jesus’s life. Apostles Matthew and John provide eyewitness accounts from their years of walking with Jesus as disciples. Mark also had eyewitness experience, although he was only a teenager during the public ministry of Jesus. Luke, the doctor, learned about Jesus from his friend Paul, the Apostle who wrote most of the Letters of the New Testament.
Because of their experience with the resurrected Jesus, the apostles were in a unique position, knowing with certainty that Jesus was truly the Son of God. They had witnessed the unparalleled love, profound teachings, miracles, death, and resurrection of Jesus. If the claims about Jesus were a lie, the apostles would have known it. That is why their commitment to their testimony was so compelling. Additionally, the apostles’ willingness to die for their claims has tremendous evidentiary value—and confirms the truth of the resurrection.
No one will die for something contrived or false. Seeing, talking to, and touching the risen Jesus transformed the apostles, who then committed the rest of their lives to sharing the message of salvation through Christ. Apart from John, who was banished to the island of Patmos for his testimony of Jesus, the other eleven apostles—including Matthias who replaced Judas, the betrayer of Jesus—died as martyrs for their beliefs in the divinity of Christ.
It turns out that Easter, which has its ultimate meaning through the resurrection, is one of the most scrutinized and well-attested events in ancient history. Easter is the commemoration and celebration of the single event that transformed the world forever.
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