Faith on Trial (21 page)

Some historians have speculated that perhaps the Jewish temple guard and not Roman guards were placed at the tomb. This does not advance the argument, however. Military discipline of the temple guard was almost as strict as that for the Roman guard. Temple guards were responsible for guarding the gates and courts of the temple. Two hundred forty Levites and thirty priests were responsible for acting as a guard for the temple every night. Periodic checks were performed during the night, and a guard who fell asleep while on duty would be severely beaten. It was also permissible to set on fire the clothes the culpable guard was wearing. Temple guards on watch were required to maintain their posts standing.
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It is reasonable to assume the Jewish temple guard would perform their duties at the tomb of Jesus with strict discipline.

In spite of all of these precautions, remember that no historical writing or any other evidence exists containing a refutation by the Roman authorities, the guards, the Jewish leaders, or anyone else that the tomb was empty three days after the death and burial of Jesus. The silence was deafening. Since controverting proof would have demolished belief in the resurrection, the failure to respond by those who were enemies of the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem is especially significant. A refutation could have been fatal to Christianity at that time.

It has also been suggested, with no supporting evidence, that perhaps the appearances of Jesus after the crucifixion can be explained by the fact that he did not actually die on the cross. But, as reported in the Gospels, Pontius Pilate himself required proof of the death of Jesus, and before Joseph of Arimathea was allowed to remove the body for burial, Pilate inquired of the Roman centurion who had been at the crucifixion as to verification (Mark 15:44–45). The centurion who had been keeping guard at the cross watched Jesus take his last breath and is reported in the Gospels to have said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39).

Many medical experts have confirmed the statement by the apostle John that blood and water flowed from the body of Jesus when he was stabbed with a lance during the crucifixion and that medical interpretation of the historical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead when taken down from the cross.
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The detailed eyewitness account of the author is important; consider how striking it is that this statement was made two thousand years ago when this would not have been within the scope of current medical knowledge, even if the person making the statement had been a medical expert. The implications of John’s statement could not have been recognized by the witness two thousand years ago when the report was written. It is unreasonable to believe, therefore, that the observation was fabricated.

Further, the Gospels report that the body was wrapped in spices, in conformance with Jewish custom in those days. The spices were pungent and bitter and were wrapped around the body and over the head and face with linens. The burial preparations are described in each of the four Gospels. The Gospel of John describes the mixture of myrrh and aloes used for that purpose at about one hundred pounds weight (John 19:38–40). The body of a crucified person, such as Jesus, however, would not have been washed.
21
The Jewish law of the first century provided an exception against the removal before burial of blood that issued at the moment of a violent death.
22
That fact could explain the bloodstains on the Shroud.

It is ludicrous to suppose that after suffering a night of anxiety so extreme as to cause sweat of blood, no sleep, a lack of food or water, beatings, a scourging, the labor of carrying his own cross to Golgotha, a crucifixion during which he was nailed to a cross for hours and then pierced with a lance, and thereafter being wrapped in one hundred pounds of spices and placed in a cold tomb for the night, that Jesus could have lived. Scourging alone was almost a death sentence. It was twice mentioned by Josephus as customarily preceding crucifixion. Jesus would have been stripped of his clothes and flogged “until the flesh hung down in bloody shreds.”
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It is even more ludicrous to suppose that, had he lived, he would have been able to appear on that same day to numerous people in various locations as a healthy, happy, whole person. The village of Emmaus in which an early appearance on the day of the resurrection was reported is more than seven miles from the location of the tomb.

All of the foregoing must be considered by the jury in the context of the evidence presented in this case to support the reliability of the Gospel testimony that the resurrection occurred. We can’t have it both ways—either the testimony of the Gospels is false, or—as the Gospels state—Jesus was dead when he was removed from the cross and placed in the tomb, and the tomb was found empty three days later. If the speculation that Jesus was not dead or that the tomb was not empty is accepted,
on what evidence has that conclusion been based?

What does all of this prove? It is this: rational thought is not based on the musings of individuals.
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In order to come to a logical conclusion about an issue or a hypothesis, one is required to support that position with evidence. The historical, documentary, archaeological, and other evidence that has been presented to the jury is sufficient to support by more than a preponderance that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as reported in the Gospels actually did occur as historical fact. No conflicting evidence of even near equivalent weight has been presented in two thousand years. This is a message that can be objectively verified. The case for the reliability of the testimony of our witnesses and the historical facts of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus have been proved.

T
he Christian religion seeks out those who doubt. Some of the most poignant words of the Gospels deal with those who have not been given the gift of faith. We are told that if we seek the answers, we will find them; if we knock, the door will be opened to us. We are told that a shepherd with ninety-nine sheep safely in the fold will leave those ninety-nine sheep to seek out the one that is lost. And we are told that Thomas, the doubting follower of Jesus, was especially provided with evidence of the reality of the resurrection.

When you live with doubt, you have two choices. You may accept that this life is all there is and that we truly are wildflowers that bloom and die; or you may seek after knowledge, wherever that may lead. If you have read this far, you have most likely already made your choice: you are inquisitive and engaged in a search for truth.

The evidence presented in our search for truth has been measured against objective criteria required for a civil case, but the proof of the truth is compelling even under stricter standards. In the United States the standard of proof in a criminal trial such as that of Darlie Routier, the young mother condemned to death for the murder of her sons, is higher than that required for a civil case. In a criminal trial the jury must find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Adapting even that higher standard of proof for our purposes, if you, the jury, were actually to hear the testimony in court of not one but four different witnesses whom you believed to be honest and truthful as to their observation that an event had occurred, would you believe the event had occurred? Consider further how the testimony would be weighed if each witness was consistent in all material respects with the others and if collateral details of the testimony were all verified by corroborative evidence. Finally, add to that the circumstantial evidence that many people in the communities in which these witnesses lived changed their conduct in a manner consistent with the testimony, and that in effect ratified the accuracy and truth of the testimony. That level of proof is much stronger even than the evidence offered in the
Routier
case, and that is the level of proof presented in this case.

Since the facts are verifiable, the evidence is the cornerstone upon which the truth rests. While you are considering that evidence in order to determine your own verdict, reflect on the surprising accumulation of information available to us today after two thousand years to prove the message of the Gospels. A person is forced to reflect on whether that is merely coincidence, just luck, or the revelations of all of this information at this time are something more. Consider all of the components of care required for preservation of this evidence over that period—the solicitude in the transmission of the words spoken by Jesus and in the copying of the manuscripts; the gentle conservation of fragments remaining from papyrus so easily destroyed, of artifacts, of archaeological evidence preserved through wars, plunder, fire, earthquakes, and in spite of political intent to destroy; consider the imprint of tender spring flowers on the Shroud of Turin, and the nature of medical observations the importance of which was unknown at the time. The implications of the survival and unearthing of all of this evidence alone are worthy of reflection.

Our search for truth in this case has centered on certain facts. The unique facts of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus form the basic foundation of the entire Christian religion. But the four Gospels present a more complete message than the mere facts we have examined, although the message cannot be understood and will not be believed without an understanding of those facts. We have developed those facts, point by point. As the music of Mozart is only a part of its mystery, however, the facts we have examined are only the basic theme of the Gospels, against which the melody of the rest of the message is to be considered.

It is intriguing to suppose that the music of Mozart drifted to us from another dimension in time and space—that the liquid crystalline music cascaded from an unknown source, providing
hints
of something beyond our physical realm. But the evidence of something transcendent offered by the complete message of the Gospels is much more than a hint—
it is the melody fully developed
. The fusion of the facts that have been proved with the remainder of the Gospels completes the final work. The facts and the message together weave the musical texture, point against counterpoint, note against note, to create a song of love. The message depends on the facts, and the facts exist to provide evidence for the message.

Each juror can interpret that message alone by reading the words of the messengers. The Gospels tell us to seek answers for ourselves and to listen—but to be careful how we listen. The unique opportunity provided to us by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is the ability to determine for ourselves the meaning of the message set forth in the Gospels as revealed by the words of Jesus. We need no intercessor. In rendering our own verdict, we don’t need to depend on anyone’s interpretation of this message; it has been preserved for each of us to read and understand.

Perhaps the message has been sent to us in other times. In the Old Testament, for example, prophecies and disastrous consequences were recorded, but the message did not really survive, and through the years our understanding became distorted. Perhaps, because we kept getting it wrong, the message had to be given again in a way we could not misunderstand—through agonizing suffering of Father and Son, and physical death, something we all comprehend. The love held by a parent for a child was clearly recognized as the basis for the ultimate sacrifice as far back as the time of Abraham in the Old Testament. The New Testament reflection of that message is written in the clear, simple narrative of believable witnesses to the ultimate tragedy—the harmony of suffering between the Father and the Son, like the strings of a musical instrument reacting sympathetically to the vibrations of another nearby, so that the first reverberates when the second cries out.
1
The Son was sacrificed and then returned to life in recognizable form so that we could know of the love that is offered to us and the hope of eternal life.

The love inspired by the Gospels is pure love, which transcends the lesser rewards of happiness, comfort, or material gain—it is agape. Agape is love which is one-way and consumes all other options, including reward. It underlies the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. It is present in the love reflected in the surrender of the last seat in a lifeboat. It is the unexplained missing element in most philosophies of the world, from Ayn Rand through Kant and Nietzsche back to Plato, all trying to understand what makes a person act against his or her own self-interest. The answer that eludes them is agape, a love that is pure and eternal; and the highest expression is found in the crucifixion of Jesus, a sacrifice that offers us hope and comfort.

In a vision of desolation from the Old Testament, a prophet was set down in the midst of a valley of the dry bones of those who had lost all hope that life had meaning. In Judea at that time, cynicism and bitterness ruled. But God reached out to those hopeless ones, and then “bones came . . . to its bone . . . sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them.” The breath of God, the spirit within them, then brought them to life, “and [they] stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army” (Ezek. 37:7–8, 10).

Today many of us live in that valley. We look for meaning and purpose in the glitter of material things, starlight of the new age, and we bypass the simple evidence that was preserved for us by the messengers two thousand years ago. If we think of it at all, we tell ourselves this is because the message of Christianity requires belief in a bodily resurrection that we can’t understand. But that ignores the fact that we readily accept the truth of many things in the world today that we don’t understand.

If you, the juror, are able to set aside preconceptions and look to the evidence, bypassing speculation and theory, you may find the simple truth for yourself. It is written in the Gospels. The words of the Gospels do not offer us a mere philosophy. They offer us an understanding of the real meaning and purpose of life. The peace which is offered by the words of our witnesses is not measured by standards of this world, nor can it be explained by philosophers. Unlike philosophy, the truth of the Gospels can be known not merely by human analysis or through logic but because that truth rests on knowable facts, and evidence sufficient for proof has been carefully preserved. That is the gift. In his own testimony, the apostle John left these words for us: “He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows he is telling the truth” (John 19:35
hcsb
). And Jesus said that truth shall set you free (John 8:32
hcsb
).