Did Christ Die? Was His Corpse Stolen?

For Christians, the most important event in human history is the Resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It solidifies and signifies the victory of all believers — no longer are we enslaved to sin and death. Instead, we are promised freedom and life.

Not everyone believes this happened, however. Many believe someone stole the corpse and the Christian assertion that He lives is a scam.

Let’s examine this.

When the women arrived at his tomb to anoint Jesus with funerary spices, they found an empty tomb.

Why was it empty?

Had Jesus’ body been stolen?

If so, the thieves would have had to bypass the Roman centurions who were posted outside due to worries that Jesus’ supporters would steal His body. Roman centurions were no slouches and Matthew 27 tells us there was a detachment of them in front of the tomb of Christ.

Did someone else steal His body?

Again — there were the guards who did not witness anyone pushing aside the stone in front of the tomb. Additionally, over the course of the next 40 days, there were several accounts of witnesses who saw him. He talked to them, showed them his scars, and ate a piece of fish. Mark 16:7 talks about this.

Was there actually an empty tomb? One argument is that there was no empty tomb — that the faithful lied about the stone being removed from the entrance of the tomb.

However, in Evidence That Demands A Verdict, Josh McDowell points out that in the debate about Jesus Christ’s disappearance from the tomb, no one mentions the empty tomb. Everyone, whether they were for or against Christ as Messiah, agreed the tomb was empty. There were no debates about this. Everyone agreed tthe body was missing, but they disagreed about the cause.

Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad free

Could Jesus have manufactured His own escape? If so — then we know He was resurrected if he had died, which the Romans made sure of before taking Him down from the cross.

What if He hadn’t really died but was simply doing a good job of fooling the centurions? How could he have pushed aside a stone that weighed approximately 2000 pounds, and sneak past the guards? As this article points out, two strong guards could have pushed the stone into place because there were groves that made this easier; however those same groves would make it much harder to remove the stone.

How could he walk?

It beggars belief that He could do this with His damaged human body. However, if He were actually God reborn from the dead — then such a miracle could happen. In fact, Matthew 27 tells us it was actually an angel who pushed aside the stone, to reveal an empty tomb.

Could the disciples have stolen the body?

Aside from the fact that many people were reported to have interacted with Jesus over the next 40 days, including disciples and others familiar with Him, there is the fact that the disciples themselves acted in a cowardly manner during the crucifixion.

Terrified of being persecuted, they fled and scattered after His arrest. Peter denied knowing Jesus three times.

Also, it seems unlikely that fishermen, a tax collector, a zealot, and a thief (Judas Iscariot) could have fought and won against trained Roman guards.

Maybe they bought off the troops? Again, this is highly unlikely. Aside from Judas with his 30 pieces of silver who was hanging from a tree, who had enough wealth to bribe them? Especially since the disciples were part of a group, the Jews, that were despised by the Romans.

What if the Jewish religious leaders had stolen His body?

Again — Roman guards.

However, there is a slight possibility that the Pharisees and Sadducees, being leaders, could have coughed up enough to bribe the centurions.

However, they hated Jesus. After all, they were the ones who called to have Him crucified!

Given how they felt about Him, the second His followers began to preach the Resurrection, His enemies would have produced his rotting corpse to point out that He was, in fact, dead. They could have nailed the nascent religion into a coffin. If they had a dead body, they would have done this.

Finally, some think it could have been grave robbers.

Again — the guards outside the tomb. But let’s say the robbers managed to bribe the guards or sneak past them. Why would they bother to do so?

Why would anyone jump hurdles to get into a poor man’s tomb?

Of course, because Jesus was so poor, He was buried in a tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea. Perhaps the latter was wealthy?

Even so both the Roman and Jewish authorities had a vested interest in proving that Jesus would not rise from the dead. Would thieves have risked being caught and crucified or otherwise killed in order to raid the cave on the off chance there were luxury items inside?

Finally, is there a chance that whoever took Jesus down from the cross forgot where the tomb was? Again, it was a tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea. He himself took Jesus to this tomb. What is the likelihood he would forget where he put Him?

Bottom line, the facts all seem to point in one direction. Jesus Christ was crucified, was buried in the tomb, and rose from the dead on the third day.

HE IS RISEN! Alleluia!

—

This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.