Witnesses for Jesus

by Stephen Bastin

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No, I am not talking about people who claim to be witnesses for God or for Jesus, but have seen neither God nor Jesus.  I am talking about the real witnesses, those who saw Jesus.  I am speaking of the witnesses who lived with Jesus, talked with him, followed him down the dusty roads of Galilee and were with him on that fateful trip to Jerusalem that resulted in his death.  Those are the witnesses of whom I speak.

I am talking about those who were in the upper room when Jesus miraculously appeared before them on the third day after his crucifixion.  I speak of those who stood on the Mount of Olives and watched as Jesus ascended into the sky where a cloud received him out of their sight.

Those are the witnesses of whom I speak.  There were eleven of them.  The original group consisted of 12 men chosen one day in Galilee, but Judas had chosen another path.  He ended his life before the great miracle of the resurrection.  What might he have done if only he had waited a little longer?

Never has so much depended on the testimony of witnesses.  The story is that a man who was crucified, buried in a tomb for three days had come back to life and appeared to the witnesses.  An incredible story!  Was it true?  The answer lies with the witnesses.

Court cases are routinely decided on the basis of testimony from witnesses.  Sometimes the witnesses are people, sometimes the “witnesses” are things found at the crime scene.  But juries make decisions based on these witnesses.

Can juries make mistakes?  Certainly.  But that has not led to the scrapping of the jury system.  Juries are used precisely because we believe that they are the best means available for making the right decision.  And juries are expected to make their decisions based on the evidence provided by witnesses.

In the case of Jesus, God has provided the witnesses.  Actually, Jesus chose the witnesses, but since he claimed that everything that he did was by the direction of God, we will simply say that God has provided the witnesses.

First of all, the witnesses, the apostles, were well acquainted with Jesus.  They had spent about three years with him.  They traveled together, ate together and generally lived together for those three years.  The apostles were competent to know whether it was Jesus that they saw after his death or some imposter pretending to be the risen Jesus.

Incidentally, this explains why there are no resurrection appearances to the enemies of Jesus.  When Jewish rulers went to the garden to arrest Jesus, they acquired the services of one of the apostles to identify Jesus.  Apparently they were not certain that they could pick him out of a crowd without some help.

Two of the twelve witnesses have provided us with written testimony.  Those two are Matthew and John.  A summary of the testimony of the twelve has been provided us by two historians, one of whom may also have been an “unofficial” witness, Mark.  The other historian was Luke.

Luke in the book of Acts provides us with information that bears on the credibility of the witnesses.  He records the persecution that was raised against the witnesses for giving their testimony.  In Acts, chapters 4, 5 and 12 Luke tells the story of what happened to these witnesses.  They were imprisoned, threatened, beaten and in the case of one, James, they were killed.

So what is the testimony that these witnesses have given us?  First of all, the testimony says that Jesus died on the cross after being there about 6 hours.  To make sure that Jesus was dead, one of the soldiers pierced his side bringing forth blood and water.  Pilate only released the body of Jesus when he had been assured that Jesus was dead.  The Jewish leaders, who wanted Jesus dead, were also present at the crucifixion and it is incredible that they would have consented to the burial if they had not been certain of the death of Jesus.

Two men, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, a Jewish ruler, buried the body of Jesus in a nearby tomb.  The women who had followed Jesus to Golgotha watched to see where he was buried.

On Sunday, the women returned to the tomb only to discover that it was empty.  There are three possible explanations for the empty tomb.  (Everyone seems to agree on this particular piece of evidence.)  One possibility is that the Jews had moved the body of Jesus.  A second is that the apostles removed the body of Jesus.  A third is that Jesus was raised from the dead and left the tomb under his own power.

If the Jews stole the body it is rather remarkable that they did not produce the body later when the apostles began preaching that Jesus had been raised.

If the disciples stole the body it is rather remarkable that they did not change their story when they began to be persecuted, jailed, beaten and killed for saying that Jesus was alive.

That leaves us with only the third possibility.  Jesus was raised on the third day just as he had predicted.

The resurrection of Jesus is an incredible story.  But like any other story, the truth depends on the witnesses.  There are no reasonable grounds for believing that Jesus did not die on the cross.  There are no reasonable grounds for believing that the witnesses were mistaken in the identity of Jesus after his resurrection.  There are no reasonable grounds for believing that the witnesses lied.  What remains is a story that has no precedent in the annals of human history.  A man who was dead for three days came back to life without the assistance of medical personnel.  He met with the witnesses he had chosen and charged them to go into all the world with the message that he had died for the sins of the world, that he had been buried and that he had been raised on the third day.

On this story hang the hopes of every Christian that there is life after death.  On this story rests the most important decision a person can make.  Will you be a follower of Jesus, the one who was raised. You may then share in his resurrection.