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TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
S OME facts are so significant that without them a whole series of events seem pointless. Such a fact is the resurrection of our Lord, Th« Resurrection of Our Lord— Is It a Fact? Many today hail the resurrection of Christ as a fact, but when inquiries are made as to what it is that is risen from the dead, we find, strangely enough, it is not the bodily resurrection of Christ to which they ,refer, but the resurrection of the soul or the spirit. They think that Christian doctrine is satisfied, and that mankind has a proper and an authoritative hope for a general resurrec tion of the just, if we admit the spiritual resurrection of Christ. They do not feel that they have surrendered their first line of trenches, and indeed the key redoubt of Christian doctrine, when they surrender the bodily resur rection of Christ. They do not realize perhaps that a spiritual resurrection may, or may not be, a fact. Cer tainly it is not a fact upon which can be built any solid body of thinking. It may be a hope, a conjecture, a desire of the heart, but certainly not a fact, in that it is a demonstrable actuality.
soldiers on this duty r e l a t e an impossible tale on the theft of the body they were assigned to guard. And, wonder of wonders, the same tale of the disappear ance of His body was related by the timid, fugitive, and despondent disciples of Jesus, most of whom did not even have the courage to appear at the crucifixion. That a stone of this size could be removed without waking the guards is something of a problem in evidence. However, there are two greater problems. First, if the body were stolen, why was it not brought back by com mand of the authorities who wanted it in the first place? The majesty of Rome had been flouted in the breaking of the seal and the soldiers of the empire made a laugh ingstock by humble disciples who, up to that time, had not been accused of grave robbing proclivities. The second problem is the greater one: Why should the disciples take the dead body of their Lord from the friendly tomb of Joseph of Arimathea? What possible motive could there be for the removal of the body from this place of dignity? If the body were taken from this place, then why, in the later history of the Church, say
during the apostolic age, was not some peculiarly holy spot, the full significance of which was known only to the elite, identified as the actual burying place of our Lord? That there is no such spot is significant. The Church had no interest whatever in any burying place of the Lord Jesus until after its combination with the State in the time of Constantine, when Elena, Constantine’s mother, attempted to discover the spot where Jesus was buried. The Church began then to make of th I have gone past graveyards all of my life; I have seen individuals die; but never yet have I seen a spirit rise from the dead. While it may be characteristic of a spirit, certainly I Would not undertake to base any widespread conclusions on any such thin material as a spiritual resurrection of anyone at any time or at any place. Of Paul’s statements with regard to Christ’s being seen alive, and the many “ infallible proofs,” the above-mentioned school of thought would have us believe that what is meant is that the spirit of Jesus is more visible to mortals than the spirit of any other individual. While I do not deny that this could be so, I insist that if the Christian Church takes this attitude, it retreats from an impregnable position to a Bataan peninsula that is extremely in defensible. Certainly nothing like this was spoken of by Paul, or anyone else, as an infallible proof, to say nothing of many infallible proofs. The Facts of the Death of Jesus If we examine the facts of Jesus’ death and burial, we find a clear and circumstantial account. He is pro nounced dead by men who might be thought to be ex pert in such matters. To make His death doubly sure, a spear is thrust into His side, producing blood and serum— something of a proof in itself that death has already taken place. Jesus is taken by His friends to a rich man’s sepulcher, one far better than anyone might suppose available to a poor man. A huge stone is placed in front of the sepulcher. On the following morning, a Roman seal is placed upon it, and a guard stationed there. The
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