“Why seek ye the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5). This was the question asked by two angels to a group of women who came to Jesus’ tomb early Easter morning. They were there to anoint His body with spices, believ­ing Him to be still lying in the grave as He had been just two nights before.

“Why seek ye the living among the dead?” This was the question that changed their lives, and the world, for­ever. Or rather, what the question implied did – and the answer the angels then gave.

“He is not here, but is risen” (Luke 24:6). The tomb is empty! What did that mean for the women? It meant that their spices were no longer needed. Instead, they now had good news – a gospel – to spread (v. 9). The empty tomb would forever shape the way that people view Jesus Christ.

But is this an old wives’ fable, created by a group of mourning disciples to bring comfort, but nothing more than that? Do we really have to believe this still today? I’ve heard a minister exclaim along the lines that “It’s the movement, not the man.” That we do not have to keep believing in the unbelievable anymore. It’s the cause that Jesus stood for, and as long as that continues, then Christianity continues. The real resurrection of Christ is irrelevant.

Doesn’t the Apostle Paul warn us in 1 Corinthians 8 about placing stumbling blocks and tripping up oth­ers? Here we are, two thousand years later, with all our scientific, medical, and technological advancements, and we still cannot raise a person from the dead. How could it possibly have happened back then? Aren’t we just lay­ing a stumbling block? Aren’t we tripping up others who otherwise might believe by insisting that Christ rose from the dead?

This might sound attractive to some, but what kind of “Christianity” would they have to spread in its place?

Christ’s resurrection validates His own teaching⤒🔗

Jesus Him­self predicted His own resurrection.

In Luke 9:22, He said,

The Son of man must ... be slain, and be raised the third day.

Again, in Luke 18:33, He said,

And they shall ... put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.

If He didn’t actually rise, how could you believe any other word He spoke? Not only would you have rea­son to doubt His words, but also His character.

Christ’s resurrection validates the apostles’ teaching←⤒🔗

Christ was not the only one who spoke about His resurrection: the Gospels and the New Testament letters all refer to it. The same apostle who said of Christ’s death – “And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe” (John 19:35) – also spoke of His resurrection, and of seeing Him face to face.

Jesus (came) and stood in the midst, and ... shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.John 20:19-20

If Jesus is still in the grave, buried somewhere under the Middle Eastern sand, we might as well go and bury our Bibles as well. How could we believe any word writ­ten in it? Either the tomb is empty or our faith is empty.

That’s Paul’s conclusion in 1 Corinthians 15:12-20: If Christ is not risen then preaching is vain, faith is vain, we’re all still in our sins, hell still looms before us, and Christians – of all the people in the world – are to be the most pitied. Where’s the good news in that? With­out the resurrection, there is no message for Christian­ity. Instead of hope, we’re left holding spices, trying to perfume a casket.

'But,' the Holy Spirit says, 'now is Christ risen from the dead.'