The Tomb is Empty!

             The minister at a little Methodist Church I attended opened his Easter sermon that year with this question, “Do you know what you will find if you visit the grave of Buddha? Buddha bones.” He continued this line of questioning with several other well known religious leaders of the past, concluding that their graves all hold their bones. Then he asked, “Do you know what you’ll find if you visit the tomb where Jesus was buried? Nothing! The tomb is empty. This is one of the anomalies that separate Jesus from all other religious leaders-past, present and yet to come.”

Very early on the first day of the week the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. ² They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. ³ So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴ As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes. ⁵ The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? ⁶ He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, ⁷ that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.” ⁸ Then they remembered that he had said this. ⁹ So they rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples—and everyone else—what had happened. ¹⁰ It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened. ¹¹ But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it. ¹² However, Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look. Stooping, he peered in and saw the empty linen wrappings; then he went home again, wondering what had happened.   Luke 24:1-12 NIV 

Although I shouldn’t be, I am continually amazed as scientists puzzle over how to prove/disprove the truth about Jesus. I watched a History Channel show a few nights ago about the Shroud of Turin. I watched as one scientist went from a controlled, analytical approach to a man who was so choked up he could barely speak as the evidence unfolded. One of the odd things found on this cloth was a three dimensional code that allowed them to reconstruct the face of the man buried beneath the cloth. They spent a lot of time trying to recreate the kind of light it would have taken to make this imprint. According to previous experience there are only two types of light, pinpoint and scattered, and they never operate at the same time.  They found that it took both kinds of light, radiating simultaneously at mega-power, to create what happened to the shroud on resurrection morning.

Through blood evidence present on the shroud, they were able to conclude the person covered by this shroud had endured a horrible beating, scourging and whipping, being almost beat to death. The burial cloth would have been draped over the body and then another cloth was wrapped around that and tucked in and folded in a precise way securing the spices that the women used to anointed the body. Bands of the same kind of cloth would have been tied around the body at four intervals to keep everything neatly in place. The evidence on the shroud proved that this occurred in this case. The unusual thing about this particular person is that he left his burial clothes behind, still tied, still wrapped just so, and still laying in the same position. Amazing, isn’t it?

Personally, I don’t need scientific proof that Jesus lived and died as the Bible says. I have proof enough in the transformation of my heart on the day that I accepted Him as my Savior and all the days since. What a wonderful, caring God I serve who would go to these great lengths to prove it to people who do need the concrete scientific evidence. He allows the occasional unearthing of some long lost treasure which points to the truth of Jesus and gives a few people the knowledge and desire needed to decode the evidence.

Are you the logically minded person who needs proof or are you the person who believes based on the knowing in your heart? What really matters is that you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, sent to earth to suffer and die in your place for the forgiveness of sin, and that He now lives in Heaven with God and is preparing a place for you. The tomb is empty and Jesus is alive and that fills me with joy!

 Encourage my readers by leaving a comment about how you came to believe in Jesus.

May your day be filled with joy moments-

Cathy