Did Jesus Rise From The Dead?

A human being cannot rise himself from death. Jesus rose again, because He is God, the author of life.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ has been a subject of debate in non Christian circles in the past. Strong and rich Jewish leaders spent money to propagate that the disciples had stolen the body from the grave and were telling lies about the resurrection. Even in the Bible we read that a stone was rolled over the grave as the Jews doubted some fraud. The Muslims too argue against the resurrection.

If Jesus had not risen from the dead, what would happen? The Church in the world will become irrelevant. The religious societies based on chastity and poverty and the missionary works will become meaningless and cheating. If Jesus did not rise, the Gospel proclamation will be rendered meaningless. Bible and its teachings become baseless. Churches will become empty; prayers will cease to be said. The foundation of the 2000 years old Christian civilization will crash. There will be confusion and darkness everywhere. The resurrection of Jesus is the base for the world’s morality and expectations and values. The secret of Christian life is His resurrection. The response for the Cross will no more exist. It will become a piece of cheap wood.

“The World in Darkness” is a cinema. In it they show an archeologist making investigation near Calvary. He one day announced that he found a tomb where Jesus was buried and an undecomposed dead body in it. He exhibited the body covered with cloth and perfumes as a proof. The world received this shocking news. Many though with sorrow, left the faith. Priests and nuns came out in groups and left their churches and convents. In many places Bibles and Crucifixes were burnt. Heaven and hell became superstitions. The world plunged into darkness, morality and values are lost. By the time the archeologist became old and was ill in bed. He from his deathbed announced his mistake “The tomb of Jesus was empty. The exhibited body was one stolen from another tomb.”

The story clearly depicts the status or place of resurrection in the history of the world. It is not the empty tomb that is the great proof of His resurrection. After 2000 years of the event, it is not wise to show the empty tomb as a proof.

Jesus who died on the cross and was buried, appeared to those who were alive is the real proof. Not once but many times, in many places, before many. He had even appeared to Saul who was eagerly working for the destruction of the followers. Their later life revealed that their experience was neither a dream nor a vision. No one will place his life for death, if it was a woven story by them. All his disciples who preached Jesus after his death and resurrection sacrificed their lives for their teacher and their God.

James was put to death with the sword(Acts 12:2). Philip lost his life at the age of 87. He was crucified upside down, like Peter, in Hierapolis during a persecution of Domitian. Mathew was killed by the sword in A.D. 60 in Parthia. James the minor might have been killed in the persecution of Christians in the year 62. Mathias who was Judah’s replacement was, according to some traditions, stoned to death by a crowd of Jews around A.D. 51. Andrews was hung on a cross on the shores of Gulf of Patrae in Greece. Peter was crucified in Rome. Paul was beheaded in A.D. 72.

Simon and Juda Thaddeus were stoned by a crowd. Jude was killed with a spear and Simon was sown into pieces, according to legend, Thomas was stabbed in Mylapore, India. John was said to have been put in boiling oil by Emperor Domitian, but escaped unhurt.Then he was sent to Patmos island. According to a legend, John asked his disciples to dig his grave and to carry him to his grave. At the grave he wished them peace and died. Bartholomew incurred the wrath of the king and was skinned alive in A.D. 62. All these disciples stood testimony through their martyrdom as proof of Jesus Christ’s resurrection.
Jesus is the only one who is alive even after death and comes into the life of the people.

Sadhu Sunder Singh said he had seen Jesus in a vision and it changed him. He went about preaching Jesus.When we believe in Jesus, when we believe that Jesus is real and the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, when we believe that Jesus is with us, why fear a storyteller or any strong trend of hatred towards Christianity that is unleashed by the power of darkness?

Does anyone really think that all those martyrs who knew Jesus, who witnessed everything concerning him, went to their deaths without knowing the truth and having real faith in him. He told us, “And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Let us therefore rejoice and continue our journey.

- – - written by K. C. Thomas

The Word of God is a weapon that even Satan uses to make us fall. So we must be very prudent in making use of the Word.

Devil is so deceitful and he can even use the word of God to attract human beings towards him. Jesus too was tested by the devil, but Jesus won the test. If Jesus had gone through various temptations in his life, even at the last moment of his life to come down from the cross in order to testify that He is the Son of God, the followers of Jesus will also face so many temptations in their lives. Jesus was with His Father and He was revealed during the time of His baptism that He is the beloved Son (Mt.3:17).

The devil is very much concerned about the sons and daughters of God. He knows the value of their lives on earth and thus He is always following them to gradually convert them from their conviction that they are the real children of God. If a doubt arises in that conviction, the devil begins to take advantage of it. The hungry man needs bread. It is a basic need of the human being. Devil uses this basic need to play with Jesus as well as the human beings.

What is the problem, take a short cut and make money, have little corruption in life…thus one can surely overcome the hunger. Change the stones into bread, have little selfishness will not cause one, instead it is necessary. The motivation of Satan was not to give Jesus food but to prove His Sonship by being selfish for His own motives than trust in the word of His Father. Jesus understands this and replies to Satan that material food cannot give eternal happiness but the Word coming from the Father gives eternal life. This is the reply of a spiritual person.

At times the followers of Jesus too were tested by the devil. When they are persecuted, and suffering, the devil influences his or her intellect and asks questions about their identity. If one is a son/daughter of God why these things happen in one’s life? If Jesus had done the miracle, the devil could have won the test. Since Jesus overcame not by any selfish methods or miracles.There are preachers who work miracles in the name of Jesus and attract so many towards them than to Jesus. By doing so Jesus is defeated there. Devil always gives promises which are attractive ones, which even look very lovely and pleasant to our senses, but not to the heart. They can satisfy our body but not the soul.

The second test was on the parapet of the temple. It is interesting to see that the devil is taking Jesus to the holy place. Certain thoughts can arise in one’s mind during the time of prayer or other spiritual activities. One cannot underestimate that those thoughts, which come at the time of prayer or spiritual activities, are all from God. If one does the spiritual exercises for only a routine, without meaning, such feelings can arise.

Jump down from your status and you have better place in the world…the angel of the Lord will hold you in their palms, Ps. 91:11-12, leave this tough religious life and go and enjoy the world…. jump down from the moral principles you are holding… leave your convictions which is thought by Church, there is lot of people who are ready to appreciate you… can have abortion and enjoy life, there is no problem in premarital sex…if one does not take care, he/she may fall from the top.

Thus the temptation jump comes in mind. One has to be aware of it and listen to Jesus carefully. He says, “you shall not put your God to the test” (Mt.4:7). He is the one who called us, He is the one who filled His followers with conviction and do not give it up by seeing this glittering world and give chance for devil to win over one’s life.

The devil takes Jesus for the third temptation. By accepting devil’s challenge and worshipping him, He can be the king of this world, but Jesus is the king of the whole universe, visible and invisible. There are people who worship money, power, beauty, heroes and heroines, politics, lust for sex etc. The sacred sex has become an object to make money, and people sell beauty to get more profit. There are also people who like to be worshipped. All of them forget the truth that anyone who gives more priority to anything than Jesus is worshipping those things in their lives. These visible gods cannot give one eternal life.

Jesus attacks the devil by using His proper name Satan. He is the one who sows the weeds among seeds, (Mk.4:5). He will be a block always for God’s plan (Mt.16:23). He is the one who binds people from enjoying real freedom (LK.22:3), make the people so selfish (Acts. 5:3), flesh destructor (1 Cor.5:5), coming like an angel of the light (2 Cor.2:11-14) etc. These are his characteristics.

The heart is the place of worship. If one keeps Jesus as his heart winner and worship Him, he can overcome Satan’s temptations. Desert is the place of God experience and Jesus was with His father for forty days and nights there. Desert is also the place of wild animals. If we are with God, no wild animals can attack us.

Jesus overcame temptations by gaining strength from the Father, thus the followers can win the temptations of life only with a deep communion with father. The relationship with heavenly Father is the most important weapon against Satan. Our fight is not earthly, and we are fighting not against the forces of this world.

- – - written by Fr. Biju Maramkuzhackal SVD

It is striking to note that the man attacked by the enemy in the parable has no name. It can be anyone.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the best parables Jesus narrated in the gospels. The ultimate goal of every human person’s life is to inherit eternal life. The lawyer who stood up from among the crowd raised a question regarding the means and ways to inherit eternal life. This query was not the outcome of a thirsty seeker’s pursuing mind. He wanted to test Jesus and trap him in words.

Jesus foresaw it rightly. Hence Jesus encountered him with a counter question. “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” The lawyer who is versatile in the Torah answered these fundamental questions citing from the Old Testament, namely, Deuteronomy 6:5 where we read how Yahweh reveals the means to inherit eternal life to the Israelites, saying, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might”. In Leviticus 19:18, Yahweh speaks about love of the neighbour: “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the LORD”. Jesus acknowledges the lawyer’s reply as right.

The command to love the LORD is qualified by four words involving the core of one’s personality, such as, heart, soul, might and mind. These expressions categorically show us how God’s claim on us reaches to every area of our existence including our innermost being, that is, our heart; that gives us our identity, our soul; that gives us energy, strength, resolve and resources, that is our might.

No part or cell of our self is to be withheld from the love of God. Love for oneself is the reason for all our activities as a human being to exist in the world. A person who hates himself totally ends his life. The expression, “You shall love the LORD your God… and your neighbour as yourself”, has a deep and profound meaning.

Our love towards God does not exclude our love towards our neighbour. Indeed, when we really love God, we live out that love for our neighbours as well. In Christianity, love of neighbour is the only bypass to God and eternal life! This is vividly inculcated to us in the first letter of John 4: 7-21. The phrase “as yourself” implies love for oneself. Love for oneself is also expected from us.

Therefore three types of love are demanded from one who wants eternal life, such as, love of God, love of neighbour and love of self. They should be always in this gradation too! These three are inseparable from and complementary to each other. Jesus emphatically states that eternal life is not attained just by knowing the commandments, but in doing them or by living a life in view of inheriting salvation. Those who live well-ordered lives now have been touched by the kingdom of God; in other words they are close to eternal life. The first stage of the parable (Luke 10: 25-28) leads us to the second (Luke 10: 29-37).

What has begun as the lawyer’s test for Jesus now turns to be Jesus’ test for the lawyer! The lawyer cleverly asks Jesus who his neighbour is. Here we must keep in mind how Jews interpreted the idea of one’s neighbour. For them the neighbour is a member of the same religious community, namely, a fellow- Jew. They generally exclude the Samaritans and the foreigners from the category of neighbours. The lawyer’s question demanded a distinction between those who are one’s neighbours and those who are not. Therefore he was cunningly asking Jesus who his neighbour is. His clever question has a hidden implication that who is not his neighbour! Practically speaking, he was asking Jesus whom he should love and whom he is not bound to love.

Jesus interprets the Old commandment of love of neighbour in the light of the parable of the Good Samaritan in which three men came upon a man (the name is not given) who had been robbed and abandoned half dead along the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Of these three, a priest and a Levite saw the man, but did not attend to him. Both hail from religiously respected and honoured people. However, it was a Samaritan, who was mistrusted and despised by the Jews, who cared for the man who had been fallen victim to the robbers. This Samaritan, whom the lawyer probably excluded from the category of his neighbours, is presented by Jesus as worthy of being considered a neighbour and to be loved. Jesus turns the lawyer’s question “Who is my neighbour?” into “Am I a neighbour to other human beings who are in need of me?”

How can we prove ourselves as true neighbours to other human beings?

Jesus obviously specifies that a neighbour is one who showed him mercy. We are also invited for the same. In this parable the neighbour and his actions are defined actively, not passively. We get a detailed description of the Samaritan’s care for the injured man. There are a host of verbs in active voice to point to the care he gave him, such as ‘came near him’, ‘he went to him and bandaged his wounds’, ‘poured oil and wine’, ‘he put him on his animal’ , ‘brought him to an inn’, ‘took care of him’, and so on. (Luke 10:33-35). The person who fell among the robbers is referred as ‘a man’.

He can be any human being; man or woman; rich or poor; one who speaks my language or another language; hails from my caste or tribe or ethnic group or not. He can be of my country or not; of my region or not; of my religion or not. Jesus asks the lawyer (one who wants to inherit eternal life) to act or do like the Samaritan in showing mercy to anyone who is in need, “Go and do likewise”. The parable teaches us that the neighbour to be loved is anyone who is in need with whom we come into contact in the course of our life journey.

The duty and obligation of a neighbour is beyond all boundaries irrespective of receiving any reward or even a word of thanks. The Samaritan would not have expected any payment or reward for what he did to the man who was robbed. This parable also teaches us how the eternal life or salvation brought by Jesus is universal and accessible to all humanity. Since a Samaritan (non-Jew) is made an example of Christian conduct of love and charity, we are taught that even a Samaritan or a so-called pagan has found the way to eternal life while those chosen ones, the main stream Jews, miserably failed!

- – - written by Br. Vineesh Joseph, Ranchi