Testimony to the Resurrection – Luke 24:1-12

There has been much made by skeptics of the seemingly irreconcilable details in the four Gospels about the resurrection of Jesus.  Did the women come to the tomb at dawn or was it still dark?  How many women visited the tomb?  How many angels were there?  Tim Chaffee does a good job of showing how all the accounts do not contradict each other and the details do harmonize.  Fact:  Jesus rose from the dead!  Nothing else makes sense of the subsequent history.

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.  (Luke 24:1-12 ESV)

The dark night of their souls turns to bright day on Sunday as the women find the tomb of Jesus empty and angels reminding them that Jesus predicted his resurrection.  The women report all this to the eleven (Judas is no longer considered one of the apostles) and the other disciples, but no one really believes them until Peter goes himself and finds it true.  The body wrappings are lying there (no one would unwrap a body to steal it) giving evidence that Jesus is alive.

In this culture the testimony of women was not respected.  This explains in part the disbelief of the apostles and other disciples.  But God is pleased to make the first witnesses of His Son’s resurrection these women who faithfully followed him.  If the Gospel writers had wanted to revise the history to make it more believable, they would have removed this portion of the record, but all of them faithfully record exactly what happened.

Christian defense of the resurrection: The Case for the Resurrection, Gary Habermas; The Resurrection of the Son of God, N. T. Wright.