What a combination! Easter eggs, scavenging dogs & crucifixion

Malcolm Muggeridge, the famous British media personality, soldier-spy and later Christian convert, called this death the most famous one in history. He said that no other death than Christ's has aroused one-hundredth part of the interest or been remembered with one-hundredth part of the intensity of concern. Muggeridge shocked the world with his conversion to Christianity later in life. "St. Mugg", as he was affectionately known, was clear in his new-found faith: "It is the truth that has died, not God," and "Jesus was God or he was nothing."

We are continuously confronted with troubles. Troubles in wars like the Russian-Ukraine conflict, troubles in families, and even disturbed personal souls.

Into the midst of this repulsion in our world, at Easter we remember the Jesus of the cross who died for our sins was resurrected. Why? So that we can have the opportunity to be set free from the guilt of our souls. Hence the association with eggs and new life!

Louis M. Lepeaux, French philosopher, politician and bitter opponent of Christ at the time of the French Revolution,once started a religion that he hoped would be superior to Christianity. He sought the counsel of the great French diplomat and statesman, Charles Maurice Talleyrand.

Talleyrand's advice was perceptive: "I recommend that you get yourself crucified and then die, but be sure to rise again on the third day."

Why should you bother to embrace the Christian message this Easter? The Christ of the cross changed the agnostic, Malcolm Muggeridge, into an active Christian who published Jesus Rediscovered. Millions of people have made the same life-changing commitment and discovered the joy that Muggeridge found.

Any old resurrection will not do.

Today, the religious and other media are dominated by the burial and resurrection of Jesus that diverge from the narratives in the New Testament Gospels. John Dominic Crossan objects to a Jesus who rose bodily. His claim is that Mark created the empty-tomb story and the sleeping disciples in Gethsemane. This means Mark created the burial narrative involving Joseph of Arimathea.

When historical Jesus' scholar, Crossan, stated that Jesus' resurrection appearance was an apparition and not a physical appearance, was it possible to test this conclusion? To what degree are a scholar's conclusions affected by his presuppositions? That is what I attempted to do in my PhD dissertation, "Crossan and the resurrection of Jesus: Rethinking presuppositions, methods and models."

For Crossan, Jesus was not buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea in the garden but was placed in a shallow grave to be eaten by scavenging dogs. As for Jesus' resurrection, it was an apparition (phantom) and not a bodily resurrection.

Refutation of Crossan views are found in the biblical text

Crossan admits his view is non-historical as a postmodern deconstructionist. His presuppositions are fixed, so he's unable to listen to the text's content. We know that Jesus' resurrection was historical because of people's seeing and touching Jesus after the resurrection, which cannot be accommodated in Crossan's framework. The New Testament Gospels explained that Luke's second appearance story of Cleopas and an unnamed companion (Lk 24:36-49), 'in contrasting juxtaposition to the Emmaus story, emphasizes the "physicality" of the risen Jesus. Jesus invites them to touch him: "Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and blood as you see that I have." He also shows them the wounds in his hands and feet. Then he eats a piece of broiled fish. The point is that this is not just another ghost story.

The emphasis in 1 Corinthians 15 is on a future resurrected body that is different from that which is experienced in earthly existence, but there is continuity – it is a sÅÂma(body).

Earle Ellis noted that I Corinthians 15 lacks a stress on the empty tomb. However, he contends that Paul did not have to say "empty tomb" because it is implicit in his term resurrection, anastasis. 'The rising on the third day [1 Cor 15:4] can hardly refer (only) to "appearances". Most probably it presupposes and implies the "empty tomb" traditions. Also, the seed analogy [1 Cor 15:36-38] presupposes a continuity between what is buried and the raised body. "Spiritual body" refers to the vitalizing principle and has nothing to do with immateriality' (see 1 Cor 15:4, 37, 44).

This is what we remember at Easter. He is the Jesus who died, was resurrected bodily, and changes people's lives. He was buried in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb and not in some invented creation by Crossan or somebody else. The resurrection body of Jesus could be touch; he ate broiled fish with the disciples (Luke 24:36-43; John 20:24-29).

Jesus' resurrected body guarantees victory over death and it will be only apprehended when the same physical body that died is risen from the grave (see 1 Corinthians 15:54-55). That's why it's important to understand the risen Jesus was a physical body.