The Myth of Easter

Articles

Pepe

The Myth of Easter
Apr. 15, 2003

What a preposterous claim. That a man named Jesus came back to life after suffering a brutal death at the hands of the Roman government.

It's what Christians believe.

They think that one Friday about 2000 years ago Roman soldiers nailed the messiah, Jesus Christ, to a wooden cross. The soldiers hoisted him to an upright position where for hours he hung from nails pounded through his wrists. As the hours passed and his muscles wearied, each gasp of air grew more labored until he suffocated and died.

Then, for good measure a soldier took a sword and pierced Jesus' side to ensure his life had left him.

The death of Jesus dealt a crushing blow to his disciples. Many of them had believed him to be the promised deliverer foretold by the prophets, one who would free the Jewish nation from the oppression of Roman rule.

So it created quite a stir when only about 40 hours later his disciples claimed that Jesus had risen from the dead.

Over such an event was Easter first celebrated.

Out of beliefs such as this are myths created.

Yet, despite the obvious absurdity of a man rising from the dead, the belief in the resurrection of Jesus persists to the present age. It's a foundational event, a tale on which the Christian faith endures or crumbles. As the Biblical writer Paul states, "If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain."

What is it about this "miracle" that still entices people to believe? Why do believers persist despite the untold numbers of critics who have attempted to discredit it?

Is belief merely an opiate for the illiterate and uneducated? Have people of thoughtful reason accepted the event as real?

Consider the stories of two who investigated those very questions.

Simon Greenleaf

Simon Greenleaf was an influential lawyer in the first half of the nineteenth century. As a young man he earned a reputation for his excellent legal scholarship.

In 1833 at the age of 50 Greenleaf accepted an invitation from future Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story to teach law at Harvard University. While there, Greenleaf wrote the three-volume collection Treatise on the Law of Evidence, which served for many years as the standard reference on the subject of legal evidence. Greenleaf's contribution to American law was so great that he has been credited with being one of the primary influences in Harvard's rise to prominence.

On one occasion some students of Greenleaf's challenged him to examine the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus as recorded in the Bible. Greenleaf accepted their challenge and set out to debunk the hoax of the resurrection. Drawing on his expertise in the rules of evidence, Greenleaf was surprised to find himself convinced of the reliability of the Biblical record. He concluded that the resurrection was a factual historical event and wrote "Testimony of the Evangelists" to document his surprising realization.

Lee Strobel

Lee Strobel's ambition was to be a big-time journalist. After attending the University of Missouri, where he earned a degree in journalism, Strobel started his professional career at the Chicago Tribune.

He worked as a general assignment reporter for a few years and then enrolled in Yale to obtain a masters degree in law. Following completion of his studies he returned to the Tribune as its legal editor.

Strobel was a bright and determined journalist, receiving several awards for his writing. By the age of 30 he was well established in his profession.

In 1979 his wife made a dramatic announcement that shocked Strobel. She had become a Christian.

Initially put off by this turn of events, Strobel soon decided to investigate the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. Combining his skills in journalism and law, he doggedly combed through the evidence for and against the credibility of the Biblical accounts of Jesus' life, including the resurrection. After almost two years of work, he drew a conclusion that eventually prompted him to become a pastor and write The Case for Christ.

What can we say of these two people? Are they fools?

That hardly seems a proper characterization given their impressive credentials.

Perhaps, then, they are misguided intellectuals.

Perhaps.

But perhaps they have come to the only reasonable conclusion that can be drawn from an investigation of the facts.

Maybe the myth of Easter is not that a man named Jesus rose from the dead one Sunday two millennia ago. Maybe the myth of Easter ... is that he didn't.

About the author: Pepe is a writer, whose day job as a software engineer keeps him from writing as much as he wants. His work has appeared in several magazines and periodicals. His take on life sometimes gets him a little out of step with the rest of society, but he keeps marching in the parade. You can reach him at wrob@usa.com.

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