Emptiness, The Unshakable Evidence of Christ’s Great Victory
You love it too, right?
On the first Easter morning, something earth-shattering rocked our world.
Shake, rattle and roll -- what a blessing for so many. It happened!
The Bible (Matthew 27:50-52) states that the earth shook, the rocks split into pieces, and multiple graves were opened, with the bodies of many holy people who had died being raised to life.
"And Jesus cried out again with a loud agonized voice, and gave up His spirit voluntarily, sovereignly dismissing and releasing His spirit from His body in submission to His Father’s plan. And at once the veil of the Holy of Holies of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; the earth shook and the rocks were split apart. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints (God’s people) who had fallen asleep in death were raised to life; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they entered the holy city (Jerusalem) and appeared to many people." amp
And the stone was rolled away from one empty tomb that was most critical. Christ's!
The pivot point of all history past and future, Jesus came alive!
This wasn’t wishful thinking or some religious legend—it was reality that had been foretold by Him.
And guess what.. the first eyewitnesses were not kings, popes or scholars but humble, grief-stricken women who came to mourn His passing, and then left proclaiming the impossible: "He is not here; He has risen!" (Matthew 28:6). That one empty tomb is not just a footnote in history—it is the bedrock of our Christian hope.
The Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—each uniquely recount this discovery of that vacant grave. There is a unity!
These independent yet totally harmonious testimonies point to a single, undeniable truth: Jesus was killed, was crucified before many, was buried, and then His tomb was found empty (Mark 16:6, Luke 24:3, John 20:2). People saw it and Him out walking again.
Sure, liars are gonna lie of course and the skeptics have long sought alternative explanations regarding this, but none hold weight against the overwhelming evidence.
- If the body had been stolen, Roman and Jewish authorities could have easily disproven the resurrection by producing Christ's cold corpse.
- If the disciples had gotten together to work out the kinks in fabricating their story, why would they endure such fierce persecution, imprisonment, and martyrdom for a lie?
- If Jesus had only swooned and later revived, how could a severely beaten-up and crucified man with a hole in his side.. relocate that massive stone and totally escape notice by any human?
You know how the then known world of the first-century was filled with false teachers and messianic movements, but only one messianic movement—the one centered on the risen Jesus Christ—transformed the world.
A lifeless leader leaves a movement to wither behind him? Nope; a risen King ignites the spread of His gospel message with an unstoppable Kingdom.
The disciples, once paralyzed by fear, then became fearless proclaimers of the gospel. Peter, who denied Jesus three times due to fear, stood before thousands fearlessly and declared, "God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death" (Acts 2:24). This emptiness with that boldness was not fueled by deception but by divine purpose and power!
The empty tomb is not just an ancient event—it is a present call for you and me. It demands a response to God. If Christ has truly conquered death, then passive neutrality is not an option. Jesus' physical resurrection is an invitation to new life, a call to heartfelt repentance, a new relationship, and the promise of eternal victory. It silences every doubt, shatters every negative chain, and proves that the grave is not the end for any of those who believe in Him.
Do you need "Easter Hope"? Just grab hold of the gospel and Christ!
In love Jesus died for you, He now lives. And because He lives, so shall we with Him.
That Empty Tomb Still Points To Our Living Lord!
Imagine standing at the mouth of that one silent tomb, the air thick with the weight of huge loss.
Just days before, our living hope itself had been crucified, nailed to a Roman cross. There hung the man who dared to claim divinity.
Then, a big stone lies there rolled away, the darkness within that hole in teh earth was pierced by the unsettling reality of complete emptiness.
This isn't just any absence; this is the void left by the body of Jesus of Nazareth, and it screams a truth out that continues to echo through all the ages: He is not here. He is risen and you can do something with Him!
No, this is far from some fanciful tale spun from wishful thinking. There was a real historical earthquake that marked it, the tremors of which reshaped the world and continue to reshape.
Consider this: the very location of Jesus' burial was common knowledge, etched in the minds of both His devoted followers and His bitter enemies.
He wasn't tossed into an anonymous rocky pit; He was laid to rest in the private tomb of Mr. Joseph of Arimathea, a very respected member of the very council that condemned Christ to death.
Think about it – the early Christians, harboring understandable animosity towards those who orchestrated their Savior's death, would hardly invent a story crediting one of their adversaries with the generous giving to Jesus an honorable burial. This detail rings with the authenticity of eyewitness testimony and a reluctant admission of fact.
Furthermore, archaeology confirms those four Gospel accounts, revealing that the tomb described – a bench tomb normally favored by the wealthy – it aligns perfectly with what we know of that Joseph.
This wasn't some generic hole in the earth. This grave was a very specific, identifiable place. And here's the crux of it: the Sanhedrin, Jesus' chief opposition, knew exactly where He was buried.
If the resurrection was a hoax, a mere whisper or hint of delusion, wouldn't they have simply marched to that tomb, produced the lifeless body, and crushed that burgeoning Christian "Jesus movement" in its infancy?
Jerusalem, the very city where Jesus lived, taught, was loved, did miracles and was crucified, became the epicenter of this new faith.
This explosive growth in the face of it all speaks volumes. The silence from the grave was deafening to the doubters.
Even before the Gospels were penned, the Apostle Paul, writing a mere two decades after the crucifixion, anchors the resurrection in an early, foundational creed:
"..that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures..." 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
When you share the gospel does it have that deliberate sequence: death, burial, resurrection? It really should!
For Paul, a former Pharisee steeped in the understanding of physical resurrection, an empty tomb wasn't an optional add-on; it was an inherent consequence.
What was buried down under dust and rock must be raised up out of that. This wasn't some spiritualized, ethereal rising; it was a tangible victory over death itself.
Paul's direct connection to the apostles Peter and James, the very pillars of the early church who walked closely with Jesus, lends undeniable weight to this foundational truth!
Interestingly, even the enemies of Christianity inadvertently testified to the empty tomb. That's worth repeating.
Matthew's Gospel itself records the Jewish leaders' desperate attempt to explain away the absence of Jesus' body: they claimed the disciples had stolen it (Matthew 28:13-15).
This accusation, echoed by later historical figures like Justin Martyr and Tertullian, is a VERY POWERFUL admission.
Why concoct a story about theft if the body was still securely within the tomb? Their counter-narrative inadvertently confirms the very thing they sought to deny – the tomb was empty.
Their efforts to extinguish the flame of the resurrection non-fake-news only fanned its embers.
Re-consider the unlikely witnesses: they were women. In that day they didn't even count.
In the patriarchal society of first-century Israel, a woman's testimony held significantly less weight than any man's.
If the Gospel writers were fabricating a story to gain credibility, they would have undoubtedly presented male disciples as the first to discover the empty tomb.
Yet, all four Gospels consistently name women as the initial witnesses. Mary Magdalene, in particular, a woman with a jaded and demonized past, is placed at the forefront.
This detail has the unmistakable ring of truth. Why would the early church intentionally choose less credible witnesses, even portraying their male leaders as fearful and absent, unless it was precisely what happened? Their insistence on this one detail, despite its potential to raise skepticism, underscores the undeniable reality that they encountered.
These aren't isolated coincidences; they are interwoven threads forming a robust tapestry of historical evidence. God knows what He is doing.
Even skeptical historians acknowledge the compelling nature of the case for the empty tomb. It stands as a powerful, undeniable fact.
But the empty tomb isn't the end of the story. Not for those living back then, and it isn't for us believers either; it's the beginning of a new one!
It's the resounding exclamation point on Jesus' claim to be the Son of God, the Messiah who conquered sin and death.
That emptiness wasn't a vacuum; it was a void soon filled up by the vibrant reality of the resurrected Christ, appearing to individuals and groups, offering irrefutable proof of His victory.
No ancient history NO NO! It's a living truth with a living Savior that demands a lively response from you and me today! Choose. Come to Jesus by faith, saying Yes Lord.
Yeah, right now is a good time.. or just put it off, ditching him forever!
The empty tomb isn't merely some religious relic of the past to build a Roman church or shrine on; it's an open door to a future filled with hope in Christ. We don't worship a tomb or a book or anything over in the Holy Land.
But that tomb declares that death has lost its sting due to Jesus, that the grave has no final victory. Because He (Jesus) lives, we too can fully live – not just in some fleeting existence, but an eternal one, reconciled to God through the sacrifice and triumph of Jesus. It's about abundant and eternal life! Believer, it means you will never be forsaken by God the Father as Jesus wasn't really forsaken by Him.
The question isn't just whether you believe the tomb was empty; it's what you will do with the profound implications of that tomb's emptiness. Will you allow this historical reality to remain a distant fact with a distant God, or will you let it ignite a fire in your soul to get right with God?
The empty tomb is an invitation to a new life, a life defined by real forgiveness, purpose, rez-power and the unwavering hope found in a risen Savior.
Embrace the truth -- embrace Jesus. Live in His light, and experience the transformative power of a loving Father who conquered death and offers you the same victory in His Son.
The tomb is empty. He is alive, and that changes everything!
"Then He said to them, 'My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.'" Jesus said that! It wasn't an easy prayer time.
- I (Kurt) was once told that Jesus was rejected and cut off from His loving Father, that He was totally separated from Him.
- I was told He died spiritually, in addition to being killed physically.
- I was told that He was turned into some wormy creature of the underworld due to our sins piled onto him.
- I was told that He fought with the devil in hell over the keys, and that He then needed to be born again in hell as our example.
I say Jesus obviously felt forsaken of God the Father for a moment so that you and I won't ever have one moment of being forsaken by Him. Yes, so we can know we're forgiven before the Father. Jesus entered the darkness so that we might ever walk in the light. He emerged alive from that sealed grave so that we will also one day emerge alive from our graves. Jesus righteously did everything He could do before the Father wanting you to be blessed. It was for you and me, so that we would never have to be separated from the Father for all eternity! He wasn't forsaken by the Father--the union of the Godhead was never broken, even when it felt like it was.
Jesus experienced rejection and loneliness.. sure. He experienced anguish. Earlier in the Garden of Gethsemane, He asked Peter, James, and John just to be there with Him. But Matthew 26:56 tells us that a short while later, “all the disciples forsook Him and fled.”
He'd felt forsaken before. Then, perhaps in the loneliest moment of His life, He cried out from the cross,” ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’” (Matthew 27:46). With excruciating pain and the dislocation of bones he cried out.
It is believed by many (myself included) that at that moment on the cross, God did pour all the sin of humanity onto His sinless Son there. As the Heavenly Father, who is holy, turned His face from the sin, Jesus obviously felt separated momentarily from Him. In that moment, Jesus experienced loneliness like we never have known, but in reality the Father didn't forsake Him.
I'm glad that the evidence is clear. It's so undeniable: the tomb is empty because the Father didn't forsake Jesus our living Lord.
Are you ready for the gospel today.. the earth-shattering announcement of a new dawn? Non-forsaken Jesus is alive!
The absence in that cold stone chamber wasn't due to a void of defeat, but the explosive evidence of ultimate victory.
The emptiness of that tomb isn't just about what was missing; it's about what is now available to you right here and now: full forgiveness that washes away the filth so you can walk clean, with a purpose that transcends the mundane, and a hope that anchors your soul amidst life's fiercest of life's storms.
The risen Christ didn't just escape death; He conquered it once and for all.. for you. He stands ready to bridge the chasm between you and a holy God, offering a relationship defined by real grace and boundless agape love.
The empty tomb isn't a permanently closed chapter; it's the opening line of your own story of redemption. Step on through that open door. Jesus is the door of entrance. Embrace the living Lord now. Experience the profound, life-altering REZ-power and be filled with His Spirit. The tomb is still empty. He is risen and cares about you. Your new beginning awaits!
