Easter Sunday
JN 20:1-9
April 1, 2018

In this hi-tech, computer-dominated age, “fact checking” has become not only a simple matter of a few Google searches, but is something we have come to insist upon. We demand truth, and we know how to find it.

Biblical scholarship, as with all serious sciences, has taken full advantage of this resource in order to delve deeper into what God is revealing to us through Sacred Scripture. But even before “artificial intelligence,” the human intellect focused on The Gospel. Serious students of the Bible did not require a search engine to go about their work. And it did not take them long to see something that might easily escape many of the faithful. Simply put…the endings of all four Gospels…THE RESURRECTION NARRATIVES…do not agree in many details. Moreover, these varied accounts of the empty tomb cannot be harmonized. So, we are left asking the very question that Pilate posed to Jesus on Good Friday: WHAT IS TRUTH?

One fact that needed no confirmation for His followers was that Jesus was dead. A bloodless corpse was removed from The Cross and placed in the arms of His grieving mother. No further confirmation was necessary.

It also appears beyond doubt that the Romans permitted burial. That was accomplished by placing the lifeless, earthly body in a cave and an enormous rock sealed the tomb. It is reported, and seems most logical, that the Romans posted a guard at the entrance of the tomb. But there are no eye witnesses to what happened next.

Those who came onto the scene Easter morning encountered an accomplished fact. The tomb was empty. THAT IS TRUTH.

As is to be expected when we human beings encounter something that stretches our minds to the breaking point, their individual reactions and observations were personal and unique. The fact that they might differ in various details does not render any of them untrue. All four of the accounts, together with all of the recorded appearances of The Risen Christ after Easter, come together, as a complete body of evidence that enables us to imagine the unimaginable…THE TRUTH THAT JESUS LIVES ON.

Mark offers instruction on the best way to “fact check” THE TRUTH THAT JESUS LIVES ON. The first and shortest of the Gospels concludes with the directive: But go tell His disciples …He is going before you to Galilee…there you will see Him As He told you.

So then, on this Easter morning do as we’ve been directed. Go to your own personal Galilee…that place, or prayer, or memory of your most vivid experience of Jesus, and there, you will see the Risen Christ. And you will have no further need to fact check THE TRUTH THAT JESUS LIVES ON…and those who follow His Way will as well.

THAT IS THE TRUTH!

Blessing on you this Easter Morning.