Jesus Christ, Yeshua the Anointed, died. He was crucified and people watched him die of heart failure nailed to a wooden cross. It wasn't comforting. It was horrific. It was grisly. And it was beyond brutal. Those who loved him were in shock and traumatized. No one was really thinking clearly after that. No one could really believe He was dead, even when they saw his lifeless body covered in blood. No one wanted to believe it.
Then, on the third day afterwards, Mariam comes running back to the house and pounds on the gate to let her in. They do and she practically screams at them, "He's alive! I saw Him! I held Him! He's alive!" Everyone wanted to believe her, and no one wanted to believe her because they were too afraid she'd snapped from seeing Him die.
Throughout the day their world keeps getting turned upside down as the tomb is empty, Yeshua's body is nowhere to be found, and His burial shroud and head wrap are the only things left behind.
Then, finally, right after yet another report by two men whom you trust saying that they spent hours with Him without knowing it was Him, He appears right there with you and the gate to the house courtyard is barred shut. You don't know what to think or feel or say in that moment. Your mind can barely register it. Someone screams, and then you realize it's you. And the first words out of His mouth are "Shalom aleichem."
This was the first Easter.
Jesus Christ, Yeshua the Anointed, rose from the dead.
His brutal murder was witness by hundreds if not thousands. His death was logged and noted by the authorities at the time. That was the only reason they removed His corpse from the crossbeams upon which He was executed. The Roman executioners, whatever their other faults, were professionals and knew when a man was dead or still alive, and it was their job to ensure that He was dead when He was removed. If they had any reason to assume He wasn't, they would have taken a dagger and slit His throat for good measure. Death was their stock in trade just like any modern executioner. Yeshua's execution was a successful execution.
And then He appeared alive the third day after His signed, sealed, and professionally delivered death. Even if you don't believe in the authority of the New Testament, you can look at what happened to every one of His original apostles and disciples. Nearly every one went to their deaths refusing to tell any other story than that they had seen Him alive after He succumbed to His wounds and died. After the Romans had certified His death, ensuring it by stabbing His heart with a spear. Even if He had somehow lived through the trauma of scouring and crucifixion, no one lives through a lacerated heart. No one.
And yet every single one of those who had walked with Him for those three years, and every single person who had known Him longer than that, His family and childhood friends, swore until the day they themselves were executed that they saw Him, not once, not twice, but many, many times, alive. And this wasn't a secret. They write that others saw Him too. He wasn't discriminate about who saw Him alive after His death. He appeared out in the open several times to the frustration of those who had orchestrated His death. He walked the distance with them on the road between Jerusalem and Bethany. His appearance wasn't a hallucination. They saw Him, they ate with Him, they felt His solid flesh, and saw the marks, scars, and holes from the wounds inflicted on His body when He died. The same wounds which had any other living man carried them would have kept him dead or killed him right there.
Yeshua the Anointed, Jesus Christ, was seen alive. Do you really think that news would have been kept quiet by the disciples? Do you really think it could have been? The reports flew across Iudaea, Samaria, and Galilaia with or without their help by those others who saw Him alive. This wasn't some secret knowledge passed down. This was public report, gossip, and rumor weeks before Pentecost that the High Priests tried desperately to silence, and couldn't. They had to lie to the people and tell them that the disciples stole the body because everyone knew, they knew, that the tomb was empty. They knew by the rumor mill that people had been seeing Him all up and down the countryside. It became a little like the latest sighting of Elvis. When the Apostles went out and preached the resurrection, they weren't saying anything the people hadn't already heard or could even challenge. The people in Jerusalem already knew that Yeshua hadn't stayed dead, at least that's what everyone was saying even if they hadn't seen it themselves.
Did Pilate launch an investigation? A half-hearted one. He already wasn't keen on crucifying a potential demi-god and angering the God of the Jews. A stupid man he was not. When the news of His resurrection reached Pilate's ears, I'm pretty sure he left it alone. He was probably smirking as the High Priests were beside themselves trying to cover it up. I can imagine Pilate saying, "Good for Him."
This is why the Way, the earliest Christianity spread like it did. The resurrection was living memory, and a lot of people remembered it, not just the twelve. No one challenged it but the Sanhedrin, and they essentially became the laughingstock conspiracy theorists because everyone knew without a doubt that Yeshua beat them. Yeshua rose from the dead.
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