But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. (Matthew 28:5-6 ESV)
The empty tomb is one of the easily forgotten parts of scripture. But the empty tomb is the proof that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, God’s only son. Jesus of Nazareth was a historical man who was born around 4 BC and died around 30 AD. Those facts aren’t largely contested, and are backed up by many sources from that period. Around that time period, Israel was being persecuted by Rome, and Israel felt distant from God. No prophet had spoken in years, and people were beginning to lose hope.
Many men had claimed to be the messiah, but all of them died human deaths and that was the end of their claim. People don’t follow dead messiahs. But that’s what makes Jesus different. The Romans were aware that they needed to produce a body to prove that Jesus was dead and gone, so they guarded the tomb so that his followers couldn’t take his body and claim he was still alive. But even with a large stone over the entrance and an armed guard wasn’t enough to stop the power of God.
On Sunday morning, the body was gone. Jesus rose from the dead and walked out of the tomb, where he interacted with hundreds of people until he went to be with his Father in Heaven. There was no corpse left behind on Earth. All the proof that was needed to show that Jesus was not the Messiah was a body. It wasn’t hard to produce a body when the most powerful military in the world was guarding the tomb, but no one was able to produce a corpse for Jesus.
The empty tomb is more than enough to show us that Jesus conqured death, and is now in Heaven with his Father. Today we celebrate that empty tomb. Don’t let yourself trivialize this amazing act of God’s power!
I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else in this world or in the world to come. (Ephesians 1:19:21 NLT)
He is risen! He is risen indeed!