Yesterday, in the first days of the traditional Lenten season (A holy time for many Christians) and the day after the Academy awards, Oscar winning film director James Cameron held a press conference in New York City to declare that the bones of Jesus Christ have been discovered near Jerusalem. This “new discovery” will be the focus of a documentary produced by Cameron entitled, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus". Predicatively, the media has gone wild, as it always does with anything anti-Christian. The uncovering of the bones of Jesus would put a final nail in the coffin of the Christian faith. This would be better than last year’s fictional “DaVinci Code.”
At the heart of this “new discovery” are 10 ossuaries (small caskets used to store bones), five of which supposedly have inscribed in them names associated with New Testament people we are acquainted with. Those New Testament names are; Jesus, Mary, Matthew, Joseph, and Mary Magdalene. A sixth inscription is purported to read, “Judah of Jesus”. There you have it. What more evidence could we ask for? Jesus obviously didn’t die and rise as we have traditionally believed. He married Mary Magdalene, had a son and they all were buried, together with his parents, Mary and Joseph one mile outside of Jerusalem. Proof beyond a reasonable doubt, right?
Never mind that this is not a new discovery. These bones in these ossuaries were discovered 27 years ago at a construction site. Never mind that a documentary had already aired on this matter in 1996. Never mind that one of the best known and respected archeologists in Israel has said for ten years that there is absolutely no way to prove that this is the bone box of Jesus. Never mind that the inscriptions are difficult to read and translate and are at best open to interpretation. (On one inscription instead of “Jesus” one scholar reads it as, “Hanun”)
Never mind that these New Testament names are the most common of the day and that there are a slew of ossuaries that bear the same names. Never mind that Mary and Joseph are from Nazareth of Galilee and would have in all likelihood been buried there. Never mind that The Israel Antiquities Authority has for years considered this find to be no big deal.
Never mind that if Jesus married, bore children, etc. it would mean that his disciples were running around proclaiming His resurrection and ascension and being martyred in and about Jerusalem and Judea at the same time of his alleged marriage, parenting and home life. Shouldn’t someone have told Jesus he was being trumpeted as the Savior of the world and encouraged him to get off his duff and do something Messiah-like?
Never mind all the facts. Let’s defer to the guy who makes movies and money on movies for the truth on this one. People who write books and make documentaries are the smart ones. Let’s buy into the hype and the speculation, because Christianity is a baseless faith that makes us uncomfortable about ourselves and our sin and we’d be better off without it anyway. Right?
Here are some interesting facts that we might want to consider. There are credible eyewitnesses to where Jesus was buried. According to John, who we now refer to as the apostle John, as well as a woman named Mary Magdalene (Her name sounds familiar) he was buried in a rich man’s grave right next to Golgotha, the place where He was crucified and died (See John 20). John, as well as another man named Matthew, who also participated in Christ’s ministry, took the time to write this matter down shortly after Christ’s death (See Matthew 28). Furthermore, a man named Luke, a physician and historian, thoroughly examined the matter and wrote his conclusions in two books called Luke and Acts. My friends, in a court of law, multiple eyewitness accounts to an event recorded around the time that the event happened will trump speculative, foundationless theories contrived almost 2000 years after the fact every time!
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day tried to keep him in his tomb via a large stone. Three days later on that first Easter so many years ago the stone was rolled away, the tomb was empty, and Jesus was alive. Those who saw him die proclaimed to the world that they had seen Him and that they were changed forever. The Christ-hater turned Christian convert named Paul put it this way in a very early creed (37 A.D.).
“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.”
The skeptics of our time want to put Jesus back in the grave. They want to de-throne Him. They want to rob this history-altering figure of His deity and make Him just another good man. Over their silly objections, the voices of truth shout with relentless strains, “Christ is risen, Christ is risen, Hallelujah! Christ is risen, and the world will never be the same!”
In His Service,
Pastor Dave Watson
An Urban Christian
