No, Jesus Did Not Walk Out of the Tomb

The canonical gospels never show Jesus walking out of his tomb. Yet, popular memes on social media give this impression. The pictures are interesting because they miss the point. Jesus never walks out of his tomb like…like… Lazarus. According to tradition, Lazarus lived for about 30 years after that until he died again.

The Tomb Stories

Matthew shows an angel opening a sealed tomb that is now empty. Mark shows the tomb already opened after the women are concerned about how they will open it. A young man sitting in the tomb tells them Jesus has risen. In Luke, the women arrive, go inside, but do not find the body. Suddenly two men appear in it asking the women, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” Mary finds the tomb empty, according to John. These accounts contradict in details, but agree on the most important point. Jesus is not there anymore. Why?

A Personal Story

“If you were standing there with a video camera, could you record Jesus leaving the cave?” A professor asked this question. I knew something was wrong with the question. I could not quite put my finger on it at the time. It was not until I watch Jim Caviezel in The Passion of the Christ walk out of the cave after sitting patiently for the stone to move that I saw the problem. There is no way to record something that did not happen. There were no eyewitnesses to Jesus leaving the tomb.  We read stories of witnesses who see the resurrected Christ in the flesh. And there are stories of witnesses seeing Christ in visions. The only physical evidence is an empty tomb. Too many people believe we proclaim Christ is risen based on these stories. Our spiritual ancestors did not.

An Empty Tomb

The early church did not proclaim the risen Christ based on the stories because they had not been written yet. Jesus dying and rising again to usher in the new humanity was seen in how they lived the resurrection. The stories in the canonical gospels were told by communities proclaiming the new being in Christ. If we ask questions about how Jesus rose from the dead or how a virgin gives birth, the answers will be what the gospels give. “It was prophesied.” Or “is anything impossible for God.” The most surprising answer may be, “Look around you.” We would see their freedom in this new way. And that love is the purpose of being alive.

Early believers asked why be afraid of an empty tomb? N.T. Wright wrote a tome explaining how the hope of the resurrection was the resurrection of the body. The resurrection of Jesus had to be bodily resurrection to be consistent with that hope. Okay. But the resurrected body put on immortality as Paul phrases it. The new body is not from the earth. Instead, it is from the spirit.

Experiencing the Resurrected Life

Luke, Matthew, and John go to great lengths to show Jesus has substance after the resurrection. He eats fish. Jesus cooks fish. He breaks bread. The women grab his feet. Jesus is very real in that sense. Is this the same body that was placed in the grave? Not exactly the same.  The new body is not bound by what we think of as physicality. Jesus can appear in rooms with locked doors. He disappears after blessing the bread. Before his disciples can bring him the catch, Jesus is cooking fish for their breakfast.

They told these stories to help fellow believers know what the new being and the new humanity – the Kingdom of Heaven – was about. The life we live matters because the importance of mutual help and charity are demonstrated by the risen Savior, Alleluia. Death does not end any of this. Instead, life is eternal.

The Resurrection is not a mundane occurrence with the prophet leaving his burial cave. Rather, it is a world changing event that points to the end of all things which is summed up in the New Being.  The tomb is empty! Salvation is among us.