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SHE MADE A false assumption.

Mary came to the tomb and found it barren.

From her perspective, there was only one plausible explanation for why this was so. “They have taken the Lord…” (John 20:2b).

“They” whomever they were, had breached the burial chamber, stolen the lifeless body of Christ, and then moved it to an undisclosed location.

Atheist Richard Carrier, while neither willing nor able to actually produce specific culprits for the burglary, maintains that Mary was actually right.1 He asserts that the empty tomb evidenced a theft, not a resurrection.

But take just a moment to analyze Carrier’s flawed thinking. Truth should never be afraid of honest investigation, right?

There are ONLY two possibilities as to who might have stolen Jesus’ body from the tomb. Either the enemies of Christ did so, or the friends of Christ did so.  But 1) did the enemies, specifically the Jewish religious leaders, steal Jesus’ body and 2) will that possibility stand up to real scrutiny?

Matthew’s inspired record says the chief priests and Pharisees met with Pilate in an effort to foil any attempts at taking Jesus’ body in the first place.  They said, “Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day…” (Matthew 27:63-64a).

These men were not worried that Jesus would actually be resurrected; they were fearful that folks such as Joseph, Nicodemus, Mary (Matthew 27:57-61) and perhaps others, might stage a sort of mock resurrection in order to propagate what Jesus had foretold (cf. Matthew 16:21; 20:17; 26:28; Mark 8:31; Luke 24:44).  They thought they had finally quelled Jesus and his doctrine and wanted to make sure it wasn’t rekindled again.

Pilate, in keeping with the religious leader’s pressing request, secured the tomb and gave permission to set a guard (Matthew 27:65-66, NIV; Matthew 28:11-15).

Now think about it.

Why would the avowed enemies of Jesus go to all of the trouble of preventing the theft of his body, but then engage in the theft themselves?! Why would they twist Pilate’s arm to protect the tomb from any intrusion, but then steal what they had tried so hard to secure?! What would prompt them to allegedly pay off the security force, break the seal, and then take possession of what they wanted nobody to acquire?!

Furthermore, when the apostles later preached a resurrected Lord during the early days of the church (cf. Acts 4:1ff), why didn’t the religious leaders simply produce the dead corpse of Christ?!  If they had, in fact, stolen the body, why didn’t they display it for all to see? In so doing they would have not only exposed the lie being propagated by Jesus’ followers, but they would have effectively killed Christianity dead in its tracks!

The obvious reason the opponents of Jesus didn’t produce his body was–because they didn’t have it in the first place.

Both Mary and Richard Carrier were mistaken.

Nobody took the body of Jesus.  He was raised from the dead–just as the Bible says (Acts 1:3; 2:32; 4:33).

1 Richard Carrier, “The Plausibility of Theft,” in The Empty Tomb: Jesus Beyond the Grave, edited by Jeff Lowder and Robert Price, 349-368

Those of us who graduated from the sixth grade long ago can still learn from this story. Read the following and see if you don’t gain some insights:

Last fall I divided my sixth grade Sunday school class into three groups for an interesting contest. As my twelve-year-olds gathered in three circles on the floor, I explained that there was only one rule in our competition: Each group had to put together a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle without talking.

I poured the contents of the puzzles on the floor in front of each group, warning them again that they could not talk. The first group went immediately to work, promptly setting up the top of the puzzle box, which gave everyone a clear view of the picture they were trying to put together.

The second group tried to do the same thing, but they didn’t know that I had switched the top of their puzzle box with the top from another puzzle. I had deliberately given them the wrong lid.  Not knowing that, they set up their box top to use as a guide to assemble their puzzle and went swiftly to work.

As the third group gathered around the pile of pieces I had poured on the floor, the kids were dismayed to discover that I had given them no box top whatsoever to use as a guide. They started to protest, but I reminded them that there was to be no talking!

What followed was fascinating.

The members of Group One were somewhat frustrated by not being allowed to talk, but they still made steady progress because they had a correct picture or plan to work from. Everyone in that group got motivated as the outline of the picture started to emerge.

It didn’t take the members of Group Two long to realize something was wrong. They kept trying to use the box top picture in front of them, but nothing seemed to work. And since they couldn’t talk together, their frustration level soared. One boy waved his hand in the air and acted as though he was about to burst. I relented and allowed him to whisper in my ear, ‘Mr. Rainey,’ he muttered, ‘you gave us the wrong picture. It’s the wrong lid — it’s just not there!”

I smiled, patted him on his shoulder, and said, “Shhh, no talking.” As I turned away, others in his group looked at me with pleading eyes, wondering what they could do. Their puzzle just wasn’t coming together.

But Group Three really captured my attention. Because the group had no picture at all to go by, each kid was doing his own thing. There wasn’t even an attempt at teamwork and, of course, there was no progress. Some members just sat individually, randomly searching for two pieces that seemed to fit. Two of the boys were so bored they started launching puzzle pieces like miniature Frisbees across the room. Others just lay there with their eyes closed. Hopelessness hung in the air.

After letting them work a little longer, I called a halt to the competition and explained what was going on and then I made my point: you can’t live life without a plan.  Dennis Rainey 

Observations:

1. God has given every married couple a box top. And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ “and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? “So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:4-6; cf. Genesis 2:18, 21-24).

2. Every marriage needs this box top in order to bring order out of chaos (2 Peter 1:3; cf. 1 Corinthians 7:2; 6:13; Hebrews 13:4; 1 Thessalonians 4:3).

3. Husbands and wives can only find true joy, stability and intimacy when they pattern their lives after God’s divine plan (cf. John 10:10; cf. Ephesians 5:22-33; Titus 2:4-5).  Mike Benson

1Rainey, Dennis. “The Master Plan for Oneness.” Lonely Husbands, Lonely Wives, 117-118.

“God loves you and I love you and that’s the way it’s gonna be!” – Mike

THERE IS AN old, abandoned Victorian house in Tifton, Georgia. It’s filled with thousands of bats. Tift County declared the once-elegant house in the town’s historic district off limits after a bat specialist said that maybe 20,000 bats had moved in, apparently for good.

Locals call it “the bat house.” People talk about the smell, which is an unholy mix of animal urine and decaying wood. “In the summer, ooh, does that place reek,” said Linda Turner, 69, a retired nurse and neighbor. “You ain’t smelled nothing until you come back here on a hot day.”

I’m not going to visit that bat house. WHAT A SIGHT AND WHAT A STINK IT MUST BE! Vacant houses get infiltrated with all kinds of creatures and probably not just bats. And many of these creatures make a mess, create a big stink, and eventually ruin that dwelling.

But it doesn’t just happen with vacant houses, it also happens with vacant hearts! If a person doesn’t fill their life with good stuff, the bad stuff and sometimes, the evil stuff will move in and take over (cf. Mat. 12:43-45).

• What’s going on in your house/heart?
• Who has moved in?
• Who has taken over your residence and controlling your life? God wants us to stay clean in this world and that will only happen when we let Him move in, that is, when we fill our lives with worship, prayer and service.  Steve Shepherd

“Thy word have I hide in my heart that I might not sin against thee.” Psalm 119:11.

“God loves you and I love you and that’s the way it’s gonna be!” – Mike