The sign of an empty tomb

Every time I'm in Israel I make it a point to schedule a visit to "the Garden Tomb," a short distance from the Damascus Gate, outside the northern end of the walled Old City of Jerusalem. Just inside the entrance to this beautiful, well kept garden, the noise of busy urban life in East Jerusalem is barely audible as one steps into a setting of natural serenity. It is in the tomb located in this garden (pictured on this page) where British General Charles Gordon—along with many others since his time—believed the body of Jesus was placed after it had been removed from a cross on the skull-shaped hillside, "Golgotha," (also pictured on this page) just a few hundred yards away.

Though there is considerable debate among scholars as to the exact location of Golgotha and the burial place of Jesus--whether the Church of the Holy Sepulcher inside the present wall around the Old City, or "Gordon's Calvary"--I can tell you emphatically that the latter is the preferred place in which to meditate upon the sobering truth of the crucifixion and the glorious fact of the resurrection.

In his first letter to the Corinthian Church, the Apostle Paul explains the basis of rejection of the Christian Faith by man as he observes:

For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom; But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness; But unto them who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:22-24)

That the Jews of Jesus' day--especially their religious leaders--were constantly seeking a sign of His Messianic authenticity is readily evident from the numerous accounts in the gospels of such a request (John 2:18; Matthew 12:38; Matthew 16:1; John 6:30). The fact is that Jesus, in His public ministry, provided many signs (read that, miracles) verifying His claim to be the Son of God. The greatest sign of all, though, was given after His death and burial. He provided a preview of this sign when he responded to the request of "the Jews" for a sign:

Jesus answered, and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews (thinking that Jesus referred to the Temple in Jerusalem), Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three days? But he spoke of the temple of his body. (John 2:19-21)

The lifeless body of Jesus was taken from the execution stake on Golgotha's brow and carried a few hundred yards to be placed gently in Joseph's tomb where it reposed until the third day, at which time the bonds of death were broken by the power of the Spirit of God as a declaration, in this greatest of all signs, of the divind Sonship of Jesus from Nazereth. (Romans 1:4)

However, in spite of this "sign of the empty tomb," many Jews and Gentiles choose to reject His claim upon their lives, not because there is an absence of proof of who He is, but because of their refusal to acknowledge who they are, namely sinners in need of divine deliverance from the power of sin and death. To unbelieving Jews and Gentiles alike this is foolishness, for some minds respond only to visible evidence affirming their selfishly deluded priorities, while other respond only to the finest rhetoric and intellectual arguments affirming the same.

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)

No matter how foolish our message might sound to those who hear it, we will continue to proclaim the truth of the cross and the empty tomb. Why? Simply because He has told us to and because it is this, and this alone, which is "the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." (Romans 1:16)