Investigators: Resurrection #3
Captain's Log: Table Time ~ Friday, September 5th, 2025 ~ Vespers
14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain... 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
The third installment of the investigators series. We continue to see the value of repetition. In the past my idea of repetition was narrow. Saying or doing the same thing many times until it becomes a habit or is committed to memory. But there is more breadth and depth to repetition. A catechism is a good example. We return to the catechism each day. This is a repetition. But the questions and answers change, develop. We become increasingly familiar with “catechism,” but through varied experiences of it.
A history quiz would be another one. We regularly run through the periods of history (from classical to middle to early modern through modern) with our own selected major figures and events. As we do this we all become more acquainted with the content, but through discussions about it that are always slightly different than the time before. Think of the difference between repeatedly tracing over the outline of a picture versus repeatedly colouring in a picture with a different colour each time.
But where was I? The court heard Wong Tu this evening. Wong Tu denies the resurrection as the explanation of the empty tomb, resurrection appearances, apostolic preaching, etc. His counter-hypothesis? That the disciples did, in fact, discover an empty tomb, because they went to the wrong one! That’s right. Mr. Wong Tu is a proponent of the “wrong tomb” hypothesis.
‘How likely is it that all three groups were mistaken about the tomb? Each with their different reasons for remembering it?’
Suffice to say we heard the responses from the apostolic witnesses and were more than satisfied with them. We discussed for the first time the idea of plausibility. This is because our major line of argument tonight involved cumulative implausibility. Namely, that multiple separate groups of people were mistaken about the location of Jesus’ tomb. First the disciples, then the Romans (who posted a guard there), then the Jews (who affirmed the empty tomb by claiming the body had been stolen). ‘How likely is it that all three groups were mistaken about the tomb? Each with their different reasons for remembering it?’ The children were not impressed with the plausibility of this.
We sang our new “As For Me” song more times than I had energy for. I gave thanks that we could have such confidence in the resurrection (this series was born out of Lewis beginning to ask questions about the reliability of the resurrection in particular, and the faith in general). I also gave thanks for the comfort available to us through the knowledge that since Jesus is risen, our sins are forgiven. And the children helped me coin a new phrase, capturing the importance of the resurrection in light of 1 Corinthians 15:17: “If Jesus isn’t risen, our sins are not forgiven!”
How wonderful that as I attempt to pass on the fire to my children, the Lord fans the flames in my heart again.
My own confidence in the resurrection is growing as we move through the series, which I, so focused on the children, was not expecting. This strikes me and warms my heart, because it was an acquired confidence in the resurrection that brought me to God in the beginning. How wonderful that as I attempt to pass on the fire to my children, the Lord fans the flames in my heart again. He fathers me as I father them.
