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And Death Shall Have No Dominion - 3

$50,000 A Head

Maybe you heard the story? Maybe not. Ted Williams, famous slugger for the Red Sox and Hall of Famer, died in 2002. Nothing extraordinary about that. Even the great ones go.

But did you hear about what happened next? Apparently, according to some news accounts, his head has been frozen in a special lab in hopes that at some point down the road science will be able to restore him back to life.

Pretty crazy, wouldn’t you say?

And yet Ted Williams wasn’t not alone in his hope of beating death. A few years ago, the cover of Esquire magazine asked "CAN YOU LIVE FOREVER?" Inside was a special 12-page report on mankind’s quest for immortality that included a section called "A World of Immortal Men" by Edward O. Wilson, a Harvard professor, renowned scientist, and two-time Pulitzer-prize winner. In it, he wrote, "I see no reason why humanity and the species as a whole cannot be immortal."

There’s even an organization called The Immortalist Institute, which seeks to “conquer the blight of involuntary death.” It says that it wants to help “members succeed in working towards the possibility of human physical immortality.”

And one way to try and achieve this “human physical immortality” comes from the science of cryonics, in which the bodies of the dead are stored in vats cooled with liquid nitrogen to about - 196 C. The idea is that maybe in 50, 100, or even 1,000 years, science will be so advanced that you can be thawed out and brought back to life.

Though in some cases the whole body is preserved, in others just the head is. Whole body suspensions can cost $120,000; heads are only $50,000.

Only $50,000 a head—literally.

Like Ted Williams!

All this shows, friend, how painful the prospect of death really is, especially when people believe that nothing comes after but worms and decay.

As a Christian, though, I don’t live with a deep foreboding about death. And I’ve even had cancer! Sure, who wants to die? But the difference is that I don’t believe that the grave is the final stop. I believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and this gives me the hope that one day I will be raised from death too. As Paul expressed it: “We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed--in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality” (1 Co 15: 51-53).

What’s the basis of any hope for me beyond all the tearful goodbyes?

We have been taking this week about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and how that resurrection offers us the hope of a resurrection as well. We have been focusing especially on the question of, What evidence do we have for the resurrection of Jesus?
So far we’ve looked at two attempts to nullify the stories of Christ’s resurrection. The first was the claim that the records of Jesus’ resurrection--made by all four gospel writers--were the products of insane minds. The men were, we’re told, crazy. This position, though, doesn’t make sense as we discovered because how often do you get four people crazy in the exact same way?

Second, we looked at the idea of a conspiracy, that the gospel writers conspired to make up Jesus’ resurrection. That view, too, we saw fell apart if for no other reason than motives. Considering that the Gospel writers got no earthly gain or advantage from promoting the story, but faced only persecution, exile, even death, the conspiracy theory doesn’t work either.

Today, look with me for a few minutes a bit more closely at the resurrection of Jesus, this time at some internal evidence from the Gospels that gives us even more reasons for believing in this incredible event.

If you have read the Gospels, you’ve probably noticed some writers cover certain things that others ignore. Luke, for example, is the only Gospel writer to talk about the angel telling Zecharias about the birth of John; the others say nothing about this incident. Matthew is the only writer to talk about the angel announcing to Joseph the birth of Jesus; Mark, Luke, and John don’t write about it. Luke alone recounts the visit of Jesus to the temple as a lad, while John alone tells about Jesus’ miracle of turning the water in wine at Cana. Only Mathew and Mark recount Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed; meanwhile only John tells about Jesus’ night encounter with Nicodemus.

But listen! In contrast, all four—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John--unequivocally write about the resurrection of Jesus. They all, in their own way, testify to the reality of His resurrection.

Mark wrote: “Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.” Mark 16:14.
Luke wrote: “And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.” Luke 24:36-40.

Here’s John: “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.” John 20:19.

And finally Matthew: “And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him, but some doubted.” Matthew 28: 8, 9.

All four testify to the resurrection of Jesus after His death. We’re not left with one person’s account, or two, or even three. But four. And, again, we ask--What possible motive would all four have for making this up and adhering to it even many years later? Fortune, power, prestige? Ridiculous. There’s no good reason for telling that story, unless it was true. The testimony of all four lends powerful credence to the veracity of Christ’s resurrection.

But there’s more. Notice how Mark described the appearance of Jesus: “Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.” Mark shows them being chided by Jesus for their unbelief.

Luke, in the texts we just read, portrayed them as fearful, distrusting, not believing in the things that Jesus had foretold them about. Meanwhile, Matthew said that when He appeared to them, “some doubted.” Even John, in his account, tells the story of “doubting Thomas.”

The point is this: If you were trying to start a new religious movement, wouldn’t you seek to put yourself--as one of the founders--in the best light possible? If you want people to believe you, if you want them to believe that God has called you and is using you, wouldn’t it make better sense to have presented yourself as a faithful, courageous, and dedicated servant of that God rather than as a fearful, doubting and unbelieving waffler? Of course! Yet all the accounts of the death and resurrection of Jesus don’t present the disciples in a particularly flattering way--kind of strange if they were making up the story, don’t you think?

Have you ever read any propaganda from North Korea, the buffo stuff about the “glorious and heroic deeds of our great and fearless dear leader” who does one glorious and heroic and magnificent thing after another, blah, blah, blah? Well, think about it: if these disciples were making this story up, why didn’t they present themselves and their fellow leaders in the most advantageous way possible, rather than present themselves as they did? How can we explain this, unless we say that they were, in fact, recounting things just as they happened, which included their own failings and mistakes? In other words, the candidness and honesty regarding their own spiritual failures lends more credence to the whole account, which centers around the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That’s, really, the most logical explanation for the facts as they appear.

Also, scholars have noted something else. Considering the lower status of woman in that society, why did these Gospel writers all have Jesus first revealing Himself after his resurrection to women? Again, if they were making up the story, why not have themselves be the ones whom Jesus first appeared to, rather than some women who pretty much then disappear from the whole scene? That, too, doesn’t make much sense if the stories were made up; it makes a lot of sense, however, if they are true.

Sure, these facts doesn’t prove the truth of their accounts, but they certainly give us more powerful reasons to believe them. As I’ve been saying all week, we don’t need blind faith to believe. On the contrary. God has given us plenty of evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. And this offers us a much better chance of eternal life than having your head frozen in a vat of liquid nitrogen, for sure!

Friends, the evidence is there. The resurrection happened. Jesus offers you the hope of something beyond the grave. Why wait? Claim it now for yourself.