THE EMPTY TOMB - A Stolen Body?

By Rev. Ernest O'Neill

I know: the Roman authorities or the Jewish authorities or anybody--we almost get to that point--but the Roman authorities or the Jewish authorities-stole the body. That's it! And then suddenly you begin to wonder, "Well if they stole the body, and they had the body, and they were so anxious to destroy the Christian sect, why didn't they just bring the body out and parade it through the streets of Jerusalem, and say, "Look, these people are saying this man rose from the dead. Here's His body. He didn't rise from the dead. Here's His body! You can see that." And that's true, isn't it? If they stole the body whether it be the Romans or the Jews, all they had to do was produce the body, and that was the Christian sect destroyed; they were exposed as liars.

And then we say, "Well, maybe not. Maybe they didn't steal the body. I know, the disciples stole the body. They stole the body. The disciples!" And yet, Loved Ones, you know there's an ethical problem in that when you begin to think about it. Can you imagine having your children at home, and knowing that this man Jesus didn't rise from the dead, knowing that he is an ordinary man, that He claimed to be the Son of God but that He's just an ordinary man, and He didn't rise from the dead at all, but you go and you steal the body and you hide it somewhere, and then you come out and you preach that He rose from the dead? And that's the very reason for the persecution that comes upon you. And yet you keep on preaching this lie, even when you end up going into a lion arena with your children by the hand. And even as you see one of those lions eating up one of your children and you know that they're dying for a lie, and yet you still keep pretending that this man rose from the dead. No man, no woman, however insane they are, will go that far!