The Empty Or Not Empty Tomb of Jesus

All this talk of the Resurrection power of Christ would be only so much poetry and metaphor if Jesus had not actually risen from the dead, if He had not "risen indeed," as Paul puts it. Without a historical event that actually took place in a certain place and at a certain time, an event that occupies a place in the same space-time continuum that I live in, the motive power of the Christian faith is reduced to an ideal like patriotism or an inspiring notion like "the Spirit of Christmas."

But with the empty tomb, faith in this Jesus takes on an entirely different character. The empty tomb forces me to make up my mind about Jesus. Do I believe He actually rose from the dead? Actually rose? Then what does this Resurrection of Jesus mean?

• What does the Resurrection of Jesus mean with regards to His exclusive claims (to forgive sins, to be the only way to God)?
• What does the Resurrection of Jesus mean when I contemplate my own mortality? when I think about the deaths of my loved ones?
• What does the Resurrection of Jesus mean with regards to my future? the future of this planet? 

This take-it-or-leave-it character of the Easter story is obvious even to a secular perspective. As Slate's James Martin observes, "Easter is an event that demands a "yes" or a "no." There is no 'whatever.'"

He's right. This isn't simply a matter of subscribing to a comforting greeting-card philosophy that might make me smile a little. Either the tomb is empty and everything has changed, or He never rose at all and this faith is all a pathetic lie. The Resurrection of Jesus doesn't leave us a comfortable middle ground.