The Christian faith stands or falls on the historical reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And yet, aside from the gospel accounts themselves, there is very little historical evidence for the resurrection. In addition, a careful reading of the four gospels seems to reveal some discrepancies in the testimony of the evangelists themselves. Skeptics and critics of Christianity pick up on these realities and run with them, and often Christians are blindsided by these attacks. What are Christians to say to these claims, and have we missed an unexpected apologetic for the resurrection?
It is true that a careful reading of the four evangelists' remembrances of the resurrection indeed reveals many different emphases and details. Matthew, for example, tells us that a great earthquake had occurred as "an angel of the Lord descended and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it" (Matthew 28:2). Mark, on the other hand, tells us that a "young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe" was inside the tomb to announce Jesus's resurrection (Mark 14:5). Luke tells us that two men "suddenly stood near them [the women] in dazzling apparel" (Luke 24:4) and John, the beloved disciple, reports his own discovery of the linen wrappings abandoned in the empty tomb (John 20:5). Nevertheless, while there are differences in detail, as we would expect in eyewitness testimony, all four evangelists report a resurrection—of this there is no dispute.
There is another feature that is the same in all four accounts: the resurrection announcement is made first to the women who followed Jesus (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:1, Luke 23:55-24:5, John 20:1). Many reasons have been offered as to why women serve as the immediate witnesses to the resurrection: the women stayed with him through the crucifixion, so he appeared first to those who stuck with him to the end; women traditionally carried out the burial rituals in first century Judaism, so they are witnesses by default.
While these are plausible reasons, there is another strategic, indeed, apologetic reason why the women were the first witnesses. In fact, one might argue that this is the primary apologetic for validity of the resurrection of Jesus. Women in the first century were not considered credible witnesses. They simply were not credible witnesses in court, or anywhere else for that matter. Why then did the gospel writers report them as the key witnesses to the resurrection?
Anglican priest and physicist John Polkinghorne suggests:
"Perhaps the strongest reason of taking the stories of the empty tomb absolutely seriously lies in the fact that it is women who play the leading role. It would have been very unlikely for anyone in the ancient world who was concocting a story to assign the principal part to women since, in those times, they were not considered capable of being reliable witnesses in a court of law. It is surely much more probable that they appear in the gospel accounts precisely because they actually fulfilled the role that the stories assign to them, and in so doing, they make a startling discovery."(1)
In this sense, the women offer the strongest apologetic for the witness of the gospel writers. It is the very fact that they were not considered reliable witnesses that makes credible the accounting of the evangelists, for who would make up a story like this with women as the central characters in its dramatic conclusion?
Of course, all throughout the Bible, God continually uses those whom we least expect in ways that are profoundly remarkable. Of course, this is God's apologetic throughout redemption history: Deborah, a woman, to be judge over Israel, Gideon, the least and the youngest in his tribe and family to defeat the Midianites, David, the youngest of his family and a simple shepherd to be king, Jael, a non-Israelite woman to defeat the Canaanite king Sisera, Josiah, king of Israel at only eight years old, to reform the nation, Amos, a simple sheepherder, to be a prophet among the people of God, tax-collectors, fishermen, and women, Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, Martha, and Salome. God chooses those we might be tempted to overlook or ignore, those who were the last and the least in their society to bear witness to the great work of God.
All of these witnesses are unexpected in their day and time for a variety of reasons, but they serve to remind us of an unexpected apologetic. God uses and chooses those we least expect, and would not anticipate, to give witness to God's work in this world, and in our lives. And what else would we expect of the God who raised Jesus from the dead? Indeed, expect the unexpected.
Margaret Manning is a member of the speaking and writing team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Seattle, Washington.
(1) From Exploring Reality (SPCK: London, 2005), 86-87.