“He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead…” (Matt. 28:6-7).
“The pyramids of Egypt are famous because they contained the mummified bodies of ancient Egyptian kings. Westminster Abbey in London is renowned because in it rests the bodies of English nobles and notables. Mohammad’s tomb is noted for the stone coffin and the bones it contains. The Taj Majal was built as a memorial to a wife of one of India’s Shahs. Arlington Cemetery in Washington, D.C., is revered, for it is the honored resting place of many outstanding Americans. The garden tomb of Jesus is famous not because of what is inside, but because it is empty!”
The tomb of Jesus Christ was only a 15-minute walk from the center of Jerusalem, so the empty tomb could have easily been confirmed or disproved by anyone who went to inspect it. The unbelieving Jewish leaders were unable to disprove the fact that the tomb was empty, so they bribed the Roman guards to lie and say that Christ’s disciples
stole the body (Matt. 28:11-15).
Further, after Christ arose, the apostles did not immediately travel to far-off Athens or Rome to preach that Christ had risen from the dead. Instead, they stayed and preached in Jerusalem (Acts 2:5-32; 3:1-15), the very city where, if what they were proclaiming about the resurrection and the empty tomb was false, it could have been easily refuted.
The only explanation for the empty tomb is the truth found in Scripture: Christ, Who promised to rise again, rose again, “as He said” (Matt. 28:6 cf. 20:17-19).
It’s been said well that “No tabloid will ever print the startling news that the mummified body of Jesus of Nazareth has been discovered in old Jerusalem. Christians have no carefully embalmed body enclosed in a glass case to worship…we have an empty tomb. The glorious fact that the empty tomb proclaims to us is that life for us does not stop when death comes. Death is not a wall, but a door.”
“Come, see” was the invitation (Matt. 28:6). On resurrection morning, an angel “rolled back the stone from the door” (v. 2) of the tomb. The angel did not move the stone to let Christ out; he moved the stone to let the world in, so anyone could see that He rose from the dead.
Even today, the invitation for the resurrection is the same, “Come, see.” Read and examine the Scriptures, and you will find that the tomb is empty. Come, see the miracle, power, and truth of Christ’s resurrection, and believe it. Christ was raised to show that He fully paid the price for all our sins at the Cross (Rom. 4:25). The work of salvation is complete! When you trust that Christ died for your sins and rose again, you are saved from all your sins and have the gift of eternal life (1 Cor. 15:3-4; Rom. 6:23; Eph. 1:13; 2:8-9).
Then the instruction is also the same as what the angel told the women at the empty tomb, “Go…tell” (Matt. 28:7). Tell others the good news. Don’t keep the truth to yourself. Go and tell others about the Savior, that He lives and that He saves!
To the Reader:
Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:
"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."
To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.