These verses provide the origin of the “stolen body theory,” one of a handful of theories offered to explain away the Resurrection of Jesus. The “swoon theory” suggests that Jesus did not die on the cross, He merely passed out. Then, He was revived in the coolness of the tomb, removed the stone, sneaked past the guards, and escaped. The “wrong tomb theory” states that the disciples indeed found an empty tomb, because it was the wrong one; Jesus was still dead in another tomb. The “hallucination theory” holds that the Resurrection appearances were just hallucinations.

The holes in each of these theories are not hard to find. If the disciples had conspired to steal Jesus’ body and claim He rose again, would they have continued to lie, even when most were tortured and executed for this claim? Could a severely beaten and crucified Jesus really have survived? And even if He had, how did He escape the tomb and sneak past the guards? Could the disciples really have gone to another tomb that happened to have Roman guards and a Roman seal on it? And if they had, why didn’t the Jewish leaders present Jesus’ body to stop the Resurrection claims? Only a hard heart would neglect the obvious truth: Jesus rose from the dead.

• Have you ever had to defend the Resurrection to anyone? How did you do?