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Easter is not the celebration of a dead hero but a living Saviour. Everything hinges on whether Jesus really rose again.

Jesus Christ is the central figure of the world’s biggest faith — Christianity — whose followers number around 2.4 billion today.

At the heart of Christianity is the belief that Jesus is more than just a good man or a wise teacher. He is God in flesh who was crucified for humanity’s sins and raised to life again as the triumphant Saviour of the world.

Two thousand years later, Christians are still commemorating Jesus’ death on Good Friday, and celebrating his resurrection on Easter Sunday.

But did Easter really happen? The idea of someone rising from the dead sounds strange to modern ears — maybe even impossible.

The resurrection really matters. If Jesus didn’t come back to life, he is just another dead hero in the pages of history, not the living Saviour. As the apostle Paul wrote, “if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Corinthians 15:17).

Since the very first Easter, Jesus’ followers have insisted that the events of his life, death and resurrection are true history, not a fairy tale, a legend or wishful thinking.

Consider 10 of the most compelling reasons that Jesus’ followers are right — and that Easter really did happen.

1. Jesus Actually Died

In trying to account for the miracle of Easter, some sceptics have put forward the Swoon Theory. In short: Jesus did not actually die on the cross but rather swooned into a state of unconsciousness and later revived in the tomb, causing his disciples to believe he had risen from the dead.

The problem with the Swoon Theory is that Jesus could not have survived his crucifixion.

Crucifixion was invented by the Romans, not merely for torture, but as a means of capital punishment: the soldiers attending to Jesus were trained executioners.

Crucifixion forced its victims to lift themselves up and make room in their chest cavity every time they needed to draw breath. It was a cruel process that caused exhaustion and eventually, asphyxiation. Executioners therefore broke a victim’s legs if they wished to speed the process along.

The gospel of John records that soldiers broke the legs of the men crucified with Jesus (John 19:32). “But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.” (John 19:33).

That Jesus hung limp on the cross was proof he was no longer drawing breath. In turn, it is a medical fact that a body starved of oxygen, even for a few minutes, cannot survive.

As a final precaution, “one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water” (John 19:34). Here is further evidence Jesus died — an indication of pericardial and pleural effusion (fluid around the heart and lungs), consistent with death by crucifixion.

Even if Jesus survived the cross — not to mention his brutal floggings and copious blood loss — he would have needed advanced medical care not available in the ancient world.

There is simply no way to avoid the obvious fact that Jesus died.

It is also worth bearing in mind that every New Testament author corroborated his death, as did many non-Christian figures from the ancient world, including Thallus, Josephus, Tacitus, Lucian of Samosata, Mara Bar-Serapion, Celsus, and the writers of the Babylonian Talmud.

2. The Grave Was Secure

Another rival explanation for the events of Easter is the Stolen Body Theory — the idea that Jesus’ disciples snuck off with his corpse and then lied about him rising from the dead.

The Jewish leaders actually anticipated this happening, and raised their concerns with Pilate:

“Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.” (Matthew 27:63-64).

Pilate agreed, granting them a guard and telling them to go and make the tomb as secure as they knew how. (Matthew 27:65). “So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard,” Matthew records (Matthew 27:66).

Ironically, by anticipating a resurrection hoax, the Jewish leaders actually helped foolproof history for us.

The Roman guards stationed at the tomb were highly trained and disciplined. If they failed to protect the tomb or fell asleep on the job, they faced the death penalty themselves.

Even if the disciples could sneak past sleeping guards, they had an approximately two-tonne rock to move without being noticed.

Moreover, the Stolen Body Theory cannot account for the guards’ response on Easter Sunday. On seeing the angel roll the stone away to reveal an empty tomb, Matthew tells us, “the guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men” (Matthew 28:4).

The guards immediately reported what they had seen to the Jewish leaders, who then hatched their own conspiracy:

When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day. (Matthew 28:11-15).

According to history, everyone who was involved in protecting the tomb — whether Pilate, the Jewish leaders or the guards — knew for themselves that Jesus’ grave was secure.

3. The Body Was Missing

The best evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is, of course, the empty tomb.

The guards, mentioned above, were the first to take note of Jesus’ missing remains.

Soon after, a group of women visited the tomb in hopes of anointing Jesus’ body with spices. Instead, they found an empty grave (Matthew 28:1-6, Mark 16:1-4, Luke 24:1-3).

As word got out, two more disciples ran to visit the burial site. On arriving, John waited outside the tomb but Peter stepped inside and spotted Jesus’ burial cloths, some of which had been left neatly folded (John 20:6-7). It was hardly a scene consistent with a grave robbery: who would take the time to strip the body — and even fold the linen?

Sceptics may counter with another argument: the Wrong Tomb Theory — the idea that Jesus’ disciples visited the wrong tomb, and on finding it empty, mistakenly concluded that he had risen.

The Wrong Tomb Theory is implausible on its face. Why would Jesus’ followers launch an entire movement without first stopping to verify the one claim on which it all hinged?

Moreover, if Jesus’ body was in a different tomb, why didn’t the authorities present his rotting corpse to the public as proof the disciples had it wrong? The Roman and Jewish leaders had every reason to eradicate the unruly Christian revolution, yet they never exhibited the one piece of evidence that could have snuffed it out.

That’s because Jesus’ body really was missing.

4. Hundreds Saw Jesus Alive

As noted above, a handful of people — perhaps a dozen or so — bore witness to Jesus’ empty grave. Far more significant is that hundreds of people saw him alive again over the coming days and weeks.

Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene and the other women at the tomb (Matthew 28:8-10, John 20:11-18). Soon after, Peter saw him back from the dead (Luke 24:34, 1 Corinthians 15:5), followed by two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35).

Jesus’ appearances only became more frequent from then on. He surprised ten of the disciples by coming to them in a locked room (Luke 24:36-43, John 20:19-24). Then Jesus appeared to the full group of eleven — this time with Doubting Thomas present, who famously touched Jesus’ hands and side (John 20:26-29).

While a group of seven disciples were fishing at the Sea of Galilee, Jesus showed up again and ate a meal with them (John 21:1-23). Some time later, he appeared to them in Galilee, giving the group his final instructions before ascending to heaven (Matthew 28:16-20, Luke 24:50-53, Acts 1:4-11).

The apostle Paul provides an even fuller account of Jesus’ resurrection appearances — including the remarkable claim that 500 people saw him alive:

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas [Peter], and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is reliably dated to around A.D. 53 — just 20 years or so after Jesus’ resurrection, when most of the witnesses he mentions were still alive. Paul was telling his critics, “Check out these claims for yourselves.”

Indeed, if Paul was making up stories, it would have been easy for sceptics to discredit the entire Christian enterprise by visiting the towns where Jesus had allegedly appeared and interviewing the people who claimed to have seen him alive again.

History records no such rebuttal. Instead, a perplexed world watched on as the eyewitness accounts of the risen Jesus spread across the known world.

To account for these facts, some have put forward the Hallucination Theory — the idea that the disciples experienced hallucinations of Jesus after his death, causing them to wrongly assume he was risen.

But the Hallucination Theory is grasping at straws. Hallucinations happen to people facing psychiatric illness, substance abuse or extreme stress. Those descriptions hardly apply to the wide variety of people who saw Jesus alive and the diverse circumstances of those appearances.

Moreover, hallucinations happen to individuals, not to groups. Almost every time the risen Jesus appeared, he came to multiple people. Are we to believe they all had the same hallucinations at the same time, many times over?

Jesus broke bread with the disciples on the road to Emmaus; he let Thomas touch him; and he shared breakfast with the group on the beach. These are very physical interactions. They hardly sound like hallucinations.

The more sensible conclusion is that those who claimed to see Jesus alive really did see him alive.

5. The Key Witnesses Were Women

We have already established that some of the first witnesses of the empty tomb — and the very first people to see Jesus alive again — were women.

This matters.

In the ancient Near East, the testimony of women was considered less reliable than that of men. In fact, a woman’s testimony was often not even admissible in court.

If the gospel writers were spinning tales about Jesus coming back from the dead, they almost certainly would have portrayed men as key witnesses, lest they undermine their own story’s credibility.

The fact that all four gospel writers portray women as key witnesses to the resurrection (Matthew 28:1-10, Mark 16:1-11, Luke 24:1-11, John 20:1-18) strongly suggests the writers were being honest, and simply recording events that really happened.

6. The Resurrection Accounts Varied

Sceptics like to point to the apparent contradictions between the various Easter Sunday accounts as told by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

For example, all four writers mention Mary Magdalene visiting the tomb, but they differ on who else was with her. The timing of the women’s visit likewise varies: John says it was “still dark”; Matthew claims it was “toward the dawn”; Luke puts it at “early dawn”; and Mark says it was “when the sun had risen”. The number of angels at the tomb also differs, with Matthew and Mark recording one angelic figure, and Luke and John depicting two.

Beyond those details, each writer records events the others ignore completely. For example, Matthew speaks of other resurrected saints emerging from their tombs (Matthew 27:51-53); only Luke records the road to Emmaus encounter (Luke 24:13-35); and the breakfast on the beach scene is exclusive to John (John 21:1-14).

Thus, a doubter might look at these differences and conclude that the gospel writers were confused at best, and at worst, inventing legends.

Actually, a closer look suggests the opposite.

Four identical accounts of Jesus’ resurrection would look very suspicious. If Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all provided us with near-identical narratives, we would rightly assume they had colluded to fabricate the whole story, or copied their account from a single questionable source.

This is true in criminal investigations today. Identical accounts from multiple people are a tip-off to detectives that the witnesses are lying: that they have collaborated to align their testimonies, or have rehearsed their answers, or were coached in what to say by an outsider.

On the other hand, when witnesses give divergent but compatible accounts, we have strong evidence their story is a genuine recollection of what happened.

So, are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John’s accounts compatible?

The answer is yes.

Mary Magdalene visited the tomb with a large group of women — and each gospel writer emphasised different women who accompanied her for stylistic or personal reasons.

The women set out to anoint Jesus’ body when it was dark — and by the time they had arrived at the burial site, the sun had risen.

Two angels were present at the tomb — and one played a more prominent role in the interactions that took place, prompting several authors to focus only on him.

The resurrected saints, the Emmaus encounter and the breakfast on the beach all happened — and each gospel writer chose which events to retell based on whether or not they were present, or which eyewitnesses they had sourced their material from.

Everything about the four divergent gospel accounts screams “real history!”

7. The Disciples Were Radically Transformed

In the bleak days surrounding Jesus’ sufferings and death, the disciples were fearful, confused and full of doubt.

When Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, they fled and deserted him (Matthew 26:56; Mark 14:50). Shortly after, Peter betrayed Christ, denying three times that he knew him (Matthew 26:69-75; Mark 14:66-72; Luke 22:54-62; John 18:15-27). At the cross — by far Jesus’ darkest moment — most of the disciples were conspicuously absent, save for John and several women (John 19:25-27). When Jesus first appeared to the group after his resurrection, he found them huddled in a room in hiding from the Jewish authorities (John 20:19-20).

But something changed over the following weeks. They were transformed from frightened followers to fearless founders of a brand-new way of life. They preached with boldness, performed miracles before crowds, and stood face-to-face with the same authorities who had crucified their leader.

The disciples were unstoppable, defying great opposition to take the gospel from town to town and send missionaries across the known world. Threatened, beaten and imprisoned, they declared, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). To them, no sacrifice was too small to spread the good news of their Saviour.

Perhaps the most remarkable transformation was the apostle Paul’s. Known originally as Saul, he zealously persecuted Christians — until he encountered the living Christ on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-19). From that point on, Paul became Christianity’s chief proponent.

Again and again in his writings, Paul pointed to the resurrection of Jesus as the foundation of his faith. “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless, and so is your faith,” he affirmed (1 Corinthians 15:14).

Something must have happened to turn the lives of these disciples around so dramatically. That something was the resurrection.

8. Witnesses Willingly Died for Their Claims

Many people throughout history have died as martyrs, willingly giving up their lives for what they believed to be true.

However, it is extremely rare for a person to die for something they feared was false or knew was a lie.

According to church tradition, ten of Jesus’ 12 disciples were martyred for their faith — the only exceptions being Judas Iscariot, who committed suicide, and the apostle John, who died of old age.

What got the disciples in trouble with their persecutors was not their faith in Jesus’s death for sin — but rather, for their eyewitness testimony that he was risen from the dead and now reigning as Saviour.

To avoid being beheaded, speared, crucified upside-down, sawed in half or clubbed to death, all Jesus’ closest companions had to do was retract their claims about his resurrection. If they had doubts or had knowingly taken part in a lie, surely some of them would have recanted to avoid such a cruel end.

Instead, they died as martyrs, providing further evidence that Jesus really did conquer the grave.

9. Jewish Believers Changed Their Day of Worship

When Jesus arrived on the scene, the Jewish people had been practising Sabbath worship for over 1,300 years.

More than just a custom or a tradition, it was part of the sacred law — the Ten Commandments, written on stone by the finger of God himself — that Jews should rest and worship God on the last day of the week (Exodus 20:8-11). The Sabbath was always understood to be a Saturday.

The practice of the Sabbath was basic to the Jewish way of life. Any Jew who failed to honour the Sabbath was guilty of breaking God’s law.

It is important to note that Jesus and his disciples were faithful Jews. According to the gospel accounts, they too were careful to observe the Sabbath.

But after the resurrection, everything changed. Suddenly, the Christian community began meeting on Sundays, the first day of the week. Their rationale was very simple: Jesus’ tomb was found empty on the first day of the week, as every gospel writer affirmed (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:1-2, Luke 24:1, John 20:1).

These men and women still saw themselves as Jews and believed in the importance of the Sabbath. But changing the day of the week on which they rested and worshipped God signalled a major shift. It was their public declaration that that Messiah had arrived, that he had fulfilled the law, conquered death and the grave, and now invited all people into a relationship with the living God.

Their confidence to fashion a new weekly calendar and break with centuries of custom and law is another strong indication that Jesus’ resurrection was a fact of history.

10. Christianity Spread Like Wildfire

Just before he ascended, Jesus gave his followers a roadmap of their task ahead. He told them, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8).

Just as Jesus foretold, the early church spread out in waves across the Roman Empire, starting in Jerusalem.

This detail should not be overlooked. The disciples did not begin to spread their message in some far-off land where no one could verify what they were saying. They began to preach in the very city where Jesus died — the one place where their account of his resurrection could be interrogated.

And their message spread like wildfire.

The early church had every reason to fail. Its claims sounded far-fetched. Its leaders were beset by weaknesses and failures. Its adherents were hunted by the state and often chased out of town. Yet Christianity kept spreading. On one frontier after the next, believers confidently shared their newfound hope in the Saviour. Within a few generations, the gospel had spread as far as India, Spain, Persia and North Africa.

Wherever followers of Jesus went, they cared for the poor, defended the outcast and fought against injustice. They did this because of their belief in the resurrection. If Jesus rose from the dead, they reasoned, God must not just be concerned with our souls or our spirits, but our bodies as well.

More than this, Jesus’ resurrection gave them a hope beyond the grave, and every reason to tell the whole world about the risen Saviour.

It is a message that still resounds today, and that will be celebrated again this Easter.

Jesus’ resurrection changes everything. How will you respond this Easter?

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Image courtesy of Freepik.

Below is a tract/brochure also titled “10 Reasons to Believe Easter Really Happened”. The brochure is a one-page version of this article, and is for you to share with your family and friends. Please share it far and wide!