We believe that Jesus Christ literally rose from the dead on Easter morning. Some people have called the Resurrection a myth, but I like what Vance Havner said, “If it’s a myth, then I am ‘mythtaken’, ‘mythtified’, and ‘mytherable.”’
    However, not everyone is glad that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Throughout history there have always been those who have wanted to keep Christ confined, they wanted to keep Him in the tomb. Pilate began this tradition by asking the guards to make the tomb secure. “Until the third day, lest the disciples come and steal Him away and say to the people ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first. Pilate said to them ‘You have a guard; go make it as secure as you know how”’ (Matthew 27:64, 65). Evidently, they didn’t make it secure enough, because the next chapter says, “And behold a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it” (28:2). And as you know, the angel told the women to not be afraid because Jesus was not there, but He had risen just as He said.
    Throughout history, many have used different kinds of stones to keep Christ in the grave, but they have been just as unsuccessful as Pilate.
    For example, I think of David Hume who took the stone of philosophy and rolled it in front of the grave. Hume said that miracles are impossible. All students of elementary philosophy know that his Essay Against Miracles was nothing but circular reasoning. He began by saying that all nature is uniformly against miracles. Historically, he says, they have not occurred. But how does he know that? Possibly there was an exception. Actually, no philosophical argument could ever be advanced to keep Christ in the tomb. However skeptical Hume was, and however ingenious his reasoning, he was wrong. Thankfully, philosophy cannot keep Christ in the grave.

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