How Would You Rewrite the Resurrection Story?
This may seem like a strange question but as I read and reread the stories of Holy Week I noticed Easter Sunday did not get a lot of print from the Gospel Writers. I started counting from the story of the “Triumphal Entry” or Palm Sunday to the women going to the tomb and the events of THAT day and this is the count of the verses I came up with:
- Matthew 369 vs. 15 and 5 of that is about the guards – 4%
- Mark 233 vs. 8 then the add on of 6 – 6%
- Luke 233 vs. 49 – 17%
- John 275 vs. 23 – 8 %
Luke, the Gentile, wrote the most and he wasn’t even there.
Does this seem right? Resurrection Sunday, Easter, the most important day in Christianity and from the writers we get a total of 101 verses!
If we look at the narratives it is even more shocking. Most of the verses are talking about the women or the guards with Jesus just making cameo appearances. In Mark Jesus does not even show up until someone added it at a later time (argue with the editors of the NIV). The main message on Easter Sunday from the angels and Jesus was “Go to Galilee”; well at least in Mark and Matthew. Luke and John deal with the measures Jesus took to convince unbelieving disciples that He was alive. (SIDE NOTE: This, being one week later was when Jesus showed up to have a heart-to-heart with Thomas and restore him.)
How could this oversight have happened? Why so little about the most important day in Christianity? John went on to write Revelations and three epistles. Luke wrote the Acts of the Apostles and Mark probably did the writing of 1 and 2 Peter for his uncle. Matthew preached to nations and got martyred.
0h, wait maybe they wrote about what was important! What do you do with the Resurrection? How has Jesus coming back to life changed everything? Never mind they are fine just the way they are written.