Two pieces of evidence for the resurrection get overlooked almost entirely. One is a calendar. The other is the existence of Christianity itself.

There is no known instance of Sunday being considered a sacred day each week other than in Christianity.

A Practice That Makes No Sense Otherwise

In a practice almost certainly originating with the Twelve themselves, Sunday very quickly became universally known as ‘the Lord’s day’ (Rev 1:10).

This is often overlooked, and it’s a huge piece of evidence. Every early Christian community of which there’s record ‘gathered together to break bread’ on ‘the first day of the week’ (Acts 20:7). That weekly Sunday meal (1 Cor 16:2) corresponds directly to the discovery of the empty tomb on ‘the first day of the week’ (Matt 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19).

Now consider how strange that is against the Jewish context of early Christian faith. There is no known instance of Sunday being considered a sacred day each week other than in Christianity. ‘The eucharist was celebrated on a Sunday (and Sunday had theological significance) from the first years of Christianity because Christians believed that the central Christian event of the Resurrection occurred on a Sunday.’¹Swinburne, Was Jesus God?, 120.

Sunday became distinctively Christian only and exactly because the first believers were convinced Jesus was raised on that day — ‘the third day’ (Matt 16:21; 20:19), or ‘after three days’ (Mark 8:31; 10:34) counted inclusively, following the Friday crucifixion. By Jewish calculation both parts of days and whole days counted, so Christ remained buried three successive days: part of Friday, the whole Passover Sabbath, and part of Sunday.²Oden, Systematic Theology, 2:464-65; Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 1:627.

There are two backgrounds in the Old Testament pointing to Sunday becoming a key day in God’s dealings with us. In Leviticus 23:9-14 there is the feast of the first-fruits, in which a newly harvested wheat sheaf is ‘waved before the Lord.’ That offering signalled acceptance ‘before the Lord.’ The day for that was to be the day after the Sabbath, that is, Sunday. And, there is the theme of restoration ‘on the third day’ in Hosea 6:2, which was interpreted in terms of resurrection by Christ himself on several occasions (Matt 16:21; Luke 24:45-46).

‘How the disciples came unanimously to put the resurrection on the third day if it did not take place is hard to say. Merely attributing this to Old Testament predictions or to mythology fails the test of plausibility. Something must have happened on that third day for the disciples to situate it unanimously on that day.’³Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics. Abridged, 455. See D. A. Carson ed., From Sabbath to Lord’s Day: A Biblical, Historical and Theological Investigation (Paternoster/Zondervan, 1982).

Which means every Sunday, not only Easter Sunday, is the Lord’s Day and Resurrection Day.

Why There Is a Church at All

Sunday assembly forms part of a much bigger question: the origin of Christian faith and practice.

It’s a matter of historical record that the whole thing rests on the universal belief of the earliest disciples that God raised Jesus from the dead. All of apostolic faith and life is based on it (Acts 2:23-26), and there is no better or more plausible explanation for Christianity’s emergence.

Belief in the resurrection is what led to apostolic preaching generally and gospel preaching particularly. And it happened very quickly — almost immediately after the events. That the proclamation occurred in the direct aftermath of the crucifixion strongly supports the likelihood that it rested on factually rich first-hand eyewitness accounts, rather than fairy-tales or legends developed over a longer process of time.

Without the resurrection the apostles would have had no message, and faith in Christ would be an empty shell. It would never have got off the ground. The truth about God, the solution to sin, and real hope beyond death all rest on it — without which, as Paul understood, Christianity’s ‘core convictions’ have no substance (1 Cor 15:12-19).⁴Graham Cole, God the Peacemaker: How Atonement Brings Shalom (IVP, 2009), 151.

From Terrified to Fearless

One more thing, and it needs grasping: the resurrection was unexpected by Jesus’ own followers.

Despite everything he’d said, they didn’t anticipate it and weren’t prepared for any sequel to his death. When it happened they were hiding behind locked doors for fear of their lives (John 20:19). When it was discovered, they were confused — every account makes plain their surprise, perplexity, unbelief and astonishment (Luke 24:11-41).

Most were hard to persuade. When Mary Magdalene told them Christ ‘was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it’ (Mark 16:11). When other women corroborated her, the apostles still passed the testimony off as delusional nonsense (Luke 24:10-11). Thomas’ refusal was blunt: ‘Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails … I will never believe’ (John 20:25).

Before meeting him personally, the overall impression of his followers was sceptical, fearful, grief-stricken, regretful (John 20:11, 19, 25).

So what changed them? When Jesus was arrested his disciples ‘all left him and fled’ (Mark 14:50); Peter denied knowing him (Mark 14:66-71); Paul was hostile and violent toward the message until personally confronted (Acts 9:1-7).

Yet in a short space of time the risen Christ lifted their vision and morale to a virtually unrecognisable degree. The resurrection triggered a massive transformation from fearful to fearless. Within days, apostolic preaching was dominated by the claim that God had raised Jesus (Acts 2:31-32) — animating their ministry to the point where preaching produced the instantaneous conversion of thousands (Acts 2:41). Certainty that Jesus was risen caused them to revise their estimation of his entire life, death and teaching.

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• 1
  Swinburne, Was Jesus God?, 120. ↩︎
• 2
  Oden, Systematic Theology, 2:464-65; Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 1:627. ↩︎
• 3
  Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics. Abridged, 455. See D. A. Carson ed., From Sabbath to Lord’s Day: A Biblical, Historical and Theological Investigation (Paternoster/Zondervan, 1982). ↩︎
• 4
  Graham Cole, God the Peacemaker: How Atonement Brings Shalom (IVP, 2009), 151. ↩︎