The stories that we find in the 4 gospels of the first Easter day contain some surface discrepancies. How many women went to the tomb, and how many angels did they meet there? Did the disciples meet with Jesus in Jerusalem or Galilee or both? These discrepancies do not mean that nothing happened. They are a reasonable indication that something remarkable happened, so remarkable that the first witnesses were bewildered into telling different stories about it.
Biblical scholar Dr. N.T. Wright points to four strange features shared by the accounts in the 4 canonical gospels. These features compel us to take them seriously as very early accounts, not as later inventions, as has often been suggested.
1. There is a strange silence in the 4 gospel stories of Easter. Up to this point, all 4 evangelists draw heavily upon biblical quotations and allusions to make it clear that Jesus' death was 'according to the scriptures'. The resurrection narratives contain none of these. This is the more remarkable in that from as early as Paul, the common creedal formula declared that the resurrection was 'according to the scriptures'. This makes it infinitely more probable that these stories, even if they were written down a lot later, go back to the very, very early oral tradition which had been formed, and set firmly in the memory of different storytellers, before there had been any time for biblical reflection.
2. The presence of the women as the principal witnesses. Whether we like it or not, women in the ancient world were not regarded as credible winesses. Nobody would have made this up.
3. The third strange feature is the portrait of Jesus himself. He appears as a human being with a body that in some ways is quite normal, and can be mistaken for a gardener or a fellow traveller on the road. Yet the stories also contain signs that the body had been transofmred. It is clearly physical, but equally it comes and goes through locked doors. This kind of account is without precedent. No biblical texts predict that the resurrection will involve this kind of body.
4. The fourth strange feature of the resurrection accounts is that they never mention the future Christian hope. Almost everywhere else in the New Testament, the resurrection of Jesus is spoken of in connection with the final hope that those who belong to Jesus will one day be raised as he has been raised. The resurrection narratives never say anything like 'Jesus is raised; therefore there is life after death'. Easter has a very 'this world'-ly, present age meaning: Jesus is raised, so he is the Messiah and therefore he is the world's true Lord. Jesus is raised, so God's new creation has begun and we have a job to do. As early as Paul, the resurrection of Jesus is firmly linked to the resurrection of all God's people. These stories are basically very, very early. They are not, as has so often been suggested, legends written up much later.
The above are just some of the arguments in favour of recognising that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead and that the gospel accounts can be trusted. More important is that we each experience the truth of the resurrection for ourselves as we put our trust in the risen Christ and are changed by his life.
Amen.