Proof: Evidence that establishes a fact or a truth; a particular aspect that maintains the validity of something presented.
Proof. It’s what the high priests, pharisees, and Caiaphas feared the most after the burial of Jesus Christ. They remembered His words, how He would rise from the grave, and they could not risk such a thing. So they sealed the tomb and put armed guards around it, lest their second mistake would be greater than their first. Yet, when the day came and they found the stone rolled away, the unbelievers proposed various reasons for the Lord’s missing body. They submitted that maybe His disciples stole His body or maybe He wasn’t buried there; even that Jesus was never killed and that’s why He never rose again.
Nevertheless, seeing that argument failed, the doubting crowd concocted a better lie: Jesus was never born. If the denier can maintain that Jesus was not born and that His birth place was never found or located, and then maybe He never died. Only a dying Jesus could rise from the grave and only a living Jesus could die. Therefore, they proposed that no one can find the place where He was born thus He never came. While this contention might sound new, the fact is that the naysayers have been arguing the birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ for centuries.
In response, the world Christian community has presented possible places of the Lord’s birth. They believe that if His birthplace can be found then there would be sufficient proof of His life. They think it imperative to at least negotiate a birthplace for the Messiah, as if Jesus needed a physical placard to prop up His existence. The endeavor continues as they make every human attempt to establish Him in the eyes of the critic.
I submit that Jesus does not need a rock or some edifice in Bethlehem to maintain His existence. The evidence of Jesus needs no stone because He said, John 14:18 “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” Moreover, when He came, He came through the Holy Ghost, which is called the Comforter (John 14:26) and He returned the same way. Therefore, the proof of Jesus is in us. We are the temples of the Spirit, which is Jesus. He occupies the people who are filled with His Spirit, which we often term the Holy Ghost.
The proof of Jesus is found in lives changed; marriages restored, addictions broken, healed bodies, and a myriad of things of the which these pages cannot contain. So while the media will once again vie for proof in stone, we are His proof in body that He came, He lived, He died, and He rose.
Pastor Jeffrey Harpole