Why did Jesus need to prove that He was alive?

[Tomdstone]

We read:Acts 1:3 :
After his suffering, He presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that He was alive.
If Jesus was standing right in front of His disciples, why would He have to give them convincing proofs that He was alive?

 

[Gorgias]

We read:Acts 1:3 :
After his suffering, He presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that He was alive.
If Jesus was standing right in front of His disciples, why would He have to give them convincing proofs that He was alive?

Because they might have thought that he was merely a ghost? (See Luke 24:37…)

 

[GEddie]

Because Hard Life Lesson # 1 in human life is that when someone dies, you don’t get them back. His friends would have been in full mental block.

ICXC NIKA

 

[commenter]

Because Hard Life Lesson # 1 in human life is that when someone dies, you don’t get them back. His friends would have been in full mental block.

ICXC NIKA

I can easily picture the apostles the next week, or the next year, recalling this as “remember when we had the vision of Jesus”. Or someone would offer a bible study, “the REAL resurrection is that Jesus’ cause goes on, not some mere physical reanimation”. Trust me, that is what I heard from a nun in the 1970s, when such was rampant, especially around campus ministries. That sister has since passed away, RIP, and her convent is rapidly fading.

Some have since then taken the next step, that it does not matter if any one person Jesus lived; what is important is that around 20 centuries ago, in the Mideast, a community of caring developed, and the memory of this beginning is what we call the incarnation, that several men and women showed us salvation. And that in the culture of the times, it was easier to sum up several people as the memory of one person, a Jesus.

Fortunately this trend seems to be almost all outside the Catholic Church, but I am sure there are lingering hints of it, where the New Age is still tolerated.

 

[godisgood77]

simple answer… He didn’t have to.

 

[fhansen]

We read:Acts 1:3 :
After his suffering, He presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that He was alive.
If Jesus was standing right in front of His disciples, why would He have to give them convincing proofs that He was alive?

Because resurrections just ain’t so easy to believe in -regardless of the evidence.

 

[mikekle]

Ive always thought it strange that even back when Jesus walked the earth, doing miracles, healing people on the spot and other clearly supernatural acts, some people still thought it was all nonsense and/or hoaxed, even the 12 men closest to him had trouble believing…and this was 2000 yrs ago, odd that God expects people in our times to accept all these things on faith alone, when people living when he walked the earth as a human did not.

I do have faith, but I will admit, sometimes I think we may be completely wrong about the bible and all this.

 

[Mintaka]

Because He foretold His Resurrection, and He didn’t want His disciples to think He was a false prophet. (Which was a Jewish death penalty offense, btw.)

God is faithful and trustworthy, and so He does prove His words as well as say them.

If the Bible weren’t true, it wouldn’t talk so much about how people can see a miracle and still not have it change their lives, or not for long. In fairy tales, it is always happily ever after at some point.

God gives all people free will. You can turn Him down. You can believe Him or not. Blessed is he who has not seen, but still believes.

 

[JB_Brother_4446]

We read:Acts 1:3 :
After his suffering, He presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that He was alive.
If Jesus was standing right in front of His disciples, why would He have to give them convincing proofs that He was alive?

If you have a friend who died recently but is standing right in front of you, well wouldn’t you be a bit skeptical?

 

[Tomdstone]

If you have a friend who died recently but is standing right in front of you, well wouldn’t you be a bit skeptical?

I think that the fact that she was standing in front of me and talking to me would be proof enough. Why would I need any additional convincing proofs?

 

[PNEUMA]

We read:Acts 1:3 :
After his suffering, He presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that He was alive.
If Jesus was standing right in front of His disciples, why would He have to give them convincing proofs that He was alive?

As seen three verses later, the disciples were extremely slow to understand.

Acts 1:6 “So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”

They thought he would re-establish the Kingdom of Israel with himself as monarch in Palestine.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Israel_(united_monarchy

Jesus himself was were unclear to them, they didn’t see him as he really was, being dead or alive. The whole thing was extremely incomprehensible to them.

 

[GEddie]

As seen three verses later, the disciples were extremely slow to understand.

Acts 1:6 “So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”

They thought he would re-establish the Kingdom of Israel with himself as monarch in Palestine.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Israel_(united_monarchy

Jesus himself was were unclear to them, they didn’t see him as he really was, being dead or alive. The whole thing was extremely incomprehensible to them.

Coming back from death blows a hole in everything we understand.

ICXC NIKA

 

[fisherman_carl]

We read:Acts 1:3 :
After his suffering, He presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that He was alive.
If Jesus was standing right in front of His disciples, why would He have to give them convincing proofs that He was alive?

I think that may mean that he appeared to them multiple times and to multiple people at different times. So that people can’t say it was just a hallucination. See 1 Corinthians 15. The author is letting the audience know that it was under no uncertain terms that it was the risen Jesus, because people would be sceptical that it was really him. And the disciples had to really be sure it was him or they would not have died for their testimony. Since they were in that time and generation the only eye witnesses. So everything depends on the believability of their testimony to witnessing these events. Certainly, God can reveal himself to people at every time. And he can provide miracles and other confirmations at any time. But, the disciples were the only ones to actually witness the resurrection. So their testimony has to be valid. Jesus provides them with that certainty.