A recent Associated Press article caught my attention. Such articles increase in number as Holy Week and Easter draw near. The tag-line for this article reads: "In an Israeli warehouse, clues about Jesus' life and death." And the opening line of the first paragraph states: "In a cavernous warehouse where Israel stores its archaeological treasures, an ancient burial box is inscribed with the name of Jesus." The article goes on to make clear..."Not THAT Jesus." Jesus was a fairly common name in the Holy Land 2,000 years ago, and many burial boxes have been found inscribed with it.

 

     Israel's antiquities authority recently opened up its vast storeroom to reporters for a peek at unearthed artifacts from the time of Jesus. Experts say they have yet to find direct archaeological evidence of Jesus Christ, but in recent years have found an abundance of material that helps fill out historians understanding of how Jesus may have lived and died.

 

     "There's good news," said Gideon Avni, head of the archaeological division of the Israel Antiquities Authority. "Today we can reconstruct very accurately many, many aspects of the daily life of the time of Christ."

 

     Israel is one of the most excavated places on the planet. Some 300 digs take place each year in which about 40,000 artifacts are dug up. It can now be determined how long it took to travel between the villages where Jesus preached, and what those places looked like at the time.

 

     In the warehouse there is a table set-up with finds from the time of Jesus. On that table there is a replica of a major artifact that is located in a museum in Jerusalem - a heel bone pierced by an iron nail with wood fragments on each end, discovered in a Jewish burial box in northern Jerusalem dating to the 1st Century A.D. To date, it's the only evidence found of a victim of Roman crucifixion buried according to Jewish custom.

 

     It has helped archaeologists reconstruct how the man was crucified - with his feet nailed to the sides of the cross. Gideon Avni said Jesus may have been crucified in the same manner, unlike the way the crucifixion is depicted in traditional Christian art.

 

     Avni said there is no reason to believe that Jesus did not exist just because archaeologists haven't found physical evidence of Him. "You have to remember that Christ was one among more than a million people living during this time in that area."

 

     Another scholar, Yisca Harani, asks "Why do we expect in antiquity that there would be some evidence of His existence?" She said what remained of Jesus "are His words." But we know that there is more to it than that. We believe that on the 3rd day He rose from the dead, that He ascended into Heaven, and that He sends the Holy Spirit. What remains are His followers, His Church, His saving actions in this world...our transformed hearts!

 

He has risen! And what remains are more than just His...remains!

 

Have a joyous Easter!