There was screaming. There was fainting. It doesn't happen every day: a car washer in Brazil walked into his own wake, where his distraught family was already weeping over their loss.
“People were so startled. Women were fainting, people started running all over the place,” said Maria Menezes, one of the mourners at the event in Alagoinhas, in Salvador de Bahia state.
Gilberto Araujo, 41, heard from a friend on the street that his family thought he was dead and was busy getting ready to bury him so he decided to head straight to the wake and clear things up.
“A friend of mine told me there was a coffin at the wake — and that I was inside it,” Araujo said.
“I told him: 'But I am alive! Pinch me!”
In fact, Araujo's family had been burying a corpse that looked startlingly like their loved one, a body that had yet to be formally identified.
Did Jesus really die & rise again?
When it comes to the Resurrection of Jesus, many people have many different opinions about what happened, including the idea that Jesus never really died, but that, (when no one else was looking), someone else died in his place and was buried instead of Jesus.
However, this isn't possible. In Mark’s account of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, he mentions the fact that the same women were there watching the whole thing. They saw him die. Check it out;
Some women were watching [Jesus’ crucifixion] from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs.
So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid. (Mark 15:40)
They also saw him alive again…
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”
Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
(Mark 16:1)
Mary, Mary and Salome, the original “spice girls” (16:1), were devoted followers of Jesus, caring for his needs.
They would have known Jesus as well as anyone. They were there at Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. They witnessed the whole thing from beginning to end.
Jesus really died. Jesus was really buried. Jesus really rose again.
They didn't switch the body when no one was looking. The resurrection is a reality and a wonderful reality at that, because it means that Jesus’ death “worked” (paid the penalty for our sins) and it means that resurrection life is available for all who trust in Jesus.
So I plan on walking, not into my wake, but away from it, into eternal life with Jesus. How about you?
To find out more about why you can trust the resurrection story, watch the video below by a former atheist: