The Trouble with Truth

A beautiful note from Kuya Pedro. Wanna share it with you. Ü

Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ brought a generation face-to-face with the visceral reality of Jesus’ suffering and death. That went too far with some critics. They were uncomfortable with the violence and the “potential” for anti-Semitism”–this despite the fact that Hollywood is manifestly violent and the protagonist is thoroughly Jewish. But mostly the critics were uncomfortable with the truth. One pundit cited the movie’s “troubling assumptions.” It seems that Gibson treated the Bible’s four Gospel accounts as literal eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ arrest, torture, and crucifixion.

Okay, and what would be the reason not to treat them as “literal eyewitness accounts” of history? Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship Ministries argues that no sane man will die for what he knows to be a lie. Then he notes that 10 of the 11 disciples died contending for the truth found in the four Gospel accounts. These ordinary men gave their lives attesting to the fact that Jesus was crucified, buried, and raised from the dead. He is the Son of God. The lone disciple who escaped martyrdom, John, left us this eloquent witness:

“The Word that gives life was from the beginning, and this is the one our message is about. Our ears have heard, our own eyes have seen, and our hands touched this Word” (1 John 1:1).

John spent 3 1/2 years with Jesus, criss-crossing the Judean hillsides, watching Him at work in His ministry, seeing the miracles, and listening to Jesus’ claims about Himself. John wanted us to know the truth about Jesus, even if it meant intense persecution or death for himself.

“The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,” wrote Paul, “but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

If you don’t want to believe Him, Jesus is no tyrant; He allows the freedom to reject Him. But to those of us who accept His radical and transforming message, Jesus is “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).

READ 1 JOHN 1:1-4

The Word that gives life was from the beginning and this is the one our message is about. Our ears have heard, our own eyes have seen, and our hands touched this Word. The one who gives life appeared! We saw it happen, and we are witnesses to what we have seen. Now we are telling you about this eternal life that was with the Father and appeared to us. We are telling you what we have seen and heard, so that you may share in this life with us. And we share in it with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing to tell you these things, because this makes us truly happy. (1 John 1:1-4)