March 15, 2023

Contemplating the Real

Read: Philippians 2:1-11

There are times when I just don't know whether can really believe what I'm told or what I read. Many of us have been trained to trust only what we can experience with our senses and verify by an independent and unbiased source. And even then we rather train ourselves to be skeptical – even when sufficient evidence should cause our keeping an open mind. Yet in recent years we have been barraged with claims of "fake news" and the like.

Watching "The Chosen" series on the Angel app has caused me to think about things in a rather different (for me) perspective. The show does not claim to be presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but rather, the story of Jesus of Nazareth. And thus, when the Gospel account does not give all the details, especially the ones which we sometimes wished it had included, the writers of the show have created what seem to be reasonable interpolations of how it might have been.

And so I have also started to think, if there had been newspapers and mass media during the time of Jesus' physical presence on Earth, how might these media have covered the stories. I mean, really, water being turned into wine at a wedding? The blind and lame being cured without surgery? Lepers cured without medical treatments? And the big ones: The DEAD being raised to life?! Medically impossible! Certainly improbable. "Fake" news? How would CNN or Fox carry such stories?

But Lent really is a time to contemplate the REAL and the Certain – not just to reflect on what some "bearded, hippy-type, guru, itinerant teacher" might have done. The thought of the hour is: Jesus died AND ROSE from the DEAD! He, being God, emptied Himself in Love and humility to become the perfect and forever atoning sacrifice for ALL of our sins. What are we going to do about it? What if it really happened? What must change if it IS true? think we would have to see EVERYTHING differently! Amen.

David Smith