The Passion II

1 John 1:³ “We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”

A truly intellectual faith will set your soul on fire. Yesterday, I began to tell you the story of my intellectual pursuit on this man called Jesus. The question, ‘did He really exist?’ had been answered. The question, ‘why should I follow Him?’, had also be answered. Jesus predicted His death and resurrection and it actually happened just like He said it would. Compelling enough for me to follow Him. My next question was, ‘did Jesus die and did He resurrect?’. It was clear from historical fact and geographical channel that Jesus was actually crucified. It is public knowledge, even non-religious text confirmed it.

The body of Jesus disappeared; so, the contention was, did they steal the body or did He actually resurrect? Let us assume the body was stolen, who could steal the body? Who had interest in stealing the body? The Romans, the religious folks, or the disciples, right? It cannot be the Romans and the religious folks because they guarded the tomb to make sure that the body was not stolen. They cannot possibly work against themselves. They actually deployed armed soldiers to the tomb. Could Jesus’ disciples have pulled off the heist and stolen the body? I said to myself, looking at the pedigree of the disciples; fisher men, a tax collector who denied Jesus after being accused by a small girl. There was no confrontation or bloodshed, which rules out the possibility of them fighting the soldiers. The chances of the disciples stealing Jesus’ body is slim, but it is possible.

Then my research led me to examine the lives of each of the disciples after the said resurrection. What happened to them years after the resurrection? If they actually stole the body and cooked up a lie, after twenty years someone will give it up. I checked every disciple, not from the Bible, but from historical books. Every one of them died for the testimony of the resurrection, in different parts of the world. If Peter died, I could say he is loyal. What about Thaddeus and Bartolomeo. The disciple that blew me away the most was Thomas, doubting Thomas. Thomas said, “If I don’t touch His hands, you cannot put a wool over my eyes, I won’t believe you saw Jesus.” The Bible says that Jesus appeared to Thomas and said, this is my hand and Thomas fell on his face and said, “My Lord and my God.” Jesus said, “You are worshiping because you see, blessed are those that don’t see but yet believe.” Jesus was talking about you and me.

Prayer [song]: Do you know why I believe in Jesus? Do you know why He’s so great? After three days, He rose from the dead, I’ve never seen a man who rose from the dead like Jesus Christ. Amen