The Lengths People Will Go Not To Believe In Jesus

It's something I've been thinking about today. I was reading this morning the story of the Resurrection, Jesus rising again. Wonderful story (I'm so glad it's there, the crucifixion always makes me sad). And in that story, you would think everyone would be excited. Even those that did not believe Jesus was the Son of God before. Here, He just rose from the dead like He said He would. We were there. We saw it. But instead of accepting that truth, let's pay the guards off to say the disciples stole their body.

Take a second to think about that. These people are living at the time of Christ, they have undeniable proof that He is alive, and they bribe the guards to say they were asleep on the job (a crime punishable by death). Why?! Because they will do anything, anything to say Jesus is not God. Because in admitting Jesus is God they have to also admit they are not following God as they should be, and that would mean changing their faith and lives. Which is easier, to change for the truth or maintain the lie?

This also hit me when I was reading about genetics yesterday. There are still many scientists that hold to the idea of Darwinian evolution. A theory (not proven) that has been falling apart steadily in the last 50 years with new discoveries, the Cambrian explosion, the human genome project, modern genetic research, etc. As scientist Stephen Meyer put it (director of the Discovery Institutes's Center for Science and Culture), "We've learned a lot about biology since the Civil War. Evolutionists are still trying to apply Darwin's nineteenth-century thinking to a twenty-first century reality, and it's not working. Explanations from the era of the steamboat are no longer adequate to explain the biological world of the information age." And yet people still chase after Darwinian evolution. Why? Well, what's the alternative? Which is easier, to change for the truth or maintain the lie?

I honestly believe that most people like the idea of Jesus. They like the idea of a loving God whose Son came to earth to offer forgiveness. What they don't like is the idea of then taking themselves out of the center of their universe and putting God there, changing how they live, even their purpose in life. It's a scary thing. It's kind of like I was reading yesterday about talking with volunteers. Most people you ask to volunteer have reasons they can't do it, like I don't have time. Realistically, they do have the time, and realistically, they want to volunteer, but they are worried about what it really means to minister to high school students. They don't say "there's no time" because there really isn't, they say it because the realization they do have time and they could help means changing some things in their lives and that scares them.

So where do we sit? Are we willing to change for truth or maintain the lie? And I know Christians that do this too. Yes, they believe in Jesus, but then they read sections like "take up your cross" or "be a servant of all" and that doesn't fit with their "it's all about me, Jesus saved me, the church meets my needs" mentality so instead of knowing more about Jesus, they resign themselves to know less and stay where they are comfortable. But since when do comfortable people grow...?

T