| Why do people do what they do? Today was Easter, and somebody asked me if I believed in the living Christ who died on the cross for our sins. There are a lot of evangelicals out collecting souls. The question is simple enough, but the answer is pretty complex when you think about it. I told her about a few revelations I’ve had while contemplating the subject. I’m sure everyone has considered it. I mean, who hasn’t heard of Jesus Christ? It’s easy to quit, easy to give up, easy to lie, to self-preserve, to look the other way, and go along to get along. I started thinking about the causes I would fight for. There are few. I thought of the things I would die for. There are fewer. As a thinking man, I can tell you, I could not believe in Jesus, the crucifixion, and the resurrection if not for two key elements. The disciples were essential to establishing any credibility in the story. What do you believe in so wholeheartedly that you would be willing to die rather than disavow your belief? Democracy? Freedom? The safety of your family? It’s rare to find someone who would die for what they believe. Over so many centuries, there have been countless believers who were willing to die for their religion, and that kind of faith falls flat for me. To me, that sounds like a lot of people who were more likely willing to kill for their belief than to die for it. The disciples, however, were a different situation. These were people who knew Jesus in his final years. None of us were there, so we only have their words to tell us what they encountered. It’s their perspective that matters most to me. They traveled with Jesus, and knew the man personally. After the crucifixion, they must have been distraught and deflated, having hoped for a miracle. Instead, they witnessed an execution. The resurrection is what Easter and “the good news” is all about. If not for that, what would be the point of the story, right? Again, I look to the perspective of the disciples. They knew Jesus, and having seen their lord and friend risen from the grave, their belief would have been tempered and unshakable. Could they have lied about seeing their lord and friend once again, resurrected and healed? Of course, but what was to be gained by misleading the people? Even Judas Iscariot, who died prior to the resurrection—I mean, who goes off and commits suicide after betraying someone they believe to be a fraud? Christians were persecuted, hunted, killed for their beliefs. With the exception of John, the disciples met brutal ends—some having been imprisoned, beaten, and ridiculed for their belief, Andrew and Peter were also crucified (Peter upside-down), Simon the Zealot was apparently sawn in half, and Paul and the others were stabbed or beheaded. If these men knew Him, and knew that they had not actually seen Jesus resurrected, I find it very difficult to believe that they would willingly subject themselves to such torturous treatment and the promise of a grizzly demise all in the name of something they knew to be a lie. They, uniquely, had the opportunity to know Jesus well prior to His death, and did not have to rely entirely on faith regarding His reappearing afterward. They were eyewitnesses to the resurrection, and they alone could truly know whether or not He had risen from the grave. If they did not believe that they had seen the risen lord, their lives and deaths thereafter would have represented the most extraordinary commitment to the absolute least beneficial farce in the history of the world. |
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| The second key element is the horrifying treatment of Christ prior to His death. I remember thinking, if Jesus was God and knew His fate going in, what’s the big deal about Him being executed? He knew He was going to be resurrected, and to do something so wonderful for everyone, everywhere, ever, who wouldn’t do that? Especially if it’s only temporary, right? It’s the suffering. He had to suffer an unimaginable, torturous death in order to satisfy people like me, who downplay the significance of dying for our sins because the death was only a temporary change in status. Have you ever had a mosquito bite and tried not to scratch it? This guy, the Son of Man, could have basically snapped His fingers and put an end to all of the beatings and misery, but He didn’t. He didn’t. I also believe He suffered through that pain so that we could understand that no further sacrifice on our part could possibly supplement the price that has been paid for our absolution. Someone can say, “Yeah, He went through that, but it wasn’t quite enough to atone for me—I have to perform this duty, say these words, then that will be enough—because His sacrifice… it was nice and all, but it came up a little short.” |
| Why do people do what they do? I think, if it’s a bad thing, we do it for any of a host of different reasons, typically revolving around the big seven—greed, vanity, envy, sloth, etc. But if it’s a good thing that we do, we do it, very simply, because it’s the right thing to do. |