The church I attend does monthly movie nights. This past Sunday Calvary played A Case For Christ. It’s a great movie about an atheist man, Lee Strobel, who sets out to disprove Christianity and is radically changed in the process. I’ve seen it before and have read the book but I enjoy every time I watch it.
When I got home I went out to walk my dogs under a nearly full moon. As I walked, I looked up at the vast and clear night sky and thought about the movie.
I can see why Lee Strobel doubted. The Gospel story is incredulous. When you really think about what Christ did for you, it is humbling. Why would anyone die for me? How could anyone love me that much to die for me? Why would anyone willingly put themselves through torture and death by crucifixion?
Strobel continues to try and put holes in the gospel story but continues coming up short. The idea behind the gospel seems unbelievable yet Jesus appeared to 500 people after His death. 500! If I had 10 different people telling me they witnessed something, all with similar accounts, I would tend to believe them.
So Strobel decides if he can’t disprove these accounts then could Jesus have faked it? And again he comes up short. The Romans were professional killers, if any prisoner survived crucifixion and escaped, the soldier would be put to death. They knew how to kill. The flogging alone would have left Him in critical condition, on the brink of death. Plus, our modern medical knowledge proves when they pierced Jesus and blood and water came out that He was in fact dead. That’s a sign of death.
Strobel continues to dig and sees there are countless accounts of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection written 30 years after His death. So many of our historical pieces from history were written 1000s of years after the fact, and only have a handful of copies yet we hold them as factual. Christ’s life, death, and resurrection have numerous eye witness accounts attesting to it.
As I walked I couldn’t stop thinking about what Christ did for me. But the more I think about what He did, the harder it is for me to wrap my mind around it. Christ, You died for sinful, broken, arrogant, selfish, conceited people like me. Why? For love!
It’s hard to fathom this type of love. And the more I try to wrap my mind around it and understand it the harder it is for me to understand. But I do not need to understand. I just need to accept. And accepting often lands me on my knees with tears as I humbly accept this gift I can never repay nor am I required to.
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” -1 Corinthians 13:12 ESV
