BITR: Why I Believe in Jesus

If everything goes according to plan (and it usually doesn’t), I will be going back to college this fall. This will be my 5^th year out of high school and it will be my 4^th official major - hopefully the final one. I have chosen history this time, and I don’t think many people think that will stick either. We’ll see I guess. When I tell people I want to major in history, a lot of times they will respond by saying, “Why history?” And then I give them a bunch of reasons that are part of my decision but I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone the real reason I want to study history. The real reason I want to study history is basically because I want to gain perspective. I have become fascinated with what people have done, how they lived, and things that have happened to them in the past. I think that studying these sorts of things can help us with life now and as we proceed into an unknown future. Plus it’s really interesting.

In order to prepare for my upcoming studies of history, I subscribed to a few dorky podcasts about the subject. Podcasts are helpful because I can download them to my iPod and listen to them at work. It works out really well because I can get paid while learning about Napoleon and things like that.

I say this because the other day I was listening to a podcast about the Roman Empire. This specific podcast was about a guy named Marius, who rose to power and became a great leader in the army at that time. It talked about how he rose to power and how he reordered his army’s basic units to make them more efficient – you know, interesting military stuff like that. In one battle Marius did battle with an opposing army of about 300,000 men and defeated them. After doing this, he left a portion of his army hiding in the mountains knowing that another separate army would be coming after him. Surely enough, this other army charged and Marius’s troops retreated and were being pursued until they passed the place where more troops were hidden. When they passed this spot in the mountains they turned around and began to attack. As this happened, the hidden troops came out and attacked the other army from behind. The result is that this other army was obliterated.

It’s pretty interesting stuff to hear about how these great generals won battles and the things they did that made them successful. But after hearing about this, my mind went in a different direction. I started thinking about what it must have been like to have been one of the men in the army that got destroyed. What kind of horror and dread did they feel when they realized they had fallen into a trap? And how horrible was it to be ultimately beaten down, fatally wounded, and slaughtered there by a group of men who were, as an army, stronger?

As I was thinking about this I started to take a broader look at things and see humanity as a whole. I mean, if you go back through the past and look at the nature of human beings, it seems like humanity just constantly seems to struggle with itself. There’s a war going on now and there was one going on before this one, and you can really just chronicle history as far back as we can remember and I don’t know if there was a time when there was no war.

You can find wars that start for all kinds of reasons too. People fight over land, culture, religion, ideals, values, freedom, control, revenge, power, and the list could go on and on. Wars between countries are just large scale versions of conflict between human beings. It could be as small as two little boys fighting over a toy or a church splitting up. It could be over something as small as a lie that was told, a disagreement, or misunderstanding. Or it could be as big as an idealistic terrorist group flying a plane into a building. Conflict just always seems to find us, or maybe we always seem to find it.

Science would tell us that we live in a “survival of the fittest” world where the strong survive and the weak become prey. If you’ve ever turned on the Discovery channel and seen one of those shows where a herd of lions chase down, kill, and eat some little gimpy antelope then you know what I’m talking about. Nature can be absolutely brutal sometimes, and people can be just the same way. Last summer I read a book about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda where basically one large race of people attempted to literally wipe another race off the face of the planet. They did this by killing them with machetes and guns – brutal, face to face murders. It is estimated that around 800,000 people were killed in about 3 months. It was fastest systematic killing in the history of the world, even faster than the holocaust. This is just one of many examples of how humanity can brutally struggle against itself, how we can fight and kill in a “survival of the fittest” sort of way in order to preserve who we are and what we value.

Take our current war on terror, for example. The terrorists are a threat to our way of life and so what we are going to do is kill them to protect our freedom, values, etc. It’s survival of the fittest, and I would be willing to bet that the reason they attacked us in the first place is because they saw us as a threat to their way of life. And so what happens in the end? The strong survive and the weaker group is killed off. The ones who have the most power are preserved.

It would seem that what is important in this world is to be strong, have power and control. It would be good in this system to have influence, fame, and wealth – anything that may be a sign of strength.

Looking at it this way, it is interesting to me that Jesus came under the reign of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was in control of Israel at that time and so Jesus and all the other Jews were technically under the rule of Caesar. If you know anything about this empire, then you know that it was about power. They had the best armies and the strongest leaders. They had more land and control than anyone up to that point in the history of the world. The Romans actually perfected the practice of crucifixion, and in some accounts they would crush a rebellion and crucify the rebels on roadsides just to make an example of what happens to people who try to go against the power of the Roman Empire.

And so Jesus – God as a man – arrives during this period of time and starts to teach his message to humanity, and what does he teach us? Wednesday night at church, Andy pointed out in our study of the gospel of Mark that what Jesus was telling people to do when he first started to preach was to repent, which in its original language was a military term for “about face.” Jesus was basically telling people to turn around, to turn from their ways. Jesus was saying that wherever you’re going now, turn around and start heading in the other direction. He was telling people to turn away from their human nature.

We see this in Jesus’ teachings all the time. He told people that when they get punched in the face, instead of returning the favor they should turn the other cheek. He said that if a man takes your coat then give him your shirt as well. If he tells you to go a mile with him then go two. If you want to be great, then you must be the least. You are blessed when you mourn. There is no greater love than when you lay down your life for your friends.

Jesus apparently didn’t understand our way of doing things. Either that or he was completely above, beyond, and outside of our human nature. While we were constantly struggling with ourselves and fighting each other, trying to survive and preserve ourselves, Jesus was teaching us a way to live that is exactly opposite. The world would say that if someone tries to step on you, hurt you, or kill you, then you should do the same to them. Jesus says to turn the other cheek. In fact, he tells you to love your enemy. This is definitely not our way of doing things. This is not how you survive. This is not how you preserve yourself. It would seem that there is absolutely no power in this at all.

At one point in my life not terribly long ago, I wanted to walk away. God didn’t make sense anymore. I didn’t understand a lot of things, and the easiest way of dealing with that was to just walk away – to say God wasn’t real. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore. I wouldn’t have to wonder if God was talking to me when I prayed, I wouldn’t have to pretend I had any idea what God was doing or what his will was in my life and in the world. I could simply let go of all that.

Well, I was wrong about that. I couldn’t let go. Maybe God just wouldn’t let go of me, but I got pretty close. There was one thing I couldn’t get passed, one thing I couldn’t resolve. I caught a snag whenever I thought about this, and I fell to my knees whenever I felt it. That one thing was this:

Love.

I couldn’t get passed it.

For a while now I have held strongly to the belief that love is the strongest, most important thing in the world. I know that sounds kind of cheesy, but I really believe it’s true. Life isn’t worth living without love. Every single person wants it and looks for it. If you’ve got it then at times it is almost like a heavenly state, and if you don’t then it’s like a cold and lonely hell. We all want to be loved, and some people will do the most ridiculous and crazy things to try and get it. To be loved is a wonderful thing because the very nature of love is not self-seeking at all. In fact, it is completely focused on the “other.” For instance, if you are or have ever been in love with another person then you know that you would probably do anything for this person. You value this person even more than yourself. You would even give up your own life for this person.

If you’ve ever felt this way then you will know that this is a very real feeling. I mean love between a man and a woman or a parent and a child is an extremely strong thing, and when it is at its highest form then I don’t know if there is anything anyone could do to break it. I couldn’t get passed this because I knew that it was real and it was good, and when Jesus came to earth he absolutely lined himself up with love. In fact, the Bible goes as far as to say that God is love. So Jesus came and he talked about love a lot, he taught people to love each other, and he did it himself. He loved and accepted people that no one else was willing to accept, and his love carried him all the way to his own death. He died for the people he loved. And I knew that one of those people was me.

Sometimes I wonder if God lets us feel love in order to reveal to us what he is like. I mean, when I think about someone I love and about how I would do anything for this person, I try to make myself understand that God is like this only a million times more. And just by feeling that way and connecting that with God I know that God is someone I can trust. If he really loves me like that then I know he will take care of me. Jesus even said that we can relate to God as a father, and the Bible calls us the bride of Christ. God uses these relationships to show how we relate to him, and if you know anything about those kinds of relationships you know that there is a lot of love involved.

Jesus is called the Prince of Peace. When he came to earth as the savior he did not go out and wage a war trying to overthrow the Romans and conquer the world. He did not try to rise up in the hierarchical system of the day and gain power so he could control people. What he did do, however, was love people. He talked to people and often ate and partied with them. He cared about them, and a lot of times he was hanging out with people that the world had rejected. He taught about God’s kingdom and eventually he submitted himself to death. You could sort of say he submitted to the hands of the Roman Empire. He was crucified by Roman soldiers after all.

Almost 2000 years later, look at where we are at now. People are still following Jesus, and how long has the Roman Empire been gone? Jesus has made more of an impact on the world than anyone in history, and because of his way of life and who he is (God) we can know that there are things in this world that are more important than power and control. That laying down your life is more important than killing someone who is different from you, and that dying in itself is not the end. We can live by a pattern that is true and good, and is completely opposite of our nature.

I believe in Jesus because he has shown us that way. He walked it and he invites us to walk it as well. It may not bring glory and praise by the world’s standards, but ultimately it will save the world. It will make the world more than this dog eat dog place that we inhabit. And that means a lot to me. It makes life worth living, and it shows me that I can do the things that Jesus talked about and it will matter. It will matter because it’s eternal. It won’t end out on some battlefield somewhere. In fact, it won’t end at all.