This is NOT like Fake News!

Reflecting on Matthew 27:62-66

“His disciples may steal the body and say he has been raised from the dead.” (Matthew 27:64)
As a Jesus follower, I do not want to fake my faith in Jesus.
I want to be honest, about what I believe, and also when I doubt.

Can you imagine the first disciples faking Jesus’s resurrection?
If they did make it all up, would they be willing to die for that lie?
I think of Chuck Colson, who was sent to jail for his part in Watergate.
He and a few others were in on the ‘lie’, until pressure was applied.
When interrogated, one by one they buckled to save themselves.
The disciples faced persecution, violence and death for their claims.
Would they have been willing to die for a lie?????

The disciples actually met the risen Jesus; it changed their lives!
‘You ask me how I know he lives… He lives within my heart!’
I have also met and experienced the risen Jesus.
Not in the same way, but in a very real, life-changing way.
I cannot leave this Jesus, even though I do have doubts at times.
His message of humble gracious love has won me over.
People may laugh, and accuse me of perpetuating an illusion or hoax.

But maybe, like in ‘The Matrix’, they are living in the illusion or hoax.
Believing the resurrection is like taking the ‘red pill’.
It will open your eyes to see what is really real, not fake.
It will not make life easier, and many will mock you for it.
But the hope of Jesus alive is better than the hopelessness of Jesus dead.

As a Jesus follower I admit that the Jesus stories can seem far-fetched.
The idea of resurrection seems mythical, unbelievable.
Yet this ‘story’ speaks to the deepest longing in most peoples’ hearts.
The longing for life, the longing for love!
What other message in the world is there that offers such hope?
All other messages and beliefs seem self-serving and inadequate to me.
The resurrection of this Jesus seems the most believable of all.
If I have to choose between the many deceptions out there…
I choose to believe the so-called “Jesus deception” of life and love for all!

PRAYER
Lord Jesus, our world is full of so much ‘fake news’ its hard to believe anything. But when I see You, and hear Your message, it is so contrary to – and so much better than – the self-serving messages that people desperately believe in.

I choose the ‘red pill’, to believe that love and life are more true than the despair and death we experience everyday. You are not ‘fake news’, You are actually ‘good news!’