| ASK Y |
 ASK Y? Where God-questions are put to the test This month’s question… Couldn’t Jesus just be a legend – like Robin Hood with a halo? That’s a very reasonable question. Couldn’t Jesus – and all that people claim to know about him – be no more than a sophisticated fairy tale? Could it all be exaggeration, confusion and myth? Have things just got changed and exaggerated over time? It may seem a strange way to respond to questions like this but lend me your imagination and head for the kitchen. Before you is your recently deceased Aunt Fiona’s recipe for the quadruple-jam-layered triple-chocolate upside-down cake that’s been handed down through your family for generations. Will it cook? Only if it has remained the same – with “jam” not becoming “ham” or “six eggs” becoming “sixty eggs” or “fifteen minutes” turning into “five hours”. But you cook it and it works. So back to the question. Has the “recipe” about Jesus changed along the way? Clearly not, because people of every walk of life and of almost every language keep putting the message of Jesus to the test and finding it works. They have discovered a fullness to life, real peace of mind and confidence in the ultimate future. Which means the better question is “How come what we know from all that time ago is still accurate?” And the answer is brain-numbingly simple. First, what we know about Jesus comes mainly from accounts of his life known as the gospels. They were written by his most committed followers who were either eyewitnesses or who got the story straight from those who saw Jesus first-hand. To them, the facts were too important to be casual about. The importance of the events made them doubly committed to accuracy in every detail. Second, these eyewitness recorders were not simple peasants. They included a former civil servant, a businessman, and a doctor. And were so convinced about what they wrote they went on to give their lives for it. Third, Jesus was THE event of the day. Everyone knew what had happened and would have shouted loud and clear if the gospel writers had exaggerated. Friends and enemies kept these writers on track – making sure their memories and those of many others did not wobble on the way. Fourth, the accounts of what Jesus said and did were written down too soon after the events to become a myth. Only five or so years after Jesus’ death, letters were circulating among his followers containing the central events of his life. Fifth, hundreds of copies of the things Jesus said and did went into circulation very quickly. And they all matched. Today there are thousands of such manuscripts. And when copies from different eras are compared they match time after time. Whatever any of us may think about Jesus and what he said, we can be sure that what we know can be trusted. Peter Meadows is the co-author with Joseph Steinberg of The Book of Y the basis for the eight week Y Course that explores life’s biggest questions. If you have a Y Question relating to issues of faith and God, Peter or Joseph will do their best to answer it. Send your question to: challenge @veritecm.com Subject: Y Course We hope to publish their responses in future editions. |
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