Lies, Legends, or Witnesses Part 2 Lie, Legend, or Lord Chris Hutton The First Mennonite Church November 20, 2016

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1 Lies, Legends, or Witnesses Part 2 Lie, Legend, or Lord Chris Hutton The First Mennonite Church November 20, 2016 I d like to start off our discussion this morning by looking at a clip. This comes from an internet-released film from about the mid-2000 s called Zeitgeist. Has anyone heard of this film? Well, in this film, the producer Peter Joseph presents the case that the Jesus of the Gospels is simply a myth or legend based on previous religious myths that came before him. And this is s a sample of part of his case. We watched a short portion of the film where Peter Joseph suggests that several aspects of the Jesus story (ie. Born of a virgin, Born on Dec. 25 th, crucified, resurrected, etc.) mirror other ancient mythological figures such as Horus, Attis, Dionysus, Mithra, etc. So, what do you think? Pretty convincing? Not so convincing? This film drew a lot of attention and got people asking a lot of questions about the authenticity of the Jesus that we read about in our Gospels. The film presents a lot of overwhelming information designed to get you to ask the question, Is the Jesus of the Gospels just a legend? Like these other legends? Could the gospels about Jesus just be lies that were manufactured to enforce an agenda? These are some of the questions we ve been looking at in our current series Lies. Legends, or Witnesses. Last week, we looked at the question of could the Gospels be sufficiently reliable history about Jesus? This week, we re going to look at the question of is Jesus a lie, legend, or Lord? It s my hope that today I can give you some tools so that when people in your workplace or your neighbourhood, engage you in this conversation, here are some thoughts and questions that you can share in order to keep a dialogue going. And hey, just a quick look ahead to next week, can you believe that Advent is upon us and begins next week? I m definitely very excited; particularly about two things: 1) We re starting a new series to help us celebrate Advent that we re calling Gift to the World. The candles of the Advent wreath represent the themes of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. Each week during this series leading up to our Christmas Eve service, we ll be looking at how Jesus brings the gifts of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love, and how we can bring these same gifts to the world.

2 2) We are kicking off our series next week with a guest speaker named Ron Page. Ron Page and I worked together for many years in the Navigators of Canada, and Ron is a long-time communicator, chaplain, and counselor who is going to share with us about the theme of hope. I m very much looking forward to all of you getting a chance to hear from him. But in the meantime, on with our topic for today, let s jump right in. Are the Gospels a series of lies? That is possibly true. Of course, it s possibly true. Anytime someone claiming to be an eyewitness makes a case to tell you about something that they observed, there is always the possibility that they are telling you a lie, or a half-truth, or they are manipulating the information so as to get you to arrive at a particular conclusion. But, let s start with this question: Why do people usually lie concerning religion? What are some reasons and/or motivations we might often have for lying about religion? Go ahead and shout them out. Some people shared control, confirming what you already believe, manipulation,etc. We will also often lie about religion in order to gain money, power, and influence. If I can make up a really good lie, I can stand to benefit really well from it. Well, if the goal of the Gospel writers is to accrue money, power, and influence, they do a terrible job of it. Matthew s Gospel in 10:9-10 has Jesus telling his followers to go out travelling among the people leaving behind gold, silver or copper in your belts, take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; (Matt. 10: 9-10, NIV) Take nothing with you and depend on the hospitality of others, even if that means putting yourself at risk of being arrested for going around preaching about Jesus. The book of Acts, which was also written by Luke, the same author of the Gospel, describes the early church as selling their own possessions and goods, selling everything that they have, so that no one in the church needs to go without. Jesus in the Gospels constantly hangs out with people on the margins of society, not the powerful. And he even insinuates that is the people on the margins of society, the powerless and rejected, that God will use to bring his Kingdom. There doesn t appear to be any jurisprudence in the Gospels suggesting this is how we are going to consolidate power over nations and this is how we are going to keep it. But the Gospels do talk a lot about serving others, even our enemies.

3 If the disciples of Jesus colluded to manufacture a lie that would gain them a lot of rewards in this world and in this life, they don t seem to have received those gifts. In fact, most of them are killed for their faith. History suggests that all but the apostle John who is believed to have written the Gospel of John,; all of the apostles met their end by execution at the hands of various authorities. Various scholars suggest that the apostle Peter died by crucifixion, possibly at the hands of the Roman Emperor Nero. The book of Acts records the stoning of the apostle Stephen. Hundreds upon thousands of Christians over the first couple centuries of church history are executed for their faith. Many of them are executed because they insist that Jesus is Lord and not Caesar is Lord. And so this begs the question, if the Gospel writers and the people who spread these stories of the Gospels were lying, would they really be willing to die for a lie? Would someone go to their death knowing that they made all of it up? If the disciples and the Gospel writers colluded to make up these stories about Jesus, you would think that least one or two of them would crack under the pressure. You would think the moment crucifixion became a reality, they would recant and confess and say, Sorry, I didn t mean for it to go this far. It s all a lie, you don t have to kill me. And if they did, people would jump all over it and say, See? We knew this was a lie! These people just confessed! Instead the first followers of Jesus willingly go to their death and they even seem to celebrate it. They actually believe that their deaths are going to be a witness to others about Jesus. Does this really suggest a lie, or did they actually witness something so incredible that they were willing to give their lives for it? One of the interesting criterion that scholars often use when analyzing the Gospels is something called the criterion of embarassment. In other words, if the Gospels include sufficiently embarrassing stories about their principal subjects this could imply that the writers are actually testifying to the truth. If the Gospels are lies, you would think that people who stand to benefit from these lies would exclude anything embarrassing about themselves, and they would paint a picture that makes them look amazing. For example, throughout the Gospels, the apostles constantly and consistently gets things wrong. A particular victim of this is Peter. Peter is rebuked by Jesus for suggesting that Jesus should stop talking about having to die. Jesus even calls him Satan, or the Adversary, for suggesting it. That is not exactly what you want the main character of your story to be calling you.

4 If there s anything that all 4 Gospels agree upon, it s that Peter denied being a follower of Jesus three times, after Jesus was arrested and crucified. One of the ey apostles of Jesus completely bails on his King in his most dire moment. It s been suggested that Peter may have provided much of the content for Mark s Gospel, and so I ve always imagined Mark sitting at a desk, writing his gospel, and saying alright, let s talk about your denial of Jesus. And I can just imagine Peter saying, Really? Do we have to include that story? I mean it was a really rough day. We d just lost Jesus, and no one was really in their right mind. We all ran away. I mean I know that Jesus predicted it, but does it really change the story if it s not included? How about we just leave that detail out? And then I can just imagine Mark saying, No! This is important! This is really good stuff, we have to include it. Another component of the criterion of embarrassment are all of the scandalous stories that the Gospel writers include. One of the biggest ones being that Jesus was crucified and died. We showed an ancient image from Palatine Hill found on a ruin in Rome. This is an image that was discovered scratched onto a wall dating from ancient Rome. Notice the image of the person on the cross having the head of a donkey? The phrase scrawled underneath is Alexemonos worships his god. This is actually a remarkable historic image of a person mocking Christians. Crucifixion was not only meant to be a torturous way to die, it was viewed in 1 st century culture as an embarrassment. And now the writers of the Gospels come along saying that Jesus was crucified and that this was a good thing! In an age where everyone boasts of how powerful their gods are, the Gospel writers insist that their God died. They are willing to undergo the public embarrassment of worshiping a God who is viewed as weak by the rest of the Near Eastern ancient world. Woud they be willing to do this for a lie? How about the testimony of women in the Gospels? 1 st Century Jewish religious culture believed that the testimony of women was tantamount to a lie. Women could not testify in courts. Who do the Gospel writers record as the first witnesses to Jesus resurrection? Women. If you are trying to record a history that privileges men and gives them power in a 1 st century context, you don t record women as the first witnesses to Jesus rising the from the dead. It was embarrassing. But the Gospel writers insist on including these details. How about the Gospel writers breaking the Shema? The Shema Yisrael was the closest Judaism had to a central tenet of faith Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One (Deut. 6:4, NIV) In the Gospels, you have devout Jews proclaiming

5 that Jesus is God. God becomes a man. This was terribly scandalous to Jewish thought at the time. Were they lying? Or was this detail so true that they had to testify to it? The Gospels seem to adequately reflect the context of 1 st century Palestine. They aren t inventing a 1 st century Palestine that didn t exist.. They also seem to include enough embarrassing content to suggest that they are not just trying to re-create a context that enforces an agenda of privilege and control, but that testifies to the truth that something extraordinary has happened. Well, what about the question of is Jesus actually a legend based on other mythical legends? Are the Gospel writers manufacturing a legend again in order to grant them privilege and control? Do you remember some of the details from our previous video? Horus, the Egyptian God, was born of a virgin on Dec. 25 th? Mithras was also born of a virgin on Dec. 25 th? I think that initially when all of the information is thrown at you in a hurry, it can initially seem overwhelming, and you can find yourself (especially if you haven t studied a lot of the history in any of these stories) saying that this seems convincing. Now, I don t know if Peter Joseph, the maker of Zeitgeist was actually convinced of this and he s just genuinely trying to evangelize us all to understand Jesus the way he does. I don t want to assume anything behind his motivations and I don t want to say anything unkind. But I do think it s unfortunate that often in conversations particularly about this topic of comparing Jesus to other ancient myths, that we are often being given halftruths or not the complete details of each story. For example, Horus mother, according to ancient Egyptian mythology is Isis, and technically, she does give birth to Horus by herself sortof. You see, her husband is a god named Osiris, who is also her brother, and after he is killed and ripped apart by his brother Set, Isis gathers the dismembered parts of his body and resurrects a new body for him with which she can copulate and have a child. Makes for possibly a great Halloween movie, but is that the Christmas story? Not quite, right? How about Mithra? A mystery god worshipped in the Roman empire from around the 1 st to the 4 th cent? Isn t he born of a virgin? Well, technically yes. But he s born from a rock. So, I guess that rocks are technically virgins, so sure, a virgin birth. In fact, Mithras emerges from a rock fully formed as a man! Again, is this the Christmas story? Not quite.

6 If we think of the Infancy narratives in the Gospels, and the criterion of embarrassment, Jesus is born in a situation that seems out of wedlock! He s not born into a pompous situation, but he is born into a scandalous situation. This is why Joseph plans to quietly dismiss his betrothal to Mary, right? He doesn t want to see her embarrassed. Why didn t the Gospel writers leave this embarrassing story out? Or did they feel this was important historical truth? And that it would actually reflect much of Jesus message that God often uses the unlikely and the scandalous circumstances of life to build his Kingdom? By the way, if anyone tries to corner you with Jesus being born on the 25 th, just like many other ancient legends, feel free to tell them that Jesus wasn t born on the 25 th. We don t know when Jesus was exactly born. It was Christians who lived in a culture that did celebrate the births of other gods on Dec. 25 th, who said, rather than inventing our own day to celebrate the birth of the Messiah, let s use a day that our culture already uses as a day to remember the divine, and suggest to others that Jesus is actually the God that they ve all been looking for? Jesus wasn t born on Dec. 25 th. Christians just eventually used the occasion of Dec. 25 th as an opportunity to build bridges, and creatively tell others about the Good News of Jesus. We could spend a whole lot more time broaching the subject of the Gnostic Gospels and how do we handle Gospels that weren t included in the Bible, but we don t have time. If you d really like to talk about it, I invite you to join us here this evening at the church at 6:30pm. We re going to have an Overtime Session where we re going to talk about the Gnostic Gospels. Please also feel welcome to bring any ongoing questions or ideas that you have as well. Let me say this to close. Whenever I have conversations with people about debunking the Gospels as lies or legends, I often sense a deep desire on the part of these people to see justice happen. Many of the people I talk with are good, kind, and loving people who want to see the world loved and made better, and I always applaud that. I always say amen to that. I think it s often the belief of these same people that in order to truly love others, we have to debunk the Gospels. In order for us to be free to love others more generously, we need to prove that the Gospels are lies or legends. I think these people have often seen Christians who judge; Christians who kill; and Christians who spend a lot more time hating the world than loving it, and they want nothing to do with those Christians. Neither do I actually! But I think it s precisely when Christians are hating the world more than loving it, that they have to go back to the Jesus of the Gospels.

7 I hear a lot of people say, Oh, I can t stand Christians. But I love who Jesus is. And that s when I say, Yes, precisely! If we re lucky, we as Christians may sometimes reflect love, but I don t think it s Christians who are going to necessarily provide the love that you re looking for. It s the Jesus of the Gospels who will provide the love that you re looking for. Do you want equality for women? Look at how Jesus talks about women, talks about them as spiritual examples, and appears to them first when he rises from the dead. Do you want to be able to love people of other faiths? Look at how Jesus uses the Samaritan as an example in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, and how he reaches out to and gives dignity to a Samaritan woman by the well in John 4. Do you want to be able to love and include people who are generally considered as outcasts in society? Look at how Jesus includes the poor, the blind, and the outcasts into both his life and his teachings. Are you tired of being oppressed by religious rules? Look at the various examples where Jesus actually breaks Torah law in order to love someone, and learn more about the Good News that Jesus tells us: that you do not earn God s love through your works or your adherence to the law. God already loves you, and he wants you to trust in that. He s not a lie or a legend. The Jesus of the Gospels is the Lord who leads us to the love that we long for.

Credible Scripture is Trustworthy! Luke 1:1 4 September 22 nd, 2013 Dr. Michael T. Carey

1 Credible Scripture is Trustworthy! Luke 1:1 4 September 22 nd, 2013 Dr. Michael T. Carey I was at a social gathering with good friends who I knew to be skeptics about Christianity. The grandfather said