What is truth? Does it exist? Does it even matter?
Ok, perhaps I'm still stuck in the modern age and haven't really recognized that the post-modern philosophy has now prevailed, that there Is no truth anymore, and truth is irrelevant.
If so, don't bother reading, I'd hate to waste your time.
But if there is a shred of hope for truth to win the day, please give me just a couple more moments of your time. What I'm hoping to articulate is not a court-case of evidence (which I'm sure could be shredded and thoroughly discredited by darn near anyone), but rather just my heart and faith: a celebration, if you will, of Christ, the great truth. Respond as your heart leads you. But this is my heart.
I took my two oldest boys to see the Mpls Children's Theatre production of C.S. Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" earlier this month. Ohhhhh, what an incredible production. Now I'm a theatre guy, so I appreciate the art and science of telling story through stagecraft and live actors. Technically and theatrically, is was a stunning performance (at least in the mind of this armchair enthusiast). But so what.
Great theatre is a dime-a-dozen. Broadway does is better. The Guthrie does it better, and Hollywood does it WAY better. Who really cares if some dumb play for kids is done well, right? Who really cares if some dumb homeschooling dad gets his heart stirred in some dumb midwestern city?
Well, that's not the point.
The only reason I'm' going to take the time to write about this is because of what the LWW POINTS to---namely, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Aslan gives up his life on the stone table, and the White Witch taunts him with screams that she, after killing him, will break her word and kill Edmund, the traitor too, and then rule over all of Narnia forevermore and NO ONE will be able to stop her.
It's every dictator's dream...supreme rule for unlimited years.
The shock, the dread, the horror...when evil prevails over goodness. When darkness succeeds over light, when injustice gains the upper hand over justice. I don't care how much you have intellectually lobotomized yourself, this pain is deeper than the human heart can bear. We are simply MADE to want and believe that the good guys will win in the end.
"When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour."
This, to me, is one of the most powerful sentences in all of scripture. Just imagine...and action so great and noble and powerful, that all activity CEASES, and reverent hush befalls all living things. It's the same reverence that silences an entire stadium when a player is hurt. Nobody cheers, nobody taunts, nobody moves. There is care and concern and human compassion RIVETTED on that small huddle of bodies attending to the fallen player.
THAT is the kind of silence that befalls heaven when judgement is about to begin. And THAT is the kind of moment I call "deeper than truth." I have to use the modifier and magnifier "deeper than" because we have cheapened "truth" to such an extent that is no longer has meaning or weight in our culture.
However, that was not the impact Jesus intended when he uttered that 5 letter word. "You shall know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH shall set you free" (John 8:32). "I am the Way, the TRUTH and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6, which Jesus said to his disciples just hours before laying down his life for the sins of the world).
It seems to me that when Jesus spoke the word TRUTH, you expect the ground to shake and lightning & smoke to strike the earth.
What could be truer than TRUTH? Deeper than truth?
By way of contrast, let's think about the way we humans butcher this gift of TRUTH. Take your average 8 year old, who tells you, "It's ok if you say something not true, you don't have to mean it if you cross your fingers behind your back." Or how about our former president, who spoke boldly to the American people, "It depends on what your definition of 'IS' is." What?! Are we really getting to the point of debating in this sort of existentialist vein? "Do I really exist? Does the chair before me exist? How do I know?"
Give me a break!
This is why I say "deeper than truth." Of course, there's nothing deeper than the bedrock of TRUTH at all...but I've got to say something to elevate our dear friend truth from the muck and the mire we have buried it in these past 40-odd years.
So back to the LWW...
The beauty is in the TRUTH of the story.
It's not, "Oh, how nice...a lion in a fairytale comes back to life and saves the people. Oh how ute. Now please pass the potato chips, my favorite TV show is about to start."
Depicting Aslan as Christ being raised after laying down his life is as TRUE and POWERFUL and MEANINGFUL and RELEVANT as your 401(k) and identity theft. I plead with you, don't trifle with Christ! I beg you to read Revelation chapters 4 and 5 for a vidid depiction of the power of the risen Christ. And of course, there are scores of other scriptures as well to learn of Christ's supreme majesty. Let me summarize by sharing what mankind's reaction to this risen Lord will be:
"Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the
risch and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the
caves and amonth the rock of the mountains, (16) calling to th emountains
the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the
throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb [the Lord Jesus], (17) for the great
day of the their wrath has come, and who can stand?'" (Rev 6: 16-17 ESV
So to capture this, you gotta think of Barack Obama, Kim
Jong Ill, Vladamir Puttin, Bill & Melinda Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Nancy Pelosi
& Sarah Palin, Pope Benedict, Warren Buffet, and the Clintons
& Kennedys, all huddled together in a musty, dirty, damp cave...and
they are all crying an clinging to one another in terror of facing Jesus
Christ and his anger against sin. That is a picture deeper than
truth.
It matters that Christ died on the cross. The LWW is just a picture of that. And because it matters, and because it is beautiful, and because good triumphs over evil and eternity hangs in the balance, I write this silly little blog, just hoping to jog enough nerves to stir up just enough passion and longing or simple curiosity to bring a reader to a response and to deal honestly with Christ. Is he your Lord, or your doormat? Do you worship him, or just respect him? Is he a good teacher, or the only risen Son of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world?
Jesus did not claim to be just a good, moral teacher of good philosophy. He said he is the bread of life, the alpha and omega, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He said that no one comes to the Father except through Him. Bhudha doesn't get to God through any means but by Jesus Christ. Same goes for Gandhi, and the prophets of Islam, and all the kingpins of Wall Street. Mother Theresa herself gets to God only through the atoning blood of Jesus, not her own good works.
I'm getting too far off my original point, now. Let the question remain---is truth meaningful or relevant? If so, where will you go to discover this truth? I urge you, look no further than "the exact representation of [God's] being" (Hebrews 1:3 NIV)--Jesus Christ.
