An Astounding Claim

Now this is an astounding claim. We need to remember that. We ought to be somewhat surprised every time we read it or hear it made. This is not something to be believed lightly. It takes, as we say, "some believing." And almost as astonishing as the claim itself is the fact that people have believed it without realizing that it is astonishing. Such a claim, if it is true, is obviously the most important thing that has ever happened in the course of human history. That God, the creator of the ends of the earth, beyond and before all time and space, should have lived a life like one of us is headline news. That men should have resented God's doing this, that they should have spat upon Jesus and put him to death in a fiendishly cruel way, is a shocking tale. But we can get more concerned over the death of a pet turtle than we do over the fact that Jesus Christ was executed on a hill outside Jerusalem on the charge that he was dangerous to the public safety. The story has become so commonplace that it no longer arouses us. It no longer shocks us. It no longer repels us. It no longer even excites us.

And yet -- the events of Jesus' life and death did make an impact on the people of his time. These things did rouse people. They shocked people. They repelled people. They even excited people.