The truth is often poked, prodded, stretched, perverted, twisted and torn. Still it is proclaimed as truth. Truth is one hundred percent or it is not truth. Still it may have value, it may validate a premise and may provide partial evidence, even if it is not all it should be. Because all that it should be is simply truth. Most folks can handle just about anything if they know they are being given truth. Straight up, unvarnished, regardless of where it falls truth is best for us.
Things which affect our perception of truth are time, distance, opinions and even what we wish it would have been like. We tend to forget details as the pain of the moment fades away. Being out of earshot or in another place where the crowds are not quite so influential impacts us as well. Listening to someone else’s recollections can be helpful if we can filter it with our reality. Sometimes heroes are created from outlaws because they used some of their ill-gotten gains to help the less fortunate. While it doesn’t change the cold hard facts, it does compare values of cause and effect.
Long ago, A man was born, grew up, was truthful and died. He did not die because He told the truth. He died because of sin. Not His, but the sins of those who put Him to death. His name in our language was Joshua. If you had been one who met Him and saw Him in action, you might have said He knew more truth than anyone and that He knew how to use it for good. Or you might have been like those who saw all He did and did not believe He was all that He claimed. Truth often does not promote itself but simply is, and that is enough to disturb some people.
This is the man we know as Jesus from the Bible. I am amazed at how so very many things about Him are unknown, not believed, contested, and in spite of simple evidence and logic, totally disregarded because it doesn’t fit into the sum of all they have been taught to this point in their lives. Whenever I have opportunity to share the truth and evidence of Scripture and History, people are astonished at what they did not know or what they had twisted because they didn’t know how to put the truth all together. It hurts for some folks to find they have even been purposely lied to at times in order to promote some self-serving position of another. Others who were blindly ignorant have the opportunity to hear, evaluate and believe, or not.
Many people enjoy poking holes in the Bible evidence and then claim they are not responsible to a Holy God because the standard of the Bible is supposed to be perfection. Again, a perversion. They standard of Scripture is God. It is truth. It is righteousness, mercy, grace and love. So where does it break down for some folks? First they do not read it and understand it in the cultural context of the day in which it was written. Second they do not believe God Himself authored the very words they gaze upon. Thirdly they place their own bias and assumptions in place of the accepted norm of the day. Finally, (although in reality there are many, many, other factors) they do not know the author nor request His understanding when they read it.
This time of year we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus the Christ from the grave. We know many true things about this event and ignore many others. We have traditions and practices which may be totally contrary to Scripture which we hold onto because our denomination has for years. For example we know from Scripture with supporting evidence from other historical sources that Herod and Pilate were rulers in that country at the time. We know Annas and Caiaphas were religious leaders in that day. We know the time of day at which events happened and the five trials He faced. We know the hour He died and whose tomb He was buried in.
But some of the things which we claim to know are not quite so clear. Why did Judas betray Him? Were the same ones who cried Hosanna on the previous Sunday the same who shouted for His crucifixion? When was He arrested? And how do we get three days and three night in the grave from Friday night at six o’clock to Sunday morning before sunrise? And does it matter? Did the earth get created in six twenty four hour days and a rest? Was there an apple tree in the garden? How long was Jonah in the belly of the whale? How old was Jesus when the wise men came to visit? There is no limit to the number of things which unbelievers will question. But those who have trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior should study and pray and settle these things in their hearts.
The first three gospel writers, Matthew, Mark and Luke appear to use a Jewish calendar and timetable while John maybe referencing Roman timekeeping. It may be easier to step backwards from the resurrection than trying to go forward from an indeterminate accounting of His triumphant entry the week before. We know He rose before sunrise on the first day of the week, Sunday. Since the Jewish time keeping states in Genesis that the evening and the morning were the first day, we know that means any time after sunset Saturday evening. Jesus specifically uses the story of Jonah in the whale to establish three days and three nights for the son of man (Himself) to be buried “in the earth”. So twenty four hours back is Friday night. Another twenty four is Thursday evening and another 24 hours is Wednesday at the last hour of the Day when Joseph of Arimathea Begged His body from Pilate and placed it in his own newly cut out burial tomb.
So why do we have Good Friday? Tradition, not truth. If Jesus was crucified on Friday, He would have spent at the most Friday and Saturday night in the grave and Saturday all and Sunday until sunrise as well. I figure that at a maximum of 36 hours and as little as 24 plus a few minutes. Does it matter? Does Jesus lie? How long was Jonah in the belly of the whale? Viewing the events of history and truth through the tarnished filter of years of self-deception will probably not get you to a correct answer. There are some points of information which we do not clearly understand. But they should not distort the ones which are clear. The truth of this point is much broader and more significant than I am able to illustrate in this small space.
The bottom line is the beginning premise. The truth is often poked, prodded, stretched, perverted, twisted and torn. Still truth is one hundred percent or it is not truth. We have gaps in knowledge, rifts in faith and even mental blocks that hinder us from seeing and believing truth. Yet the standard of truth is the Word of God. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life”. God’s Word is forever settled in the heavens according to the Psalmist. You may not get it, understand it or believe it. But if it is the truth, and it is, you will be judged by it for the duration of your eternal existence. Truth matters completely.