Rumors and Lies
in Thoughtful Thursdays on April 15, 2022
Today is Good Friday.
Quite possibly the darkest, worst, and most terrible day in all of human history…
But…
It is also the most beautiful.
Today, we remember the Crucifixion of Jesus.
Let me ask you something: Have you ever heard a rumor? Or told a lie? Or, been the primary subject of either one of those things?
I have.
I have willingly listened to rumors about people and events that I knew could not be true, yet I did nothing to stop it. I have been lied to and lied about. I have told lies. I have also believed rumors and lies.
Listen to this song, it’s actually a video, but it has the lyrics across the bottom of the screen. I’d like to give a HUGE shout out to the Praise and Worship Team of my church for putting this together. Listen to this song, then come back and finish reading this post… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-506grOHI8
I have struggled immensely for days with this post. I knew what I wanted to say, but somehow, I just couldn’t get out the words. So, in the end, I decided to go back to the beginning—the very beginning—the moment our need for this day became a concrete and ugly reality. Come with me to the very first book of the Bible and let’s look at the very first rumor and lie…
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He [the serpent] said to the woman [Eve], ‘Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?’… [Eve answers affirmatively, and the serpent continues] “You will not surely die…For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” Genesis 3:1-5 (emphasis added).
“…Oh no, you’ve done it now…Gone against the King…Gone against the Crown…Rumors spreading around…Nothing but a liar…” *
Most rumors start with a hint of truth. This one was no different. After Eve ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, and gave some to her husband, Adam, their eyes were in fact opened. But, not for the better. In that moment, they became acutely aware of the wrong they had done. They believed the rumor and the lie that they would actually BE like God and that they would NOT die, and as a result, all of humanity was damned.
Rumors and lies.
I find it interesting (in a morbid sort of way) that we need very little help getting ourselves INTO trouble, but extricating ourselves is a complete impossibility.
Why would I take you ALLL the way back to the Garden of Eden to discuss Good Friday? I mean, those events were separated by thousands of years.
Here’s why: God knew from before the foundation of the world was laid that we would get ourselves into a trouble from which no ordinary human would ever be able to recover. He would need to intervene.
Once Adam and Eve thrust mankind into an F-5 sin-cyclone, God made a promise: He promised to send Someone who could stand up to the rumors and lies…and PREVAIL.
“So the LORD God said to the serpent… ‘Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Genesis 3:14-15 (emphasis added).
Not only did we just experience the first lie, but we also just read the first of over THREE HUNDRED OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES that would be fulfilled in and through the Person of Jesus Christ.
Yes, you read that correctly: there are more than three hundred references or prophecies concerning the Christ—the Messiah—the Savior.
Every year about this time, I have incredibly vivid flashbulb memories of different scenes from The Passion of the Christ movie. One of the most stirring and moving scenes is Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane…He has already shared The Last Supper with His disciples, and Judas has already—quite literally—made his deal with the devil. The only thing left is an anguished conversation between the Son and the Father. Nearby in the garden, a hooded and devilish figure lurks, as a snake slithers out into the darkness towards a seemingly unaware Jesus. Then, as Jesus finishes His prayer, He rises, and with one move—crushes the snake’s head. With that simple show of strength, the hooded figure realizes that while his fiendish plan will cause pain and even death to this Jesus, ultimately he will lose the battle…even the devil remembered God’s original promise to crush his head; ensuring His Victory.
All four of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) describe in great detail the arrest, scourging, crucifixion, death, and burial of Jesus. Each one is told from a different perspective, and each one is disturbing and hard to read. But, through the eyes of academics and historians, those events are examined and explained with even more exquisite detail.
We read in the Gospels that Jesus was scourged (brutally whipped) by the Roman soldiers. While this was not a practice the Romans invented—it was one that they perfected. The subject of a Roman scourge did not often survive. Jewish Law limited the number of lashes to “forty less one” (Deuteronomy 25:3); however, the Romans had no such limit. These beatings were of such severity, the loss of blood, flesh, and muscle, not to mention the mental anguish and torture a person was subjected to, the intended resident of a cross generally lacked the strength or ability to get there.
But, not Jesus.
Through every lash (historians disagree on whether the Romans adhered to the Jewish limit, or indulged themselves with countless assaults), through every swing of a bone and metal-laced whip, with every piece of flesh that was ripped from His body, and enduring every insult—including the crown of thorns mockingly placed on His head; it was YOUR face He saw—it was MY face He saw, and with US clear in His mind, He knew the agony, the pain, the passion, was worth it.
Jesus never believed the rumors and lies the enemy was telling and would tell about you and me, our friends and families, even those we deem as adversaries. Jesus heard those things, and looked and listened with nothing but love…for us.
Not even the nails that were driven deep into His hands and feet, nor the sword that pierced His side could have held Him to that Cross. What held the King of kings in place was our sin, and His unfailing love for us. He counted all of His suffering as JOY, so that not one of us would be lost.
He was God, yet He was fully man. The pain and the suffering was real. His death was REAL. Do not believe the rumors and lies that some will spread about the Cross being nothing more than an elaborate farce.
Today, everything hinges on rumors and lies.
The question is this: Will you believe the rumors and lies of the enemy when he tells you this Jesus was nothing special? Will you believe the rumors and lies that the enemy says about people you know? Will you believe the rumors and lies the enemy says about you?
On this day, two thousand years ago, we remember when darkness covered the earth, the Temple veil was torn in two, the earth shook and the graves of the dead opened. The ultimate lie was that when Jesus’s body was laid in that tomb, and the stone rolled in front of the entrance to ensure its security, Death had won.
What about you? Will you believe the lie? Or will you wait with expectation for the Empty Tomb?
*Lyrics from “Don’t Tread on Me” by: Ed Cash, Scott Cash, Martin Cash, Franni Cash, and Andrew Bergthold
One thought on “Rumors and Lies”
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Jean Smith says:
Great post for Good Friday!! “Rumors and Lies”, where in the beginning and still going around with a “hint of truth.”