Recently, we had a rather exciting conversation surrounding the validation of the Bible as a credible source. Several of the arguments both ways I had heard before, but there were also some new thoughts that I had not considered before. During a particularly interesting point about Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John telling similar, but not perfectly identical, stories in their books a thought struck me... Why didn't Jesus simply write His own book in the New Testament?
Historically, when a person has something factual they believed significant to share, they have written it down so that the idea could spread unaltered, save for some minor translation issues. Moving on further down that line, I thought of my own life and what my autobiography might say. That's when it hit me - I'd write with a specific agenda in mind. Maybe I'd paint myself in a better light, highlight things I'd done well, leave out things I am ashamed of, even manipulate the roles that others played in my life. I wouldn't give a perfectly accurate description of my life and it would lead to skepticism on what my agenda might be. Jesus avoids that by simply not writing it Himself.
And what about those "kinda similar" stories in the New Testament. How do they improve the validity? Think about it like this: You come home and find the lamp broken. Being a typical parent you go to each of the kids one by one and ask "What happened to the lamp?" When all four kids tell you "Stevie came over and started bouncing his basketball. It got away from him and the lamp broke" word for word, you know the story is rehearsed. When you get 4 similar stories, but from each child's unique perspective, you are much more certain that you are hearing the truth. So when these four men of different ages, professions, and experiences tell stories of Christ's ministry, they each tell it from their own perspective. Each has their own idea of what the most important events were, and there's enough overlap between them to discern that they are telling the truth.
This seems almost backwards, but by not authoring His own book, He actually brings more validity to His message by allowing other witnesses to document the miracles and teachings He delivered. There's no room for skepticism of His message because other people documented it independently from their unique perspectives. From the original documents, we can also be certain that these books were written after Jesus' death and ascension ,so He wasn't there telling them what to write and how.
What can we learn from this aside from being more confident in the validity of Jesus' message? Well, imagine for a moment that you stop loading up Facebook with all of your stuff. What if you allowed others to boast about your workouts, the meals you've cooked, your new haircut, and how cute it your dog is? What if the only thing you said publicly was to praise what Christ has done in your life and to lift up others instead?
Do you need to tell others what is going on in your life? Absolutely! But rather than declaring it from the top of Social Media Mountain to your 2,139 "friends", why not have a small group of people that you can share anything with privately? Why not have someone that will pray with you when you're disappointed that you finally got the courage up to say hi to that girl at the coffee shop, but got shot down? Why not use those moments about you as an excuse to pray with the God you loves you more perfectly than any human could? How would the way people view you change? How would your relationship with your partner, spouse, or friends change? How would your relationship with Christ change? Do you really need 84 "likes" for everything you say, or is God's approval more important?
So here's the challenge: For the next week, starting right now, do not say or write anything publicly that glorifies you or brings attention to you. Instead, lift up what someone else has done or deflect praise to God for the blessings, grace, or mercy that He has shown you. It might be tougher than you think - anything that points to you is out of bounds. Good luck, and let me know how it goes!
