stranger than fiction

Lewis points out how very odd the resurrection and ascension are in today's selection from A Year with C.S. Lewis.

He says that we find ourselves reading something which sounds like primitive superstition. And he's right. Fortunately, Lewis gives us in other parts of his works the reason why this shouldn't alarm us.

Before we discuss why we shouldn't be alarmed, maybe we should begin with why we WOULD be. Because there's part of us that still doubts, isn't there? Even standing here, right now, knowing all of the amazing things God has clearly done for us...yet we doubt. We're in very good company. The disciples themselves, who actually SAW Him walk on water, heal people, and come back from the dead...Even they doubted. Doubt is something we must fight every day. It's very important that we do, because without faith it's impossible to please God. And God can only work in our lives in direct proportion to our faith in Him.

So realizing that a story of Jesus "flying up into the sky" sounds alot like a fairy tale alarms us...Because it makes that doubt lurking in the back of our mind grow. But when we stop and truly think about it (which is good for our faith), we realize that this shouldn't alarm us at all.

If someone were trying to invent a religion that would be easy for us to accept and believe in, they certainly wouldn't put these ridiculous elements in it. They certainly wouldn't put the words "unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have eternal life" into the mouth of the founder. Only a fool would expect us to believe such a story.

Unless it's true.

Lewis tells us that the gospel is most certainly a myth. It just happens to be a myth that really happened, 2000 years ago, in the time of Pontius Pilate.

God, we believe! Help our unbelief. Thank You for Your actions in our world, which are truly stranger than fiction.