Strange Stories

“How can you believe that stuff? Surely you have more sense. I thought you were smarter than that, but I guess I was wrong.”

Those were the words of my best friend, Cornelius. He and I go way back, all the way to our childhood in Ephesus, the city of our birth.

But now, something has come between us. Yes, and it’s become quite an obstacle to our friendship. And, if you guessed it’s my faith in Jesus Christ, you’d be correct!

Oh, and who am I? My name is Stephanas and I live in what you call the second century. Ephesus is, as you no doubt know, controlled by Rome and is the home of the temple of the goddess Artemis. Perhaps you, in your time, have read about the visits of the Apostle Paul to our city, especially about when he got in trouble with the followers of the goddess.

Later, Paul’s companion, Timothy, returned to Ephesus and became our first bishop. He was followed by a man named Polycrates, who baptized me and several others. Our church in Ephesus meets in his home.

Now, a new manuscript has arrived, telling us a great deal more about Jesus. It was written, so I’ve been told, by a disciple named Matthew, a former tax collector who became a follower of Jesus back in Israel.

As you might imagine, this document is precious to us and we spend much time reading and reflecting on it. I cannot overstate how important it is and so we safeguard it with great care. Perhaps in your time you might still have this wonderful recounting of the life and teachings of Jesus. I hope you do.

And that’s where my friend Cornelius comes in. You see, I have shared the Jesus stories with him. And as you can tell, Cornelius is skeptical. Very skeptical. And I have to add in fairness that his attitude toward the Christians of Ephesus is typical of the larger population.

“How can you believe that a God of the Jews created the entire universe and claims to be the god of all of us Greeks as well? You surely know that we don’t really like Jews anyway. And I always thought that you agreed, at least until you joined the Jewish Christians.”

My answer surely seemed weak to Cornelius: “Yes, it’s true, I had no love for the Jews. But I have learned that Jesus was a Jew, Paul was a Jew, and Timothy was at least in part, a Jew. What’s more, I have learned about their god, whom they call YHWH, and that this god is the father of Jesus, who was born from a virgin mother called Mary. YHWH is the god of all creation. It’s just that he chose the Jewish people, out of all the peoples of the earth, to be his favored children.”

Even as these words came out of my mouth, I realized how strange they would sound to Cornelius.

And they did. To be honest, they sounded strange to me as well.

He went on. “You told me too, that Jesus was killed, crucified by the Romans. Don’t you know that the Romans crucify criminals? That means that Jesus was a law breaker. Doesn’t it Stephanas? And what’s more, you told me that Jesus was raised from the dead by his god; except that he did not appear alive to any credible witnesses, just to his own followers. If he wanted to be believed, why wouldn’t he appear to the Romans who crucified him? Can you answer that, Stephanas?”

I need to add something about Cornelius here. Please don’t get the impression that he is mean-spirited in his questions. Let me assure you that he is not. It’s just that Cornelius is very analytical in his thinking. He means no harm. And I believe that he truly wants to understand and that he also values our friendship, which, as I said, goes back as far as either of us can remember.

And I should also add that I did not do a good job answering his questions. It does seem that this new “gospel” of Matthew has raised so many, not just for Cornelius, but also for me. There is so much in it that, before, we just did not know. And now that we can read so much more about the life and teachings of Jesus, we, all of us, must consider how it affects our faith. And so, despite my stumbling answers, his questions, in a way, are good because they cause me to think more deeply about what I actually believe.

Now let me tell you what I did. I hope this makes sense to you. You should know that my faith is evolving, hopefully growing. But really, I am only a baby in my newfound faith.

What I did was ask Cornelius to read Matthew’s gospel with me, word for word. I took the position that there is nothing to hide about Jesus. And if it all sounds strange to Cornelius, I am ready to admit that much of it sounds strange to me, too.

We started by reading the story of the birth of Jesus.

“So,” Cornelius commented, “aside from the miracle of a virgin birth, are we asked to believe that these unnamed magi traveled a great distance, following a moving star? And that they expected to find a king, when Israel already had one? And that this new king would not be found in their capital city, but was instead hidden in a small hamlet, born to peasants? Am I getting this right, Stephanas? Please tell me that I have missed something.”

All that I could respond was, “Let’s just go on and see what comes next.”

So, we read about the family’s stay in Egypt, and about John the Baptizer. We got to know Jesus more when we read the words from his great sermon:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5)

“That’s impressive,” Cornelius admitted, and I certainly agreed. But then we went on to read about how Jesus repeatedly got in trouble with the religious leaders of his day, and how he railed at their hypocrisy (Matthew 23).

“Why couldn’t Jesus just get along with them?” he asked, and I had no answer.

Finishing the story with the arrest, execution and resurrection of Jesus led to more questions.

“Why did Jesus have to die? Why was he hated so? And why not come back and take his revenge on those who’d treated him so badly?”

My fumbling answers did not satisfy Cornelius. And in some ways, me either. Yet, to my surprise, reading this gospel did not weaken my faith; it actually strengthened it. Even though many of the stories did seem too strange to believe, I felt that I was getting to know Jesus better through reading his words and learning of his actions.

Puzzled, I went to my bishop, Polycrates, for help.

Polycrates

Orthodox Image

“My son, there is a difference between belief and faith,” he said. “Perhaps you are confusing belief in facts with the feelings of your heart.”

“Then, what is faith?” I asked him. “Can I forget the strangeness of some of the stories about Jesus and yet still have faith in him? Can I actually doubt some of the facts?”

“Faith,” he replied, “isn’t so much about blindly accepting facts as true. Actually, a person could believe every single thing written about Jesus and yet still have little faith. Faith is much, much more. Let me ask you, before you learned about Jesus, did you feel that you were searching for something?”

“It felt like a sort of hunger,” I replied, “one which our Greek gods could not satisfy. But once I began to follow Jesus and the god of the Jews, I felt like someone was feeding me and filling me up. Not in my stomach, of course, but in some inner place where I had been searching. Does that make any sense?”

“Yes, my son, it does, and you have just given me your personal definition of faith. Perhaps now, you can relate to the words of Jesus:

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

“It seems that righteousness is what you, Stephanas, have been hungering and thirsting for. And so, according to Jesus, you are ‘blessed.’”

“Facts are important,” he went on, “but faith is a matter of the heart. In a way, faith is a gift, directly from God to you. It’s a gift that feeds that hunger that lives deep inside of you. And so, even when the stories seem strange and hard to believe, it is your faith that answers life’s deepest questions, not some collection of facts.”

And so, I went back to Cornelius. I told him that he was correct, the Matthew document did contain some strange stories. But I asked him to suspend his analytical mind, just for a short time, and ask himself if somehow, the words of Matthew spoke to his heart, that perhaps it spoke to a hunger that Cornelius was feeling, just as it had for me.

“You know,” Cornelius responded, “Stephanas, it did. Maybe I can somehow let go of my need to analyze everything and just let the stories of Jesus speak to me, not so much to my brain, but to my heart. Because I am hungry to know more about Jesus, this man who in so many ways is out of the ordinary.”

“Thanks, Cornelius,” I replied, “so am I.  Let’s read it again!”

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11)