Pitied
What if Easter never was? That is the question we have been seeking to answer this week, the first week after our worldwide celebration, as Christians, of the resurrection.
Just in case you haven’t read any of the previous days’ posts, here’s a brief synopsis. If Easter never was:
Our faith is meaningless and we are wasting our time. (I Corinthians 15:14)
Preachers are liars. (I Corinthians 15:15)
The dead are dead and gone. (I Corinthians 15:18)
Today, I want to consider a fourth painful truth about our faith, if Jesus was never raised from the dead. And that truth is simply this -
Christians should be pitied.
“If only for this life we have hope in Christ,” Paul tells us, then “we are of all people most to be pitied.” (I Corinthians 15:19)
How in the world could Paul say such a thing? Pitied? Really?
To be perfectly honest, that was my reaction the first time I came across this verse of scripture. Now, years later, after traveling and preaching in multiple places around the globe, I understand it.
A few years ago in Uganda, I was compelled to cancel some conferences due to militant Muslim terrorists killing Christians in the north of the country.
In Karnataka, India, I toured the burned-out shell of a church building I had dedicated the previous year. It had been destroyed by locals opposed to a Christian presence in their community.
I’ve led conferences in Devanahalli, India, where I’ve met pastors who carried on their bodies the marks of beatings and stonings, and who have spent days in jail because they dared to preach the gospel.
In one particular village, I was preaching when, suddenly, my guide interrupted, and led me to our car, where we sped quickly away from the village. Later, I discovered that an informant had called the police who were on their way to arrest us.
In China, I preached in an illegal house church. The pastor of that church had been arrested multiple times over the years. The Chinese husband and wife we supported in that region were monitored closely by the government. They were unable to send their children to public school because they lived outside of Beijing, where they were supposed to be living according to law.
I could go on, but suffice it to say that in many places in our world today, Christians are not only outcasts but severely persecuted minorities.
I hear a lot of talk among Christians in the United States who feel that the persecution of Christians in our country is a future inevitability. If that is true - and I expect it is - I can only tell you that we will be in good company with many others both in our world today and throughout history, as we faithfully follow our resurrected Lord.
How many of us are willing to walk that road? How many will decide it’s not worth it and leave the faith?
I don’t know but here’s what I do know - “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:35)
In Christ,
Dan