Well…I guess it is my turn.  By now the blogosphere is full of posts about the Discovery Channel special this past Sunday (March 4) titled, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus".  If you have not seen it just follow this link, http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/tomb/tomb.html and you will be up-to-date very quickly.

Basically the claim (or hypothesis as the director, Simcha Jacobovici, puts it) it that this tomb that has been found is the family tomb of Jesus.  Ossuaries (bone boxes) have been found with inscriptions.  The claim is that the inscriptions refer to Jesus and Mary Magdalene (who were supposedly married), Jesus and Mary’s son and James the brother of Jesus; among others (10 in all).  The filmmaker goes to great lengths to prove all this through DNA testing and probability studies.  He says the chances are 1 in 30,000 that this isn’t the family tomb of Jesus.  I have no clue how they come up with those probabilities, but they sure sound good and place more "strength" behind their argument.  I for one am not convinced…and never will be (more on that later).

Simcha Jacobovici claims to be a journalist and a filmmaker.  I will call him a filmmaker at the very least but not a journalist.  He claims to be bias and open minded, but that never comes across in the documentary. 

Simcha also has another title (at least as far as I am concerned).  For those of you who are offended, angry, disgusted, disturbed, <fill in your own adjective> about what he is claiming, consider this.  Simcha, I believe, is an agent of God.  Why would I say something like this?  Why would God allow a person to report something that would seemly contradict the resurrection of Jesus?  You see…throughout time the church has faced challenges to its system of beliefs.  This is how and why our creeds were developed (Apostles’, Nicene and Athanasian).  Heresies were developed and the church was forced to re-think and communicate what it believed.  Challenges to our faith were presented and people were forced to look into their hearts.  I believe God is challenging us through Mr. Jacobovici and it is no coincidence that this is coming during Lent.  Lent is a time of reflection and preparation.  We are suppose to re-examine who we are and (more importantly) whose we are.  Mr. Jacobovici is forcing Christians to speak up and re-examine their faith.

As Christians we have become so complacent.  A lot of people grew up in the church (I am one) and have always believed.  I cannot look back and give you a date when I became a Christian.  I can tell you significant dates in my faith development, but basically, I have always been a Christian.  With this kind of faith (one that has been passed down to us) we have a tendency to to accept what we have been taught.  For many people the only real challenge to their faith is when a loved one dies or some other traumatic event happens in our lives.  But even that is often times not enough to shake us to our core.  I don’t know if we are being shaken to our core with this wild hypothesis of Jesus’ family tomb, but our faith is being challenged; and we are being forced to clarify what we believe.  Our faith is being dragged out of our dark closets to be dusted off and viewed again.  Hopefully this time we do not pack our faith away.

My faith tells me that Jesus died on the cross; was placed in tomb; and three days later rose from the grave.  When the women and the disciples arrived at the tomb it was empty…no bones…only Jesus’ burial clothes.  That is it…nothing more and nothing less.  Jesus died and rose (completely) for the forgiveness of my sins.  Jesus died and rose (completely) that I may have new life.  Jesus died and rose (completely) to give us hope in this cold dark world. 

Jesus died and rose…COMPLETELY…FOR YOU and FOR ME!

No amount of evidence is going to deny that or prove it wrong.  It is just not there.  So I thank God for challenging me.  I thank God for kicking me in the butt.  I thank God for helping see (again) the incredible gift we have in Jesus Christ.  My faith has not been shaken…only strengthened.

My encouragement to you is to go back to your Bible.  Read the Gospel accounts.  Pray and then listen (prayer is a two way street).  Pull out you catechism and read it through.  Ask questions.  Explore.  Re-examine your faith.  But in the end, know that:  "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not died but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

Bring on the speculation…bring on the statistics and probabilities.  Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, died and rose for you.  That fact will never change.  Praise be to God always and forever…Amen! -edh-