So Is It A Lie or The Truth?

My kids are raving about Sherlock Holmes, apparently the latest crime drama series of the famous sleuth created by author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Produced by BBC Television, it won the 2011 BAFTA TV award for Best Drama Series. I venture it's garnered a huge fan base since it features a handsome hero (as always) and is now modernized into a very contemporary 21st century setting. But most of all it presents an irresistable appeal to every man's innate curiosity about solving mysteries and the celebration of man's pride - the logical deductive processes of the human mind. I sat through 1 1/2 hrs of the latest season episode, which of coz ended in a cliff-hanger but honestly, I have to say it didn't do much for me. Sure, the twists and turns of the plots made for interesting mind-games. Obviously the highlight was on the ingenuity of the detective,  which borders on the fantastic, made even more endearing by his somewhat ascerbic character to whom his side-kick Dr. Watson made a nice contrast. The episode I saw unrolled a grand scheme of  the master villain (of coz there must be one) cooking up an elaborate conspiracy to present the hero as a fraud, and in the process, driving Holmes to commit suicide for the sake of saving his (few) frens left, since the whole world has been successfully manipulated into believing the lie. But of coz, he isn't dead; which leaves everyone panting after the coming season as to how Holmes managed to fake his own death, when he clearly jumped off  a building and ended up very dead, at the feet of a crowd of public witnesses. 

But it got me thinking how a truth can be turned into a lie. I guess it works vice versa too, a lie can be turned into truth. So what gives? We don't need to chase the on-screen adventures of a fictional detective to know that. 2000 years ago, an event occurred in history that till today, people are still arguing  over whether it's true or false. I am sure BBC producers will come up with some great twist of how Sherlock Holmes comes back from the dead, which will undoubtedly leave all the fans gasping in admiration over the sheer genius of this character.  Yet centuries after the event, to date, no one has been able to conclusively explain the resurrection of a dead person named Jesus Christ. Certainly there are tons of conspiracy theories floating around that attempt to offer a plausible  explanation of how a man hung on a cross certified dead ( at least by most expert medical reconstruction), stuffed in a tomb for 3 days, was seen alive by not one, but many and various witnesses in not one, but several locations over a period of 40 more days.

The plan of Moriarty, the criminal mastermind arch-enemy of Holmes, was perfect to a 'T', right down to the minutest detail; that's what made it so believable as the truth even tho it was 1 huge lie. I can't help but think if the resurrection of Jesus Christ was really a lie, it's a very poor and clumsy fabrication indeed. The accounts of the disciples who wrote about the event had so many variations and discrepancies in their details so many 'holes' can be punctured into their claims of a dead man risen alive. In fact, it would make a better object lesson how NOT to tell a lie instead, since the entire story as they tell it is so unbelievable. To make a lie believable the best bet would be to come up with credible witnesses and a consistent version, like Moriarty's meticulously executed scheme.

Yet the first witnesses of Jesus' resurrection were not some notable VIPs of  society but 'mere' women, whose status then hardly qualified them as credible, quite the opposite actually. And there was only 1 consistent thing about the whole affair - Jesus was seen walking around town alive in physical flesh and blood, wearing the physical marks of nailed-pierced hands and a spear-jabbed side. No flimsy apparition floating around like Casper the friendly ghost. Oh, and 500 people saw Him ascend into heaven or as science would prefer to call it outer space. That would probably qualify it as the first recorded case of mass hysteria I suppose. Except the niggling part that all those witnesses were still alive at the time of recording and no one cried Liar, liar, pants on fire. 

Of coz the argument could run that no one bothered to record any denials, contradictory or alternative versions. But considering how many enemies Jesus had, it would have been an easy matter to just produce His dead body to debunk the disciples' claims of His resurrection. But no one did, or rather no one could; because the dead body was seen walking around by so many people. In summary to pull off the resurrection, we are looking at a really really grand conspiracy which required not just the cooperation and cover-up of quarrelsome, faint-hearted, dim-witted disciples (who by the way, had all deserted Jesus at material times) but also a host of diverse characters ranging from hostile religious authorities to 'cant-be-bothered' Roman soldiers on duty to curious 'let's see the show' hangers-on. Oh, and no one got paid to be a witness, no one gained any benefit from contributing to the 'lie', in fact all the disciples got for their insistence that the resurrection was true was marginalization, ridicule, torture and finally death . Heck, if they can't even understand Jesus when He was alive, trying to teach them deep spiritual stuff, why on earth would they defend Him when He was dead? This isn't a case of religious extremists so hung-up on their teacher they are willing to die for him. To the contrary, they were clearly cowards in their desertion and even outright denials of Jesus before the crucifixion. It's a hall-mark of the Bible that it doesn't hide any 'unfavorable' or 'imperfect' stuff; it's as honest as honest can be, right down to the character flaws of perfectly human human beings. 

Of coz one could object I am only depending on a 'mere' book. Well, not exactly a or any book. Sure,  anyone can go right ahead and question the authenticity of the good old Bible. But considering the exhaustive research which has been done regarding the compilation of this book, its accuracy in relation to places, times, dates, culture and method of transmission, to believe that it's just 1 long myth cooked up by a bunch of half-baked fanatics keen to start a new religion requires more faith than a leap into the dark void. Besides, if I wanted to get famous enough to have a world-wide fan-club idolizing me,  I certainly wouldn't choose to 'play dead' and claim to be god. There are much easier and faster ways I am sure, like 'selling' instant wealth, health and power- that's a  guaranteed clincher to 'hook' people in, even now. Or I could just dance like a monkey and put myself on U-tube (since someone else already got famous for horsing around). If I can't dance, I could always write a book about sex, sex and more sex as that seems to be mankind's constant obsession. Certainly one doesn't have to go to such extreme lengths as to die. And for goodness' sake, why choose something as ludicrous and ridiculous  as a resurrection from the dead if you want people to believe you?! - downright hare-brain idea if you ask me, more fitting as the plot for a TV drama series like Sherlock Holmes. 

So what would Sherlock Holmes do with the case of Jesus Christ, if he were to 'deduce' it? Considering the 'evidence' open for examination, if I were him, I would have to say, nope, it's too far-fetched, too unwieldy and too 'untidy' to be a lie. Which only leaves the other side of the coin - it's the truth. The Watergate scandal which cost Richard Nixon the presidency of the United States was an elaborate cover-up which involved dozens of people. Charles Colson was one of those caught and jailed for his part in it. He converted to Christianity whilst in prison and has this to say regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ, " The Watergate coverup proves that 12 powerful men in modern America couldn't keep a lie, and that 12 powerless men 2000 years ago couldn't have been telling anything else but the truth." 

Sherlock Holmes is just a fictional character, Jesus Christ is real.  Life and God aren't meant to be rationalized away into neat intellectual compartments through a series of clever deductions. They are meant to be experienced and enjoyed. That doesn't require high-powered brain cells, just a willingness to consider and accept that some seemingly impossible things in life can still be true; even though they may appear to be lies. The danger is that we end up treating the Truth as a lie, and the lie as truth.

"Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand." -  Matthew 13:13