Today's Gospel

Are You Casual with the Truth?

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we explore the genius of Jesus, the genius of the gospels, and look for ways to further live out the message that Jesus invites us to live each day. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 28:8-15. So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell His disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, "Hail." And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshipped Him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me." While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sum of money to the soldiers and said, "Tell people His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep. And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.

So what is it that jumps out at you today? Already, we have here in the very beginning stories spreading about the resurrection. And what I find fascinating from the story is its internal inconsistency. So let's read it again and see if we pick up on it. So the elders gave the soldiers the sum of money and said, "Tell people His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep." Do you see it? The internal inconsistency is that if you're asleep, how do you know who stole Him away? And of course, if you knew who was stealing Jesus away, well, then you wouldn't have been asleep, and you would have stopped them. And so very often when people make things up, when people lie, people sometimes as ourselves, of course, that there's these inconsistencies, internal inconsistencies to the stories that they tell. And we see that just plain as day here. Tell people that while you were asleep, the disciples came and took Jesus. Okay, well, if you were asleep, how do you know who took Jesus? And of course, nobody took Jesus; Jesus rose from the dead.

But maybe today is an opportunity for us to reflect upon, hey, when do we spin stories? When do we tell people, well, don't tell people that, tell people this. How are we casual with the truth? And how is that affecting us, our relationships, our spiritual health, our physical health, our mental health? How is it affecting us in all of those ways? Have a great day. Remember, don't just be yourself. Be the-very-best-version-of-yourself, all that God created you to be.