When I am telling a story I try my best to include all of the details. I expect no less when I am hearing stories. I demand all of the details. Who wants to hear half of a story anyway? Weren't you frustrated at the end of the Fellowship of the Ring when it just cuts off when things are getting really good. What happened to Frodo and Sam? What about watching the "end" of the first half of The Deathly Hollows. Not cool... I cannot stand it when books like these end up as movies and leave out all of the good details or they may not only do that, but also add ridiculous stuff like Prince Caspian and Susan kissing. Poor C.S. Lewis. I usually leave the movie frustrated and hating the movie makers.
Sometimes we see the trailers and hear about the movies from our friends. After all of that we have formulated our own opinions of these movies and may or may not watch them. I myself have not seen one Twilight movie and have no intention of doing so based on what I have heard. This may or may not be fair though.
When it comes to Jesus, we all have our opinions. Some are good, some are bad, some are true, others inaccurate. When it comes down to it, many of those opinions are based off of what we have heard, or maybe even read in books that others have written. Some people try to see for themselves and attempt to read one of the Gospels. I myself struggle sometimes with sticking with it. Sometimes my eyes glaze over as I am reading the words on the page. Sometimes I feel almost numb to the story. I have heard it countless times at school, church, retreats, etc. I forget how meaningful and important the story really is, how it changed my life.
This morning I finished reading Luke and I remembered that this book was written by Luke to one of his friend to tell him everything Luke knew about Jesus. The book starts out like this:
"Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught." Luke 1:1-4
Luke was a good man who liked details. How neat! He also valued getting our stories straight and forming our own thoughts about Jesus. He like Matthew, Mark, and John wanted people to not only hear about Jesus, but to read about him too. Luke cared so much about this story that he "carefully investigated everything from the beginning".
Dear friend, Please do not be like the poor movie goers that only get half of the story and all of the extras that were not in the story in the first place. Today I encourage you to try reading the story for yourself. It may just surprise you.
