Jesus left few traces of himself on earth. He wrote no books or even pamphlets. A wanderer, he left no home or even belongings that could be enshrined in a museum. He did not marry, settle down, and begin a dynasty. We would, in fact, know nothing about him except for the traces he left in human beings. That was his design. (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p.228).
As I reflect on Yancey’s words, I have to agree. In fact, it occurs to me that God has operated in much the same way. There is little left of what God has done that can be put in a museum. The Ark of the Covenant has not been seen by the crowds since Babylon sacked Jerusalem in 586 B.C. One short stretch of wall stands in Jerusalem that may have been part of Solomon’s temple. People claim to have found Noah’s ark but that still is uncertain. Others claim to have bits and pieces of the cross or the cup from which Christ drank the night of his arrest or the shroud in which he was buried but these are all speculative.
As a culture we strive to preserve every artifact we can find related to the birth of our nation, wars we have fought, even tragedies we have experienced. We catalogue them, put them in history books, and carefully display them in impressive buildings. But God and Jesus seem to have done just the opposite. Little, if any, hard-core evidence exists of God’s intervention on earth. Why has he chosen to camouflage himself in such ways? I can think of several reasons.
First of all, the nature of man seems to seek out objects of worship and even makes the things that should simply remind us of God into little gods themselves. We’re told that the bronze staff that Moses lifted up in the wilderness to save the people from a plague of serpents was destroyed because Israel was worshipping the staff rather than the God who had empowered the staff. The cross, in some cases, is worn like a good luck charm rather than a reminder of the one who died for us. For many the Wailing Wall is Jerusalem is seen as a point of contact with the God of Israel who does not dwell in temples or in walls. If God had left the relics of his supernatural moves on the earth many would be worshipping them instead of the God who wielded them.
Secondly, the absence of such things reminds us that the museums of heaven are worth far more than the museums of earth. Jesus left little physical evidence of himself because he was not invested in this realm but in the spiritual realm. He was laying up treasures in heaven rather than building grand pyramids on earth. His concern was the applause of his heavenly Father rather than the crowds who had wanted to make his king one day and cried out to release Barabbas a few days later.
More than that, however, is that Jesus chose to leave the evidence of his existence in the hands and hearts of men. In a sense we are the evidence that he came, died, and ascended. We are his museums that carry the faith and the power of heaven. We are the temple of God and the evidence of his reality must be passed on from generation to generation. Augustine said, “You ascended from before our eyes, and we turned back grieving, only to find you in our hearts.” His church carries the evidence of the reality of Jesus having come to earth, having taught us about heaven and then having died for our sins and being raised again. The compelling evidence is not in our buildings or ancient cathedrals but in the lives of people who wear his name today.
It’s not that there is no external evidence that Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth. No serious historian doubts that. But the questions arise about who Jesus really was…a carpenter, a philosopher, a Rabbi caught up in his own story, or the very Son if God who died for us and now lives in our hearts by his Spirit? Most men will not be convinced by relics in a museum, since they were not even convinced when Jesus raised the dead. They will be convinced by the quality of life lived out by his followers and the love of Christ displayed through them.
I need to remember that and I need to ask myself how much evidence of the reality of Jesus will people see in me today? Will my words and my actions make them more or less convinced of Jesus? May we all be compelling evidence to the people we encounter today that Jesus does indeed live.
