Passover 2019
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If you were to say to me one-on-one. "Michael, I don’t really have any doubt about my faith (wink-wink) but I know someone who does. Could you help me talk to them?” Maybe you would tell me your friend is religious and goes to church or synagogue to to make their husband or wife happy, give their kids good morals or just get free baby sitting but they don’t buy into this whole faith in Yeshua thing.
First, I wouldn't try to defend the history of the church because the church has done some really goofy things and there's some really embarrassing not just weekends of church history, but seasons of church history.
Second, I would not try to magnify messianic Judaism as some noble new institution doing everything better that what everybody else has done.
Third, I would not try to wax eloquent on religious superior moral values and ethics based on the Bible. Let’s face it, the world is small enough that we know other religions around the world also have strong moral codes.
Last, I wouldn't try to convince you with the Bible says so, so it must be so.
I would put all my chips on the event: the Resurrection. Not the Passover but the Resurrection. It was the Resurrection not the last Passover that made people stand up and go “Wow” “are you kidding me.” Christians get the formula wrong all the time. The emphasize Passover, death, before or ahead of the resurrection. The Resurrection is what makes the Passover so incredible. Rabbi Paul put all his chips on the Resurrection:
1 Cor 15:17
And if Messiah has not been raised, your faith is futile—you are still in your sins.
The Resurrection is everything not an additional thing.
Before there was “the church” or “messianic Judaism” or “Christian Ethics” or a “New Testament” there was the Resurrection.. In fact, when Yeshua rose from the dead, this is important, when Yeshua rose from the dead, the people in the vicinity of Jerusalem in Judea, they did exactly what you would have done if you had seen someone die knew where they were buried and then had breakfast with him on the beach a few days later. They started to talk about it everywhere. This was there social media, the 1st century social media which was they began talking about it and they began to write about it, they begin to talk about it and they began to write about it.
Then as rumors spread people wanted to know “Who really saw this Resurrection.” The eyewitness stepped forward: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Jacob. Before there was ever a New Testament there were these guys testifying about that Guy Yeshua risen from the dead. That’s why I can say this, we believe Yeshua rose from the dead not because the New Testament says so, because so many people believed Yeshua rose from the dead long before there was a Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.
There eyewitness testimony could be denied but not falsified. There were too many witnesses. This is what changed everything. There was this guy, that if we were having a conversation across the table, about the validity of faith in Yeshua, that I would tell you to consider whether your friend is Jewish or not. His name is Shmu’el HaKatan, or Samuel the Small.
Sometimes around 80-90 AD, a leading rabbinic figure named Rabbi Gamaleil called for a special prayer to be formed. Samuel the Small stood before for the Sanhedrin that’d been reconstituted after the devastating fall of Jerusalem in ad 70. He would form one of the most devastating curses ever against Jewish followers of Yeshua.
All pious Jews at this point in history recited the prayer called the Amidah “standing prayer” three times a day. These prayers are presumed to pre-date the life of Yeshua by a 100+ years. He knew of these prayers, see my older sermon series. They contain blessings and prayers for prosperity, salvation, release from captivity, the restoration of Jerusalem and a davidic king. As a whole the prayer called the Amidah is a good prayer.
But, sometime around 80-90 AD they added the famous 19th benediction. The Talmud records the event:
Rabban Gamaliel asked the sages: Is there anyone who knows how to word the benediction relating to the Nazarenes? Samuel the small stood up and worded it.…
And what does this benediction say:
For the renegades let there be no hope, and may the arrogant kingdom soon be rooted out in our days, and the Nazarenes [i.e. followers of Yeshua] and the heretics perish as in a moment and be rooted out from the book of life and with the righteous may they not be inscribed. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who humblest the arrogant.
The Talmud goes on to say about this curse:
Rab Judah has said in the name of Rab: If a reader made a mistake in any of the other benedictions, they do not expel him from the community, but if in the benediction of the Nazarene, he is expelled, because we suspect him of being a heretic, a Nazarene. (TB Berakhot 28b–29a)
Oskar Skarsaune, In the Shadow of the Temple: Jewish Influences on Early Christianity (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 197–198.
Now, all of you've heard and know about blessings. This is hardly a blessing, it is a curse of the highest degree.
Timeline: Here is the really interesting thing. The curse on the Nazarenes was framed sometime in 80 AD. There was no such thing as a New Testament for another 100 years. Remember, a Jewish believer named Melito of Sardis coined that term in 180 AD.
Now, here's a really important question if we were sitting across the table from each other and I was trying to get you to consider Yeshua, I would ask you this question. I would say, Q:”Why were Jewish leaders 50 years after the death of Yeshua put in a defense posture if the resurrection was not real?" Because this prayer against the Nazarenes (messianic jews) was framed some 50 years after the events of the life of Yeshua.
Timeline: Before I answer the question, interestingly enough, Samuel the Small, the man who framed the curse on the Nazarenes within about 5-6 years is accused of being a Nazarene and disappears from Jewish writings. Something stopped him from uttering those words, voluntarily he went against his own curse and faced expulsion. Not just him, the record in the Talmud itself shows several leading Rabbis who were expelled from the synagogue.
Good Graphic Slide Here: This is why this is important. Two scholars, Sherwin-White, conducted studies on “myth” development. They said the it takes at least two generations or 80 years for something to turn into a myth.
And the reason it takes so long for something to become a myth is because all the people who were eyewitnesses of the original event have to be what? They have to be dead. The interesting thing is this, this is just history, this isn't Bible study. This is just history.
Timeline: Interestingly, history tells us that there was widespread belief in Israel and in the Roman provinces about a virgin birth, sinless life, death on a cross and resurrection of Yeshua far too early for these things to have been a myth. There were far too many people in Jerusalem alone who said “yes” that happened or “no” that did not happen for this to be a myth.
History tells us that the ancient synagogue targeted Jewish followers of the Messiah most of whom were from Israel who believed Yeshua rose from the dead. They tried to censor them from talking about their eyewitness account of the Resurrection. Censor because it was Fact not Fiction.
The answer to the question is simply this. A: There were thousands of messianic Jews in Israel and scattered all over the Roman provinces in synagogues within 50-60 years of the life of Yeshua who talked to someone who was an eyewitness to the resurrection of Yeshua.
And here's why I would start the conversation here. Because in college and in higher education and in culture, people are quick to say, "Well, that whole Yeshua thing, it was all fabricated, it was all made up, people copied things and they mis-copied things. It was all just a myth. Like the Roman myths.” And as time went on, the legend got bigger, and bigger, and bigger and then they decided Yeshua rose from the dead, but Yeshua didn't rise from the dead and I don't believe in a resurrection, I don't believe it was possible.
The problem is simply this, those who had the most to loose, the early Jewish leaders and Romans, believed Yeshua rose from the dead way before there was a New Testament and way too soon for Yeshua’s life to have been mythologized. These Jewish leaders like Samuel the Small and Roman citizens and many others faxed expulsion from Jewish life and the threat of being part of an illegal religion by Roman standards.
And if there were thousands of people in Jerusalem and in Babylon and in Jerusalem 50 years after the resurrection saying there was a resurrection, that meant there were thousands of people there 20 years after the resurrection. There were hundreds of people there 10 years after the resurrection. That when you do the math and you look at the timeline, it's virtually impossible. In fact, it is impossible to conclude that there had been enough time for this myth to have grown to the point where people would believe in a resurrection, especially, so close to Jerusalem where it would have been easiest to disapprove it’s accuracy.
Then I would want to look at one of eye-witness accounts of Yeshua’s resurrection with you. What makes this specific eye-witness account so important is the date and name of this witness. If anyone had reason to bust the myth, expose the great lie, to set the record straight, it is this guy.
Make Timeline Graphic: The person I am referring to is none other than John the son of Zebedee. He was part of Yeshua’s inner circle and first followers. Not a religious person by trade but a fisherman (Matt 4:21-22). He and his brother Jacob both followed Yeshua and it appears through the gospels that Jacob is more important than John because Jacob’s name is always listed before John. Maybe he was the little brother. This is the John who was so upset that their were other people driving out demons in Yeshua’s name that he wanted permission to call down fire upon them (Luke 9:49-54) and Yeshua has to calm his fire. This is the same disciple who his mother came and asked Yeshua to make him and his brother president and vice-president of the new Yeshua kingdom (Mark 10:35-39). This also was the disciple that was tasked with preparing the Seder for Yeshua along with Peter (Luke 22:8), the one who sat closest to Yeshua at the last Passover meal (John 13:23), the only one of this male disciples who did not abandon him at the cross (John 19:25-27).
He also was the longest living original follower of Yeshua. History tells us that he lived through the persecution of Nero, lived through the destruction of the Temple, was present and alive when the curse not he Nazarenes was framed and spoken. Was exiled to the island of Patmos where he wrote the Revelation, released and wrote 1, 2, 3 John and eventually died in Ephesus sometime in the 90s AD.
Here is why I think John’s Eyewitness Gospel is so important. He lived through the worst of times to be a follower of Yeshua. If there was anyone who would want to back peddle, anyone who would want to renounce this whole thing as pure fiction, it has to be John. His own brother, Jacob, was either the first martyr for a myth or the first martyr for the truth of the resurrection. By the time John writes his Gospel and his letters, he has lost more than he has gained. Family, friends, property, business, community, synagogue, it is all gone.
If anyone had reason to bust the myth, expose the great lie, to set the record straight, just go back to your Torah, go back to your usual Passover celebrations, it is John.
I would ask you to consider the very real threat against John for his eyewitness account:
This is the disciple who is an eyewitness of these things and wrote these things. We know that his testimony is true.
In other words, John wrote down his Gospel probably around 80 AD. Samuel the Small was writing his curse against the Nazarenes, messianic Jews were targeted by the synagogue and by Rome. John was basically saying: I will go to trial over this account. I will stand before judge and jury, before senate and people and tell you what my own eyes saw.
He was saying “The facts are my friend. And, my friends, these are the facts.”
Could you imagine someone coming to John sayinng, “Okay, you got ten minutes to convince me Yeshua is the promised Messiah of Israel. Ten minutes or I go to the authorities. Ten minutes to prove to me that he truly rose from the dead and therefore is leading the second Exodus as our Messiah.”
John goes okay. Let’s start with the fact that on the day that Yeshua died, when Yeshua was crucified, everybody unfollowed Yeshua. Not a good way to start the story. As a matter of fact, John never paints himself as a hero. More so a blundering friend then a patriotic hero of Yeshua.
He says, “The problem with Yeshua was, Yeshua claimed too much about himself and got himself killed.” And when Yeshua died, it undermined everything Yeshua taught about himself. He said that, "I am the way, the truth and the life." or "The way, the truth and the life can't die." He said that, "I am the resurrection and the life." Well, we all thought, if you are the resurrection and life, you cannot die. He claimed to be the Son of Man. He inferred that he was the Son of God. He would infer that he was God's chosen person and he tipped his hat to the fact that he was God's Messiah, but messiahs create kingdoms they are not supposed to be crucified, the Son of Man can't be killed and the Son of God is not going to allow himself to be buried.
He starts off by saying, we all kind of thought this thing was bogus too. As a matter of fact, It was not until after the resurrection we realized how off based our thoughts were,
So after He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He was talking about this. Then they believed the Scripture and the word that Yeshua had spoken.
All of us were really disappointed with Yeshua dying. We did not get it. We were blindsided and felt like the whole thing was probably a sham. We just thought, “game over.” There was nothing to hold onto. There was no movement to keep alive. There was no message worth repeating because Yeshua said too much about himself and then he allowed himself to be taken into custody, convicted, tried and crucified. There was no one outside the tomb counting down from 10 waiting for him to come out of the Tomb.”
And the interesting thing is, and again, if you were allowing me to try to convince you, I would remind you this, in the gospel narratives; Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, what Peter wrote, what Jacob wrote, what the apostle Paul wrote, nobody wrote himself into the story as a hero.
John will basically tell us that they just went back to their day jobs
Simon Peter said to them, “I’m going fishing.” “We’re coming with you too,” they said. They went out and got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing.
You see, if you're making this up, somebody would write themself in that as the hero. No one else believed, but I believed, no one else was there to see when it came out of the tomb, but I was there. But every single narrative and every single person that has anything to do with the story of Yeshua, they all admit, "None of us believed he was coming back, none of us believed we would see him alive, no one was expecting a resurrection."
And that's where our story actually begins. You ready? John tells us this and John got this information from the source because John was a follower of Yeshua who lost faith like everybody else did when Yeshua was crucified. John definitely gets credit for hanging around at the cross with Yeshua and his mom but the minute that body came down dead, he was like, guess we made a mistake on this one.
Here's where the story begins.
Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it is still dark, Miriam from Magdala comes to the tomb. She sees that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb.
"Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark." Early on the first day of the week, the Sabbath ends when the sun goes down on Saturday evening. "Early on the first day of the week, although it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb."
In other words, this early on Sunday morning. She could not go to the tomb because of laws surrounding the Sabbath and mourning and visiting graves. Those laws still exist today. You can’t get into the Jewish cemetery on a Saturday.
Early on Sunday morning before the sun came up, Mary Magdalene, a woman that Yeshua had set free from a life of prostitution. And when he healed her, she became a Yeshua follower and she was one of those people that had high hopes for Yeshua, that he was in fact everything he claimed to be, that he was in fact the long awaited for messiah. And she woke up early that morning and even though her heart was broken, even though none of this made sense. She was so grateful for what Yeshua had done for her, she decided to go to the tomb and see if somehow she can get someone or a lot of someones to move that stone so that she could re-embalm or re-prepare his body for burial. Since things were rushed after the crucifixion because of Passover laws, she wanted him to have a proper Jewish burial.
Again, if this was a fake story made up by somebody far removed from Jewish life, from Jewish culture, none of these details would be present. Women were not qualified as witnesses in the first century. This detail would have been left out if it was a lie.
She decides to go to the tomb because she's all mourned out, she's extraordinarily grateful. And here's the most important part, she expected to find a body. John tells us that when she got there, she saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. Now, what was her assumption? He's alive, he's risen from the dead? No,
So she comes running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Yeshua loved. She tells them, “They’ve taken the Master out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve put Him!”
Mary assume someone the worst: grave robbers. Do you know why? Not because she was not a superstitious person, or paranoid by nature but because she was not expecting a resurrection. Nobody expected a resurrection, nobody.
The Passover story did not include a resurrection of a lamb but the deliverance of a people. No one was expecting this.
The text tells us, "So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one that Yeshua loved." Mary sees an empty tomb, she does not say, "He's alive, He's alive." She runs all the way back to the city, she runs into the house where Peter and John because they're not up early, they're not at the tomb, they're afraid because they know this, if they came for Yeshua, they're probably going to come for us. And if they could get Yeshua, certainly they could get us and everybody knows that we are his followers even though Peter denied being Yeshua followers, one of Yeshua followers right after he was arrested. She burst through the door, it is early in the morning, the sun is just coming up and here's what she says, not "He's risen, he's alive." She says, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they have put him."
None of the guy say, “Now, Mary we know from the Bible the Yeshua is going to rise from the dead, now let’s pray.” No, they thought the worst because none of them were expecting a resurrection.
For Mary and the guys now, the story is getting worse-and-worse he allowed himself to be taken as a prisoner, then he allowed himself to be tried and then crucified, and now someone has stolen the body.
Then Peter and the other disciple set out, going to the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and arrived at the tomb first. Leaning in, he sees the linen strips lying there. But he didn’t go in.
Well, Peter and John don't know what to think so they get up and they run through the city and they run out the gate and they run to the place where Yeshua was buried and they look into that empty tomb, and there's nobody there, and neither of them concluded in that moment that Yeshua had come back to life.
Then Simon Peter comes following him, and he entered the tomb. He looks upon the linen strips lying there, and the face cloth that had been on His head. It was not lying with the linen strips, but was rolled up in a place by itself. So then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also entered. He saw and believed. For they did not yet understand from Scripture that Yeshua must rise from the dead. So the disciples went back to their own homes.
They run all the way there, they look in the tomb and then they go back into the city because they don't know what to do, they don't know what to think, they don't know what to believe. They just went back to their homes.
Again, John is not making himself into a hero. He says, “we got there saw no body and we just assumed Yeshua’s body had been removed by a bunch of nobodies.” He says we did not get it, we did not get the Scriptures until after the Resurrection.
But meanwhile, Mary Magdalene slowly makes her way back to the tomb and she stays there.
But Miriam stood outside the tomb weeping. As she was weeping, she bent down to look into the tomb.
And when she told John this story, here's what she said. Now, Mary stood outside the tomb crying, literally weeping. Imagine the emotion. "This man changed my life. This man changed my life and then he was crucified. Here was the greatest man that has ever lived, here is the man who touched people no one would touch, who spent time with people no one would spend time with and he was crucified. Again, he wasn't just exiled, he was crucified. And now, they won't even leave his body alone. Where do I turn? What do I do? God didn't come through, it didn't work out. Who can I trust?" And as she wept, this is so powerful, as she wept, she bent over and she looked into the tomb.
Now, Peter and John have just been there and they've left. She's finally made her way back.
She sees two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where Yeshua’s body had been lying.
She looks into the tomb and she saw two angels in white, she doesn't know there are angels, seated where Yeshua body had been one at the head and the other at the foot. And these angels ask Mary Magdalene a question that resolves a centuries-old question. And the question is, "Are angels men or women, are angels male or female?"
“Woman, why are you crying?” they say to her. She says to them, “Because they took away my Master, and I don’t know where they’ve put Him.”
They ask her, "Woman, why are you crying?" We know angels are men because only a man would ask a woman, "Why are you crying." Just a little resurrection humor there in the story. Anyway, so they say to her, "Woman, why are you crying?" And listen to what she says, she's just heartbroken, imagine. This is just gut wrenching drama. She says, "They have taken... " Again, nobody thinks Yeshua rose from the dead. She still believes there were grave robbers and the thing is grave robbers usually take things from a body who would steal a body unless they had evil intentions, unless they were going to desecrate and show disrespect for that body.
"They've taken my Lord." She said, "And I don't know where they have put him." And then she hears something stirring behind her and John says this, "At this," this is so powerful,
After she said these things, she turned around. And she sees Yeshua standing there. Yet she didn’t know that it was Yeshua.
She turned around and saw Yeshua standing there, but she did not realize it was Yeshua." Now, we don't know because it was still dark. We don't know because it was shaded. We don't know because of the distance. We don't know because he looked different, but she sees Yeshua and she doesn't recognized him. And she turned right back around and keep staring into the tomb. But I think Yeshua has a huge grin on his face because he knows she is moments away from everything being made new. Because if Yeshua is alive, everything about everything changes and the knowledge that he is alive was about to change everything for her. With a grin on his face, he asked her the same question the angels asked, but he gives her a clue to the fact that maybe she should pay attention to what's going on around her.
She's staring into the empty tomb and from behind he says,
Yeshua says to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” Thinking He’s the gardener, she says to Him, “Sir, if You’ve carried Him away, tell me where You’ve put Him, and I will take Him away.”
"Woman, why are you crying?" And he sees her staring into the tomb and then he says, I'm sure he's having to just withhold his emotion as well when he says, "Who is it you're looking for?" And then John tells us, and I think this is one of the hilarious moments in the gospels that we don't think is funny because when we read the Bible, we read it so seriously, thinking he was the gardener. Now, exactly, I think
Mary told the story for the rest of her life because people would say, "Mary, you're Mary Magdalene and you were one of the first to look into the empty tomb. Mary tell us your story." She told this story until she was an old woman. Everybody wanted to hear this story. And I think, when she got to this part of the story she would say, "You're not going to believe it. I'm staring into the tomb, I'm talking to this guy behind me and I thought he was the gardener." And everybody laughs.
And do you know why she thought he was a gardener? Because nobody expected a resurrection and even when they were looking into an empty tomb, no one assumed that Yeshua was alive, they expected him to stay dead. And she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, if you know where he is, would you tell me and I will go and get him?" And she's staring into the empty tomb and she's talking to this gentleman over her shoulder. And Yeshua says, I love this,
Yeshua says to her, “Miriam!” Turning around, she says to Him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).
"Miram" And when she hears her name and when she hears that voice, she puts it together and everything changes. And the text says this, because she told John this, "And she turned toward him and she cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" Which means teacher. We know the word rabbi.
And then she runs toward Yeshua of course she does. And Yeshua says and we don't understand why he said this, but he does.
Yeshua says to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet gone up to the Father. Go to My brothers and tell them, ‘I am going up to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.’ ”
Yeshua said to her, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father." And then he gives her instructions and this is so important, I'll tell you why in just a second. He says, "Go instead to my brothers and tell them I am ascending to my Father," I love this "And your father, to my God and to your God." In other words, "Mary, I know you've already been to the city once, I need you to go back to the city and this time, you're not gonna tell them that the tomb is been opened and you don't know where the body is, this time, you have a completely different message."
And Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news, "I have seen the Lord.”
Miriam from Magdala comes, announcing to the disciples, “I’ve seen the Lord,” and what He had said to her.
Let me tell you why this is such a big deal. You see, in the ancient world, in the 1st century, women had no credibility at all. Zero. A woman could not testify in court. If you brought a witness to court and it was a woman, everybody would just laugh, she wasn't even allowed to testify. Women had no credibility. If you were making this up, if you were trying to fabricate a story about something you wanted people to believe in the 1st century, you would not have a woman be a witness to anything because no one takes that seriously. But do you know why in the gospels, all the gospels tell us that the woman saw Yeshua first and told the men? Do you know why the gospel say it that way? That's what happened. You can’t change the facts you can only be a friend of the facts.
At the end of John’s life, the facts have not changed. Though he has watched his brother beheaded, his friend Peter crucified, that Rabbi who used to be murdered because a beheaded martyr named Paul, the great Roman persecution against believers lighting them on fire as night lights, feeding them to lions, exile, imprisonment, loss of everything, vagabonds and worse. He says this:
For many deceivers have gone out into the world—those who do not acknowledge Yeshua as Messiah coming in human flesh. This one is a deceiver and the anti-messiah.
You are either a friend of the facts or self-deceived.
And my friends, this changes everything for us as well. It is the context for every decision, it is the context for every relationship, it is the context for everything we do with our time, the way we dream, the way we plan, the way we treat other people, that Yeshua is alive. Because of the resurrection, think about this, because of the resurrection, you can pray knowing that God hears your prayers because the same Yeshua that came back to life is the same Yeshua that tells you and tells me, "When you pray, you pray as if God is your father. And when you pray, you can pray knowing that God knows exactly what you need even before you ask. But God wants you to ask him anyway because that's what good fathers do." And you can pray knowing that God hears your prayers because Yeshua said, "When you pray in private, God hears your secret prayers and will reward you openly." And the reason you can believe that is not simply because Yeshua said it and you certainly don't believe that just because it's in the Bible, you believe it because Yeshua rose from the dead and substantiated and punctuated everything he taught, everything he said.
See, it's because of the resurrection that you can live knowing there's life beyond this life because it's Yeshua that taught us about heaven. Did you know that before Yeshua came along, most Jewish people thought that when you died, that was it, it's over. All the pagans thought that when you died, that was it, it's over. It's Yeshua who introduced an idea worth sharing, introduced us to the idea of life eternal, not memorized life because people will remember you eternally, eternal life in a different kind of life, a quality of life. It was Yeshua that said to his disciples, "I am going to prepare a place for you and I'm gonna come back for you that you can be with me someday." And none of that made sense and none of that was believable until he rose from the dead. And suddenly, all of that made sense and all of that was something a person can believe. It means that every time you attend a funeral of a Christian, every time you bury someone you love, there is hope, not because the Bible says so, but because Yeshua rose from the dead.
And do you know what else it means, the resurrection, for some of you, those of you who are students? This is so extraordinarily important. It means that you can sacrifice knowing that your faith matters, that when you say no to opportunities and when you say no to income, and when you say no to gratuitous pleasures, and when you say no to things that you feel like, "Everyone else is gonna think I'm a fool."
You can make choices based on your faith that are good for you knowing that science is always just catching up to your faith. Science tells us if you want to be successful you have to be positive first but we have been saying that for 2,000 years (Phil 4:7). Science is now telling us that community is more important for a healthy long life free from physical and mental disease but Messiah was putting that forward 2000 years ago. If science is just catching up, I am going with what is already ahead, my faith.
But here's the best news of all. Because of the eyewitness accounts of the resurrection your faith is not based on a fable but on the facts of history. And it rests on those who remain a friend of the facts or the friends of a fable.
I would tell you to tell your friend we all have doubts about religion and religious people. I am not looking to that, I am leaning into the facts to be my friends and that is the foundation of my faith and the plumb line of my life. My faith and the facts gives back to me a positive outlook, gives me intellectual courage, gives me community, gives me back more than I can ever put into it.
So, I have put all my chips on the event: The Resurrection.