Walking in the Valley A weekly column for those who live and walk in Silicon Valley by Barbara Dahlgren

The Lord Works in Mysterious Ways Column for the week of April 11-17, 2004

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Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ, has been seen by over 30 million people and made $340 million. Gibson, a good moviemaker and apparently a marketing genius, opened the movie on Ash Wednesday and it continues to awe audiences through the Easter season. Whether his motive was money or madness only God can determine but one thing is for sure, he managed to get people talking about Christ at a time of year when people should be talking about Christ. Christians are pondering plaintively scriptural phrases like by His stripes we are healed (1 Peter 2:24) and his visage was marred more than any man (Isaiah 52:14). Non-Christians want to learn more of this man called Jesus. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

The purpose of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection remain a mystery to some. Not the one The DaVinci Code would have us believe but closer to Stephen Prothero’s American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon. Jesus is everywhere in America. He’s in movies, artwork, books, and news magazines. The reality of this hit me when I saw him on the cover of Popular Mechanics last year. People are fascinated with this man/God. They are consumed with a mixture of doubt that he existed and a yearning for Him to be real. Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ can convince almost anyone but a “don’t confuse me with the facts” person that Christ did exist. Perhaps Gibson’s movie can do much in convincing skeptics that He was God and had a purpose in mind. For who but God could willingly endure what He did?

As powerful as Christ’s death is, the real power lies in the prophesied resurrection. (Psalm 16:10; Matthew 20:19; John 2:19-22) For if there is no resurrection everything a Christian does is in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:14-22) It is this resurrection that gives man victory over death. In Satan’s eagerness to convince us the resurrection didn’t happen, wild theories abound. The body was stolen. Jesus recovered from His wounds. The Biblical account is mythology. Miracles cannot happen. The disciples stole the body. Jesus never died; He just fainted. The ladies went to the wrong tomb. Jesus plotted to make it look like he died and rose again. And my personal favorite, Jesus had a twin brother. All can be refuted if one takes the time to do the research. But that’s where Satan has been very clever. He doesn’t have to prove a theory; he just has to plant the seed of doubt.

Early Christians knew Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead. Why else would they go everywhere to preach the gospel? What could they gain from propagating a lie? They were ridiculed, stoned, beaten, martyred, and killed for their beliefs. Even in death they believed they too would rise again to be with Christ. They knew that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believed on Him would not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

You see, the story of the resurrection is not so much one filled with mystery as it is with love. And that’s something we can take comfort in all year long, not just at Easter time.

Be sure to visit this page every week to read the next edition of Walking in the Valley. You can write to the author at bdahlgren@wcgsouthbay.org.