All of our stories at South City Church are different; but they inevitably converge around a single constant: every one of us has been captivated — and even changed — by the story of the man, Jesus, and the strange events surrounding his life and death.
Jesus has ignited controversy from his first public appearance, and that won't change any time soon. It's strange how quickly we can forget an Alexander or Napolean, but Jesus remains impossible to ignore. Here is what we've been able to determine about Jesus to our own satisfaction:
He really lived. It's popular in some circles to hold that Jesus is really a legend compiled from various mythological and religious sources. We don't think this holds much water. For one thing, a number of eyewitnesses put their reputations (and lives) on the line in declaring their experiences with the man to many skeptical hearers. In fact, most of them who knew him best did die rather than change their tune. You don't do that for something you know to be a fiction.
He displayed supernatural power. Jesus isn't much worth mentioning if you don't take the accounts of his miracles seriously. Strange as it seems to the modern mind, he healed the blind and lame, raised people from the dead, and showed tremendous control over nature. He also showed limitless compassion for all kinds of difficult and marginalized people. From the perspective of our world today, that may be the most supernatural thing of all.
He rose from the dead. It's not evey day that you see someone executed, put in a tomb, and then turn up for breakfast a few days later. It might seem easy to claim that his followers just fabricated the whole resurrection thing. Problem is, the authorities foresaw that possibility and put a SWAT team around the tomb. Yet it was almost certainly empty three days later. Does that mean anything for us today? We tend to think it does.