A man crosses against the “no walk” sign heading into speeding traffic. Someone grabs his arm to stop him, and says: “What, are you crazy?! No sane person would do so, for our first instinct is to preserve our own lives.
Many argue that the Apostles might have been fools, liars, or insane because they followed Christ. But the crucifixion dispels the inanity claim. For unlike our J – walker, as soon as Christ was crucified they all went into hiding in fear that the same fate awaited them as well. It was not His followers who sat outside His tomb waiting for Him to rise as He had promised. Rather, His enemies were those who guarded His tomb with uncertain fear because He might keep His promise and in so doing render them irrelevant.
It was at Pentecost that the apostles emerged from their hiding. For Christ said He would send them the Holy Spirit only after He had ascended to His father. It is then through illumination by the Holy Spirit did the Apostles come to understand the truth that was and is Christ. Through truth did they shake off all doubt that had kept them in hiding. No longer would they return to their life professions but would now spend their lives as CHRIST had commissioned them; spreading the Gospel of Christ to make believers of all men and women throughout the world.
The proof of their confidence and understanding in the Divine Truth that they had witnessed for three years through Christ’s teaching and works was to have their throats cut in an unwillingness to renounce their Master. The doubt that once compelled them to hide in fear was vanquished by absolute truth revealed at Pentecost. And by that the once sane men had seemingly now become insane. But any act or cause such as these which are clearly compelled by a revelation of absolute divine truth is worth dying for. And in that is the truest example of sanity. Should one, contrarily, gives one’s life for a lie then that is truly insane.
CROSSROADS-Right Choices 