Once upon a time, there was a man. This man was known far and wide as a controversial teacher, an itinerant speaker, a man who overturned comfortable religious doctrines in exchange for groundbreaking ideas like forgiveness, and repentance.

He wasn't a typical teacher. He didn't go to school for it. He had none of the regular qualifications. His family was poor, from the poorest sector of the country.

Time and time again, this man was challenged by the people, challenged by the authorities, and time and time again, he turned their cozy little worlds upside-down. He gave earth-shattering answers to impossible questions.

Some people gave up everything to become his students. No one told them it would be easy, and it wasn't. This man was causing a huge stir with what he was teaching. The typical religious leaders and political leaders didn't like him. He called them “hypocrites.” Many people, when listening to his lectures and speeches, left because he was teaching things they didn't understand or didn't want to talk about or didn't like.

One day, he and a group of his friends went to the capital city for a festival. He was greeted by crowds, who hailed him like they would a king. While he was having dinner, though, one of his friends slipped out to meet with a group of people who hated him and were plotting to kill him.

That night, he was assaulted by these people, arrested, and taken before the court. They questioned him, finding him guilty of blasphemy. The governor tried to get him released, but eventually he gave in to peer pressure and had the innocent man executed.

The execution was slow, brutal, and grossly inhumane. He was in agony for hours on end while the people who killed him gambled for his clothes, and crowds taunted him, watching. When he finally died, an earthquake shook the city, and a soldier watching decided that this man was from God.

That dark day passed, and another followed. Then, when some people who had followed him went to his tomb three days later, they found his body gone.

Assuming that someone had stolen it, one woman wept then and there. A man she thought was the gardener came up to her and asked what was wrong, and when she told him, he said her name. She recognized him. This teacher was alive.

That man was God incarnate, God with us. He was born to die, born to solve a problem almost as old as time itself: the problem of sin. Every human being makes mistakes, does things wrong, and is undeserving. The penalty for sin is death.

God came down to earth and paid the penalty so that you—YOU—could have life. He didn't have to, but he did it because he loves you. When he was dying in the most brutally sadistic method ever devised by humankind, this man, God incarnate, was thinking about you. Not crowds, not someone perfect, YOU.

He asks that you accept him. Believe in him. Put your trust in him. Follow him. No one ever said doing it would be easy, but I'd recommend doing it anyway. It's worth it; you get to spend eternity with a man who loves you so much that he died for you. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” He is the only way. His name is Jesus Christ.

John 14:6
John 3:16-17
1 Timothy 4:12
Luke 9:23
Matthew 28:16-20