|
A well-respected scholar and avowed atheist was speaking at a large outdoor picnic. He spoke for two and a half hours attempting to prove that the resurrection of Jesus was false. He quoted scholar after scholar and book after book. He concluded that since there was no such thing as the historical resurrection, the religious tradition of the church was groundless emotional nonsense because it was based on a relationship with a risen Jesus, who never rose from the dead in any literal sense. He then asked if there were any questions.
After about 30 seconds, an old preacher stood up. "Sir, I have one question," he said as all eyes turned toward him. He reached into his sack lunch and pulled out an apple he had been eating. "My question is a simple question," he said before taking another bite of the apple. He continued, "I haven't read all the books you have, and I can't recite the Scriptures in the original Greek." He took a couple more bites of the apple and said, "I don't know a thing about Niebuhr and Heidegger."
He finished the apple and said, "All I wanna know is: this apple I just finished, was it tart or sweet?"
The speaker paused for a moment and answered in exemplary scholarly fashion, "I cannot possibly answer that question, for I haven't tasted your apple."
The white-haired preacher dropped the core of his apple into his crumpled paper bag and said calmly, "Neither have you tasted my Jesus."
Have you tasted Jesus?
"Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. If you have, rejoice in the hope of the resurrection that your faith in Him brings." - Psalm 34:8
|