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I am using readings from the 49 Week Bible Challenge as the basis for these devotions. I encourage you to join me in this discipline. Today’s readings are John 20; Psalm 124; John 21; 2 Samuel 5; Ezekiel 34.
John 20:30-31; 21:25
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
21:25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

I have enjoyed watching The Chosen, Dallas Jenkins’ creative and imaginative accounting of Jesus’ ministry as told through the supposed experiences and thoughts of his disciples. It is especially moving to imagine the relief of Peter when Jesus provides for him to catch the miraculous haul of fish. I love how “Little James” asks Jesus why he had not healed him and hear Jesus’ kind and imagined answer. And when I see the drama of water turned to wine—it moves me.
Attempts (since the Enlightenment) to reconstruct what can be known about Jesus of Nazareth apart from faith confessions, miracles, or theological claims fall flat and end up obscuring much of what the Bible tells us about Jesus—including his miracles, the confessions of faith, and the real-life struggles of Jesus’ followers.
John 21:25 tells us that Jesus did have a life outside of the accounts recorded in Scripture. If permission is needed for Jenkins’ efforts, that certainly opens the door to such imaginative storytelling. It does not, however, open the door to stripping Jesus of his miracles, the confessions of faith (think Thomas!), or the theological truths Jesus teaches and embodies.
Those realities are the sum and substance of what we know of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The question is not only whether Jesus did these and other great miracles, but do we believe in him? Do we see Jesus as merely a good teacher, or a religious prophet, or do we see him as the Son of God—the one who gives life through faith in him?
John tells us that by believing we may have life in Jesus’ name. That’s not a mere possibility. It is a gift as certain as Jesus’ life, teaching, suffering, death, and resurrection. It is as sure as Thomas’ declaration upon seeing Jesus’ scars and putting his hand into Jesus’ side: “My Lord and my God!” No dramatization or scholarly reconstruction can add to or improve on that confession—it is the heart of Christian faith and the foundation of the promise of eternal life.

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