1. Its all a lie, a hoax, a cover-up

1. At least that is the conclusion of Michael Baigent

MSNBC.com

The mystery of 'The Jesus Papers'

What if everything you think you know about Jesus is wrong? Author Michael Baigent makes controversial assertions in his new book The Jesus Papers

By Sara James, Correspondent, NBC News

Updated: 8:50 p.m. ET April 2, 2006 This report aired Dateline Sunday, April 2

Michael Baigent is investigating a grisly crime. He's tracking down leads, digging for clues, and trying to shed new light on a cold case--a case that is 2,000 years old. And this isn't just any case: It is perhaps, the most well known story in history--the crucifixion of Jesus.

Sara James, Dateline correspondent: You believe that much of what we think we know about Jesus is a lie?

Michael Baigent, author: It's a lie. It's an obvious lie.

Hard to imagine? Author Michael Baigent has captured readers' imaginations before with a provocative non-fiction work in which he claimed Jesus was married. Some of the same ideas appear in "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown. In fact, he sued Brown's publisher for copyright infringement. Brown and his publisher strongly deny they did anything wrong. A decision is pending in the case.

Now, Baigent has a new book, "The Jesus Papers," with an even more controversial premise which challenges the conventional story about Jesus.

James: So basically, you're asking anybody who is a Christian to question their fundamental beliefs?

Baigent: Absolutely.

A secret deal with Pontius Pilate

He says Pontius Pilate, who ordered Jesus's death, actually made a secret deal to save his life.

Baigent: It was rigged. It was a fraud. I think the crucifixion was set up precisely to remove a particular political problem which both Pilate and Jesus found themselves within.

Pilate, Baigent argues, he needed to appease the crowd which was calling for Jesus's death. But because Jesus had urged his followers to pay their taxes to Rome, Baigent argues Pilate also had an incentive to let Jesus live.

Baigent: It's my hypothesis that he rigged the crucifixion such that Jesus would survive but very quickly removed Jesus from the scene.

The vinegar-soaked sponge.

He says where the Gospels relate how a thirsty Jesus called out for something to drink. A sponge soaked in vinegar was placed on a reed and lifted to Jesus' mouth. But rather than reviving him, Jesus died shortly after drinking the liquid. Baigent says that detail suggests how the plot might have been carried out.

Baigent: I think it's more likely that they raised the sponge with some kind of anesthetic, which knocked Jesus out, which would reduce the trauma and make it easier for him to survive.

James: What do you think those drugs might have been?

Baigent: Well, they used hashish, opium, belladonna. There was a mixture of drugs.

Baigent says his account would explain why Jesus apparently died so quickly. While normally a person lingered on the cross for three days, according to the gospels, Jesus died within hours. Of course, there is another widely accepted explanation for Jesus's quick death: He had been beaten, stabbed, in addition to being crucified.

1. So Jesus married Mary Magdalene and they had children together.

2. The Holy Grail is not the cup of the Last Supper.

3. The Holy Grail is the cup of Mary's womb.

2. So its all a lie

3. Yes, its all a cover-up

1. Would you follow the teachings of Michael Baigent?

2. What does he have to offer?

1. There is no savior.

2. There is no help for life beyond the human resources that are available.

3. There is no future.

4. There is only death.

4. This is the lie and the cover-up.

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MAIN BODY:

1. Where are you gong to turn for affirmation to the story of the resurrection?

1. Affirmation is not proof.

2. It is confirmation of a position.

In Penguins and Golden Calves, Madeleine L'Engle tells a true story about a family who has a 2½ year-old daughter and expects another baby. They do all they can to soften the displacement she might feel, encouraging the daughter to hold and change the baby. Everything is fine until they try to put the daughter to bed. She says, rather frantically, "I want to see baby."

"Well, of course, darling, we'll take you to see the baby."

"No-alone."

"No, Mummy or Daddy will go with you."

"No! I want to see baby alone!" She's distraught.

Finally, they let her go. She bends over the cradle and says, "Tell me about God. I'm forgetting."

We, too, forget, says L'Engle to The Other Side magazine (March-April 1998). She says that we have to try to go back and remember what we knew as children. As a younger adult, L'Engle lived in the realm of proof. She'd had a good education, and she wanted everything explained. Now that she's older, it's much easier for her to believe in- and accept-the impossible. She is able to accept more completely the idea that God loves her, no matter what she does. She has stopped wanting certainty, which will never come. Instead, she looks for those things God gives us as affirmations.

1. Looks for those things God gives us as affirmation.

2. We can have secure affirmations.

2. If we desire affirmation we might listen to the Apostle Paul and what he says about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15.

1. Why ought we to listen to Paul?

1. He had an extraordinary encounter Jesus on the road to Damascus that transformed his life

2. He spent years proclaiming the gospel.

3. He endured incredible hardships.

4. He saw, first hand, the fruits of his Holy Spirit driven labor.

2. So than, what does Paul have to say that is an affirmation of the reality of the resurrection.

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3. Take what he has to say section by section, verse by verse.

1. Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you--unless you have come to believe in vain.

2. For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures,

3. and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

4. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.

5. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

6. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

1. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

2. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.

3. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them--though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

4. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

7. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?

1. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised;

2. and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.

3. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ--whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.

4. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised.

5. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

6. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished.

8. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

1. Does Michael Baigent fall into this category?

2. What about the people who accept his teachings.

3. Kenneth L. Woodward, 2000 Years of Jesus, "Newsweek", March 29, 1999, 55, Writes in a different vein.

To a world ruled by fate and the whims of capricious gods, Christianity brought the promise of everlasting life. At the core of the Christian faith was the assertion that the crucified Jesus was resurrected by God and present in the church as the body of Christ. The message was clear: By submitting to death, Jesus had destroyed its power, thereby making eternal life available to everyone. This Christian affirmation radically changed the relationship between the living and the dead as Greeks and Romans understood it. For them, only the gods were immortal-that's what made them gods. Philosophers might achieve immortality of the soul, as Plato taught, but the view from the street was that human consciousness survived in the dim and affectless underworld of Hades. The Resurrection is an enormous answer to the problem of death, says Notre Dame theologian John Dunne. The idea is that the Christian goes with Christ through death to everlasting life. Death becomes an event, like birth, that is lived through.

4. There is affirmation to be found in the cemetery.

1. It is not found in the empty tomb.

2. It is found in the cry of the people who voice their surprise, fear, acceptance and joy when they met and recognized their resurrected Lord and Savior.

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CONCLUSION

1. G. Bradford Hall, Children of the light, Into the Wardrobe, February 4, 1996.

The Seven Chronicles of Narnia written by C. S. Lewis have, in their short life, become a classic on library and literature shelves for both young and old alike. The first of the seven books was made into a popular TV movie entitled, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

The last of the seven books is appropriately entitled, The Last Battle (Revelation?). In this chronicle, the evil characters are Narnian dwarfs. They are dark and gloomy folk, with sneering grins, who distrust the whole world. The basic issue is that they have chosen to live in darkness, refusing to see the good around them, refusing to believe that Aslan can bring God's light into their lives and world. So, they live in misery, squalor and self-imposed darkness... .

All of us walk close to the darkness in our journey through life. Indeed, life is a struggle to push back those dark times when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, times of grief or depression, fear or guilt, pain or illness. The good news is that we have a light to show the way, a friend to walk with us, a helping hand to lighten our burdens. As the children of Narnia discovered, Aslan was always there when they needed him most.

2. To paraphrase the last paragraph:

All of us walk close to the darkness in our journey through life. Indeed, life is a struggle to push back those dark times when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, times of grief or depression, fear or guilt, pain or illness. The good news is that we have a light to show the way, a friend to walk with us, a helping hand to lighten our burdens. As the children of God have discovered, Jesus is always there when we need him most.

Amen

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