by History, it is said, is written by the victors. As someone who has a deep love of history of any kind, I often find myself wondering about the accuracy of the accounts that I read. How much of it is what we, in modern parlance, call ‘spin’? Undoubtedly today’s historians have greater access to source texts than any of their predecessors, thanks to the innovation of the Internet. Some historians have found the object of their studies jealously gaurded – Leopold Ranke, for example, in constructing his 19th-century history of the popes, found access to the Vatican’s files understandably barred to one who was a foreigner and the Protestant. Nonetheless, through tireless searching of the libraries and private collections of Europe, Ranke was able to construct a three-volume account which remains unrivalled to this day. In his voluminous work, the history of the pontiffs is laid bare, related in a remarkably unprejudiced, and wholly unbiased, way.
Whether the world’s history books are tinted with the biases or tainted by prejudices of man – as some most clearly are – every one reveals an undeniable truth. That is, that the world will find interest in every kind of prominent man except one. The world celebrates and applauds, or scrutinises with fascinated horror, all manner of men: dictators, musicians, revolutionaries, religious leaders, writers, criminals, poets, medics, businessmen – men who rise to the top of any sort of profession, or who offend what remains of the social conscience by the depths of their debasement. Historians, journalists, and social commentators will write about what the public takes an interest in: every kind of man, except one. Every kind of man, except Christ.
It’s when we see how the world has no appetite for Jesus – ” when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2) – that we realise anew that this is the scene of His rejection. This world’s system has no place in it for Christ, no niche for Him. There is still “no room… in the inn” (Luke 2:7) and “the Son of man has not where he may lay his head” (Luke 9:58). He is a different kind of Man. What was seen in Him – what so delighted His God and Father – was worthless in the sight of the world. Worse than that – it was hated and despised by the world, and that hatred and rejection of him united both the secular and the religious world in conspiracy to have Him crucified.
I have to confess that I find the apostle John’s injunction to “Love not the world, nor the things in the world” (1 John 2:15) is very testing. I am very prone to make excuses for the world, and tell myself that the aspects of it which appeal to me naturally aren’t so bad as the rest. However, when I see the way that the world loves to consider every man except the One Who lives in my heart, then I realise that it is a wholly corrupt system. It has rejected Him, and if I want to have part with Him, then I must take up His cross, and His place of rejection in this scene.
Dear reader, I must ask, have you made your choice? Have you chosen Christ or the world? The world may seem an attractive place to live, and there are many passing diversions along the broad way which leads to destruction, but the end of that way is always the same: death. To come to know another kind of Man, and to know Him as Saviour – the one who has overcome the world – is to find springs of living water in a dry, desolate landscape. In short, to find life, and the One who is the Life. If you haven’t already done so, make your choice without hesitation, and choose Life.