When our son Jeremy was about four years old, he announced to us in a rather matter of fact manner that he had just swallowed a quarter. It was more of an announcement for our information than any cause for concern. Without thinking to ask the inevitable question of why he would do such a thing, we drove him to the emergency room. There we met with our family doctor. Imagine meeting your family doctor at the emergency room in our new modern and improved health care system! An x-ray did indeed confirm an object that looked much like a large coin wending its way down the digestive tract and indeed no further action except confirmation of exit would be necessary. The doctor did have the presence of mind to ask the question, “Why did you swallow a quarter?” The answer was simple and logical. Jeremy was playing “The Six Million Dollar Man” and he had charged his batteries.
“The Six Million Dollar Man” was, for the young and uninitiated reader, a television series that was popular in the mid seventies. The hero of the piece was a man who had been horribly injured in an accident and had been put back together again with the use of man-made bionic parts. This of course made him somewhat superhuman and as a result of great value to those who had paid the six million dollars to have him fixed. He did go about doing good things as I recall. I wonder what the six million dollar figure would be in inflated cost in this day and age. He did indeed have batteries that needed charging from time to time. I doubt that swallowing quarters was the way it was done, but I am sure it is about as logical as what was portrayed on the show. I must admit that the show was what had to be characterized as a cleverly written imaginative story. It bore little resemblance to reality. Thinking about “The Six Million Dollar Man” this morning puts me in mind of something Peter wrote in 2Peter 1: 16-18.
16 ¶ For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
17 For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
18 And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
Peter is telling us that the power and majesty that is Jesus Christ is not some contrived story. Peter, James and John were there on the mountain and witnessed with their own eyes the transfiguration of Jesus. They saw with their own eyes Jesus speaking to Moses and Elijah. They heard with their own ears the actual words spoken by God Himself. Peter goes on later in this same chapter to tell us that the same is true with regard to prophecy and scripture. What the Bible tells us about Jesus is not some cunningly devised fable, but most certainly the inerrant Word of God. Peter, as were many others, was an actual witness to the power and glory of Jesus during the years of His ministry on earth. Peter knew Him personally and even watched from the shadows as He was condemned and crucified for our redemption. Men and women will continue to cunningly devise fables for our entertainment or worse, but the story of the gospel is not one of them. We have this assurance from an actual historical eye witness to all that was Jesus on this earth.
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