I recently went back and rewatched a favorite childhood movie of mine, Secondhand Lions.
It is a simple, coming-of-age film about a young boy whose mom drops him off at his two great uncles’ house for the summer. The uncles are gruff recluses with a mysterious past, but through his curiosity the boy gently chisels away at the backstory of these men.
In one scene, the nephew finally works up the courage to directly ask the more enigmatic of the two uncles about his past, begging him to verify if the stories he has heard are fact or fiction.
The uncle responds with a line that indicated to me this movie was ahead of its time.
“If you want to believe in something, then believe in it. Just because something isn’t true, that’s no reason you can’t believe in it.”
In 2003, at the time of the movie’s release, this might have seemed like an absurd statement. But to today’s “my truth, your truth” audience, this backwards language fits perfectly within the zeitgeist. In fact, the script writer could not have penned a more excellent summation of what the cultural climate would look like in 20 years.
In the name of tolerance, objective truth has no place in the current public square of ideas. At best, it is one claim among equals and at worst simply does not exist at all.
Of course, the rub is that the former equals the latter and the latter means the former.
Enter the Easter story—an acute departure from relativism and inclusivity, the sacred values of our day. Easter represents the Church’s resounding, no-holds-barred declaration of an exclusive reality upon which everything else rises and falls. Shame be upon the pulpit that presents Easter as anything less.
The truthfulness of Christianity’s most central claim—the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ—is either of utmost concern or zero value. There is no middle ground. If Christ did not rise from the dead, to quote the Apostle Paul, Christians “are of all people the most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:19).
The gravest mistake is to treat Easter as another nice story among a myriad of legends, to dismiss Christ as just one influential person among a host of religious leaders.
Considering eternity is at stake, in the words of C.S. Lewis, “The only thing Christianity cannot be is of moderate importance.”
So, to counter the wisdom of Secondhand Lions, it does matter if what you believe is true or false. Only a fool clings to his opinion even in the face of irrefutable truth (Prov. 18:2).
In an age that encourages us to stand and defend our truth, Easter calls us to kneel before and worship The Truth, our Lord Jesus Christ.
About the Author
Loren Skinker serves on staff as the Director of Communications at Cedar Crest BFC. After earning his B.A. in Communications and English at Virginia Tech in 2019, he went on to work for ABWE International, a missions agency in Harrisburg, PA. There, he served as communications specialist and lead magazine editor for two years before the Lord directed him back to his home church. He and his wife Darby live in Allentown, PA.