Sometimes the Christian life seems too hard. We look at unbelievers and envy their (apparently) careless spirit. “They don’t live with someone always looking over their shoulder.” Would not life be much easier if Jesus was simply not there? Does any of this describe you? The common thread, manifested in different forms and degrees, is a heart’s desire that Jesus not exist. This mindset would only surprise us if we had never read Matthew’s account of the trial of Jesus. 

Bertrand Russell was one of the great intellects of the twentieth century. I remember someone saying that his famous Principles of Mathematics had only ever been read by a handful of very bright people. Russell was an atheist, and in 1927 he decided to take on Christianity with his booklet, Why I Am Not a Christian.

If you read the book you will be struck by how this brilliant man uses such puerile arguments. For example:

The more profound has been the dogmatic belief, the greater has been the cruelty and the worse has been the state of affairs. In the so-called ages of faith, when men really did believe the Christian religion in all its completeness, there was the Inquisition, with all its tortures. (Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian [Touchstone, 1967], p. 20)

A brief study, however, shows that the Inquisitions were perpetuated by those who manifestly did not follow the teachings of Christ. More than once Russell forgets that any person may call themselves a Christian and yet disobey Christ’s commands to love one’s enemy, to hate war, and to help the suffering. The true Christian, who obeys Jesus’ teaching, will strive to do these things.

Russell decided also to attack Jesus Christ himself:

There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ’s moral character, and that is that He believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment. (p. 17)

It never occurred to this great and brilliant mind that Jesus may have believed in hell because he had certain knowledge of its existence. And he had certain knowledge of its existence because hell describes the punishment that Jesus himself would sentence people to in his office as Judge of the universe (Matt. 25:41-46). It would have been cruel for Jesus, knowing that there is a hell, to not have warned people about it.

To get the full picture, you will have to read Russell’s booklet for yourself. The question is, what caused this genius to write off Jesus and to risk trashing, with such thoughtless arguments, his towering reputation as an intellectual? It almost seems that he wanted Jesus not to exist. And it wasn’t just Lord Russell.

Why, for example, have we changed BC/AD to BCE/CE, “Before Christ” and “Anno Domini” (year of our Lord) to “Before the Common Era” and “Common Era?” The new terms beg the question, when did the “Common Era” begin? What has it been 2,019 years since?

The answer is that the “Common Era” began with Jesus, and it has been 2,019 years since Jesus’ birth. Thus, the removal of Jesus from the dating system seems entirely gratuitous.

It is almost as though we preferred that Jesus not exist.

I knew a young man who was a zealous believer. He married a strong Christian woman and even thought about the ministry. Then his brother gave him a book that claimed to disprove the Christian faith. I read the book, and it was full of the most thoughtless and abject nonsense. Yet, this young man lapped up this rubbish and threw away his faith overnight. It almost seemed that he wanted Jesus not to exist.

As Christians we so often face that moment of temptation and cold-blooded decision, “Will I deny Jesus and do what I want to do, or will I deny self and do what Jesus wants me to do?” And too often we decide against Jesus. We act at that moment as though he is not alive and Lord of the universe. We act as though he is not our Savior and Lord, alive in our hearts right now.

Sometimes the Christian life seems too hard.

It is almost at that moment that we would prefer that Jesus did not exist. Sometimes the Christian life seems too hard. We look at unbelievers and envy their (apparently) careless spirit. “They don’t live with someone always looking over their shoulder.” Would not life be much easier if Jesus was simply not there?

Does any of this describe you? The common thread, manifested in different forms and degrees, is a heart’s desire that Jesus not exist. This mindset would only surprise us if we had never read Matthew’s account of the trial of Jesus.

First, Jesus himself knew that he was innocent.

Matthew 27:11-26 describes the conviction of a man who was absolutely innocent:

Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied. When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor. (Matt. 27:11-14; all Scripture quotes from NIV)

Jesus was silent because at that moment he was actively giving himself to death:

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. (Isa. 53:7)

Moreover, Jesus remained silent because he knew that he had no charge to answer:

“Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?” (John 8:46)

The Bible always condemns the refusal to acknowledge sin as yet more sin (1 John 1:8-10). But Jesus had no sin to confess; he knew his innocence.

Second, Pilate knew that the chief priests knew that Jesus was innocent.

Pilate forced the chief priests to choose between executing Jesus and the known terrorist Barabbas, because he thought that this would compel them to release the man they knew was innocent:

Now it was the governor’s custom at the Feast to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” For he knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him. (Matt. 27:15-18)

But things didn’t go to plan:

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