The Dan Brown Phenomenon?

Mr. Brown has captured the imagination of many, and stoked the fires of contempt in others. His writings, whether original or not, are clearly marketable in today’s world, and Hollywood thinks they, along with Tom Hanks and unprecedented hype, are the substance of a blockbuster movie. I may see the movie, I may not. But, I will not be lured into believing the basic premise of Dan Brown’s writings.

One theologian, interviewed on ABC’s Nightline, commented on the public’s current willingness to accept any writing about Jesus rather than the New Testament writings, especially if the sources contradict. He stated that the current method of lending more credence to later writings is absent of logic and without precedence.

I don’t think this is a new phenomenon. The basic premise to grasp in Dan Brown’s material is that Jesus was fully human and not divine. We accept that Jesus was fully human, but we would disagree that he was not divine. In fact, we would state that he was fully human and divine.

It seems the Word of God addressed this in Matthew 16, when Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I am?” When they responded, Jesus asked the question of the ages.

“Who do YOU say that I am?”

The answer to this question, for me and for you, is THE answer to THE question that will determine the content of our lives and the experience of eternity. If Jesus was nothing more than a Jewish carpenter’s son, who blasphemed against God, and who received his justice on a cross, then our lives will necessarily take one course. If He was born of a virgin, and He arose from the tomb, then our lives should take an entirely different path. Paul’s words, in 1 Corinthians 15, support this thought. It’s all about perspective.

Matthew 16 is all about perspective. When Jesus asked the Pharisees who had asked him for a sign, “why is it that you can read the signs in the sky, but can’t read the signs of the time”, He was talking about perspective. When He warned His disciples of the “leaven of the Pharisees”, they thought he referred to bread, because their perspective was carnal, not spiritual. At the end of the chapter, He asks the rhetorical question, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul; and what would a man give in exchange for his soul?”

It’s all about perspective. It’s nothing new. Dan Brown didn’t invent the question; he is just showing us how he has answered it. How do we answer the question? Do our lives reflect the answer we have given? Are the sermons of our lives consistent with the sermons of our lips? They will be, with the proper perspective.