would you die for a lie?

Here's a passage from a book, "Cracking Da Vinci's Code", that I'm reading with the Sunday Community Group. It blew me away and I thought it was something worth sharing.

Those who saw The Passion of the Christ, the incredibly moving film directed by Mel Gibson, will recall the horrific torture that Jesus endured before His death. The cruelty was extreme, even to the Romans who were masters of extreme cruelty. Why would a "good" man endure such punishment? If Jesus did not believe Himself to be divine, why did He not confess His deception and avoid such agony?

Those who followed Jesus in life also followed Him in death. These, too, could have avoided needless suffering had they but declared that Jesus was just a man. But they did not. According to oral traditions passed down from the early church, here is how some of Jesus' disciples met their end:

-          James the son of Zebedee was beheaded.

-          Simon Peter was crucified in Rome. It is said that, at his request, he was crucified upside down, saying, “I am not worthy to die in the manner of Jesus.”

-          Paul was beheaded by Nero in AD 66.

-          Stephen was stoned by a mob in AD 38.

These are but a few of the martyrs who did not deny Jesus’ divinity. If Jesus’ followers did not hold Him to be the Son of God, if that truly was a fourth-century invention, all these men died for no reason at all.