Sacrifice and Prophecy Failed

Personal pain and sacrifice may compel us to look, without convincing us to believe. Year after year, kings of the Mayan civilization underwent a sacrificial bleeding to secure the rains and the fertility of the soil, to make the crops grow.

It was a rather rough and public sacrifice, involving pulling a barbed blade through the tongue, incredibly painful and producing a strong flow of blood. To be both convincing and effective, it had to be hard to watch. It took great belief on the part of the king, and sacrifice.

But, the year came when the crops failed. Perhaps the king tried again. But his bleeding and the crops weren't connected. There was no truth in it. The people quietly moved away; the power of the kings was over. The civilization disappeared into a long-unsolved mystery.

Truth has a way of winning the day. Mayan kings are a thing of the past. The 2012 prediction of the end of the world was taken off a magnificently carved stone calendar, which had actually been abandoned by the ones who carved it. Their beliefs, like the sacrifice to secure crops, had collapsed long before we learned of them. The old calendar stone may compel us to take a look, but there is no truth in it.

There is truth to be found in Jesus. There are lots of other claims that fade, but truth is in Him.