“But!” he said, finger in the air, ready to make a point, “If Jesus and his message were so important, and God knew we’d invent video cameras eventually, why did God send him in a time period before technology could capture his life?  Heck, not only did he never write anything himself, he probably couldn’t write.  Isn’t that a strike against the whole thing?” he said, not wanting to offend him, but seriously wanting to discuss the issue.  “I mean, all of this could be settled by a single video of him, right?”

“You know, I thought things like that for a long time myself.  I would even go further than you just did and point out that precisely because there is no recording, the story’s fantastic nature was able to gain traction.  I really wanted to believe that Jesus was followed by people and gained notoriety because the people of that time were ignorant and looking for answers etc., etc.,” the man replied.  “But then a thought hit me–what if the timing of his life contained a truth in itself?  What if God purposefully sent Jesus to reveal the gospel at a time before wide-spread literacy, much less technology?

“Starting there, I found something striking.  If the general population Jesus lived among was illiterate and didn’t have TV, movies, or screens upon screens that prevented actual relationship from occurring, surely they had a more grounded existence.  Whether they did or not, Jesus would have had to actually meet and greet people.  Without sound amplification, his audiences would have been smaller.  Without DVR, his speech would have had to be simple and clear.  Without YouTube’s ‘I’ll record myself once and then put it out there for the world to see’, he would have been required to live with perfect integrity daily.

“For all technology’s benefit, we are clearly not reaching our potential as a group.

“Who would argue that talking on the phone is the same as in person?  Who would rather skype than eat a meal together?  And that isn’t even opening the door to the world of nothingness that is tweeting and texting.

“So, that’s what I tell myself to explain why God sent Jesus before things that would have helped ‘prove’ his divinity.  Maybe a video would have helped with the miracles, but I think a lot of his message would have been lost in the process.  As I understand this world and Jesus’ message to it, he was a man who wouldn’t want anything to come between him and us–including time and space.”