April 2002

Seeing through a Different Lens

Lee Strobel in his book, The Case for Christ, tells of an incident when he was an investigative reporter.  He was covering the story of James Dixon who was on trial for shooting police sergeant Richard Scanlon during a scuffle on Chicago’s south side.  Scanlon had rushed to a house where there was a report of a man with a gun.  He found Dixon arguing with his girlfriend.  Her father came out of the house when he saw the police, but Dixon and the father got into a fight and Scanlon tried to break it up.  A shot was fired and Scanlon staggered away, wounded in the abdomen.  Dixon’s .22-caliber gun with one bullet missing was found nearby, and it had his fingerprints all over it.  Several witnesses agreed that Dixon had shot the police sergeant at close range. 

            Scanlon was given a medal for bravery, and Dixon was placed on trial.  What sealed the  case was an admission of guilt by Dixon.  It seemed like an open and shut case.  But when Strobel, the reporter, got home one night he got a call from an informant.  The man claimed that Dixon did not shoot Scanlon after all.  He told the reporter that Scanlon had been at a party a few weeks before showing off his pen gun — a gun that looks like a pen.  It was illegal for an officer to carry one, but Scanlon wanted the extra protection. 

            As Dixon and Scanlon struggled, the pen gun went off, wounding the officer.  When the truth came out, they investigated further and traced the bullet’s travel.  Dixon’s gun did go off while he was pounding on his girlfriend’s door, and when he saw the police coming he threw it into the grass.  He admitted to shooting Scanlon because of a plea bargain with the prosecutor — there was no guarantee that he would be found innocent, and if convicted he would spend several years in jail.

            Everyone assumed that Dixon was guilty, and the evidence seemed to line up with it, but when Strobel began looking at the evidence through a different lens, he saw things entirely differently. 

            There are a lot of people who have written off Jesus Christ.  They have listened to what other people have said about him, and believe that he was guilty of fraud.  But when you begin to look at the evidence clearly, you begin to see the truth because you are looking through a different lens.  You stop assuming everyone is right and start looking at the evidence for yourself.  And what you find is someone totally different from what you have been told.  The religious and political leaders of the day drug Jesus to trial on trumped up charges.  There were many who believed them, but if they had cared to look at the evidence themselves they would not only have rejected the charges but gone on to place their faith in Jesus.  The same is true today.

Continuing to see new evidence,

Rod Buchanan