Blessed are those who have not seen, yet have believed

 Read John 20

The morning of the first day brought revelation but not complete understanding.  Jesus was no longer in the tomb. His body had not been taken as was Mary’s initial concern.

Mary had subsequently seen and spoken with the resurrected Jesus, and told the disciples.  We have no evidence that they returned to the tomb.

It seems they were scared.  Jesus had been killed. He told them that he was giving his life but in their minds, they could be next on the cross.  They were scared.

Gathered in one place—well everyone except Thomas—and behind locked doors, they gathered for their evening meal.  They were surely fearful of a knock at the door.  The Sanhedrin could come calling any minute, and they would not come alone.  Their guards—soldiers if you will—would be with them.

They got what they wanted with Jesus.  They had their way. They even got the Romans to do the dirty work. The religious hierarchy and the Roman government had no idea that they were parts of a bigger plan.

The disciples wondered; would they be next?  Would they come tonight? Imagine trying to settle in and get comfortable for the evening meal knowing that there might come a knock at the door.

Or would they even knock?  Would they just kick in the door and seize everyone inside?  I’m not sure what the rule was on No-Knock Warrants back then. 

You might feel better being in a locked room but you had no peace.  Jesus had appeared to Mary, but the disciples had only her word for it.  They were still scared.

And then came Jesus.  He didn’t even knock.  He just appeared in the locked room. 

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit

That initial appearance packed a big wallop. 

·       Peace to you

·       You are commissioned to go into the world—you are sent

·       Receive the Holy Spirit

Surely, the disciples experienced joy, but it might take a bit for them to know peace.  They were gathered and scared, but Jesus told them as his Father had sent him, he was sending them.  He had discussed this in the hours before his death.

And finally, he gave them the Holy Spirit.  Hold on.  I thought the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, some 50 days later.  Jesus gave the Spirit at this time but it would not be fully manifested in them until that day of Pentecost.  Some things take time to produce fruit.

They would be filled with the Spirit in a few weeks, but Thomas missed this meeting.  Thomas did not accept the accounts of his fellow disciples.  He needed convincing.  He had to see for himself.

Thomas was not asking for more than the others had received.  Thomas wanted to see the resurrected Jesus with his own eyes.

That’s the model the world uses:  Seeing is believing.

We have a different model:  Believing is seeing.  Paul would say that we walk by—live by—faith not sight. 

Thomas wanted the world’s model.  He wanted to see for himself.  After all, the others said they had seen.  Thomas got what he asked for.  Jesus arrived in the locked room a week later and Thomas was there.

I’m guessing that the other disciples having seen Jesus in his resurrected body still thought it prudent to keep the door locked, but that’s a separate discussion.

Jesus appeared to Thomas and told him to touch whatever he needed to believe it was his Lord.  Thomas fell to his knees proclaiming my Lord and my God. Further inspection was not required.

Jesus spoke to Thomas and surely the other disciples, but he spoke of us.  He said you believed because you saw.  Blessed are those who didn’t get to see me first hand but still believe.

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

We have not seen; yet we have believed.  We are blessed for we have believed.

We move from this encounter to the first of John’s short epilogues. There is another at the end of the next chapter, but this one is especially for us.

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name

We were not there.  We did not see first hand but we have these accounts in the gospels so that we might believe and have life in Christ.

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

Amen.

John 20 - Part 2

 

Read John 20

In the hymn I Love to Tell the Story, the third verse begins:  I love to tell the story, for those who know it best, seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest.

You know the story.  Many of you know it well.  You have been reading it all week.  It was surely a much easier read that last week.

Nobody comes to this part of the story and says, yeah, ok, I know how that comes out. Shakespeare may have consistently climaxed his stories in Act III, Scene II but John takes you all the way to chapter 20.

Put yourself in that time and place just for the moment.  Jesus is gone.  Mary thinks someone has taken the body.  OBTW—this huge stone has been rolled away.  Peter and John race to the tomb.  There are some burial cloths but no body. 

They go back to where they were staying.

Mary comes back and in a somewhat circuitous conversation discovers the Lord is alive.  For the second time that morning, she returned to the disciples with news.

I have seen the Lord!

On that same evening, the disciples were gathered in a locked room and Jesus appeared to them.  Peace be with you was his greeting.  Now there is joy.  Seeing is believing.

Again, Jesus said peace be with you.   He said receive the Holy Spirit and breathed on them.  You might think that the Spirit didn’t come until Pentecost but consider that the disciples received the Spirit at this time and it was fully manifest upon them at Pentecost.

These were some confused men.  It might take a few weeks to bring to recollection what they had been through and how it all fit together.

Jump ahead a little to Saul’s conversion.  He met the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus.  This was a powerful conversion of a man well versed in God’s written word; yet, Paul spent some time in the wilderness after this encounter putting the pieces together.

He knew God’s word inside and out, but he had realized he didn’t know God very well.  Some time to process, digest, reconcile his education and experience with what God had called him to do was needed.

The disciples needed a little time as well.  About 7 weeks should do the trick, but the Spirit was given at this time. 

OBTW—Thomas missed this meeting and would not believe what had happened.  You know the story.  I won’t believe it until I see it.

Thomas wanted the forensics.  I want to see holes from nails and a spear.  Thomas gets the less than affection nickname in the modern times of Doubting Thomas. 

Perhaps a better title would be Be Careful What You Ask For Thomas.

Jesus appeared to Thomas later and told him to see and touch what he needed to.  Thomas believed and proclaimed, My Lord and My God.

Then Jesus speaking to Thomas speaks directly to us.

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

That is the story that we celebrate once a year.  This year, you get it again.  We should celebrate resurrection time and time again.

The crosses that we display on our church buildings and homes are empty.

We remember that the tomb was empty.

We sing Christ Arose.  Hallelujah, Christ arose.

But for the moment, I ask that we look at the very end of this fantastic chapter.

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.  But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

If you have read the Bible for a while, you have asked these questions or others like them.

How was Jesus as a baby?

Did he have to go through the terrible twos?

We see a glimpse of Jesus when he was 12 but what happened between then and when he turned water into wine when he was about 30?

Did he act like he knew everything when he was a teenager?  What if he did know everything?  Now there is a parenting challenge.

Did he ever get grounded?

How many days or weeks or months was it between some events in the Bible?

Will there be a college football season in 2020?

It seems like there is so much that is not included in the Bible that inquiring minds want to know. Listen again to how John ends this chapter.

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.  But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

We have enough to believe.  Our charge is to believe.  Our calling requires us to believe.  Our discipleship calls us to believe.

We are charged with more:  trust, obedience, love to name a few, but we must believe and this short closing to this chapter tell us that we have what we need to believe.  These written words are what we need to believe.  These testimonies passed from generation to generation are what we need.  We are blessed that we have them in writing.

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

Let’s celebrate our atonement in the blood of Jesus. Let’s celebrate resurrection. Let’s celebrate life eternal.  Let us celebrate the victory over sin and death that we know in Christ Jesus.

Let’s do this believing in what we have not seen. 

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

We have all that we need to believe, and we are blessed for believing.

Amen.

Resurrection from a different perspective...

Read Matthew 27-28

John 8:31-32

1 Corinthians 1:18

A few years ago, I returned from our two weeks that we spent in Florida or South Carolina or wherever we went that year and Robert, the pastor at the First Baptist Church called to say hello.  He said that someone we all knew was spreading the rumor that I had “Flown the coop” and wasn’t coming back.

I finally got to abuse a Mark Twain quote and say, “Rumors of my departure have been greatly exaggerated.”

Sometimes people have to come up with their own explanations.  

Sometimes the truth doesn’t set them free.  It scares them. 

But, I thought that Jesus said the truth will set you free?

What he said was, If you abide in my word (if you continue in what I have taught you) then you are my disciples for sure.  You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

But what if you ignore his teachings?  What if you resist the teachings of our Lord?  What if you just are not interested in what God has to say?

Then the truth probably scares you.  Then you promote that which confuses, dilutes, or initiates rumors.  You do your best to avoid the truth.  You put up smokescreens.  You fight hard not to have to hear the truth or let others here it.

The prophecy which the Sanhedrin and Teachers of the Law should have know so well was fulfilled right before them.  They did not see.  They did not want to see.  They had to manipulate their basic tenants to send Jesus to the cross and now that had been accomplished, they wanted to make sure that was the end of the story.

There was this talk among his followers that Jesus said he would rise from the dead.  To make sure that they didn’t have to contend with this Jesus even after they had killed him, they asked the Roman Governor to put a guard on the tomb.

He agreed.  He dispatched a guard—that’s not a person but a small detachment—to guard the tomb.  They were to seal it up and watch it that it was not disturbed.  It should have been a simple assignment.

Orders:  Nobody gets in.  Nobody gets out.  Got it!

There had been no major revolts for some time and the most violence that the disciples had initiated resulted in one ear being cut off from a Hebrew guard.  Jesus mended that injury on the spot.

The thinking of that day was that nothing can go wrong here.  Nobody would be crazy enough to mess with the Roman guard over a body in the tomb. 

Understand that these are Roman soldiers.  This was the best fighting force of the First Century.  These were some pretty tough Hombres here.

On top of that, their commanders set some high expectations.  If you were assigned to guard a tomb and you had to kill 100 Jews to do it, that would just be a day’s work.  There would be no review and no second-guessing by your superior officers.  

Mission accomplished.  There were some casualties.  Give me a few days off and I’m ready for my next assignment.

So just who would have the audacity to break the governor’s seal, roll back the stone, and take the body?

Nobody who walks this earth and is in his right mind.  You are messing with Roman soldiers here. 

But there was an earthquake, and an angel, and bright lights and just like that the tomb was empty.

The guards reported this to the chief priests, which might make you wonder if these were not guards from the Sanhedrin.  Perhaps, but their report was such that it wouldn’t have made any difference who was guarding the tomb or by whose authority it was sealed. 

This resurrection thing happened.  The guards we stunned.  They were helpless to do anything.  It was a done deal before they knew what happened.  This was Shock and Awe first century style.

What to do now?  Somebody better come up with a story and somebody better motivate the story-tellers to get it right.  This had to be their story and they had to stick to it.

Why?  Because the religious leaders feared the truth.  What occurred was exactly what they were afraid of, that they had made a big mistake.  Even the Roman centurion who was in charge of the crucifixion knew that Jesus was the Son of God.

But the religious leaders were blind.  They believed their own propaganda.  They would not accept the truth.  The truth scared them.

Money was the motivator for the First Century Fake News.  And the guards spread the story as best they could.  If they were Roman soldiers, they should have been glad to get the money as they would never see a promotion for the rest of their lives.

If they were soldiers dispatched by the Sanhedrin, they would have been ordered to lie in any case so the money was a bonus.

But the religious leaders of the day were afraid of the truth because the truth was that this truly was the Son of God.

The truth was that these religious leaders were responsible for his death.  

Yes, Pilate the Roman governor ordered the crucifixion but he would have been content to send this faultless man home and the Jewish leaders packing.  But Pilate was not a strong man and he was subject to manipulation.

The truth was that Jesus died according to scripture.

The truth was that God raised him from the dead.

The truth is, he is risen.  He is risen indeed.

The truth is that the truth will set you free, unless you fear the truth and run from it, or tried to deny it, or try to throw so much confusion into the mix that you hope to obscure it from yourself and others.

For you who believe in the Christ and have committed to following him, hear these words of Jesus once again.

If you abide in my words you are my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set your free.

Know the truth.  Don’t run from it.  Don’t hide from it.  Don’t believe the rumors.  Don’t believe the lies.

Jesus, having the same mind as the Father, stepped out of heaven, lived the human life, having to start out just like us as a helpless baby, was about his Father’s business by age 12 and just over 20 years later was on his way to the cross to die for our sins.

That in itself is a celebration—he took away our sins, but the grave was not the end of the story.  Normally when we think of a grave, we think that’s all folks.  That’s our human model anyway.  But we know the grave was not the end of the story.  It was very much a beginning for all who step into eternity, for all who pass from death to life in professing their Savior—Jesus is Lord.

God raised him from the dead.  He is the first among many.  We are among that many who will follow him into eternal life.

Know the truth.  Don’t settle for another perspective on the truth.  Don’t believe the rumors.  Don’t believe the lies.

While we as humankind were still sinners, Christ died for us—truth.

We are forgiven--truth.

God loves us more than we can comprehend--truth.

He has saved us from our sins by the blood of Jesus--truth.

He has a place reserved for us for all eternity--truth.

Because Christ arose from the dead, we will know what it is to be with God for eternity.

Don’t believe rumors.  Don’t believe the lies.  Don’t be trapped in senseless arguments for they are everywhere in this age that has been labeled evil.

Even in this age where nations and people move farther and farther from God, know the truth.  Live in the truth.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

The cross is empty.  The tomb is empty.  The truth is awesome.  Today we celebrate truth in these simple words.

He is risen.  He is risen, indeed!

Amen!