DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?
Yesterday Kira texted to tell me that our dog Lola had started to rip the stuffing out of our living room couch. We have had it since we got married (it’s true that they don’t make stuff like they used to!), so it needs to be replaced. It already had some rips… how much damage could Lola really have done? It wasn’t until I got home and saw it for myself that I really believed.
And that belief is now leading to action. I now believe that replacing our couch has become imminent!
This is a silly story, but one that illustrates that we are often slow to believe and slow to comprehend the implications for how we live. The central act of the Bible, indeed all of history, comes at Easter in the death of Jesus on the cross and in his miraculous resurrection. It is a reality that I often ponder and preach. Yet I wonder if I would have been quick to believe it, or even to go see it for myself had I been one of the original disciples of Jesus. Jesus had told his disciples that this would be the case, but would I believe Mary Magdalene and what she saw? The gospel of John 20:1-9 tells us:
On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark. She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she went running to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said to them, “They’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve put him!”
At that, Peter and the other disciple went out, heading for the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and got to the tomb first. Stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then, following him, Simon Peter also came. He entered the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there. The wrapping that had been on his head was not lying with the linen cloths but was folded up in a separate place by itself. The other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, then also went in, saw, and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead.
Can you imagine what went through Peter and John’s minds as they walked back to where they were staying? They had a degree of faith and belief in Jesus when they followed him and saw the miracles and heard him teach about who he was and what God was doing in him. Yet the empty tomb would have made them look deeper at the significance of the miracles and consider more seriously what Jesus had taught them. He had claimed many things that were preposterous for a mere mortal human being. Yet the resurrection made these claims not only plausible, but demanded a response of committed faith in who Jesus said he was.
As Timothy Keller put it in his book, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism,
If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.
In other words, the reality of the resurrection calls you and me to look carefully at Jesus’ teaching and claims and allow him to forever change our lives. He is not just another human prophet or teacher. He is our resurrected Saviour and Lord. Take a look for yourself. Jesus himself says in John 11:25-26,
I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?