Stop Doubting and Just Believe

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One week before the resurrection – Jesus riding a colt – with his followers - joyously enters Jerusalem. In Luke 19: 37-38 we read; “…the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:” saying: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

I can understand how the crowd of disciples and followers were caught up in the moment of joy and happiness. Their dream of a Jewish king and an independent Israel free of the Roman occupiers seemed to be - at last - about to happen. But this was not what God had planned. 

Instead - Jesus would be arrested crucified and die on a cross. This was not what they expected. And their joy would soon turn to grief and sorrow. 

Yet - three times - Jesus told the disciples that he would be killed and after three days raised to life. And all three synoptic gospels record what Jesus says to them. 

These are the scriptures verses from the gospel of Mark. 

The first time Jesus tells them is in the gospel of Mark 8: 31- after Peter declares that Jesus is the; “…Son of the living God.” Mark records what Jesus says; “He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.”

Again - in the gospel of Mark 9: 31-32 – shortly after the transfiguration - Jesus tells them a second time. He says; “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.”

Jesus tells them a third time as they are about to enter Jerusalem. He says to the disciples in Mark 10: 33-34; “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”

Whenever we read a word or a phrase repeated in the Scriptures it is important. And Jesus tells the disciples three times that he is going to be killed but on the third day be raised to life. 

Crucified and resurrected – these are the foundations of our faith in Jesus and for the church. Very important – indeed.

So -did the disciples forget the three times Jesus told them that he will be killed and after three days rised to life. I don’t think they forget but maybe they didn’t want to believe that it would happen. And we would probably feel the same way.

We get a bit of a clue as to how the disciples felt in Mark - after the second time Jesus told them. 

Marks says: But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.” I mean – who wants to think of such things. How can someone that you believed - is the Son of the Living God and who performs miraculous signs and wonders --- be killed. It doesn’t make sense. Beside - No one who dies comes back to life.

But - didn’t they see Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead. 

Then along comes Good Friday with its anguish and suffering of the crucifixion.

It seems to me that the disciples and Jesus’s followers never really abandoned the idea that Jesus would be their secular king – their knight in shining armour. This idea of a powerful Jewish king was so ingrained into Jewish traditions that is would be hard to get that idea out of your mind. 

And now the sorrow and grief of seeing Jesus - their would be king crucified and dead was deeply disturbing. Such intense emotional grief can override thinking of the positive side of what would come after the crucifixion. 

Then the sun (s-u-n) and the Son (S-O-N) rises on Sunday morning – the first day of the week. And the women followers of Jesus go to the tomb to finish preparing Jesus’s body for burial. But what happens?

The stone is rolled away – the guards are gone – the tomb is empty – except - there is an angel sitting in it. In Mark 16: 6-7 we read what the angel said to them; “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. 

“You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

As the women are leaving the tomb they see Jesus. In Matthew 28: 9 we read the what Jesus says to them and what they did; “Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.” 

Jesus is alive just as he said he would be.

The women hurry back to the disciples to tell them that Jesus is alive and what the angel told them. 

But these are women. What they say about Jesus being alive doesn’t make any sense. They don’t believe what the women are telling them. In Luke 24:10 we read what the disciples thought; “It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.”

After the women told the disciples that Jesus was alive -they must have been really confused. 

Jesus alive – it just doesn’t make sense.

Confused and doubting their faith – what the women are saying can’t be real.

A couple of nights before they all ran away when Jesus was arrested – even the stalwart of the group – Peter – denied three time that he knew Jesus – the Jewish leaders and the people rejected him and they knew he died hanging on a cross. 

Confused and doubting.

The interaction between Jesus and the two on the road to Emmaus kind of tells how the disciples were feeling confused and doubting that Jesus is alive. 

Luke 24: 17-24

He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

19 “What things?” he asked.

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”

Now – even though the angel had told the women to tell the disciple to go to Galilee where Jesus would meet them. They need a little concrete convincing that Jesus is alive. To coin a phrase – Seeing is Believing. 

So Jesus visits the disciple while they are hiding in a locked room. He will remove any doubt that he is alive and strengthen their faith. But the disciple Thomas is not with them when Jesus visits them the first time. After they tell him that Jesus is alive - he still does not believe and says; “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” How much convincing do we need.

When Jesus appears to the disciples the second time he has says to Thomas; “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side.” put his finger into the hole in his hands and to put his hand into the spear hole. Now Thomas believes and says “My LORD and my God.”

What does it take to believe in Jesus? Not everyone will or can believe. Most people in the world refuse to believe or cannot believe or outright reject that Jesus is LORD and God. It is not in them. 

So what does it take to believe? A seed from someone. A willing heart and the Holy Spirt. None of us saw Jesus but we know in our mind and feel it in our heart that he is alive. And to us Jesus says to Thomas and us: “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Do not doubt – just believe in Jesus and never let you faith falter no matter the circumstances.

AMEN

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