Doubt and Belief [Easter 3B]
The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson
Luke 24:36b-48
Doubt and Belief
Life was simpler on Good
Friday. That is not to say that it was
better; it wasn't. It was just
simpler. Jesus died. That was the end of the story. It was a not a good ending; it was not a
happy ending, but also it was not an open ending. There was none of that uncomfortable
ambiguity. All of their grand fantasies
disappeared; the possibilities dried up.
The dreams gave way to the starkness of the tragic final scene. No longer were they the followers the
charismatic Messiah destined for his royal throne. Those romantic notions died on the cross,
too. They would now grieve and then they
would go back – back to their old lives and their
old jobs, back to their old destinies.
And Jesus and his promise and his cross would fade into memory – just a small chapter in a long-life – like the college years, or that summer you followed
around the Grateful Dead.
This was their life in the shadow
of the Cross – before the tomb came up
empty. It was a time to hide and to
regroup and, of course, to mourn before getting back to real life. That was the plan – and then there was a knock at the door.
Not Jesus, not yet: he doesn't seem
to need doors post-resurrection. First
it was the women who found the tomb empty.
They rushed in to tell his disciples news that was both amazing and
stunning, unbelievable, impossible and yet true – they swore
it was true. The Common English
translation of the Bible reads, “Their words
struck the apostles as nonsense, and they did not believe the women.”
And so, later on that same day,
Easter day, there came another knock at the door. It was the two disciples who met the risen
Jesus on the road to Emmaus. They also
rushed in to tell the disciples that Jesus was alive and had been made known to
them in the breaking of the bread. Two
more witnesses with the same impossible tale to tell. But yet again, Jesus' disciples do not
believe.
It turns out, not even an
appearance by the man himself would make them believe. That is what our Gospel story today reminds
us. After two distinct, yet similar
testimonies, after Jesus himself shows up in their room, they still have their
doubts.
Of course they do; what God did on
Easter was impossible; it was unprecedented.
The disciples lacked the framework or the imagination to believe God was
doing this new thing. They were still
living with Good Friday death; they were prepared only to mourn the Jesus
standing before them. God had moved on
to Easter; they had not. So, yeah, they
have their doubts. It is hard to
believe. The Resurrection is hard to
believe. David Lose says flat out: “If you don't have serious doubts about the Easter
story, you're not paying attention.”[1]
And as we see in today's Gospel,
the doubt is real and it is stubborn. I
am especially struck by a line in today's post-resurrection account: “While in their joy they were disbelieving and still
wondering...”
And Jesus is standing right there with them. Sure, they doubted the women; they
understandably doubted the Emmaus disciples.
But now Jesus is standing right in front of them, talking to them, with
his mortal wounds exposed. And they feel
that Easter joy; no longer are they required to solely rely on someone else's
account; they are experiencing the Risen Christ; but they still have their
doubts.
The Resurrection does not put an
end to doubt. This is not new
information, of course. We all have our
doubts. But that is OK. We have doubts because we don’t know; we believe.
We have doubts because there is no proof; there is faith. The Resurrection challenges us to dare to
believe in the unbelievable. It
challenges us to follow the Risen Christ into a reality where the endings are
not always happy believing that one day all will be made well. And so it gives our doubt a redemptive purpose.
Our doubt keeps us honest; it gives life
to our faith. Belief needs doubt.
NT Wright asserts, “Good theology requires good imagination.” Which I take
to mean, we cannot believe in the God who does the impossible until we believe
that God can do the impossible. It takes a good imagination to imagine all that
God can do in our lives, in our community, in our world. At the heart of our Christian faith is an
impossible event: the resurrection, a risen Christ, an Easter answer to Good
Friday. And it is that event that gives
us the audacity to hope for the day when all things will be well. When we dare to believe in the impossible,
some doubt is inevitable.
Life before Resurrection requires
nothing of us. That life is
simpler. That is not to say that it is
better; it isn't. It is just simpler. But Easter asks quite a lot of us. It asks us to believe the unbelievable. It asks us to put our faith in the unseen. It asks us to step into a reality that
threatens to shake the foundations of what we think we know about God and life
and the world. Because if God can do
resurrection nothing is impossible.
The Christian life is lived in this
tension of doubt and belief. Doubt is
appropriate because God promises to do the impossible – in our lives, in our community, in our world. Belief is appropriate too because our God has
already done the impossible.
This is the season of resurrection – the season in which we celebrate that our God did the
impossible, the unbelievable. And
honestly, some days it is hard to believe in the unbelievable. Even the disciples had their doubts. But
also, they believed – they believed so strongly, in
fact, that they spent the rest of their lives following the Risen Christ,
proclaiming his name to all nations, ultimately following him to their own
crosses. It was impossible but they
experienced the resurrection; and if God can raise the dead, if our God does
Resurrection, if that is true, the implications are huge. Nothing would be impossible: the coming
Kingdom of God, peace on earth, love overcoming violence, even God bringing
life to the dead places in our lives, and in our hearts. The Resurrection is just the beginning. So what is to stop us from dreaming really
big? Just imagine what God can do – in our lives, in our community, in our world. Anything is possible. And sure, I have my doubts. But also, I believe.
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