Easter 3 B: Resurrection Doubts
Dear Partner in Preaching,
Here’s my brief take this vignette from Luke’s larger narrative about the resurrection appearances of Jesus: if you don’t have serious doubts about the Easter story, you’re not paying attention.
Seriously.
I mean, just read the story. Actually, all of the stories. For while the four gospels have many interesting variations in their account of Jesus’ resurrection, they are absolutely consistent on one thing: no one believes the good news of Jesus’ resurrection when they first hear it. No one. And that includes Jesus’ own disciples, the ones who were closest to him and spent the most time with him. In fact, that level of disbelief starts with the disciples.
Earlier in the verses before this reading, Luke tells us that the disciples dismissed the testimony of the women who had been to the empty tomb as an “idle tale.” Actually, that’s not what Luke tells us, that’s the water-downed translation we’re used to. The Greek word Luke employs – leros – is the root of our word delirious. So in response to the testimony of the women, the disciples say they are out of their freakin’ minds. Nice.
But perhaps expected. You see, here’s the thing: the earth is generally unwilling to cough up the dead. And testimony that it has – that one who died has actually been raised – kind of upsets the natural order and causes you to lose confidence in pretty much everything you thought you could count on. Two things, Benjamin Franklin once wrote to a friend, are certain in this world: death and taxes. Except, according to these women, not death.
So no wonder the disciples doubt their testimony. Except it’s not just their testimony, they doubt; it’s even Jesus. That’s what’s so astounding to me about this passage. Thus far in Luke’s account, the disciples have heard and dismissed the women’s testimony, Peter then ran to the tomb and confirmed at the very least that it’s empty, two disciples on the road to Emmaus were encounter by Jesus and have returned to tell their tale, and now…wait for it, wait for it…now Jesus has appeared among them and invited them to touch him to dispel any doubts they may have that he is real. And then Luke writes, “While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering….”
Isn’t that marvelous? That even after all this they still don’t believe. And even more marvelous, that they can be both joyful and disbelieving at the same time.
Can we just say it, preachers? Doubt is not the opposite of faith. Doubt, in fact, is probably a necessary ingredient to faith. Faith, by definition, is trust in spite of a lack of evidence. Faith is not knowledge. Faith is more tension-filled. It is acting as if something is true even when you have no proof that it is.
Which means that when we talk about the “gathering of the faithful,” we’re not talking about the gathering of those who’s faith/knowledge is absolute or certain or bedrock. We’re talking about those people who have all kinds of questions and doubts but still find joy and wonder in this message of good news about new life. Or maybe who want to find joy and wonder, haven’t yet, but keeping coming because of their hope.
All of which suggests two things to me for this week’s sermon. First, let people know it’s okay to doubt. In fact, let them know that it’s probably a requirement of faith. Because, honestly, in light of all the death and trauma and disappoint and tragedy that colors every human life, if you don’t have at least some difficulty believing the promise that God not only raised one person, Jesus, from the dead, but also promises new life and second chances and forgiveness and grace to all, then you’re probably not paying attention.
Second, I would like to ask people how we might live differently if acted like God’s promises were true. So often, I think, these promises are so familiar to us that we hold them far back in our head but don’t actually think about them and so don’t act as if they are true. But if it’s true that God raised Jesus from the dead… If it’s true that God promises to renew the whole creation and grant us new life… If it’s true that nothing – nothing we’ve done or has been done to us – can separate us from the love of God… If it’s true that God will not turn God’s back on any of us but always reaches out to us in grace, mercy, and forgiveness… If any of this – let alone all of this – is true, then how might we live our lives this week differently? How might this faith – not knowledge, but trusting, courageous faith – change how we look at our relationships, and our politics, and our work, and our resources, and our future?
And if takes a little time to let all this sink in, to come to active trust and faith that these promises are true, well, then let’s keep in mind that we’re in good company. Jesus’ first disciples struggled with all this as well.
This is the word I’d like to hear this week, Dear Partner, that the promise of resurrection, new life, and grace is so outlandish, so uncommon, and so desperately necessary that it has always elicited a measure of doubt. But it has also always elicited changed lives as well.
Thanks for sharing this amazing word this week and always, Dear Partner. What you do matters, now more than ever.
Yours in Christ,
David
I’ve been working in a similar direction and I really appreciate this post. This is my favorite season in the church year, so I am working smarter on the sermons. It was the post-resurrection stories that really grabbed my attention when I was about 12 and ever since that time, I find the most insights from studying them and the cycling back to what Jesus taught. I’ve been struggling with apathy on the part of the “stalwarts” in my parish lately. They are good church people but do not seem to have any fire in the belly about Jesus and how meaningful and pertinent these stories are. I have kept up with you for years on Working Preacher and now on this website and I want you to know that your commentary and thoughtful preaching helps are mega-helpful.
Peggy Sullivan
I LOVED this commentary – thanks so much, David! You have the wonderful ability to put into words what I grope with saying. I hope you don’t mind my quoting part of that in a future service (I will reference it to you!)
God bless you, and thanks again.
I found this web site: Bruce Epperly, who writes about the deeper truth about Resurrection. “Unexpected and transformative energies.” Really lovely: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/livingaholyadventure/2015/03/a-naturalistic-resurrection/
“We can never fully encompass Jesus’ resurrection, but we can find a clue in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. As the tale goes, in order to save Edmund, the lion-savior Aslan must sacrifice his own life. The White Witch, however, is unaware of the laws of Deeper Magic, which promise resurrection to the innocent victim. Aslan rises and the White Witch and her minions are defeated. The Deeper Magic embedded in the creation of the universe is mysterious, but it is part of the larger causal interdependence of the universe; in fact, it may be its animating energy. The resurrection of Aslan does not circumvent the laws of nature, but occurs as a result of deeper laws of nature. This opens the door to seeing resurrection as part of God’s amazing universe and affirming that certain moments can be so closely aligned to God’s vision that unexpected and transformative energies can be released, radically changing cells and souls. Such moments leave us amazed and this is the proper response, since as Abraham, Joshua asserted, “radical amazement” is at the heart of religious experience.”
thank you , this is great and points to the larger cosmos of god’s universe that we only get glimpses of once in a great while!
Thanks David: this is not only a help in preparing a sermon, it’s a deep look inside ourselves–for like the disciples, we who are called to proclaim also carry our own doubts. I think at times we fear these doubts when we should embrace them, let them speak to us on a level we can confront them. We may discover that doubt will always accompany faith.
Dr. Richard Hoefler, who was professor of Homeletics at Southern Seminary once told us that faith is “living as if the promises of God are true.” Alan Jones, former dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco said: “The opposite of faith is not doubt, the opposite of faith is certainty.” That’s a truth worth reflecting on.
It seems to me that it was the certainty of those who persecuted and crucified Jesus that they were doing the will of God is where they went astray–and perhaps it is the certainty of the disciples and us that what we are certain about is not always where truth lies.
This helps me, not only think about the sermon–but to own my own doubt as I engage the text–with both my disbelief and my wonderment. Thanks David.
No luck subscribing. My eyesight is not what it once was so spotting all the buses was hard!
Wonderfully inspiring — the sermon, and the comments. Thanks!