Easter 2

Easter 2 (John 20:19-31)
“These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and through believing you may have life in his name.”

Faith precedes belief. Belief follows faith.

Human beings believe all sorts of strange and often contradictory things. The basis of these beliefs is desire and authority.

We frequently believe what we want to believe. This is the self justifying belief of convenience. And, we frequently believe what a trusted authority figure, such as a parent or a teacher, tell us.

Most of the time we do not examine our beliefs. Most of the time we do not question our beliefs. God wants us to examine our beliefs. God wants us to ask why we believe what we believe. It does matter what you believe. Belief enters into the world of cause and effect and produces a consequence.

The basis of belief for the apostles was evidence. The evidence was the personal and physical presence of the resurrected living Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus appeared to them, spoke with them, ate with them, led them in Bible study, celebrated Holy Communion, and invited them to touch him so they would know that he had a physical body.

Our heavenly Father did not, and does not, ask for us to believe in a set of laws, principles, rituals or philosophy as a condition for faith. Our heavenly Father invites us to place our trust and confidence and love in a person: Jesus Christ.
Faith is the solid rock foundation of belief. Belief without faith is like a house built on shifting sand. It won’t stand the time of testing. It won’t endure the storms of life.

It is certainly important to teach our children the beliefs of the Christian Faith. It is far more important to demonstrate faith.

Most of the apostles at first rejected the reality of the resurrection precisely because their minds and hearts and wills had been trained in a set of beliefs that said resurrection is impossible. They knew Jesus personally before he died on the cross. But, they had not yet placed their faith in him. They placed their faith in the religious leaders and the religious system that told them dead is dead. No one rises from the dead.

The physical resurrection of Jesus Christ challenged the fundamental beliefs people had about God, religion, life and death.

It wasn’t easy for the people who had known Jesus personally to accept the new reality of the New Covenant. It meant asking themselves some hard questions about themselves. It meant asking: why do I believe? What authority do I trust?
Jesus told Thomas, blessed are those who have not seen yet believe. Jesus personally appeared to some five hundred people during the forty days after his resurrection and prior to his ascension. Every one else who believes in Jesus is among those who have not seen yet believe.

The Christian Faith is a personal loyalty to a very specific person: Jesus Christ. This faith is not a blind leap in the dark. Jesus in fact states that he is the light of the world. Faith in Jesus is a movement from the darkness of separation, rebellion and death into the light of Divine Love and Divine life.

Jesus is not a cleverly devised myth. His historic reality is attested by thousands of people who knew him. Some of those accepted Jesus. Some rejected him. Some were largely indifferent. In the First Century, people formed an opinion about Jesus as a real person not a mythological story.

All but one of the apostles died for their simple testimony that Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. For centuries the church has experienced the reality that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. Jesus never authorized any of his followers to kill for him. He asks us to live for him. And, sometimes he asks us to die for him.

Christian martyrs die proclaiming: Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

Most of the New Testament books were written before the destruction of the Temple in 70A.D. Certainly all of the New Testament books were in existence by the end of the First Century. This is attested by Christian, Roman, and Jewish writers who quote extensively from the gospels and the epistles. Some quote to uphold the Christian faith. Others quote to attack that faith. And still others quote from a place of indifferent commentary.

The real question is: who is Jesus Christ?

Modern atheists assert Jesus never lived. Does this assertion fit the historic facts?

Modern secularists assert that Jesus was a nice moral teacher but never claimed to be God. Does this assertion fit the eye witness accounts of Jesus’ life and teaching?

Some religions teach that Jesus was one in a long line of prophets but could not have been the Son of God. Does this assertion fit the eye witness accounts of Jesus birth, death and resurrection?

People believe what they want to believe. And, we believe what a trusted authority teaches us to believe.

Jesus invites us into a personal relationship with himself. He asks us to come to him and place our trust in him. He does not ask that we embrace a fully formed inflexible set of beliefs first. The relationship comes first. The faith precedes the beliefs.

The Good News the apostles proclaimed to their generation is that God is real, God is personal, God is love, God is Jesus Christ.

The written record of that Good News encourages us to taste and see. Taste and see that the lord is good. Ask Jesus to make himself known to you. Read the stories. Ponder them. Ask: does this make sense?

If God is real, does it make sense he would care about us?

If God is real, does it make sense he would come to us in person to show us who he is?

If God is real, does it make sense that he would invite us to make a real choice to enter into a personal relationship with himself?

If God is real does it make sense that He would choose four very different people to record their personal experiences and impressions of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?

If God is real, does it make sense that he loves us so much that he refuses to impose his will on us but rather invites us to taste and see?

The apostle John believed in the resurrection even before he met the risen Lord. He believed because he had already found faith at the Last Supper, in the company of Holy Mother Mary, and at the foot of the Cross. That faith is a personal trust and loyalty.

We do not have the same opportunity to experience Jesus as Thomas and the other apostles experienced him. We do have that same opportunity that John had.

We have the Holy Eucharist which re presents to us the reality of the Last Supper. We have the personal witness and intercessory ministry of holy Mother Mary. We can, if we choose, stand at the foot of the cross in meditation and contemplation. And, we have an additional opportunity John lacked. We have the gospels.

We have the written record of the apostolic experience of Jesus Christ. The written record is about faith. It is about the living Lord Jesus Christ reaching out to everyone with his personal invitation to receive the gift of God. It is about the unconditional love of God asking us to trust in him.

The invitation to faith is the invitation to a new life that is grounded in unconditional love and a new way of living that is the font of every blessing. John tells us: “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and through believing you may have life in his name.”

Choose wisely. Choose life. Choose Jesus.