Easter 2

Easter 2 (John 20:19-31) “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
Seeing is not necessarily believing.

More often than not, people see what they want to see. More often than not the human brain fills in the gaps of sense experience with what we have been trained to expect.
When the Aztecs of Mexico first saw the Spanish Conquistadors wearing armor and riding horses they thought the horse and rider were a single being. Some thought the Spanish were deities. Some thought they were demons. Others thought they were some bizarre new species. They had never seen horses before. They struggled to interpret what they were seeing within the context of what they already knew.

The long history of Scripture is that more often than not, people reject divine revelation. Even those who initially respond to the call of God, such as Abraham and Moses, David and Solomon, and the prophets- even those come to a place where they simply cannot and will not continue the journey of faith in God as God reveals himself.

So it was with the apostles.

All of them had heard Jesus teach about his death and resurrection. None of them took Jesus literally. Each of them brought to Jesus his own set of preconceived ideas about God and expectations for God’s Messiah.

For most people most of the time, seeing is not believing. Despite the human demand for physical tangible verifiable evidence, most people most of the time are reluctant and resistant to Who God reveals himself to be.

During this forty day season of Easter we remember how most of the disciples, those who followed Jesus, resisted the evidence of the resurrection. Mary Magdalene looked right at Jesus and didn’t recognize him. Instead of Jesus she thought she saw a gardener. In her mind she knew dead was dead. Her mind could not accept the evidence of her senses. She needed to hear his voice speak her name before her mind could accept the reality of the impossible.

The apostles, with the exception of the teen apostle John, not only needed to see and hear Jesus, they needed to touch him. They needed to watch him eat and drink to be sure he was physically real. In their minds they knew dead was dead. They could understand that Jesus might be a ghost, a disembodied spirit. They could not believe he had truly and physically risen from the dead.

So it was during those forty days between the resurrection and the ascension. John, the teen apostle, tells us that Jesus appeared to some five hundred of his followers. John also comments that while many believed some doubted.

Some doubted as well they might. No one had ever risen from the dead before Jesus. No one has risen from the dead since Jesus. Jesus is unique. There is no experiment science can design to test the reality of the resurrection. Jesus knew this. That is why he told Thomas, doubting Thomas, blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.

The French philosopher Descartes once wrote: I doubt that I may believe. Certainly for the apostles, they needed to reexamine what they thought they knew about God before they could accept the fullness of divine revelation in God’s Son.

Descartes recommends doubt as a precursor to belief. He recognizes that even the most rational empiricist sees the world with preconceived ideas and expectations. The best scientist is the one who is willing to examine and test the most fundamental assertions of his own teachers.

What assumptions about God, the universe, humanity and ourselves do we hold in our minds? Those assumptions form lenses through which we see in the world what we expect to see, and see in God what we expect to see.

Where do we need to question our assumptions? What do we need to unlearn about God so that we might draw closer to Who God is?

What preconditions do we set for faith?

The apostle Thomas very emphatically stated his preconditions. He demanded to touch and feel the reality of the nail prints and the side wound in a physical body. Jesus gave him that experience.

It is important to ask ourselves which Jesus do we believe in. It may even be necessary for some people to ask which Jesus do we not believe in.

The real Jesus invites us to enter into a personal relationship with him. The real Jesus makes himself known in the words of Moses, the prophets, and the apostles. The real Jesus infuses his divine life into our souls in the Real Presence of the blessed sacrament.

The blessing in in the belief. The belief is not a set of doctrines or laws. The belief is in a person. The belief is the new life and new way of living that derives from the new relationship. The belief is supported by the testimony of 500 people who saw that person, heard that person and physically interacted with that person.

Five hundred people saw, heard and touched the risen Christ. The rest of us believe on the basis of their experience, the testimony of the Bible, and the Great Mystery of Divine Love in the blessed sacrament of the altar. That is why Jesus said: blessed are those who have not seen yet believe.