What prevented the disciples from believing that Jesus really was the Messiah? You would think that seeing is believing is enough for most people to eventually come around to accepting a new reality but is it? How many times have we been confronted with a set of incontrovertible facts only to resist them and persist in our original belief? It’s not that we are delusional, it’s just that we are so set in our original man-made concept of our reality that it’s hard to let go. Consider how many “normal” people seek psychological counselling to undo preconceived notions that continue to distort behavior and alter their health and well being.
I wonder what we would do if all the things we have been taught about and believed about God were contradicted by the things we actually experience in life? It was in the midst of such uncertainty, questioning, and hopelessness that Jesus came to the apostles and walked along with them, stood beside them, and opened up for them the possibility of renewal. Jesus knew that the only way that this could happen would be through a new beginning. It was the resurrected Jesus who took the initiative to come to them so as to open their eyes to a new reality, and bring them a hope that went beyond the endings of the past. Despite the Resurrection, the apostles were paralyzed by a feeling of hopelessness: "Now what do we do?"The story continues beyond the resurrection in Luke 24:35-48 . The story continues not because the disciples found a will to press on into the future within themselves. The story goes on because the resurrected Jesus came to them and sought his doubting, questioning, failing, and hopeless followers. Therein lies our hope. God comes to us in Jesus in surprising ways when we least expect it. To meet the risen Lord is as much a possibility now as it was for the disciples or for Paul. Part of our task as modern disciples is to share the reality that Jesus is seeking that encounter with us and that hope is very much alive! It’s a new beginning.
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