Dear Members and Friends,
Some of the best things we can believe in the Gospel are the events and principles that are so apparently unbelievable. Likewise, the greatest miracles in scripture aren’t so much the ones obviously noticed, but the ones that often remain entirely unseen.
To be sure, the last person the apostles thought they would encounter after the Crucifixion was the One they had left behind, Jesus Christ. If the list of potential visitors had numbered in the hundreds, the Lord would have remained solidly in last place. Recalling Mark’s rendition of events, all along leading up to the Cross, the disciples had no idea “what the rising from the dead meant.” So for their beloved Messiah to return again in bodily form, or any form, was something too great to comprehend. And too scary.
Thus do we hear the word “Peace!” as the very first utterance passing from the lips of the Lord newly come back to life. Peace to those who had let him down, and peace to those who might still be tempted to run away.
You see, most incredible for those gathered behind the locked doors of Easter, was not the fact of Jesus’ appearance in flesh, but his forgiveness in full. While Thomas could no longer doubt it when the Lord showed him his hands, so many of us even today cannot believe that these hands were extended in an eternal embrace. So while we may claim in worship that the Lord is risen, how many of us truly believe that we are fully forgiven?
Holding divorced and remarried people at arms length from the Lord’s Supper, it would seem that even the Bishop of Rome has found the reality of Resurrected Grace essentially imperceptible. This is very sad, because there are a number of souls, bereft and brokenhearted, who will mistakenly believe that in speaking on his own, he has in fact spoken for God.
The fact is, as a believer in this world, not only are you reconciled by God, you are also sent by God. In your daily endeavors, every so often, and maybe more times than you might like to admit, people will think that you are speaking for God. They will hear your words, but they will ascribe to them almost Divine authority – particularly when it comes to matters of their being judged and, perchance, forgiven.
Perhaps then, as Christians, and ones who have actually encountered the Risen Christ, the most magnificent thing we can ever do, most akin to the greatest miracle Jesus ever performed, is to speak on behalf of our Savior, saying, “Peace!” Thus, by God’s grace and power, that which seems to be too unbelievable for some, will become most tangible, credible and acceptable for all.
From Reverend William J. Keane,
Senior Minister of First Baptist Church of Branford
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