Choosing to Believe
“Then he said to them, ‘Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.’”Luke 24:38-39
Have you ever heard or saw something and then question its authenticity or validity? Or maybe witnessed or experienced something that you did not think possible? Maybe a unexpected recovery from illness or a miraculous survival from an accident? Something that just caused you to take a step back, pause and ask, “What?” The Apostles were the same way when they saw their LORD who hung upon the Cross and was laid in the tomb stand before them, alive and speaking to them. They thought He was a ghost.
The disciples were “terrified and startled” we are told, but why? Why were they afraid to see the LORD? Maybe they did not know He was the LORD or maybe because their brains were not able to process how the LORD could be dead in the tomb and also alive before them at the same time. Or maybe because they have all abandoned Him as He was being arrested, and now they are afraid of what He might say to them. They were terrified because they had not yet understood the meaning of the “resurrection from the dead.” They were seeing the Lord with their brains and not with their hearts. In trying to reason out logically what and who was before them and how it was possible, the disciples failed to truly see who was before them. Just as the two disciples on the road to Emmaus ran back to Jerusalem after recognizing the LORD in the breaking of the bread, the disciples in the upper room needed to make that journey back to the Jerusalem in their hearts, back to the place of faith. And that is why the LORD came to them; so that they might not remained terrified but rather come to believe.
When the LORD comes to us brothers and sisters, let us not be afraid and think Him a ghost, but rather invite Him into our journey back to the place of faith in our hearts. Say to the LORD, “Bring me back to Jerusalem, Lord!” He comes not to scold us for our disbelief but rather to comfort us and console us and assure us of His never failing presence. He asks “Why are you troubled?” not because He is disappointed but because He wants to cast out those troubles within us. He asks “Why do questions arise in your hearts?” not because He is angry at our disbelief but because He wants to answer our questions and to fill our hearts with the peace and joy that will cast out all those things that cause fear to dwell within us. He comes to us so that we might choose to believe. Brothers and sisters, where are we in our journey to Jerusalem? Have we chosen to believe?
