Series: Easter: This Changes Everything
Message: Believe?
Preacher: Japhet De Oliveira
Reflection: Sam Millen
Live Wonder: Bec Reid
Live Adventure: Jess Lee
Live Beyond: Art Preuss
Live Purpose: Don Pate
Editor: Becky De Oliveira
Refresh: Begin with prayer. Ask for the Holy Spirit to open your heart to new understanding and for God’s character to be revealed.
Read: John 20:19-29 in the New International Version (NIV). Note 1–3 insights or questions.
Reflect: John was the youngest apostle, and, according to tradition, the only one to die of old age. He wrote this Gospel late in life. His audience comprised second generation Christians who had not seen the resurrected Jesus themselves. John tells them, “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe (or may continue to believe) that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:30–31). Their faith was not based on seeing the physical evidence of the resurrection, but the credibility of those (like John) who had witnessed these events firsthand. Almost two thousand years later, what is our faith based on? Most agree there is enough evidence to establish Jesus as a real historical person who lived in Palestine, but this doesn’t prove His resurrection.
In a fascinating opinion piece for the New York Times, titled “Mystery and Evidence,” Tim Crane, an atheist, and professor of philosophy at the University of Cambridge, writes, “There is a story about Bertrand Russell giving a public lecture somewhere or other, defending his atheism. A furious woman stood up at the end of the lecture and asked: ‘And Lord Russell, what will you say when you stand in front of the throne of God on judgment day?’ Russell replied: ‘I will say: I’m terribly sorry, but you didn’t give us enough evidence.’” Crane explains religious claims should not be treated like scientific hypotheses to be proven (or disproven) because they are not exactly alike. Towards the end of his article, Crane states, “Religions do make factual and historical claims, and if these claims are false, then the religions fail. But this dependence on fact does not make religious claims anything like hypotheses in the scientific sense. Hypotheses are not central. Rather, what is central is the commitment to the meaningfulness (and therefore the mystery) of the world.”
In his book, Austin Fischer gives a faith illustration from Søren Kierkegaard. (Side note: I wanted to name one of my sons after this nineteenth century Danish philosopher, but was thoroughly convinced by my loving wife that the name sounded too much like the Dark Lord Sauron from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Instead, my older son’s name is Seth—named after the one in the Bible, not Seth Meyers.)
Søren Kierkegaard once reminded us that following Jesus requires a leap of faith, or perhaps more accurately, a leap to faith. He likens it to something called a tilting doll, a toy rounded on the bottom and weighed such that it will always right itself when pushed over. Faith, says Kierkegaard, is like that tilting doll. It will stand on its own, but the only way to”prove” it is to let it go so it can right itself: “As long as I keep my hold on the proof . . . the [proof of God’s] existence does not come out, if for no other reason than that I am engaged in proving it; but when I let the proof go, the existence is there . . .the existence emerges . . . by a leap.” In other words, the proof emerges in the leap that is a life of faith. The proof is always in the living. (p. 162)
The way I see it, faith is ultimately a gift from God (see Romans 12:3)—which means every person has the ability to believe, and indeed does believe (rely on or trust) in something (God, ourselves, or idols of all kinds). The question is not whether or not we have faith. Instead, we must ask ourselves who (or what) has our faith. I have found a life of faith in Jesus to be full of meaning, mystery, wonder, and awe. I cannot scientifically prove the resurrection, but along with Austin Fischer, “I would rather be wrong about Jesus than right about anything else.” Think about it; if Jesus wasn’t who He claimed to be—if Christian faith was based on the biggest hoax in the history of the world—there would be nobody on the other side of death to say, “I told you so!” There would be nothing, and you wouldn’t know the difference.
Recalibrate: If Jesus anticipates those who have not seen Him to believe, what is our faith based on—if not physical evidence?
Respond: Ask God to help you place more of the “measure of faith” (Romans 12:3) He has given you in Him rather than other things.
Research: Read this fascinating opinion piece in the New York Times, titled “Mystery and Evidence,” by Tim Crane, an atheist and professor of philosophy at the University of Cambridge.
Remember: “Then Jesus told him, ‘You believe because you see me. Those who believe without seeing me will be truly happy’” (John 20:29, ICB).
Sam Millen is the pastor at Anacortes Adventist Fellowship in Washington State. He his wife Angie is a schoolteacher on Orcas Island and their three children are really awesome!
Does your family have a newspaper lying around the house? If not, do you have an old book that you don’t mind ripping the pages from? Get a plain piece of paper and draw a big red heart. Use the newspaper, or old book pages, and involve your little one by scrunching the paper into balls. Explain to them that on each page that is being scrunched there are stories. Stories of people, stories about boys and girls just like them. Use glue and stick the scrunched-up balls inside the heart. Explain to your little one that the big red heart is like God’s heart and the scrunched up pages are also like our own stories. He holds each person’s story tightly and He holds them close in His heart. Sometimes we have happy stories and sometimes we have sad stories, and God cares so much for us that He sent Jesus to die for each one of us.
Have you ever had a hot cross bun at Easter? Did you know that the hot cross bun is not just a yummy treat we get around Easter—the bun itself has a link to the Easter story. The Cross represents the cross that Jesus died on. The spices are the same spices used when Jesus was buried in the tomb. Jesus showed His love for us by dying on the cross so that we may live with Him in heaven. How are we showing others Jesus’ love?
There is no account in the Scriptures of what the Sabbath day was like after Jesus was crucified. It’s almost as if it was too painful for anyone to talk or write about. Once the Gospel writers explain that Jesus has died, the story skips over the Sabbath day and jumps ahead to the “first day of the week”—Sunday. The book of John tells us that Peter and the beloved disciple (John) raced to the tomb where Jesus was buried because Mary Magdalene went to the tomb earlier, before sunrise, and found it empty. Peter and John confirmed Mary Magdalene’s words and went away to their own homes (John 20:10). What a contrast between Simon of Arimathea and the disciples! One understood who Jesus was (and is) while the others were so rattled that they went home in despair once they saw an empty tomb.
Let’s get real: Would you describe yourself more as Joseph of Arimathea, someone who has an understanding of who Jesus is, or as the disciples, someone who still doesn’t know who Jesus really is? How does the Bible reveal Him to you?
In John 20, Thomas got a special gift, but it was a gift that cost him something. Jesus allowed the hurting disciple to get an extra layer of proof in a very personal way but there was a price: 1) Thomas had to learn that he’d disappointed Jesus, and 2) Thomas had cost himself a horrible week! If he’d have chosen to believe the witness of his friends from the Sunday night before he could have spent the week rejoicing rather than doubting and being in sorrow. Doubt costs us; it just does. Whenever you and I trust our doubts more than we trust our God it is costly. It hurts Him and it deprives us of a joy in life that could have been ours. Choosing to doubt is a bit of idolatry, just be honest. Thomas learned the lesson and I think he’d tell us to quit worshipping our doubts and start living exciting deliverance.
Bec Reid is a real estate agent within her family business. She lives in Sydney, Australia, and is a part of the Wahroonga Adventist Church community.
Jess Lee is an education consultant for the New South Wales Adventist education system. She lives in Sydney, Australia, and attends Kellyville Church.
Art Preuss pastors in Massachusetts at the Springfield, Florence, and Warren Adventist churches and serves in the U. S. Air Force Reserve as a chaplain.
Don Pate is “retired” in Tennessee after decades of teaching and pastoring but is still active in speaking and creating for the Kingdom.