Like the disciples, on Easter Day we went to the tomb expecting to find Jesus there, and we were told: "He is not here." Taken down from the Cross, Jesus is no longer affixed there. He is not in the tomb where we laid him. He is not parading into Jerusalem to take his throne, like we expected after Palm Sunday. So where is Jesus? Where do we find Jesus--how do we find him?
It all depends on what we see when we look. Look at what? When we look at anything. To be more specific, it depends on the evidence for which we are looking. Are we looking for evidence of what is seen, or evidence of what is unseen?
One of the ultimate Christian paradoxes is that God uses what is seen to reveal--to show--what cannot be seen. God, who is always hidden, is revealed in mystery. The traces of God are teased out through the contradictions of life. And the indescribable truths are understood through experience, even if they remain indescribable.
As you go through life, what evidence of God are you looking for?
Jesus proved God's presence and power by showing the disciples his wounds. The bright light and glorious angel-messengers on Easter only served to scare the disciples and stop them from sharing the gospel. But when Jesus finally appeared after being raised, he met them quietly. And the proof of his identity was not lightening or voices from heaven, the evidence he brought were wounds.
What do you see when you see wounds?
What do you see when you visit someone who is sick in the hospital? What do you see in the person who is losing their mind and personality in dementia? What do you see in the soldier who has lost limb, or even life, in the course of service? What do you see in the patient in traction because of a car accident? What do you see in the stroke victim? What do you see when a child skins his or her knee? What do you see as you sit beside a loved one's deathbed?
If we cannot find Jesus in these things, we cannot find Jesus anywhere.
Jesus' presence is in the hurt. Jesus' power is in the healing. God's love and power is strongest in the midst of wounds and death.
Because of Christ, there is only one illness or injury that is fatal. "Really?"--you may be asking. "People seem to die of many things." That may be what we see, but it is not what is going on unseen.
If the illness is slight, Jesus is the one who empowers our bodies or minds to heal. If the wound is great, it is the Holy Spirit who calls forth medicine and causes it to be an effective intervention. And if the illness or injury leads to death, our Father is the one who imparts life anyway. None of these results in ultimate death. There is no sickness that is unto death.
Once, Jesus' friend Lazarus got really sick. When Jesus heard of Lazarus' illness, he did not rush to heal him, but told his disciples that, "this sickness is not unto death" (John 11:4). After suffering for days, Lazarus finally died. Jesus wept when he heard the news, and yet he proclaimed that the sickness was not unto death, and told Martha, "Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live" (John 11:25). Death was not unto death. But the disciples did not see, did not understand what Jesus meant by this paradox, by this mystery. Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave. He did it to reveal the power of God. But even when the crowd saw Jesus do it, and heard him repeat over and over again that he was doing it to reveal the unseen (John 11: 4, 15, 42), even then the crowd assumed that Lazarus was just unconscious, that he was never really dead. They could not even believe when Jesus made it seen.
Soren Kierkegaard wrote a whole book trying to fuss out the unseen in that story about the death of Lazarus (the title of the book: The Sickness Unto Death). And taking Jesus words as truth, Kierkegaard came to the conclusion that the only sickness unto death is despair. In faith, Jesus' power is proven in injury, sickness, and death. In despair, it is impossible to trust in what is unseen, and our lives are then consumed by what is only seen.
Jesus was wounded to indicate where Jesus is when we are wounded. Jesus died so that we might be able to trust God's presence even in death. Jesus was raised up so that we would be able to see what is going to happen to us when we die. Jesus is the evidence of God at work. Jesus makes seen what was formerly unseeable. But even when we see the unseen, it is difficult to trust, and it is still so easy to despair! When you see wounds and sickness and death, what do you see? Do you believe?
God's most glorious appearance in the world is the Cross. And if the resurrection had any glory in it, it was only because the Cross happened. And so the heavy crosses you bear are not occasions of despair, they are indications of all that is yet unseen.
This short prayer was the epigraph of Kierkegaard's book, The Sickness unto Death. It sets up the true theme of the book, and yet Kierkegaard doesn't use "seen" or "unseen" or "sight" at any other part of the book itself:
What is seen does give us cause for despair. But if we despair, we die spiritually and ultimately.
What is unseen in the midst of what is seen, gives us hope and cause for thanksgiving---if we believe what is unseen. The gospel, or rather Jesus, gives evidence for the unseen. Therefore, faith is possible.
In faith, everything is ours... all that is, seen and unseen.
THANKS BE.
No comments:
Post a Comment