“Faith is not the absence of doubt. Faith is simply a willingness to keep asking the hard questions. As my mentor Lynn Anderson says, “Faith is the decision to follow the best light you have about God and not quit.”- Max Lucado
“[John] stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings.”- John 20:5-7 (NLT)
Max Lucado concludes Chapter 10 of Never Alone as he talks about the Greek term for lying (John 20:5). The Greek term for lying means ‘still in their folds’ or in their ‘original convolutions.’ Hence, the perfumed linen wrap remained exactly the way Joseph and Nicodemus had left it Friday evening. But with one glaring exception – Jesus had fled the cocoon!
Therefore, only one explanation made sense to John when he did the math. Jesus Himself did this. Thus, as Pastor Lucado describes, Jesus “passed through the burial wrap as if it were a sunrise mist. . . . What was intended to honor the dead now served to christen a King.”
Certainly, Pastor Lucado observes, no one hearing Peter’s sermon on Pentecost disputed his claim that God raised Jesus to life. Most significantly, Christ’s enemies would have welcomed evidence that Jesus didn’t rise from the dead. But no body existed to display. As a result, their silence served as the most convincing sermon of all.
Finally, Max exhorts:
“Accept the Easter invitation. Enter the tomb. Examine the facts. Even more, consider the implications. Because of the resurrection, clear-headed, reasoned-out faith is a possibility. . . . The stone is still rolled back. . . . The wrapping is still vacant. Examine the evidence. Look and see if you, like John, believe.”
Today’s question: Do you possess a willingness to keep asking the hard questions? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Anthem of the Second Chance”
