I Have Seen (18 of 52)
Series: Lectionary, Year A
Christopher B. Harbin
John 20:1-18
Believing can take a while. It is difficult for us to process new information. We have to sift through what we see, hear, and feel; assess where the information comes from; and weigh all of that against our past experiences and conclusions. We weigh it against all the notions about life we have developed across the years. Then we try to make it all fit together like a new piece of a puzzle we thought we had already completed. That is not always easy, especially when we are surprised by the completely unexpected. The older we are, the more difficult it can be to reorganize a puzzle that already seems to have too many pieces. As we encounter new aspects of Jesus' identity and character, how do we process those into our developing faith?
The disciples seem to have been in a constant state of reorganizing their notions of God in light of their experiences with Jesus. Time after time, Peter is found with his foot in his mouth due to the need to adapt to one more piece of the puzzle being set before him. The disciples struggled with continued grappling with new concepts regarding the expansiveness of God's grace. They wrestled with the need to learn unlimited forgiveness. They were stretched by the ways Jesus interacted with Samaritans, lepers, women, children, hungry crowds, people possessed by demons, wealth, political power, and an interplay of concepts like suffering, comfort, and death. Jesus spoke of God's immanence and desire to be present in their lives in ways that made their heads spin. All of that was just the groundwork for the way their heads would spin during the week leading to his passion, crucifixion, and death.
That Sabbath had begun with greater darkness than they had ever experienced. The gospels record that the very sky turned dark at the hour of Jesus' death. That was as much a reflection of their own inability to comprehend what was happening and the ...
Series: Lectionary, Year A
Christopher B. Harbin
John 20:1-18
Believing can take a while. It is difficult for us to process new information. We have to sift through what we see, hear, and feel; assess where the information comes from; and weigh all of that against our past experiences and conclusions. We weigh it against all the notions about life we have developed across the years. Then we try to make it all fit together like a new piece of a puzzle we thought we had already completed. That is not always easy, especially when we are surprised by the completely unexpected. The older we are, the more difficult it can be to reorganize a puzzle that already seems to have too many pieces. As we encounter new aspects of Jesus' identity and character, how do we process those into our developing faith?
The disciples seem to have been in a constant state of reorganizing their notions of God in light of their experiences with Jesus. Time after time, Peter is found with his foot in his mouth due to the need to adapt to one more piece of the puzzle being set before him. The disciples struggled with continued grappling with new concepts regarding the expansiveness of God's grace. They wrestled with the need to learn unlimited forgiveness. They were stretched by the ways Jesus interacted with Samaritans, lepers, women, children, hungry crowds, people possessed by demons, wealth, political power, and an interplay of concepts like suffering, comfort, and death. Jesus spoke of God's immanence and desire to be present in their lives in ways that made their heads spin. All of that was just the groundwork for the way their heads would spin during the week leading to his passion, crucifixion, and death.
That Sabbath had begun with greater darkness than they had ever experienced. The gospels record that the very sky turned dark at the hour of Jesus' death. That was as much a reflection of their own inability to comprehend what was happening and the ...
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