Monday, March 29, 2010

I Have Seen the Lord!

“I have seen the Lord!” This is Mary Magdalene’s report to the disciples.

Seeing the empty tomb is startling, confusing, and amazing. Seeing angels is fearful and astonishing. But seeing Jesus is the best possible news in this universe. Mary saw Jesus when she was left alone in the garden.

Soon it would be Peter who would say, “I have seen the Lord,” and then John and the other disciples. Thomas missed the first group meeting with Jesus and refused to believe when he was told they had seen the Lord. Like so many of us, he had to see for himself. And when Jesus invited him to put his finger in his wounds and “be not faithless, but believing,” even doubting Thomas abandoned his skepticism and embraced Jesus as “my Lord and my God.”

The two people on the Road to Emmaus walked and talked with Jesus and did not realize until he broke the bread. I think that is when they saw the wounded hands. They returned to Jerusalem and told the disciples, “It is true! The Lord is risen! (Luke 24:34).

Saul of Tarsus would see the risen Christ on the Damascus Road and believe. In his first letter to the church at Corinth he wrote that Jesus was seen by over 500 people at one time (1 Corinthian 15:6).

These testimonies of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus, together with the evidence of the empty tomb and the coming of the Holy Spirit, gave birth to the church of Jesus Christ.

We come to the garden alone. Each one of us enters the garden with personal questions and beliefs. We stand before the empty tomb alone in mind and heart. Here before the tomb we make our personal decision and live with that personal choice.