The New Jersey apartment building I live in is on a high ridge and the view is spectacular. Some mornings I look eastward towards the distant towers of Manhattan on the skyline, looking over bright bands of fog filling some valleys and lowlands.
Sometimes I wake up to see nothing more than the dim glow of the fog that envelopes the area where I live, broken by the branches of very nearby trees. But often, to my surprise, I can walk or drive down the hill and see everything clearly, but not brightly, because the fog bank is above!
In John 20:19-31 we read about the resurrection appearance of Jesus to the apostles. Most were there and saw him; Thomas wasn’t and didn’t.
“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail-marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe!”
The next week he saw, and he was ashamed. “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?” Jesus said to him, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
In Luke 24:13-35 we read about another resurrection appearance of Jesus to two disciples on the road to Emmaus, They were discouraged and downcast.
They were skeptical about the resurrection appearance stories they had heard. You might say they were “enthralled” by their sorrow and disillusionment. (“Enthralled” in the sense of be held in slavery.)
“How foolish you are!” Jesus said to them, and he then begin to remind them of their religious history and faith.
With eyes wide shut, they were listening to Jesus, while wallowing in grief. (“Wallowing” in the sense of lying in and indulging it.)
It was only at supper as he said the blessing, breaking the bread, that they recognized him.
We often say, “Seeing is believing,” but it “ain’t necessarily so.”
Thomas saw because he was confronted by the proof he vainly demanded—and, he didn’t deny what he saw and heard and touched.
The two disciples took a long time to really see and hear, because they were so in denial that they were blind and deaf to what was right in front of them.
Sometimes it’s belief that enables us to really see. On the other hand, “Believing is seeing,” also, “ain’t necessarily so.”
Life’s like that. Sometimes we see clearly, including the fog itself (because we’re not in it); other times we’re in the fog and see very little.
Believing is something like that, We believe what we believe, even without evidence or, sometimes, in denial of what we have seen, heard, touched, or experienced.
Right now, we’re living in very foggy days. We know that fog is part of life, and we know that sooner or later it lifts—but while we’re in the fog, we can easily become confused and lose our sense of direction.
We miss the joy of a bright, clear day, bathed in sunshine, eyes wide open. And, when the fog goes on and on, we yearn for the sunshine—but, no matter what, we know that the sun still is shining, even though we can’t see it.
Jesus didn’t bawl out Thomas or the two disciples. He knew they were only human, not faithless; weak, but not bad.
He knows that about me and you, too. When life seems to be too dark, don’t forget that he is “the light of the world.”
26 April 2020