Now You See Me, Now You Dont

A Sermon by
The Rev. Janice Ford
April 19, 2015
I really enjoy a good magic act. Im not talking about the old standards like sawing a
woman in half or pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Im referring to the newer forms of
prestidigitation where the magician makes a whole building disappear, or has
predetermined a random name or number from an unrelated source.
The intriguing thing about magic is that we know it involves trickery. We know that our
senses are somehow being fooled by the magician, yet even when we see those acts
up close, we typically cant determine how they are done. I think there is a part of us
that really wants to believe that what we are seeing is real. We want to believe that this
bizarre happening DID happen! Folks like me go back and forth between enjoying the
childlike wonder over seeing something impossible happen, and desperately trying to
figure out how it was done.
I wonder if the disciples struggled with just that when Jesus made his post-resurrection
appearances. We know they had doubts about what they were seeing, and they were
scared witless, for sure, but I wonder what they were really thinking. Did they want to
believe Jesus had been raised from the dead, or were they hoping this was some kind
of ruse being played on them? We might first be inclined to think that, yes, they really
wanted to believe it was Jesus, but they also had to know on some level that if Jesus
had actually returned from the dead, life as they knew it was over for them.
The impact and repercussions of Jesus resurrection meant that everything Jesus had
told them was true, and that meant that they had much work to do. It also meant that
life for them would probably go from stressful, to difficult, to even unbearable. They
would soon learn the true meaning of discipleship and its mandatory personal sacrifice.
For those reasons alone, I am inclined to think that the disciples may not have been so
eager to believe that Jesus really had been raised. They knew what that would mean
for them.
Fortunately for them, and ultimately for us, however, the disciples did come to believe
that what they saw was real. No trickery was involved. Jesus was not a figment of their
imagination. Jesus was back, and he had plans.
Right out of the gate, Jesus tells the disciples that they are witnesses to these things.
In other words, hes not giving them the opportunity to say, I never saw a thing, Your
Honor! By showing them the wounds of his crucifixion, and encouraging them to touch
his hands, feet and side, he is implicating the use of all their senses in their discovery.
And if that wasnt enough, he actually shares a meal with them! Surely, a ghost doesnt
need to eat! There was simply no way they could logically deny what was happening
right before their eyes.

This leads me to wonder about our own response to Jesus resurrection. As Christians,
we declare that Jesus was raised from the deadthat is, indeed, the essence of our
faith. Yet, I sometimes think we look for ways to deny what our faith tells us because we
know what our faith will demand of us.
Because we believe Jesus was raised, we cant simply go on living as if it never
happened. Our faith demands that we live what we believe. If we live differently from
what we believe, the resulting disconnect makes it impossible for us to be truly happy
and whole. We might call it a kind of spiritual schizophrenia. Our words and actions
are not congruent with what we believe to be true. It is difficult to live that way for very
long before spiritual and emotional misery sets in.
So what exactly is it that our faith demands of us? What is it that makes discipleship so
difficult? It is excruciatingly simple and disarmingly complex: Love the Lord your God
with all your mind, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength; and
love your neighbor as yourself. Virtually every minute of every day we make choices
that impact this one mandate of our faith. It is the template against which we measure
everything in our lives, and implementing it frequently comes with a cost to our comfort,
our complacency, and our place in this world.
God performed the ultimate magic act when Jesus was raised from the dead. Yet,
what God truly delights in is not the fact that we believe in what we have not really seen.
Rather, God delights in how we live our lives as a result of our believing. That is the
true measure of our faith. That is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Discipleship
begins with our believing, and then lives on as we live into it. Amen. Alleluia.