Luke 24:1-12
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise." And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened. (ESV)
Holy Doubt
Wednesday in Pentecost 5
30 June 2010
Our Lord pronounces us blessed, for although we have not seen we have believed (Jn 20:29). We stand as it were upon the shoulders of those who have seen. We touch the intangible in the hands of those who plunged their fingers into his blood-streaming side. The apostolic authorities appointed by our Lord were assured with many proofs that He had risen and those proofs they give to us in the apostolic Word. What they saw, we hear. What they touched, we heed. What they doubted at first, we know and believe at the last. Alleluia! Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Leo the Great
"On Ascension Day the sacred forty days are ended, which by holy appointment were devoted to our most profitable instruction, so that, during the period that the Lord thus extended the lingering of His bodily presence, our faith in the resurrection might be strengthened by needed proofs. For Christ's death had deeply disturbed the disciples' hearts and a kind of inertia of distrust had crept over their grief-laden minds at His torture on the cross, at His giving up His spirit, and at His lifeless body's burial. For, when the holy women, as the Gospel story has revealed, brought word of the stone rolled away from the tomb, the sepulcher emptied of the body, and the angels bearing witness to the living Lord, their words seemed like ravings to the Apostles and other disciples. This doubtfulness, the result of human weakness, the Spirit of Truth would most assuredly not have permitted to exist in His own preachers' breasts, had their trembling anxiety and careful hesitation not laid the foundations of our faith. It was our perplexities and our dangers that were provided for in the Apostles. In these men we were taught how to meet the quibbling of the ungodly and the arguments of earthly wisdom. We are instructed by their lookings, we are taught by their hearings, we are convinced by their handlings. Let us give thanks for God's management and the holy Fathers' necessary slowness of belief. Others doubted, that we might not doubt."
Prayer
Risen Christ, triumphant Lord, You have given witness to Your power over death by appearing to the disciples over the holy forty days. Grant that I might listen to that witness, in the power of the Holy Spirit believe it, and trust it as salvation itself. Amen.
For our catechumens who have been received into the communicant membership of the Lutheran Church that they might be kept in their most holy faith
For all those who seek employment that they might be blessed with a vocation to serve community, family, and church in keeping with their god-given gifts
For the medical personnel serving with the Memorial Lutheran Church mission team in Nicaragua, that the Lord Jesus would grants success to their ministrations
Art: PISANO, Andrea The Baptism of the Multitude 1330