Believing Without Understanding

The Sunday morning message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on March 31, 2024.  The Bible verses used are John 20:1-18.

On Friday, Jesus died.  There was no question about it.  Everyone saw him die.  They even stabbed his side with a spear to make sure.  Jesus had a good run—he’d healed people, he’d fed people, he’d attracted a following.  But it was all over now.  Jesus was dead.  Period.  It had been quite a run, but now it was over.  The end.

            Jesus had told the disciples what was going to happen next.  He told them he was going to overcome death and rise on the third day.  But they either did not understand what he meant or did not believe it.  I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that everyone who knew what had happened thought Jesus’ life was over when he died on the cross.

            Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb.  She’s going there to anoint Jesus’ body, as part of the Jewish burial ritual.  She sees the tomb empty, but does not know what’s happened.  She assumes someone has moved Jesus’ body.

          She goes back and tells Peter and John.  They go running out to the tomb.  Peter goes into the tomb first, and sure enough it’s empty.  He sees the strips of linen that had been wrapped around Jesus’ body and the cloth that had been wrapped around his head.  Then John goes in.  And then the Bible says this:  “He saw and believed.  (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead).”

            We’ll come back to that.  But then Peter and John leave.  And apparently, the way the story is written, they don’t say a word to Mary Magdalene.  They just walk away and leave Mary outside the tomb.  Crying.  Still thinking Jesus’ body has been moved someplace, and not having any idea where.

           Mary sees two angels.  They ask her why she’s crying, and again she tells them someone has taken Jesus’ body.  She sees Jesus himself, but of course does not recognize him.  She again wants to know where Jesus’ body was taken.  Then, Jesus says her name and she recognizes him.  That was probably the last thing Mary expected.  And of course, she’s overjoyed.  Jesus tells her to go and tell the others that he is ascending to God the Father, and of course she does that.

            I’ve said before that when we read about Biblical events, we need to try to imagine ourselves there.  Try to imagine ourselves as one of the people in the story.  Try to imagine what they were thinking or feeling.  I think when we do that here, what we realize is how important it is to believe even when we don’t understand.

           Look at John.  Remember what it said about John?  We’re told that he went into the tomb, and “he saw and believed”.  But then, in the next sentence, we’re told that neither he nor Peter understood from scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.

So John believed.  But what, exactly, did he believe?  He believed that the tomb was empty, but he could see that.  That did not take any belief--any fool could see the tomb was empty.  Did he believe Jesus had risen from the dead?  Maybe.  But even if he did, neither he nor Peter understood what that meant.  Again, they “did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.”  They may have understood that this was a miracle, but what it meant--what it meant for them and for everyone else--they don’t appear to have had a clue.

            Mary Magdalene still thinks someone has moved the body.  Jesus rising from the dead does not even seem to have occurred to her.  She does not seem to even consider the possibility of it.  She knows Jesus is dead.  She just wants to know where the body is, so she can do what her faith requires her to do and so that she can mourn properly.

            And yet.  Through all this, Mary continues to refer to Jesus as “Lord”.  Not by name.  Not as just a man.  As “Lord”.  She tells Peter and John, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb.”  She tells the angels “They have taken my Lord away.”  Even though Mary Magdalene believes Jesus is dead--actually more than believes, Mary knows it as a fact--despite that, she continues to refer to Jesus as “Lord.”  

Think about that.  “Lord”.  That’s not a title Mary would use for a man.  That’s a title Mary would only have used for the divine Son of God.  Somehow, in some way, even though she’s convinced Jesus is dead, she continues to believe in him as the Lord.  She probably would not have been able to explain that.  She might not have even understood it herself.  But somehow, in some way, even though she did not understand, she continued to believe.  And, of course, her belief is rewarded.  Jesus says her name, she turns and sees him, the last person she expected to see there, and she is overjoyed that Jesus is alive.

            Belief without understanding.  That’s one of the definitions of faith, really--when we continue to believe even when we don’t understand.  

As we look around us, we see a lot of things we don’t understand.  There are natural disasters, of course:  blizzards, floods, fires, earthquakes.  And we hear about unnatural disasters, too.  Terrorist attacks.  Murders.  Wars.  Riots.  And of course, there are the things that hit closer to home.  Cancer and other diseases.  Heart attacks.  Motor vehicle accidents.  And we could go on and on and on with all kinds of other things that are happening in the world.

            We don’t understand these things.  We don’t understand why they happen.  We don’t understand why God allows them to happen.  Some of them we can explain away by saying that God allows us to make choices and sometimes we make bad ones.  And of course, those bad choices we make affect a lot of people other than just ourselves.  And that explains some of the things that happen, but not all of them.  

            We say that God is good.  In fact, that’s one of the most basic articles of our faith as Christians--that God is good.  And yet, we struggle to understand why this good God would allow the world to be the way it is.  Even if we say that God did not cause it to be the way it is, we know God could do something about it.  God can do anything--that’s a basic part of being God.  But God clearly is not doing anything about it.  

Well, that may not be true.  After all, God does all sorts of things that we don’t see and maybe never will see.  God may be working right now, pulling everything together in ways we have no idea about.  But it appears to us, at least, that God is permitting things to be the way they are, at least for now.  This good God, this perfect God, is allowing the world to be anything but perfect.  This good God is allowing a lot of misery and sadness to go on in the world.  And we don’t understand why.

            But the question is not “Do we understand?”  Don’t get me wrong, it’s okay to try.  It’s okay to ask questions and try to understand.  But the question is not “Do we understand?”  The question is “Do we believe?”  

Are we able to believe, even though we don’t understand?  Are we able to believe, despite everything we see around us, that God is still good?  Are we able to believe, no matter how things look to us right now, that God has reasons for allowing things to be the way they are?  Are we able to believe, no matter what’s happening and no matter what does happen, that somehow God is going to make everything work out all right in the end?  And in fact, are we able to believe that not only is everything going to work out all right in the end, but that somehow, in some way that we don’t understand and never will understand while we’re on earth, all these things are part of God’s plan and that all these things are necessary to bring about the fulfillment of God’s plan?

            When you put it that way, it kind of seems like it’s asking a lot.  Believing those things when we don’t understand them is not easy.  But on the other hand, Jesus never promised that faith would be easy.  

It was not easy for Peter and John.  It was not easy for Mary Magdalene.  Think of the position they were in at this point.  They believed Jesus was alive, but they did not understand any of it.  They did not understand what had happened.  They did not understand how it had happened.  They did not understand why it had happened--I mean, they knew it had to do with Jesus being the Son of God, but again, we’re told that they “did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.”  They did not understand what it meant, for them or anyone else.  They did not understand what was going to happen next or how it was going to affect them.  They believed, but they did not understand anything about it at all.

            So that’s the challenge.  Can we believe, even though we don’t understand?  Can we continue to have faith in God, even though we don’t know why things are the way they are?  Can we continue to believe that God is good when it seems like so many things happening in the world are bad?  Can we continue to believe God loves us when it seems like our lives are being turned upside down, especially when it seems like they’re being turned upside down through no fault of our own?  Can we continue to believe?  Can we continue to have faith?

            Peter and John believed Jesus was alive, even though they did understand how or why.  Mary Magdalene believed Jesus was Lord, even though she did not understand how or why.  They believed, even though they did not understand.  And because they believed, Jesus was with them, even though when they were not aware of it.  And he made himself known to them, even when they did not expect it.  

Can we believe, even though we don’t understand?  If we can, if we keep believing, Jesus will be with us, even when we’re not aware of it.  And even though we don’t expect it, Jesus will make himself known to us, too.