“Eureka!” The Greek mathematician Archimedes shouted, “I’ve found it!” He had been trying to discover a way to tell the volume of an irregularly shaped object, and as he got into a bath he noticed the water spilling over the side. He realized that the volume of the water would equal the volume of his body, or the volume of any object he’d want to measure, and in his excitement he went running naked down the street shouting, “Eureka!”
At some point or another we’ve all felt a similar kind of excitement, the joy of discovering the answer. We puzzled over some difficult problem, not sure how we might solve it, wracking our brains to come up with a solution. And then all of a sudden the answer hits us. “Aha!” we might say, “I figured it out! I’ve found the solution!”
That can be pretty satisfying. It’s no wonder a lot of people like to do crossword puzzles.
But even better is a kind of exciting discovery that never ends, the joy of discovering God’s Word, the answers only he can give us. In fact, discovering, learning, and understanding God’s word is a miracle, something that can only happen by God’s own power. This is no crossword puzzle or dead book. It’s the living word of God for our salvation. And the risen Jesus opens our minds to understand the Scriptures.
Today we’re looking at part of Luke’s account of the resurrection, in chapter 24 where Jesus first appeared to his disciples. It’s always interesting to compare and contrast the different accounts in the gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all recorded the resurrection, but they focus on different details, just like you’d expect four different witnesses to do.
One thing Luke tells about is how when the disciples first saw Jesus they were terrified and thought he was a ghost. That maybe wouldn’t be our thought and so we might laugh at them a little, but Jesus didn’t laugh at them. Instead, he calmed their fears by showing them his hands and feet. “It is I myself” he said, “touch me and see.”
And then Luke says, “They still did not believe it because of their joy.” And so Jesus asked for food and ate it in front of them. There’s a big difference between faithless unbelief and joyful disbelief. The former says, “I do not believe that Jesus lives.” The latter says, “Jesus lives, can you believe it?!” And we could apply this to so many other doctrines, too. “I do not believe that there is a perfect heaven,” faithless unbelief says, while joyful disbelief says, “I can hardly believe that Jesus promises me a perfect heaven!” Both of these attitudes recognize that we’re in uncharted territory here, outside our human experience, there are no scientific tests we can use to prove it. But the first takes this as a reason to reject it, and the second takes it as a reason to despise my own ignorance and cling to God.
The disciples did not believe it because of their joy. This isn’t the same as their doubt and unbelief before. Before they didn’t know what to do, what to believe, what to hope. But now their attitude was one that was shaped by Jesus. They were dumbfounded, but they were full of joy. They weren’t about to jump out of a bathtub and run into the street, but they had found a kind of joy greater than any joy in the world.
And this exact same joy is one that you also have, whether or not you are feeling dumbfounded. Because the Jesus who died and rose for them also died and rose for you. The forgiveness that Jesus brought for them is forgiveness he also brings for you. The word of Jesus for them is also the word of Jesus for you.
And for both them and for us, that word of Jesus is the key. It is the answer we’ve been looking for. The joyful disbelief the disciples were in was not the place to stop. They were flying high, but they needed to land on the solid ground of God’s Word. And we do too, because people say all kinds of things. How are we supposed to know what to believe? How are we supposed to know what’s true? We could go to Jerusalem today and look at the empty tomb. You can stand there yourself. But that doesn’t prove that Jesus is alive. It won’t convince the atheists and agnostics of the world. And when your own heart has a serious lack of joy and veers away from not believing because of joy and into not believing because of doubt and fear, then visiting an empty tomb won’t be the thing that makes a difference to you either. You don’t really even need the devil to whisper his temptations. Your own sinful flesh, your own human reason will say, “I don’t know a resurrection of the dead. How can anyone know for sure? Maybe they did steal the body. Maybe Jesus’ resurrection is just a myth.” And it’s then that Satan accuses, “If Christ has not been raised, you are still in your sins. Look at you! God does not love you. You certainly will not live.”
Indeed, even God says the soul that sins is the one that will die. And if I turn inward I see a lot of sin. I see a lot of death. How can I know? Where can I find the answer? Can there be a resurrection for me?
It’s not by looking at an empty tomb that your fears and doubts will be taken away. It’s the word of God that does that. It’s not the blind high of joyful disbelief that is our goal, but the certainty of knowing God’s promises fulfilled in Jesus. You will not find a resurrection by looking into your sinful heart. You will only find it by looking to Christ. And Christ Jesus himself is the one who opens our minds to understand the Scriptures, to apprehend the holy word of God.
In fact, that’s the only way to understand the Scriptures and apprehend the holy word of God. So often it’s easy for us to look at the disciples and shake our heads at their doubt and disbelief. That’s especially the case at Jesus’ resurrection. But in reality, the only way any of us can have any faith at all is if God works a miracle in us by the power of his word to cure us of our spiritual blindness and spiritual deafness and more than that, to raise us to life from spiritual death.
The real proof, the best proof that Jesus was alive was not the fact that a man was standing in front of them. It was not the marks which could indicate nothing other than a man who had been crucified. It was not his eating fish and honeycomb. It was the word, the word of God which is always sure, which never fails, which must be fulfilled. He said,
“These are my words, which I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”
None of the things that had happened with Jesus were surprising or unexpected. Every page of Scripture is Jesus. The Law of Moses, the Prophets, the Psalms, the whole Old Testament, it all points to him. And the New Testament then is the word of the one who fulfilled the Old by dying and rising again. It’s not a dead book, but the living promises of a living Savior. “Search the Scriptures” Jesus invited even his enemies, “These are the Scriptures that tell about me.”
And they must be fulfilled, he told his disciples. God does not lie. His word does not fail, it does not go forgotten. God cannot contradict himself. He never changes. He doesn’t write with a pencil and an eraser. His promises are carved in stone. Test him! Go right ahead. Where has he ever failed? He never has, and he never will. It was he who promised centuries in advance that his own Son would take on our human flesh. It was he who promised that by a cross our sins would be paid for. It was he who promised that in his name is the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life.
And as if to prove all of this, Jesus gave his disciples another promise, one that had been promised many times before. “Repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” Think of how big that task must have seemed to those eleven disciples. “All nations” is an awfully big place, when even one nation was so angered by Jesus that it nailed him to a cross. And yet, aren’t we here today? We are the fulfillment of Jesus’ words! We today are gathered around Jesus’ word and Sacrament, while the Holy Spirit opens our minds to understand the Scriptures and to rejoice with believers of every nation around the world as we discover our living Jesus there in the pages of his Word.
Eureka! I’ve found it! Or for us it’s more like, “I’ve found him.” I’ve found Jesus, because he has found me, because he has opened my eyes to see, my ears to hear, my mind to know the greatness of his love, the peace of his forgiveness, the power of his life. Our living Lord Jesus continues to carry out his promises. He continues opening our minds to understand his Word. He continues to fill us with the boundless joy of his resurrection. Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson