The Social Network
Luke 24:36b-48
After being resurrected, why did Jesus visit those who knew him?
Photo by Christian Vasile on Unsplash
Jesus stood among the disciples and said to them, "Peace be with you." They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, "Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.vThen he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you-- that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things." - Luke 24:36b-48
Jesus says it here. Those who knew him when he was alive and with them are the best witnesses to his resurrection.
He came and talked with them, and he even ate with them to prove that he was real.
Even so, they had trouble believing their own eyes.
Here's the thing. Jesus needed witnesses so that we would believe in him.
It makes sense, right? Jesus was thinking ahead. All the future believers will be told the story from the eyewitnesses, and then from the people they told, and so on.
Each of those conversations had to be between people who knew and trusted each other.
He was building a social network. For the first forty or so years, before the first Gospel was written, the good news spread by word of mouth.
The Way of Christ was never meant to be a standard, state-sanctioned religion. It wasn't to be a religion at all. It was the story of Jesus, the Messiah.
It was truth.
We have learned that we have Constantine to thank for the spread of Christianity, since he made it a state religion, but was that a good thing?
I wonder if it would have been better for each of us to come to our faith the way the first followers of Jesus did, rather than be born into it.
In a way, it is harder for us to find Jesus this way. We are told we are believers, but we have yet to feel the Spirit come upon us and join us in this search for God.
Yes, we are baptized, but we are too young to know anything. And if we are confirmed at some point, do we truly invite the Holy Spirit into our lives?
We need to experience life without faith before we can appreciate a life in faith.
Christianity is not the only religion feeling the loss of followers. But Christianity has something other religions don't have. We have the Spirit of God who lives among us and in us, to guide us in our journey.
Maybe we should start there. Call the Spirit to guide us to the Truth, to make us witnesses, and see what happens.
More to come...