Seeing Is Not Believing
Text: John 20:1-2, 10-18
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the beloved book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the four main characters, sibling children of varying ages, are swept away into the magical world of Narnia. However, before all four of them go there, only one—the youngest, Lucy—steps foot there and reports back to the rest what she’s seen. Of course, they don’t believe her; who would? When they speak to their host, a good-natured professor, they say that what she says she saw isn’t logical. There must be a logical explanation, they assume. But the professor stops them, saying that just because something is unheard of or beyond our comprehension, that doesn’t make it illogical. “Logic!” said the Professor half to himself. “Why don’t they teach logic at these schools? There are only three possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn’t tell lies and it is obvious that she is not mad. For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth.”
When people say that there must be a logical explanation, that’s not usually what they really mean. Often logic has less to do with it than one’s personal experiences and what their own eyes have seen. If they see or hear something that doesn’t line up with what their own senses and experience have told them is common and true, they assume that there must be a “logical” explanation for it. We have such an example today, when we observe the feast day of St. Mary Magdalene.
Mary Magdalene, one of the several Marys of Scripture, was from the village of Magdala along the coast of the Sea of Galilee. We know that she encountered Jesus during His earthly ministry and that He drove seven demons out of her. We know that she, along with several other women, followed Jesus and His Apostles as He went throughout the region preaching. She was even one of the faithful few at the bitter end on Good Friday. She was one of the first witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection. But beyond that, we don’t know much else about her. There’s been much mythmaking about her, as if her story needed even more wonder and mystery added, but anything beyond the words of Scripture are unnecessary and likely pure human invention. She has one of the greatest privileges ever granted to a mortal: to be present at the empty tomb on Easter and to be the first human Jesus speaks to after He is risen from the dead.
And yet, even though she had seen the miracles and works of Jesus as she followed in that group of disciples, and even though she had herself been a recipient of those miracles when the demons were cast out of her, she couldn’t believe what her eyes were telling her in the garden outside the tomb that Easter. Seeing does not lead to believing. For her, there must be a “logical” explanation.
So she runs and tells the Apostles that Jesus’ body has been stolen when she sees the empty tomb. That’s what makes the most sense to her understanding of how the world works. Then, when she returns to the scene of the supposed crime, she even sees angels, who ask her why she’s weeping. But she sloughs it off. It doesn’t add up. Bodies don’t just disappear. Dead people don’t just get up and walk away. Seeing does not lead to believing. Even when she sees Jesus Himself, standing right in front her, asking why she’s crying, seeing does not lead to believing. Her senses reject the truth because it doesn’t line up with what she knows to be common and typical. This can’t be Jesus, so because there’s a man in the garden, she supposes that the “logical” explanation is that He’s the gardener.
We mortals assume that we know so much about how the world operates that when we’re confronted with something that challenges us, we can’t accept that maybe there are things that we don’t understand or know. We assume that we’re just one more discovery away from solving all of our problems, or at least some of our problems. We just need more money to throw at it. One more public policy will fix our societal ills. One more program, one more lesson, one more upgrade, one more month, one more year, and then we’ll have it all figured out, all fixed, all on our own strength or willpower or cleverness. And if it doesn’t get fixed, there must be a “logical” explanation. Mary Magdalene can’t accept that Jesus has risen from the dead—not when she saw the empty tomb, not when she saw the angels, not even when she saw the resurrected Jesus.
Something more is needed. For there to be faith and the kind of understanding and peace that comes through faith alone, something else needs to break through. So that’s what Jesus gives her: a word. “Mary.” He speaks and calls her by name. And it’s that, Jesus’ word, that creates the faith that believes in all that Jesus has promised and done. When Jesus gives her a word, she recognizes Him and knows that He truly is risen from the dead. All that He said is true.
You will want to see. You’ll want things to make sense. You’ll want the “logical” explanation. When things become difficult, when you face lack and need, when everything feels like it’s falling apart, you will want to see the Lord’s hand. When you’re staring at a dreaded diagnosis, when the money runs out, when that one situation just won’t resolve, when you can’t fix the relationship, you’ll want it all to make sense; you’ll want to see. You’ll get frustrated, or seek other answers that have nothing to do with your God, or you’ll try to make it all fit with your expectations—expectations of who God is or what God should do, expectations of what’s possible or impossible. You’ll be tempted to think that seeing leads to believing, that seeing is believing.
It is not, as Mary Magdalene learned. Instead of making your Lord fit the expectations of your sight, listen. Don’t look for Him with your eyes, or with your measures or scales or numbers or ratios or charts or graphs. Don’t look for Him at all. Your eyes won’t see things as they are. They’ll miss the angels standing watch. They’ll misunderstand what the stone rolled away from the tomb means. They’ll think that your Lord is just a gardener or a prophet or a teacher or a nice guy. Instead of looking, hear Him. Hear the promises of His wondrous Gospel, which sets more before you than the lowered expectations of the world and your fallen flesh could ever dream. Yes, it’s marvelous and the things He promises are extraordinary and grand, but that doesn’t mean they’re not true. Yes, you have a new world, a new heavens and a new earth, set before you in the resurrection of Jesus, but just because it’s beautiful, that doesn’t mean it’s not true. Yes, you are promised to rise from your own death in the glory of resurrection, but even though you’ve never seen that before it doesn’t mean that it can’t or won’t happen.
Hear Jesus as He conquers sin and death for you, sharing that victory with you. He proclaims it in the Absolution, which is spoken over you as His messengers forgive your sins in His name, even now. Hear Him in the “for you” of His Supper, body and blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. Hear Him as He calls you by name through the waters of your Baptism, as He once did when those waters first touched and claimed you, as He still does through that same blessed Sacrament that remains with you as long as you walk through this world. Hear Him and believe. He is risen, He is risen for you, He is risen indeed. In the name of Jesus, who calls you by name, Amen.
