Seeing Is Believing

April 19, 2009

1 John 1:1-4 & John 20:11-18

Mary Magdalene went & announced to the disciples,

“I have seen the Lord.”

There are two great Easter pronouncements:

1. “Christ is risen!” (To which we reply, “Christ is risen indeed!”) And,

2. “I have seen the Lord.”

Together these statements affirm the resurrection of Jesus, & God’s victory over death, violence, evil, cruelty, injustice, suffering, & oppression. So, at least on the surface, they are basically alike.

But in less obvious ways, these sayings are rather different.

One belongs to the whole church (“Christ is risen”); the other, to Mary Magdalene alone (“I have seen the Lord”).

One we shout with glad joy. The other, Mary practically whispers – with a catch in her throat, maybe, while struggling with amazement & doubt.

One expresses our core belief. It sums up our theology & doctrine – “Christ is risen” – while the other describes an unexpected encounter – “I have seen the Lord!”

Without “Christ is risen,” the church does not exist. Those three words are that important. They cause us to gather for worship week after week & year after year. They compel us to sing & pray … to preach & teach … to listen & respond … baptize & break bread … to give & receive & go forth in mission. “Christ is risen” does all that. Whether said aloud or only implied, those three little words are the theological vertebrae of the church. Our backbone. They enable us to stand. They are the source of our strength. “Christ is risen!”

* *

Even so, I find Mary Magdalene’s words more compelling. If forced to choose between the two Easter sayings, I would take hers every time.

I mean, how can we claim, “Christ is risen” if there is no one to tell us, “I have seen him”?

Without Mary Magdalene (or someone like her) testifying to the empty tomb & risen Christ, we cannot “pass Go or collect $200” on the way to becoming Easter people.

For us to believe, someone first has to see.

* *

I’m a heretic to say that. I admit it. After all, the New Testament Letter to the Hebrews poses a very different definition of faith. It says, “Faith is … the conviction of things not seen.”

Today’s Call to Worship is against me, too … & I wrote it. It says, “Blessed are those who have not seen, & yet have come to believe.”

That’s a direct quote from Jesus (John 20:29).

But before I get burned at the stake for my heresy, I’ll say it again: If nobody sees, no one else can believe.

For Mary Magdalene, & for the Church ever since, seeing is believing. Seeing leads to belief.

* *

Of course, “I have seen the Lord” can come across in unwanted ways.

The great Southern storyteller & preacher, Fred Craddock, talks about being at a victory party after a University of Georgia football game. He says,

A pretty-looking middle aged woman was there. Craddock didn’t know her but thought she was a little overdressed to have come right from the game. She climbed on a dining room chair, tottering in her high heels & said, “I think we ought to sing the Doxology!” A few folks joined in. Others stared at their shoelaces. Everyone else looked for a place to set their drinks because you shouldn’t hold a drink during the Doxology.

As they finished, the woman stayed on her soapbox. “Say what you want about Hershel Walker running the football. Jesus gave us the victory! I know, because I prayed to him and he told me straight to my face it was going to be all right” (Adapted from Craddock Stories, Chalice Press, 2001. Pages 73-74).

You see? In the wrong hands, “I have seen the Lord,” becomes spiritual bragging. It takes on a holier-than-Thou tone. I’ve got Jesus on my side.

Craddock says he followed the hostess as she stormed into the kitchen. When he got there, she was slapping finger sandwiches onto a tray. She didn’t look up. She just muttered, “If that woman doesn’t shut her trap, she’s going to ruin my party.”

Craddock was dumbfounded, & said something he never says. He asked the hostess, “Are you a Christian?”

She said, “Yes, but I don’t believe in shouting it everywhere.”

When Mary Magdalene says, “I have seen the Lord,” she isn’t shouting. She’s not building herself up or trying to make Christian faith look easy. She sure doesn’t act like someone who has Jesus on a string, to control the outcome of a game.

She’s inviting grieving disciples (& other listeners) not to lose hope – not to be stuck on Good Friday & crucifixion when Easter has come. She’s inviting them to check it out for themselves, to see for themselves what she has seen. Or if not see, at least to believe.

* *

What Mary Magdalene did … isn’t that what we promised to do, starting today, for Serena?

When we agreed to help raise her in faith and to assist her parents in that effort, we were promising to tell her in years to come what we have seen & heard about Jesus, & why we now believe in him.

We promised Tassia & David & each other that we would help Serena know that there are tangible signs of Christ’s resurrection in the world. There are pointers to the reality of God’s grace, the charity of God’s love, & Jesus’ life for us all. And we promised to tell her that we are personally acquainted with at least some of those pointers.

We promised Serena that we would not be cynical people, prone to grumbling about all that is deadly & meaningless & wrong, but hopeful people with a personal story to tell about how & why we are different than we would have been … all because, somehow or another, we “have seen the Lord Jesus.”

And we have promised Serena that we will not work to instill fear in her, but faith – faith that has deep roots in actual events in our daily lives.

What Mary Magdalene was for the disciples – a firsthand witness – that is what we vow to be for Serena … & for each other … & for every child of God.

* *

Mary Magdalene ought to be enough of a model. But just in case, I also offer you 1 John. The opening paragraph of that little New Testament letter does exactly what I’m talking about. Five times it tells the Good News: “We declare to you … [we] testify to it … [we] declare … we declare … we are writing …”

Five times! In four verses.

But declaring & writing about what? About “what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at, & touched with our hands … [what] we have seen & heard …”

That’s what 1 John does. Just like Mary Magdalene.

If spiritual means “disembodied” or “intangible” (I’m not saying it does) Christian faith isn’t spiritual at all. Christian faith draws on the senses.

Three of our senses are highlighted in 1 John – sight & hearing & touch. The only ones missing are smell & taste.

I can’t vouch for smell; but I do know that Jewish rabbis often put a drop of honey on a Torah scroll so that their young students can kiss the holy scripture & get a flavor for the sweetness of the word of life that God gives.

(I thought of telling Serena’s family to do that with a Bible for her; then I realized the pages might all get stuck together. But you get my drift.)

Faith is a sensory. And we have committed ourselves to help Serena see – & touch & hear & taste – God’s love for her. Just as we have experienced it.

Those who have not seen the power of resurrection for themselves need people who will point it out to them. People they can trust. Like Mary Magdalene for the disciples. Or the author of 1 John for his readers. Or people like us.

* *

“I have seen the Lord.”

Say that to someone – maybe at lunch today – someone who won’t think you’ve lost your marbles. I dare you. Then say how. Or when. Or through whom it happened. (Or if you can’t say it for yourself, ask the other person how he or she has seen the Lord. But let’s assume the first way.)

“I have seen the Lord.” Say it, not as an exercise in spiritual bragging, but as a way of inviting the other person to join you on this incredible journey of faith. Say it as a way of drawing that person into deeper fellowship with you, & with God.

Let that person know where your deepest joy & greatest trust in life stems from. Let him or her or them know that eternal life isn’t something they have to wait for, but can be experienced here & now. Let them see that Easter isn’t just one day, but every day.

If we’re lucky, maybe they’ll see too, & by seeing will believe. Won’t that be great?

Or maybe they won’t see, but will believe anyway, because they believe what you have seen. That would be pretty neat too.

Then Jesus will be right, after all: “Blessed are they who have not seen & yet have come to believe.” Blessed are they … because they’ll have you as their guide, pointing the way.

To the glory of God.