“But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them.”
Luke 24:11
On the first Easter morning the apostles were cognitively non-Christians. When Mary, Joanna and Mary the mother of James reported that angles had told them that Jesus had risen, they considered the words as nonsense. It’s remarkable to me that the apostles would be so dull. After all, these men had been with Jesus, they heard everything He said, they saw every miracle He performed, and they had even been told in advance about His betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection. In addition to their direct experiences with Jesus, having heard all His words and seen all His works, they also had three reliable, trustworthy eye witnesses testifying to the gospel they heard from the mouths of angels. All this was still not enough. The first time they heard the gospel message they thought it was nonsense.
How is it that their hearts could be so hard and that their eyes could be so blind? Of all the men throughout history, these men should have been ready to receive and believe the gospel–but they didn’t.
Now my own past denials of the gospel I can understand. I had far better excuses not to believe. When I first heard the gospel I was entirely unfamiliar with the words and deeds of Jesus. I had no first hand, personally verifiable eyewitness testimony. I live 2000 years after it all took place. And I heard the gospel with a modern, rationalistic, anti-supernatural worldview in which such an account sounds like a fairy tale. But Peter and the others? They should have been ready to believe.
It just goes to show that no amount of cultural background, knowledge of facts, or super natural experiences is adequate enough to produce faith. Genuine faith, the ability to respond to the gospel, the ability to believe in a resurrected Jesus is the gift of God. Establishing the apostle’s faith required the appearance of Jesus Himself. It even required Jesus’ extra efforts to prove He had actually risen. And it ultimately required the gift of the Holy Spirit. It was nothing less than super natural power that produced the apostle’s faith in the gospel.
Now if the apostles required a super natural work of God to believe, I certainly would not have believed without the same miraculous work in my soul. Therefore, I should be very thankful for the patient working of God in my case, and I should be patient in my personal evangelism. If the apostles thought the gospel was nonsense it is understandable that those like me who hear the message today might think so too. But the same supernatural power that reveals Christ to the eyes of the heart and imparts saving faith is just as available today as it was then. It still has the same eye opening, heart softening effects that turn the foolishness of the message into the awesome, majestic glory of God in the cross of Christ.
Thank you, Jesus, for being patient with my stubborn unbelieving heart. Thank you for not taking ultimate offense at my estimation of the gospel as nonsense, but rather drew near and opened my eyes. Let me testify to your gospel like Mary and Joanna and Mary did, even when it is received as foolishness and nonsense. Amen.
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