11 April 2015 - can't keep quiet

Everyone living in Jerusalem knows that a remarkable sign
was done through them, and we cannot deny it.

Part of us wants to deny it. This is the part which doesn't want to see our whole world  flipped upside down. It is the part of us that doesn't want to give up control. It prefers the familiar and the comfortable. We know that the name of Jesus is dangerous. We know that his name changes everything. It leaves no realm of life untouched.  Government, politics, economics, or healthcare can not be considered apart from it. It leaves us no room to hold anything back. If Jesus is who he is proclaimed to be we can no longer live for ourselves.

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own (cf. 1 Cor. 6:19).

And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again (cf. 2 Cor. 5:15).

And yet we even prefer our own "mourning and weeping" over acknowledging who Jesus truly is. Are we willing to listen to the witnesses all around us, "those who saw him after he had been raised"? or is this resurrection power both too good and too threatening?  Are we willing to let his name change our worlds? Or do we prefer mourning and weeping to acknowledging the name above all names?

But later, as the Eleven were at table, he appeared to them
and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart
because they had not believed those
who saw him after he had been raised.

We all do this at times. We all sometimes fear to risk the extravagant hope that can be found in Jesus. We all fear to surrender. Jesus is asking for a little more this morning. He is asking for that piece of our hearts which we withhold. He says that to hold on to it ourselves means mourning and weeping. He promises to give us the strength to overcome our fear and to lay our hearts down at his feet.

Jesus, change us from people who are timid about the implications of your name to people with the boldness of Peter and John. Make us say:

It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.

May we join the psalmist:

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
The joyful shout of victory
in the tents of the just.

May we join his joyful shout of victory!

Jesus, you say "Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature." How can we not? Being "uneducated, ordinary men" can't stop us. In fact, it only makes your power more evident.