Believing is Seeing

Ai-yai-yai! Has it really been a month since I posted!

Here's the latest article from The Daily Sentinel. Maybe at some point I will post the "back issues."



First published in The Daily Sentinel on Friday, April 24, 2009



In The Santa Clause, the first movie with Tim Allen as Santa, there’s a scene in which Tim’s character – Scott Calvin – cannot believe what he’s seeing in Toyland at the North Pole. Judy, the wise elf, tells him, “Seeing isn’t believing; believing is seeing.”

While I don’t want to get into a debate about the reality of Toyland at the North Pole, I think Judy makes a very profound statement – especially as we consider the implications of Jesus’ resurrection during this season of Easter. There is a lot of debate regarding the historical accuracy and validity of Jesus’ resurrection. As I wrote last week, historian Bart Ehrman doesn’t believe that the resurrection can be taken as an actual historical event. He claims that the question of Jesus’ resurrection is not an historical question but rather a theological one.

Personally, I think it is both. But the emphasis is rightly on the theological answer. Believing is seeing. If I believe in the resurrection, then I can see the resurrection. If I do not believe it, then I cannot see it.

That seemed to be the case with the disciples of Jesus, too. They were seeing, but not sure how to believe what they were seeing. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus came to the disciples and went out of his way to prove they were seeing a real person – in the flesh – and not some kind of apparition or ghost.

“Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’

“When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, ‘Do you have anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.

“He said to them, ‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.’ Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.’” (Luke 24:36-48)

The scars on Jesus’ hands and feet weren’t enough to convince the disciples that He was real. So he asked for something to eat. He got a very ordinary food from them – broiled fish. And he ate it! Ghosts, even if they are real, don’t eat – they don’t have stomachs. But Jesus did.

Once they believed, they were ready to see. And so Jesus opened their eyes and their minds to understand all the prophecies regarding him from the Hebrew Scriptures. And he finished with “you are witnesses of these things.” In other words, now their believing has given them the ability to truly see the truth of Jesus.

Two thousand or so years later, we are less convinced. Even those who claim the name Christian aren’t quite sure what to do with Jesus – especially a resurrected, physically real Jesus. It’s easier to keep Jesus on the cross than out of the grave. It’s easier to relate to a baby in a manger than to the one whose “name is above every name.” We want a Jesus that we can keep at a safe distance, not one who can penetrate walls and locked doors, move instantly from place to place, and who visibly demonstrates God’s power over all creation – even death.

C.S. Lewis captured this idea in his fantasy series set in the land of Narnia. The first book published (and first film released in 2005) was called The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The “Lion” od the title is Aslan, and he is the Narnian Jesus. We first learn about Aslan with Mr. and Mrs. Beaver describing him to Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter:

“Is—is he a man?” asked Lucy.

“Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly. “Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of the Beasts? Aslan is a lion—THE Lion, the great Lion.”

“Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous meeting a lion.”

“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver. “If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”

“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

Throughout the Narnian tales, Aslan is never a tame lion – he is never “safe.” And neither is Jesus, despite our best efforts to make him so. When we come face-to-face with the truth of a resurrected Jesus, we realize that we, too, have our knees knocking.

What will Jesus ask me to do? What will Jesus ask me to change in my life? What can I risk in order to follow Him? Answering these questions honestly is very dangerous. And so we often don’t answer them without first taming them down. We rationalize away our worst fears and Jesus’ strongest demands. We see Jesus as we want to see him rather than see him as he is.

As Lewis writes, “People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a think cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at Aslan’s face, they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and they found they couldn’t look at him and went all trembly. At last Peter realized that it was up to him. He drew his sword and raised it to the salute. He advanced to the Lion and said: ‘We have come—Aslan.’

I ask you to risk something this Easter season. Do what Peter did. Be willing to give yourself fully to the Resurrected Jesus and discover how dangerous—and Good—he is. Believing really IS seeing!