Hesitant for a good reason

The question of evidence about Jesus is essential but was not the core of Jesus’ disappointment in his apostles. The apostles did not fully awaken and commit to Jesus even with Jesus in their midst. He was the evidence! They were hesitant to believe, not just because they couldn’t grasp all that was happening. The apostles were clearly worried about the implications. 

Image by Tumisu

The implication of belief in Jesus gives us pause

By John Pearring


https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041021.cfm
Acts 4:13-21
Mark 16:9-15


In today’s gospel, Mark hints at a disturbing bit of cowardice that existed in the apostles. I say “disturbing” because the same cowardice exists in us today, too. And we all know it. 

Maybe cowardice is too strong a word, you say. Let’s go with hesitancy, then. Jesus specifically used the word doubt, meaning “to waver.” So, I’ll inch toward his sense of it. To waver in the face of a command from Jesus means we hesitate. Hesitation is defined as a middle point between cowardice and doubt, though. You can decide for yourself which side of hesitancy you land on. I’m more of the coward. I've got few doubts about who he is. I've got reason to be disturbed, though. Frightened, even.

The apostles, and we, react similarly with hesitancy at proclaiming the gospel. The gospel, as you may remember, is Old English for “God's Tale,” which turned into Good News. The good news breaks down into a list of critical moments in history that changed the world forever. It’s an easy list to remember. It’s not something that sounds very scary to proclaim. What's the big deal, then?

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures”
(1 Corinthians 15:1–4). 

The apostle Paul is famous for outlining the gospel particulars. He uses two variously in the gospels. The one just quoted plus a repeated four-point progression—Jesus was born, lived, died, and resurrected. The more pointed explanation, and most quoted, comes from 1 Corinthians. Again, though, what is so disturbing about it?

The problem comes down to the implications for us, the proclaimers. We go against the grain of the world's narrative by proclaiming the gospel. The world is opposed to Jesus the Christ. We have our pockets of safety in the Church, but even there we run into opposition.

The gospel is a prophesied story claiming a significant shift in God’s relationship to not only the Chosen People but all of human population. He became one of us and conquered death, conquered sin, and offers us resurrection for submitting to his Father and now ours through adoption as Jesus' brothers and sisters. To sweeten the deal, Jesus asks us to let the Holy Spirit move in, dwell in our hearts, and give us strength to be courageous. We are a communion of his body, his Church. This is all written in scripture. It's our baseline.

In Paul’s time, remember, the scriptures were only the Torah, the five Old Testament books, and the subsequent prophetic books on the history of Judaism — from Joshua to Malachi. The New Testament had yet to be affirmed and codified as scriptures. The apostles had only the Judaic texts. 

This is where doubt, hesitancy, and plain old cowardice slithers into our brains. Since all of the New Testament is based upon the Old Testament, we must ask the same questions that entered the apostles’ minds. Where exactly did the Old Testament definitively predict Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection? And, did Jesus’ crucifixion, his resurrection, and ultimate Ascension precisely get predicted? Is this stuff really true?

This reflection isn’t going to cover that evidentiary material in depth. The list of scripture texts that foretell and present this gospel message is too long. The evidence, though, is stunning. If you’d like to review them, you can google several sources. I’ll provide some generic hyperlinks if you’re interested. Once reviewed, believers know the story is true. 

https://www.learnreligions.com/prophecies-of-jesus-fulfilled-700159
https://www.jewishroots.net/master-pages-new/mp-prophecy.html

The question of evidence is essential because it "seems" to sit at the core of Jesus’ disappointment in his apostles. The apostles did not fully awaken and commit to Jesus even with Jesus in their midst. He was the evidence! They were hesitant to believe, but I don't believe just because they couldn’t grasp all that was happening. The apostles were clearly worried about the implications. The gospel challenged everything operational in the Judaic world. Jesus knew those implications were bothering the men he had chosen.

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.
(Mark 16:13-14)

If you read Matthew’s version of Jesus’ disappointment, you realize that even after Jesus spent several weeks with the apostles some apostles expressed hesitant thoughts. Matthew's recorded conversation between Jesus and the apostles takes place much later than Mark's. So, this verse comes after the apostles had already spent time with the risen Jesus. 

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.
(Matthew 28:17-20)

You may be like me in thinking that doubt at this juncture seems impossible. How much evidence does someone need to believe? Jesus performed miracle after miracle for three years. He predicted everything that would happen to him during that time. When he was crucified, cosmic signs in the heavens and in the temple confirmed the gravity of his death. And then he rises from the dead, witnesses speak out everywhere, and there stands Jesus, covered in the scars he took to his grave. 

“Hey, guys! Come on! What will it take?”

I don’t believe their doubt was due to the evidence. The implications are what held them back. Their lives would change in joyful but mainly painful ways. Their hesitancy tended toward cowardice, not doubt. 

Jesus takes their wavering to heart, indeed. Even in their frightened state, he insists they are the ones to witness everything that the gospel represents. In both Matthew and Mark, Jesus tells them to proclaim his story. He trusts them with his mission even though they were shunted by hesitancy.

Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:17-20)

He said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”
(Mark 16:15)

We have even more evidence than the apostles. Besides the NT letters, we have two millennia, two thousand years of collected documentation from eyewitnesses—year over year of miracles and interventions. We even hear witness proclamations from the dead, revealed risen in our midst. (Mary, if you’re wondering who that might be.)

Of course, we hesitate. The consequences make us look like fools. Such is the price everyone since the apostles has had to pay. We will be charged with ignorance in the ways of the world. Worse, we are blasphemers of the world’s truth. Yes, so we must be. Our first reading from Acts tells the story of proclaiming the Gospel. Joy and retribution. 

We are in the same situation as the apostles. We are disturbed at the prospect that Jesus is who he said he was. Delighted and surprised that Jesus loves us and acts on our behalf. But frightened nonetheless. We know the Jesus story is true, but the consequences do make us hesitate. He's the King, but not yet taking his throne in this world. It's not a convincing story. Only faith imbued by God convinced us. The same is true for those to whom we proclaim. They must be convinced by God. We're just the messengers, and you know what happens to messengers!

Still, Jesus says, without any hesitancy, “Go into the world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”

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