TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE
- It's hard to believe the unbelievable
- The Lord makes the unbelievable undeniable
There’s a portion of today’s gospel reading from the book of Luke that has always puzzled me. The story itself is straightforward enough: Jesus appears to his disciples after he has risen from the dead, he shows them his hands and his feet so they can see the nail marks, he eats a piece of fish in front of them, and then he explains to them that Scripture had to be fulfilled by his death and resurrection. The events of these verses are easy to follow. But there is a detail in this story that has always left me a little confused. And the detail is this: After Jesus showed his disciples the nail holes in his hands and feet, Luke writes, “They still did not believe it because of joy…” Because of joy? They didn’t quite yet believe that Jesus could be alive again because of their joy? If Luke had written that they didn’t believe because of their doubt, I could understand that. Or if Luke had written they didn’t believe because of their ignorance or because of their fear, then I wouldn’t have even thought twice about it. But instead this inspired writer of the Holy Spirit says that it was because of the disciples’ joy that they did not fully believe Jesus had truly risen from the dead.
It seems that joy would be a strange thing to keep the disciples from believing. You would think that the disciples’ joy would prompt them to believe or at least be the result of believing. But the more times I read through the story and the more the Lord’s own words worked in my mind to help me understand, it started to make a little more sense: I think it was just too good to be true. The disciples were of course overjoyed to see their Savior once again! They were happier than they had ever been to be able to look at Jesus in the face after he had died three days earlier. But it was too good to be true. They were starting to be filled with an incredible amount of joy with Jesus standing right there, but they just couldn’t believe it yet. It was so wonderful, it was so amazing, it was so beyond the realm of possibility that it just couldn’t be true. And so “They still did not believe it because of joy…” And they even tried to explain it away. “It must be a ghost!” they thought. “It must be a vision of some kind! It must be something other than what it seems.” This event would be so spectacular that it was just too good to be true.
And that makes sense to me because we experience the same things in our lives - things that seem too good to be true. It happens with the trivial things in life: an ad you see on tv might seem too good to actually be true. But it happens with the very serious things in life as well: Think of a man contaminated with cancer. It has infected his entire body and the doctors tell him that he only has a few more weeks to live. But as he sits in the waiting room to hear back about yet another test, the doctor rushes into the room and says, “It’s gone! It’s all gone! There’s not a trace of cancer anywhere in your body! Somehow it all went away! You’re perfectly healthy!” And the man replies, “What are you talking about? How can that be? I’m supposed to die in a few weeks! Are you sure?” The man is certainly filled with joy, but he doesn’t quite yet believe the good news because it’s too good to be true.
A family has a son in the military. But while he is overseas fighting in the war, they get news that his entire company has been killed by the enemy and the bodies of all the soldiers have been lost in the explosion. The family holds a military funeral. They place a tombstone on a plot of ground without their son’s body. They mourn the loss of this young man and try to cope with life without him. Suddenly, weeks later, the doorbell rings. And when the mother opens the door, there is her son standing on the doorstep. She gasps. She stares. She violently embraces her son and then holds him back out in front of her to see if he really is there. “What are you doing here?” she says. “You’re supposed to be dead! Your whole company was destroyed! We had your funeral! We have the flag that they gave us sitting in the living room! You’re not supposed to be alive!” The mother sees her son right in front of her. She can physically touch him and hold him. But although she is filled with joy and amazement, she still doesn’t quite yet believe that it’s all real. Because it’s too good to be true.
These are obviously some extreme situations, but so was the resurrection. And I think they suffice to show how the disciples were unable to believe because of their joy. It was too good to be true. It was too unbelievable to believe. It’s hard to believe the unbelievable. When something happens beyond your wildest imagination or your most optimistic expectations, it’s hard to believe it’s true. Think of what happens with Christianity. People have a hard time believing in grace. Why? Because it’s so unbelievable! Jesus died on the cross to forgive the world’s sins. And so now whoever believes in Jesus as their Savior will go to heaven. “That’s it?” someone might think. “That’s all there is to it? I don’t have to do anything? I don’t have pay back anything? That’s too easy! There must be something more to salvation than this man-God simply dying on the cross and rising from the dead!” Grace and salvation are too unbelievable to believe for many people. And of course the same thing happens with baptism and the Lord’s Supper. “Really?” someone says. “Forgiveness is freely given to us through this water coupled with some words from the Bible? Forgiveness is offered in this bread and wine that are supposed to also be Christ’s body and blood? Really? That doesn’t make any sense! It seems so simple, so ridiculous!” But the gospel is that simple and that wonderful. In fact, it is sometimes rejected for those very reasons. It is so unbelievable that it is hard for people to believe.
But those thoughts are not just restricted to non-Christians. Christians too can have a hard time believing the unbelievable truths of Scripture. How many promises of the Lord do you find yourself struggling to fully trust because they are so unbelievable? How many teachings of Scripture have you had problems with over the years because although the words are clear, they just don’t make any logical sense? How many times do you wonder if the Lord really does forgive every one of your sins every time because it’s just too good to be true? Even God’s children have a hard time believing the unbelievable gift of forgiveness. Maybe it’s a sin you never thought you’d commit that you now have. Maybe you’ve done a horrible thing, said some horrible words, or thought some horrible thoughts. Or maybe you’ve committed a sin again - a sin that you promised the Lord you would never again do - but one that got the best of you anyway. And the thought runs through your mind, “I don’t know if God is really going to forgive me this time! I know he promises that he forgives the sins of all people in every way by his death on the cross, but I’ve just done something horrifying! I’ve just said something or thought something that is beyond appalling; it’s dirty and inexcusable. Or I’ve just committed the same sin again that I’ve committed a thousand times before. I don’t know if the Lord is going to put up with that anymore. I don’t know how much longer the Lord will show me his grace if I keep messing up. I don’t know how the Lord could forget what I’ve done to him!” Even the best of Christians have these thoughts. Even the strongest of Christians are harassed by the guilt of their sins so much at times that it is hard for them to believe the unbelievable, to believe the Jesus really did forgive all of their sins on the cross - even the most atrocious - and that he will never take that forgiveness away. If you have a hard time believing the unbelievable at times, you are not alone. In fact, you fit right in. And also know that the Lord does not leave you to try to come to terms with it yourself. Instead, whenever you struggle to believe the unbelievable, he makes sure the unbelievable becomes undeniable.
He made the unbelievable undeniable for his disciples that night. As they stood in front of their risen Lord that evening, unable to believe because of their joy, what did Jesus do? He didn’t leave and let them figure it out on their own. He showed them his hands and his feet. They could see with their own eyes the holes of crucifixion. They could reach out and touch with their own hands the puncture wounds left by the crown of thorns - if they dared. They could hear with their own ears Jesus words and encouragements. And when this visible demonstration didn’t work to convince their hearts, Jesus took a piece of broiled fish and ate it in front of them to prove that he was not some kind of ghost or vision. And if that wasn’t enough, he began to explain to them from the pages of Scripture that what he had just done was what Scripture had always said he would do. Luke writes that Jesus even opened their minds so that they could understand exactly what he was saying! Jesus made the unbelievable undeniable. He gave them indisputable proofs that he truly was alive. And he also appeared to them on multiple occasions in multiple places so that they could not believe anything else except that their Lord had truly risen from the dead.
And Jesus does the same for us. He knows that we have a hard time believing the unbelievable too. He knows that it is natural for us to think his grace and forgiveness and salvation are sometimes things that are too good to be true, that they might not be for us. And so he makes those unbelievable things truths that we cannot deny. And he does that in the same way he did it for his disciples: by coming back to us again and again and again in his Word, repeating his promises to us in different ways at different times. He comes to us in baptism, giving us that same forgiveness in a visible and tangible way. He comes to us in the Lord’s Supper, granting us that same beautiful gift of forgiveness once more in a way we can see and taste and touch on a regular basis. He showers us with promises, he showers us with blessings, he showers us with his full forgiveness numerous times over so that we cannot believe anything else. He has forgiven us by his death on the cross and his life from the tomb. That is a fact. That is undeniable. That is an unbelievable act of grace that is completely believable because the Lord himself says that it is true.
It took the disciples a little while to figure that out - that Christ’s resurrection and all of his promises were not too good to be true - that they were exactly what God had planned all along. But with numerous reminders and irrefutable proofs from Christ himself, they were finally convinced that it was all real and that it was all for them. We may need some reminding too at times. We may need some reassurances and some comforts from our Lord that the things he promises are not too good to be true. And so when doubts or fears or worries arise in your mind, go back to his Word. Let him talk to you there. Let him remind you and reassure you and comfort you there. Dive into the deep waters of his inspired Scripture and submerge yourself in his love. He will convince you. The Lord will open your mind to believe. Because he wants you to understand that his grace and his forgiveness and his salvation that he won for you on the cross are not too good to be true - but that they are too important not to be.
Amen.
“Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” - Romans 11:33,36
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