“Hello.”
“Hi, honey.”
“Oh hi, Kelly. I wasn’t expecting you to call tonight, since we had lunch together.”
“I know. I’m sorry. Is this a bad time? Would you rather wait until tomorrow to talk?”
“Of course not. There is nothing on this earth I would rather do than spend my time talking with you. Unless I could be there in person, so I could end each sentence by kissing my beautiful fiancé.”
“That’s why I love you, Tom Gardner. You always say the right thing, even if it isn’t true.”
“What’s not true? You are beautiful! I love kissing you! And I really do enjoy talking to you!”
“I believe the kissing part, and I know you think I’m beautiful. But most men really don’t like talking a lot with their girlfriend.”
“Most men aren’t engaged to the most beautiful woman in Ohio.”
“What, only Ohio?”
“Well, I haven’t finished my survey of the women in the other forty-nine states.”
“If I catch you surveying other women, I’ll put knots on your head.”
“See! That’s why I like talking to you. You don’t beat around the bush like most women. You come right out and tell me that I am in physical danger if I complete the survey I was working on when I met you. I like that in a woman.”
“Alright, if that’s what you like in a woman, let me stop beating around the bush and tell you why I called. I want to know what you thought about the church service last week.”
“I thought I told you I enjoyed myself. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be.”
“I was just worried that maybe I shouldn’t have taken you to your first church service on Easter Sunday. And you haven’t said anything about it all week. I was just afraid that you didn’t like it, and I so want you to like being a part of a church family.”
“What’s not to like? The music was good. The people were nice. Nobody assaulted me. Heck, even the sermon was kind of interesting. And I could tell that you have a lot of friends there.”
“Yes, I don’t know what I would have done without those people when Dad died. They really helped me get through that time. But, Tom, there is more to going to church than the music, the sermon and the people. What about the things we believe?”
“You mean stuff about Jesus Christ and all that?”
“Yes, all that stuff about Jesus is incredibly important to me, Tom.”
“I know it is, Kelly.”
“But you are having a hard time believing it, aren’t you?”
“Honey, you have always been honest with me, and you don’t beat around the bush. So, I want to be just as honest and straight forward with you. And the truth is that some of the things your church teaches about Jesus seem a bit far-fetched and hard to believe. Please don’t be angry with me.”
“Tom, I’m not angry. Why should I be angry? The stories about Jesus are far-fetched and hard to believe, especially for someone who is hearing them for the first time. Honey, I grew up with those stories. They have always been a part of my world, my reality. But you didn’t grow up in a Christian home. You never went to church. You never read the Bible. The only thing you have known about Jesus you learned from Hollywood and other ill-informed segments of our society.”
“Yes, and I was content in my ignorance, until I fell in love with a beautiful believer.”
“Tom, I’m not trying to push you into something you don’t want. It’s just that everything that is good and happy and right about my life is set right in the middle of my relationship with Jesus Christ.”
“Kelly, I don’t feel pushed. And I haven’t said I don’t want it. I just don’t know if I can believe all the things that Christians teach about Jesus.”
“Well, at least promise to tell me if you feel like I’m pushing you. I’ll back off.”
“I promise. I’ll let you know.”
“Tom, I don’t want to be one of those pushy wives, always nagging their husbands about something. It’s just that when I take your hand in marriage, I intend to give you everything I have ever been, everything I ever will be, everything I own, everything I am. Everything about me will be yours. And the best part of me is Jesus Christ. He is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Hmmm. I thought I was the best thing that ever happened to you. Should I be jealous?”
“No, it’s not that kind of relationship, Silly. Besides, Jesus is the one who brought us together.”
“You know, you’ve said that before, and sometime I want you to explain that to me, but first I want you to explain something that I heard at your church last Sunday.”
“I’ll try.”
“Not beating around the bush and being honest again, I’m having a hard time believing that a dead person can come back to life.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, last Sunday, everybody kept talking, and praying, and singing and preaching about Jesus being dead and coming back to life.”
“Yes, that’s kind of the center of our whole Easter celebration, Honey.”
“Well, how do you know it is true? I’ve never known any living thing to come back to life after it dies. Humans, animals, even plants, when they die they’re finished. So where’s the proof that Jesus came back to life? Why do you believe this is true?”
“Wow! Tough question. I’m not sure I know a good answer. I guess I just believe Jesus came back to life because the Bible says that is what happened.”
“Yes, but who wrote the Bible – just a bunch of guys who are now dead. How do you know they didn’t just make it all up?”
“You’ve been thinking about this haven’t you?”
“More than you’ll ever know, Kelly. I’ve been doing searches on the Internet, and I’ve been at the public library every night until they closed the place down.”
“I thought your voice sounded different this week. I thought your phone was beginning to die, but you were talking softly on the phone because you were at the library when you took my calls. Right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Well, what have you learned?”
“Well, I know that there are a variety of sources that confirm that the tomb where they buried Jesus was empty three days later. Even his enemies agreed to that fact. Of course his enemies insisted that Jesus’ disciples stole his body, but I kind of doubt that. After all, how did his disciples steal his body when it was being guarded by Roman soldiers? His disciples were so afraid a couple days earlier that they deserted him at the time when he needed them the most. So, how did they suddenly become brave? People don’t change their nature, unless something happens to make it change. If my leader had been put to death and buried, and I was already a proven coward, I think the only change in my behavior would be an increased effort to make myself disappear so that the authorities wouldn’t decide to do the same thing to me.”
“Honey, I’m impressed. I’ve gone my whole life and have just accepted Jesus’ resurrection on faith. You’ve been exposed to this for just a few days, and have already learned more about it than I have in my whole life.”
“But there’s more, a lot more. I thought that it might be possible for Jesus’ disciples to get so angry at themselves for deserting him that they could manage enough courage to steal his body. But there is still the problem of the guards at the tomb. There is no claim anywhere that those guards were killed or run off by Jesus’ disciples. If that had happened it would surely have been used by the authorities to discredit the resurrection story. The guards could have fallen asleep. Apparently the chief priests bribed the guards to say this. But moving the big stone they used at that time to seal the tombs would have made enough noise to awaken any sleeping guard. Of course, the guards could have abandoned their post to go to a nearby inn to quench their thirst or something. That sort of thing has happened at other times. The disciples could have used such an absence to move Jesus’ body to another tomb where it still lies today.”
“Is that what you believe, Tom?”
“Not really, because that scenario still doesn’t explain the change in the behavior of Jesus’ disciples. When Jesus was arrested, his disciples were only worried about saving their own skins. Now, I might agree they could put together enough courage to steal his body if the guards were nowhere to be seen. But how do you explain their new-found courage when they start talking about Jesus’ resurrection right out in public only a little while later? They were not only threatened with imprisonment, but they were actually put in prison – all because they wouldn’t keep quiet. But even in prison they kept on talking about Jesus and his resurrection.”
“And don’t forget that many of them are known to actually have been put to death because they wouldn’t stop talking about Jesus.”
“Yes, so what brought about the change? Human beings don’t change their nature unless something happens to make them change. Jesus coming back to life could have produced such a drastic change. That would have made those disciples feel invincible. But if they had just stolen his body and had hidden it in another tomb, there would have been nothing in that to suddenly produce such courage in these men. Dead bodies do not give you a feeling of invincibility.”
“Tom, I am so impressed! You must have spent hours and hours studying and thinking about all this.”
“Now you know why I haven’t been at your house this week.”
“I wondered about that, but I just figured you had work to get done around your place.”
“Actually, there are things that need to be done at my place, but I haven’t done any of them. I’ve been using all my time to research this resurrection stuff. Want to know what else I learned?”
“Yes, very much so.”
“Well, it seems that it was a really big deal that women were the first ones to find the empty tomb. Back in those times, when something really important happened and you needed to prove it, you got a man to testify to the truth of it. It was a man’s world then. A woman’s testimony was considered about as reliable as a small child’s. So, if the disciples were trying to pull off a hoax, they would have sent men to discover the empty tomb. A man’s testimony would have been trusted more. The fact that women discovered the empty tomb gives more credence that it might have actually been true that Jesus came back to life.”
“Hey, leave it to us women. We’ll get you men straightened out.”
“You’re definitely working on this man.”
“What have I always told you? Women rule. Men drool.”
“Crudely put, but so true. I’m starting to drool just talking to you. I can’t wait to put my arms around you again. How about I come over there, and we finish this conversation at your place? There’s more that I’ve learned.”
“Are you kidding? I’ve got you talking on this telephone like I’ve never heard you talk before. If you come over here, you’ll want to kiss instead of talk. I love kissing you, but right now I really want to hear the rest of what you have learned.
“Okay, how about this? Did you know that the same kind of evidence exists in the four gospels.”
“What kind of evidence?”
“The nobody-would-have-done-it-that-way kind of evidence.”
“What?”
“Listen, if you are going to make up a story, you’re going to make sure that everybody agrees on the important details of that story. Right?”
“I guess so.”
“I know the time that some of my friends and I got caught with firecrackers in the men’s room at school, we didn’t get the details of our story worked out before the principal interrogated us.”
“You took firecrackers to school?”
“Kelly, you don’t want to know. That was not a pretty picture. We came within a hair’s breadth of getting kicked out of school permanently.”
“I can’t believe this! I’m engaged to someone with a criminal background!”
“Well, that doesn’t exactly make me a criminal. But I’ll tell you one thing. If I’m ever going to tell a lie in the future, I’m going to make sure that my friends and I agree ahead of time on the details of the lie we’re going to tell.”
“You took firecrackers to school, and then you told a lie about it! Tom, I had no idea that you were such a rebel!”
“I told you when we got engaged that I was getting the better part of the bargain.”
“Yes, you did, but I had no idea that you had such a shady past. Maybe I had better run a background check on you.”
“Well, most of it is pretty boring stuff, but there are a few colorful episodes.”
“Wow! Take a guy to church for the first time, and there’s just no telling what kind of confessions you’re going to hear.”
“Speaking of church, you have me off the topic of what we were talking about.”
“Hmmm. Sounds like you’re trying to keep yourself from spilling any more confessions by changing the conversation to something safer.”
“I plead the fifth. Besides, I was just using the firecracker story as an example of why you need to agree on the details if you’re going to tell a lie. And those four guys who wrote the gospels in the Bible did not do that. That’s nobody-would-have-done-it-that-way evidence.”
“What do you mean?”
“Kelly, those guys had forty, fifty, even sixty years to get their stories straight before they wrote their gospel accounts of Jesus’ life.”
“Yes.”
“So, why didn’t they get their stories straight? Like why don’t they agree on how many women discovered the empty tomb? Matthew says it was two women named Mary. Luke says it was two women named Mary, a woman named Joanna, and some other women. John says it was just one woman named Mary. And Mark – well Mark’s gospel has several endings. If they were trying to pull off some hoax, why wouldn’t they at least make sure that they all agreed on what they say happened.”
“So, because all the details don’t agree, it makes it more likely to be true?”
“Exactly!”
“So it’s like what they say about eye witnesses. Let four people witness a car accident, and they will all four tell you different things – even though they all witnessed the same accident and they all were trying hard to tell exactly what they saw.”
“It does make sense, doesn’t’ it? But does it prove that Jesus came back to life after he was killed?”
“I don’t need proof, Tom. I have my own experiences on which I can base my faith. Jesus is as alive to me as you are.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I talk to him every day, and he talks to me. I feel him helping me through tough times, and I know he corrects me when I get off the right path. His love is as real to me as yours is – even more so. Honey, dead people don’t interact with you like Jesus does with those who know him.”
“If I knew him, then I wouldn’t need the proof that I’m searching for. Is that what you’re saying?”
“I don’t know, Honey. Maybe that isn’t true. After all, there was another Thomas who knew Jesus personally and in the flesh, and he still wanted proof.”
“You’re referring to the disciple Thomas?”
“Yes. You’re familiar with his story?”
“I told you, Kelly. I’ve done a lot of research this week. And that includes reading the entire New Testament. Parts of it I’ve read several times, and parts of the Old Testament too.”
“Tom, I can’t tell you how impressed I am that you have done all this research. You put me to shame. I’ve never done anything like that.”
“Honey, I love you very, very much, and I know that your faith is a very big part of who you are. I don’t want something that is so important to be a divider between us. I want to believe, but I just don’t know if I can. I wish I could be like that Thomas in the Bible. I wish I could see Jesus with my own eyes, and touch him with my hands. If I could experience that, then I think that I would be just as bold as bold a believer as those first disciples were.”
“Honey, when Jesus appeared to Thomas, he knew he couldn’t do that for everybody. He told Thomas, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
“Hmmm. Sounds like you know your Bible better than you admit, if you can quote it like that.”
“I never said that I don’t read the Bible. I do. I said that I’ve never searched for an answer to a question like you have been doing.”
“Honey, I spent my week searching, because you make me want to believe.”
“I’m glad. You know, you remind me of another quote that isn’t from the Bible. C. S. Lewis.… He’s a Christian writer.”
“I’ve heard of him.”
“Well, he said something that sounds a lot like you. I hope I can quote it correctly. He said, ‘If I find in myself a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy; then the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
“That’s beautiful. ‘If I find in myself a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy; then the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.’ I like it! But does my desire for proof of Jesus’ resurrection mean that I was made for another world – like maybe the heaven where Jesus is supposed to be living now?”
“Tom, I’m sure of it, and even more now that you have done all this research. I always knew that Jesus would not let me fall in love with a non-believer. Then you came along, and I began to wonder about that. But God is working it out. God is turning you into a believer.”
“But, Honey, I’m still not sure about all this resurrection stuff.”
“I know. But you will be. You will be. I know it just as sure as I know that I love you.”
“Did you know that the Bible says that Jesus showed himself to people at least ten different times? And sometimes he would just appear in a locked room, without even opening the door. I wish I could do that.”
“Why?”
“Because I am afraid that I’m going to have to ask you to come and open your front door before I can appear to you.”
“What?”
“Yeah, you had better check your front door. There seems to be a man standing there who is very lonely for your company.”
“Is that right? Why so it is! A man has just appeared at my front door.”
“Just like Jesus.”
“Just like Jesus – well not quite. Jesus never took firecrackers to school. Come on in, Tom. I want to hear more about those firecrackers.”
“Uh oh.”
Questions for Meditation, Discussion or Preaching
Copyright 2020. Robert D. Ingram, 32746 Jourden Rd., Albany, Ohio 45710 (dr.bobingram@gmail.com). Used by permission.
