I can’t believe Easter fell this year on April Fool’s Day. Then I thought, “What kind of joke must that have been to those who loved Jesus, who saw him crucified and buried?!”
“Jesus is Risen!....April Fools!” Was someone trying to play a trick on everyone?! Was this some kind of joke?
I imagine I was sitting with the 11 disciples, grieving and mourning the loss of our teacher and friend. I imagine all the confusion and conversation we must have wrestled with as we tried to recall his words. Don’t mess with a mourner; don’t tell me he is not dead. I saw him die.
Some scientific-minded skeptics do doubt the resurrection, and they have worked hard to prove the mis-informed historicity of Jesus’ resurrection.
But the Bible clearly explains (to those who will receive it as authentic eyewitness testimony) that Jesus was indeed crucified, dead, and buried. Gospel accounts made sure to include the details about how they sealed and guarded the tomb so no one would try to steal the corpse to claim he had indeed risen.
Yet, the tomb was empty Sunday morning.
What kind of fool am I? Do I really believe that one who claimed to be the Christ is indeed alive?
Or maybe there’s another kind of fool....
During our Easter sermon this morning, Pastor Bob made the point that there are two kinds of knowing. You can know data and facts, or you can have an experiential kind of spiritual knowing. I never noticed this before in Luke 24:
Two walked on the road to Emmaus discussing all that had happened in recent days. Though Jesus himself came up and walked with them, they were kept from recognizing him.
“[Jesus] asked them, ‘What are you discussing together as you walk along?’. . . .
One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, ‘Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?’ Luke 24:17-18.
They explain the facts of the prophet Jesus, his crucifixion, and the empty tomb, yet they have the audacity to say to Jesus “Don’t you know?”
We can know facts, but we can miss knowing Jesus, even if he is right in our midst.
What kind of fools are they?
"Jesus said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” Luke 24:25
Wow! I imagine I am talking with the resurrected Jesus and he says “how foolish you are...”
Am I slow of heart to believe too? Am I this kind of fool, who knows all the facts about Jesus but doesn’t even see with spiritual eyes?
The Proverbs talk about fools too:
“He who trusts in himself is a fool...” Proverbs 28:26
Jesus, before he was killed, had said: “Trust in God; trust also in me” John 14:1.
A fool is one who trusts in himself and not in Jesus.
Proverbs says: “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes...” Proverbs 12:15
Jesus once said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” John 14:6
A fool is one whose own way is right in his own eyes, not the way of Jesus.
Why, then, did Jesus call Cleopas and his friend “fools”? What kind of fools were they? Slow of heart?
They did not see Jesus in all of the Scriptures. They did not see that Christ had to suffer before glory.
I am so glad that Jesus is also patient to walk along with us as we journey toward a different kind of knowing.
“When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him....” Luke 24:31
Somehow, this moment of breaking the bread opened their spiritual eyes to see that Jesus was right in front of them. That it truly was the risen Christ.
Their hearts burned, on fire with spiritual awakening! The direction of their lives changed, as they turned a 180 from Emmaus and headed back to Jerusalem:
“It is true! The Lord has risen and appeared...” Luke 24:34
I love how Pastor Bob pointed out verse 35: “Jesus was known to them when he broke the bread” (ESV).
Cleopas had asked Jesus, “Don’t you know?” but now it is Jesus who makes himself known to them.
What kind of Easter fool do I want to be?
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to use who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18
Those who know data about Jesus but don’t know the risen Jesus may think I am a fool for believing in one I cannot see, for believing that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life.
But those who think I am a fool, are perishing. They are the real fools.
It will be no joke when Jesus says to some who claimed to know him: “I never knew you. Away from me!” Matthew 7:23
I don’t want to be foolish in Jesus eyes for being slow of heart to believe, or a fool who claims to know Jesus but has no saving experiential knowledge. I want to be foolish in the world’s eyes for staking my life on the Gospel of the cross and the empty tomb.
I don't want to be a knowing fool. I want to be a knowing fool.
What kind of Easter fool do you want to be?
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