To Encourage You

John 20:1-4 “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.  So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’  So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb.  Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.”

Do you believe what you believe about Jesus because of what others have told you about Him, or because you’ve looked into it for yourself?  In the account above, Mary Magdalene, as soon as she saw that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, went immediately to Peter and John and told them as much as she knew. She knew that the stone had been rolled away and that as far as she knew, someone had taken Him out of the tomb.  But Peter and John had to see for themselves.  They didn’t just rely on what Mary had told them, although what she had said certainly influenced them.  And when they went to the tomb they learned in the first person so much more than they had expected based on a second-hand account.  When they got there, we are told that first Peter, and then John both entered the tomb, and there they saw the graveclothes of Jesus, but they were without Him in them. Surely, if someone had taken Jesus’ body, they wouldn’t have left the linens He had been wrapped in. That would make absolutely no sense.  It was at that moment that we are told that John “saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.”  

That’s the way it is with Christ.  No matter what we’ve heard about Him from someone else, the way to truly learn about Him is to look into it ourselves. When we do this, inevitably, we find out things that are more wonderful than we could have ever imagined from what someone else has said. It’s similar to the experience of the Queen of Sheba when she went to meet Solomon, a type of Christ, and see for herself what she had heard about him from others.  We are told that when she met Solomon for herself, she was overwhelmed, as we hear in these words from her lips: “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard. Happy are your men! Happy are your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom!  Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord loved Israel forever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness” (1 Kings 10:6-9).  

Surely, when one looks at Christ for themselves, they too will be similarly if not more overwhelmed, for Jesus had this to say about that Queen: “The queen of the South (i.e., the Queen of Sheba) . . . came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:42).  By this He meant that He was the One Who was greater than Solomon. 

There are other examples of similar experiences in the Scriptures.  We are told in John 1 that when Philip met Christ, he went to Nathaniel and said “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” When Nathaniel heard this he was skeptical, and his skepticism was revealed in his reply “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” You see, Nazareth was basically a “hick town.” It was not known for anything great.  What good could possibly come from there, of all places?!  To this Philip said “Come and see.”  In other words, “Don’t base your conclusion on what I’m telling you. Come and see for yourself!”  But notice what Nathaniel had to say when he did go to Jesus personally and after Jesus had spoken to him face to face: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”  To this Jesus replied, “You will see greater things than these.” 

What about you? Maybe you’re just as skeptical about what you’ve heard about Jesus.  Are you relying on what others have said about Him?  Do you doubt either the messenger or this One Whom they’ve told you about?  If so, may God give you the wisdom to “Come and see” for yourself.  Read His words in the pages of the Bible on your own with a sincere heart. It is by looking into the person of Christ yourself in this way that you can personally meet Him.  And if you do, you can be assured that, like the Queen of Sheba, Peter, John, and Nathaniel, what you will experience is greater far than anyone else can ever tell you second-hand, for He is the infinite Christ, the one of whom God has said “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him. These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).  And “these things God reveals to us through the Spirit” are things that He reveals to us of the very “mind (and person) of Christ”(1 Corinthians 2:16).