During the 50 Days of Easter, my blog will be musings by Joseph of Arimathea on the amazing happenings of the time between Easter and Pentecost--between the Resurrection and the Coming of the Holy Spirit on the disciples. Enter with me into this imagined series of recollections by Joseph. (The image today is The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Carvaggio, c. 1602.)
I spent the next day pondering the stories of appearances by a risen Jesus of Nazareth. There was what I had thought was the drunken ravings of the guards on that first day, then Salome’s confused explanation. I remembered the look on the face of Mary of Magdala as she told me of her encounter. There was also the stranger who met Cleopas on the road to Emmaus and the man on the seashore in Galilee. All who met this man were certain he was Jesus of Nazareth, the same man I had laid in my tomb. And there was the evidence of the empty tomb and discarded burial wrappings which I had seen myself and brought to my home. More than once since the first day, I had looked at the linen wrappings hoping to find some new insight.
I couldn’t bring
myself to attend the Sanhedrin meeting called to discuss those same rumors about
Jesus being alive. I learned that the Council had bribed the guards I met. They
were instructed to spread the lie that Jesus’ disciples stole the body. Nicodemus
told me that it had taken a concerted effort by Annas and Caiphas to propitiate
Pilate when he heard about the empty tomb. I wondered what they had said and
done to retain the fragile balance of power between our religious leaders and
the Roman overlords.
“If Jesus of
Nazareth has been raised,” I told Nicodemus, “It means that there is a new
order in the world. Things cannot be as they were before.”
My friend nodded and gave a wry smile. “It would be like
Jesus told me when I met him years ago. He said we must be ‘born from above.’ I
still don’t know quite what that means. Jesus said it was like the wind that
blows, and we don’t really understand it. It’s something known and yet new and
unknown at the same time. Jesus told me, ‘as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in
him may have eternal life.’ I knew he was aligning himself with Messiah of the
prophets. Was he also telling me that his death by crucifixion would bring
about a new world order?”
“A new world order where the Kingdom of God is supreme,” I
mused. “That does seem to be what the man taught and modeled, isn’t it?”
My conversations with Nicodemus always left me with more
questions than answers. I visited the
disciples daily, hoping for some clarity or some kind of answer. I became more
and more certain that they were not lying about what they experienced. One of
them, Thomas, remained aloof from his friends. Like me, he had not had any
experience with Jesus. I knew he felt left out.
“Why do you keep
coming here?” he confronted me the day before the Sabbath. “A week ago Jesus of
Nazareth died. You know that. You laid the body in your tomb. Do you believe
the crazy stories of the women and others who claim to have seen him alive
again?”
“Thomas, I don’t
know what to think,” I admitted. “I want to believe it could be true. I want to
believe that God is bigger than death itself. I want to know the truth.”
The man nodded
sadly. His shoulders slumped. “I would give anything to have it all be true. To
have Jesus back among us. To have none of this to have happened. I wish the
last few weeks had never happened. I wish we had not left Galilee, not gone to
the home of Lazarus, not come to Jerusalem. I want things to be like they were
before.”
“Yes,” I nodded.
“The world has been changed by the events of the past week. Whether he is alive
or not, the miscarriage of justice and collusion of our own leaders with the
Romans has shown that we have slipped far from the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. If it is true…” I took a deep breath. “Then something never before known
has happened, and only God can do that.”
I stayed at my
home on the Sabbath. It is not proper to leave your home on the holy day. When
I arrived at the room the next day, Thomas grabbed my arm.
“I have seen him!
It is true!” The ring in his voice convinced me before he began to explain.
“We were here, as
always. The doors were locked, as always. Then, Jesus was in the room with us.
His greeting was like always, ‘Peace be with you.’ I knew it was Jesus.”
Thomas inhaled
and closed his eyes, remembering what happened next. “He came straight to me.
‘Put your finger here, see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my
side.’ Jesus smiled at me, ‘Do not doubt, but believe.’ I fell to my knees
exclaiming, ‘My Lord and my God.’ I can still feel his hand on my head in a
type of blessing. ‘Have you believed because you see me? Blessed are those who don’t
see and yet come to believe.’ It was not like he was scolding me. It was more a
promise for anyone who doesn’t have the experience I had.”
Thomas nodded and
smiled. “It is a promise for everyone.”
“Blessed are those who don’t see and come to
believe,” I repeated the words again and again. With every word I was more
certain that everything these men and women had said was true. Jesus of
Nazareth, who I buried, had indeed been raised. It could only be the power of
God doing a new thing. It could only mean that something new had come to pass. There
was a new world. One that no one could have imagined a week earlier.
