Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 28 verses
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
When I was younger, I always used to think that if only I had proof then I'd believe.
Now that I'm older and have had a lot more experience, I know seeing isn't always believing. The whole world saw Rodney King beaten, yet the lawyers on the other side of the case called it all into question. We wondered if that would be the case in the videoed murder of George Floyd. The whole world saw; but 12 had to believe their own eyes.
Not all at the resurrection did believe. I have to wonder what trauma had afflicted them that they could not feel that they could trust their own eyes. What terror had grabbed hold of them to make them think they could not trust their own experience. The Romans had really done a number on them. Pontius Pilate doubled down on it by calling the rumors of resurrection fake news. It is all in the Bible.
But what faith then, to even though they were doubting and disbelieving their own selves and the believability of their own stories, they nevertheless went out from there as witnesses to the truth as they saw it, and experienced it, and were compelled by their own consciences to tell. So, they became its witnesses.
So, we are witnesses too. We are witnesses when even though we doubt ourselves, we trust ourselves to tell our own stories and bear our own witnesses.
And, somehow, the testimony has the power to change the world . . .
Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
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