Even the disciples, who were with Jesus night and day, who witnessed Him risen from the dead – even they wrestled with doubt. All of which suggests that doubt is not the enemy of faith, so much as it is just faith’s expected companion.

Why is there something and not nothing? Because God spoke.

God’s wonderful gift of grace – “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over will be put into your lap.” Put into our hearts, put into our life together as God’s people – grace even spilling out from this sanctuary into the streets and hearts and world beyond.

What must it have been like for a people like that, a people who’ve been torn down and stepped on and taken advantage of their entire lives? What was it like for them to hear these words of Jesus: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you?”

“They see the risen Jesus and yet how could it really be Jesus that they are seeing. They believe and yet they can’t see how it could be true. “