The untroubled Heart

The Lord is Risen! Are you sure?

Do you really believe that? We all face times in our lives when we are troubled. We are often perplexed by the circumstances we find ourselves in, or when our prayers are not answered. “Are they even being heard?” we say to ourselves, although not out loud, for we are Christians and we know that God does hear them and is saying, “not yet”, or “I have a differend solution for you.” But that doesn’t stop us from being worried, or anxious, or afraid, or thinking sometimes that God has let us down.

Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Let us go back to that momentous week long ago. At the beginning of that week Jesus had entered Jerusalem, welcomed by the crowd as king. And as the week went on Jesus began to speak about what would happen to him with words that his disciples didn’t understand at the time:

The New International Version Chapter 12

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

The New International Version Chapter 12

You are going to have the light just a little while longer

The New International Version Chapter 13

“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

And now, on that Thursday evening, when they were having that last Passover meal together, Jesus comforts his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

Their worst fears came to pass. Their lord was arrested that same night, suffered an illegal trial, was executed by crucifixion and was hurriedly put into a tomb before the Sabbath began. There was nothing that the disciples could do except observe, mostly from a distance, anxious, afraid, still not understanding what had taken place.

Let us go now to that first Easter Day. It is evening and the disciples are gathered together, probably at the home of John Mark and his mother somewhere in Jerusalem. Picture the scene. Are they joyfully singing? Are they praising God? Are they laughing with delight that Jesus is alive? Or are they talking in hushed voices trying to make sense of it all ever since that last meal they had together with Jesus; and then that horrible, brutal crucifixion of their master on Friday; and the Sabbath day, which seemed to last foreverand they had to come to terms with the loss of Jesus and none of them had dared to try to save him; instead they had run away. And now, on the Sunday morning the women had rushed back from the garden tomb to report that Jesus wasn’t there. He was alive.

Imagine that you are there with them. The people all around you are your friends and all disciples of Jesus. Outside is a hostile world; a world that has just crucified your Lord. They are hostile to the things you stand for; hostile to the things you believe in. And you are afraid.

“Are we all here?”

“No, Thomas isn’t. He didn’t say where he was going.”

“Better shut and lock the door, Matthew, and keep an ear open in case anyone comes.”

“I hope they don’t get Thomas. At least we’ll be safe here. But we can’t stay here forever, and we’re putting young Mark and his mother in danger.”

“What are we going to do if they come for us?”

“Peter, tell us again what you saw this morning.”

“It was Mary who had come running to tell us. She and Joanna and the other Mary had gone to the tomb with the spices and perfumes that they had prepared in the hope that they might be allowed to anoint the body as there was no time on Friday just before the Sabbath.”

“Mary, what did you see?”

“We were wondering how we would move the stone entrance to the tomb, but when we got there, the stone had been moved and the tomb looked empty. We thought that they had taken him away to bury him somewhere else. Then there were two men dressed in white, who told us that he was alive and would see us in Galilee. We didn’t know what to think so we hurried to tell Peter and the others”

“What did you do then, Peter?”

“We didn’t believe them at first, but we had to find out. John and I ran to the tomb. John is younger and fitter than I and he got there first. there was no sign of the soldiers and John stood at the entrance, looking in. I went straight in and Jesus wasn’t there. The grave clothes were, but Jesus wasn’t.”

“That’s very strange. You’d have thought that if they wanted to remove the body, they’d have taken the clothes as well. Is it true, John?”

“Yes it is and I’m telling you that it is just as Jesus told us. Didn’t he say to us three times that they would put him to death and that he would rise again. I believe that’s exactly what happened. He is risen and we should be rejoicing instead of hiding in this room”

“But why, John, didn’t Jesus come to us at once. He’s had all day; it’s late now and what you’re sayin happened early this morning. Why didn’t he show himself? We want to believe, but...”

“He did show himself — to Mary and she told us that he was returning to his Father.”

“Yes, we want to believe, but we want to be sure”

“Do you remember what he said to us last Thursday?”

“How could we forget it?”

“His words were. ‘let not your heart be troubled. Don’t be worried and upset.’ And just look at us. We’re behaving in the very way he told us not to.”

“But, Peter, how can we be any different. We don’t know what to do or think.”

“What was it he said? ‘Believe in God. Believe also in me.’”

“I remember a psalm of David which says, ‘ Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.’ Ps 62:8.”

“Yes, that’s right Nathanael. There’s a time when we just have to believe what we cannot prove and accept what we cannot understand. If our hearts are troubled, somehow, somewhere we are failing in faith. Didn’y Jesus show us again and again the importance of faith. It was faith that enabled God to work. Do we believe Jesus or not? We’ve got to stop doubting our beliefs, or even believing our doubts. Let’s believe our beliefs.”

“All of us believe that Jesus is God’s Messiah. God sent him to us and Jesus told us what was to happen. Do you think God is going to abandon us now?”

“Do you remember Jesus telling us that he was going to prepare a place for us?”

“Yes, he said, ‘My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?’” Jn 14:2.

“Yes — I like that word that Jesus used —room, abiding place, home. He used the same word later on when he said, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” Jn 14:23. just think of it.”

“And Jesus also promised to come and take us there to be with him. When he said that he wasn’t thinking of defeat, but of victory. How can our hearts be troubled if we have a Lord who really is alive and has promised to take us to be with him? All we have to remember is God’s promises and that he is always faithful and our faith will grow stronger.”

“And he also said that there are many rooms in his Father’s house. I’ve a feeling that God wants everybody to come and live in his house.”

“But Peter, Jesus didn’t speak to everyone in Jerusalem, or Galilee. How could he? And even we managed only to convince a few people that they needed to turn back to God.”

“That’s true, but Jesus has now begun the work and he wants us to continue it. He’s left us with a message to give to others. Jesus has opened a way; he’s gone ahead to make it safe for us and others to follow. If we were to die now or if the authorities put us to death as they did Jesus, we would go to be with him and our Father. Without him we would be cut off from God forever.”

“If Thomas were here he would tell us exactly what he said to Jesus.”

“I can remember. He said, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way’. Didn’t he ask what we were all afraid to. Thomas isn’t one to let things go if he doesn’t understand. We all now know that the way was the way of the cross.”

“But what really did Jesus mean when he said, ‘I am the eay and the truth and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me’?”

“Does that mean that we all have to be crucified?”

“what it means is that because we have all sinned we were far away from God’s saving presence, but God offered Jesus so that by his death he should become the means by which our sins are forgiven through faith in him. It’s God’s way of putting people right with himself. We can’t find the way to God by ourselves, but Jesus is saying, ‘Come, I’ll take you there.’”

“ And Jesus not only taught the truth — he lived it; he gave us an example. Did Jesus teach us to be humble and then lord it over us? Did he teach us to love, and then turn away from people in anger or hate or jealousy or indifference? Of course not! Jesus was right when he said, ‘I am the truth.’”

“Yes, and what we are lookinmg for is life. Jesus showed us a life that’s worth living. Do any of us want any other kind if life than the life Jesus showed us. It’s only from Jesus that we can receive that life.”

“Philip, do you remember what you said to him?”

“You don’t have to remind me, James. I said, ‘Show us the father and we shall be satisfied’.”

“What do you think his answer means?”

“You mean when he said, ‘Whoever has seen me has seen the Father’?”

“Yes”

“well, you know, there was a time when I never dared to think that I could ever see God. and yet somehow Jesus has brought God closer. Of course, God is still all-powerful, all-knowing and so on, but somehow, now, not so distant, not so remote, not so out of reach. In fact, as we got to know Jesus, didn’t you feel as if we were getting to know God. In Jesus we see what God is like.”

“Do you remember his home in Nazareth and what his mother told us. I mean, who could dream up such a fanfastic story that God would enter the world, our world, his world, as a baby born in a dirty stable? And yet, that’s what God, in Jesus, did. God entered the world as a man who had to work hard for a living — not as a king who had everything. No, Jesus didn’t have a life of ease, working as a carpenter.”

“And Jesus was faced with the same worries and temptations as us. God understands what it is like to be tempted. And in Jesus we saw God loving and we all know the pain and the anguish that love brought him. Jesus could have avoided death, but it was his love, God’s love that made him willing to die for us.”

“Yes, Philip, you’re right, and when Jesus spoke to us and taught us, it was God speaking to us. And they were’nt just empty words. Think of all that he did. His deeds and actions convince us that he was from God. Can’t we hear in our hearts Jesus saying, ‘Listen to me; Look at me; and believe!’”

“Why are we all sitting here afraid? Just talking through what Jesus said to us ought to take away our anxieties. Remember that he said we would do greater things than he because he is going to the Father.”

“I know we’d love to have Jesus stay with us in person, but that would limit God and us. We would want to stay with Jesus and would all be restricted to this city or this country.”

“Jesus has promised us another helper — the Holy Spirit — who will stay with us forever and in that way we have Jesus with us wherever we go.”

“Can’t we feel the peace of Jesus entering our hearts as we think over these things?”

“Peter, is that what Jesus meant when he said that he would not leave us all alone, like orphans, who have lost their father? He said he would come to us.”

Perhaps it was as that disciple spoke that Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘“Peace be with you.”

What a scene now! — all doubts gone and their faith really strengthened. not fear any more, but Joy.

And then “Jesus breathed on them.” Here he was ministering to each one of them.

Let not your hearts be troubled. That’s the message that Jesus leaves us with. He has given us the secret of the untroubled heart,

It is bound up with

His person; “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. Jn 14:1.

His Promise: And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am Jn 14:3.

His Peace; Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Jn 14:27.