Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. (Matthew 28:16-18)
" + "Oftentimes, I have thought that God is too difficult. It seems that God does not give us enough evidence that is clear enough to know who he is. It makes little sense, at times, why God would give us all of these commands from so far away. Why doesn't God just show up and make all things new? Why doesn't God just hush all of the questioners, prove himself, and make it so that no one has any excuse anymore? I have asked this question over and over again with seemingly no resolution. I can ask the question about God and no matter how many times I ask this question, I get the same answer: Jesus.
" + "This answer may not satisfy the average inquirer. Your average person will not think that Jesus explains God's power and authority in the world because Jesus, to most people, is just another way of talking about God—who is far away. But the glory of God was revealed in Christ. By this, I mean that God was embodied in flesh and revealed to us who the true and living God was (John 1:14). When Jesus came in the flesh, all of humanity's questions about the knowability of God were resolved. All of humanity's issues with God's separation were put to rest for God became one with human flesh. God has shown up and we were able to see him in the flesh. Most Christians do not understand that Jesus was in the flesh, that he was a human being. He had to sleep, eat, and had to do other human things. I do not say this so that we violate what Paul tells us in seeing Jesus after the flesh (2 Cor 5:16). We are to see Jesus as the God who took on human flesh and transformed it so that we could experience life with God. We do not see him through the flesh, which does not mean that we do not recognize his flesh, but we see him after the spirit, the way we see all people of God.
" + "But the church is in error because we still see Jesus after the flesh, we see him through our own perceptions and not the perceptions given to us by God through the scriptures. This is where the disciples struggled because they did not really believe God's promises. The scriptures told them that God would exalt his Christ (Isa 53:13). So their hopes and dreams had not been misplaced on Jesus. As he had promised to die and rise again (Mt 16:21), and so he would, as the scriptures promised. Jesus was the answer to all of their concerns; he had "all power/authority (exousia in Greek)." God has given us the answer to all of our questions about him in the hand of Jesus, but the text tells us that "some doubted." Why did they doubt? It is difficult to say but I believe they doubted because of all that we discussed earlier. They said they wanted an answer, the answer from God, but in actuality, when staring in the face of their answer, some left still asking the question. And Jesus knew their hearts and told them that he was the solution to all that they could ask, and "some" of them rejected it.
" + "We must evaluate ourselves. Are we staring God's answer in the face and still questioning it? If we continue to reject God's counsel, through disobedience, then yes we are. We are still attempting to find a solution to a problem in ourselves that God has already solved. All that we need is in Jesus, the solution to every situation. If we only knew how powerful, how authoritative, our relationship with God through Christ was, we would wake up everyday with a new gleam in our eyes. We would be waiting to see what God was going to do next in showing us another piece of the answer he has given us. This is what it means to be a Christian: we follow the Lord knowing that wherever he leads us, he is leading and we are following him. He is constantly showing us himself more and more and we are discovering more and more that the things we thought were not as important as we thought. We are also seeing that the things we gave no thought are more important than we could ever dream. We discover through him that God has been made near and that we are not by ourselves. In Christ, we find our reason for being, togetherness, and community—all of this because this is what we have been questioning God about, and he as answered us.
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