Eastertide: Anna #27

 

The Lord has

    made himself known. (Psalm 9:16)

Dear Anna,

Our next big Sunday is Pentecost—seven Sundays from Easter Sunday. Between Easter Sunday and Pentecost, our resurrected Lord, “showed himself alive”.  It is not as if Mary caught him walking down Main Street. It came at God’s choosing: “God raised him up on the third day and allowed him to appear…to us who were chosen by God as witnesses…” (Ac 10:40-41). Mary was the first “chosen by God as a witness.”

Between now and then, Jesus “showed himself alive” to Mary Magdalene first, then to the other women, then sporting with that couple walking home to Emmaus, then a few different times to his disciples while in Jerusalem, then later along the shore of Galilee where he fixed breakfast.  Maybe last, before he ascended, to his doubting brother James (1Cor 15:7). As our resurrected Lord ascends, the Holy Spirit descends making Jesus present for us though he can no longer be seen going before us. That is Pentecost—when the Holy Spirit descends making Jesus known to us.

Our knowing Jesus always comes from God’s side. It is not something we figured out; but rather, something given to us—the gift of faith.

Love,

PAPA