Doubting Disciples

Gospel: Luke 24: 35-48

Consider the record of these eleven men over the past week.  First, each pledged that they would never betray or deny the Lord, and that they would die for the Lord.  One betrayed him, another denied him three times, and the others abandoned him.  When Mary Magdalene and the other women tell them about the risen Jesus, they do not believe them.  These men even go to the empty tomb and still do not believe the Lord had risen.

In today's scene we have the two men who encounter the Lord while going to Emmaus, and the eleven do not believe them either.  So, the risen Jesus appears to them, and they think it a ghost.  They still do not believe.  It is only after Jesus eats with them that they come to acknowledge the Lord is indeed risen and is in their midst.  We may speak of doubting Thomas, but his incredulity is one that is shared by all the men in the apostolic band.  

What of our own faith? Do we put our faith in the Prince of Peace, the nonviolent Jesus who died rather than wield the sword, the one risen from death? Or is our faith in other things completely alien to the person of Jesus? How often do we choose the anti-Christs, the way of political power and influence, the way of violence and lies, the way that threatens our own church with its alleged might! Only the way of Jesus leads to authentic peace and new life.