Jesus Appeared

What Did Jesus Do?

…He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;
then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles;
and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.
1Corinthians 15.5-8

Although I cannot remember what I had for breakfast yesterday, I remember the time I appeared as an Inquirer, a Presbyterian term for someone who is in the early stages of trying to confirm if God is calling her/him to ministry, to be examined and approved/disapproved to move on to being a Candidate. There were five of us Inquirers, each having the opportunity to explain her/his faith journey and sense of call. I was the last to speak. The first four Inquirers all had impressive Presbyterian pedigrees, with fathers and grandfathers who had been ordained ministers of Word and Sacrament. Then there was me. My parents didn’t even do the Easter-Christmas thing. The only time they went to church was for a wedding or a funeral. I can’t remember any Bibles in the house, other than the ones that had been presented to my sister and to me from the Wyckoff Reformed Church Sunday School (Though my folks didn’t go to church they brought my sister and me religiously each week and dropped us off for Sunday School.).

Anyway, after listening to the other Inquirers’ impressive backgrounds all I could do was quoted Paul, and tell the Presbytery that, as hard as it was to believe, Jesus had chosen for some reason to appear to me, untimely and unexpected as it might have been. And I confessed that among the company of the other Inquirers I was most certainly the least of the apostles they were examining that day. Yet I was exceedingly grateful, because I could also say with Paul,

…by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me has not been in vain.
1Corinthians 15.10

What made all the difference to me on that day, and really every day, is that Jesus appeared, and appears, to His and to those He wants to make His. During His earthly ministry Jesus was rather careful to try and preserve the so-called Messianic Secret. But, with the Resurrection, there was no further reason to try and keep secret what the Resurrection made most abundantly clear--Jesus was/is THE Messiah! And so, as the Gospels and the Book of the Acts of the Apostles make clear, Jesus kept up a busy schedule of public appearances for forty days after the Resurrection in order to confirm that, contrary to the hopes of the Sanhedrin and Satan, He lived. And, thanks to the continuing presence and activity of the Holy Spirit in Christ’s disciples, Jesus makes daily appearances throughout the world to this day. I know I am eternally grateful that, though I was as one “untimely born,” He appeared to me.

From Mary Magdalene and the other women, to Peter, to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, to the ten in the locked room, and to doubting Thomas, and to the five hundred brethren, and beyond Jesus has appeared because what once might have needed to be kept under wraps is now the most important truth for the world to know: Jesus is the Son of God, the Lord and Savior. He no longer seeks to keep it quiet, and He doesn’t want his followers to be shy about showing up and showing out, but rather to let their life and faith be plain for all to see, that the glory and grace of God should be revealed for all to see. That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4