God's Eye View

## Too Many Views

No matter what sort of event takes place before our eyes, if there is another person around then you can bet the stories will be somewhat different. Of course, there are times the stories will match almost every detail, but someone always seems to notice something different or has a different point of view. This is the struggle when it comes to police cases when you don't have concrete evidence, and it's based on deduction and witnesses. In the movie, A Time To Kill, Samuel L. Jackson plays a man whose daughter was physically beaten, dragged, and raped by two white men while she was walking home from the store. In retaliation, he takes the matter into his own hands by killing the two men and ends up facing murder charges. The town was visibly divided by race and each side was struggling to accept what was happening. He ended up getting a lawyer played by Matthew McConaughey who was struggling to get a fair case due to the racism going on, even among the jury that was white. In the end, the lawyer told the jury to close their eyes as he told the story about a girl being beaten and raped. Once he finished the story, he ended with, "Can you see her? I want you to picture that little girl. Now imagine she's white." He knew as he told the story the people would picture their own race in the story, so he brought it out how they were viewing it through a race lens and not abuse or rape lens.

As the story of Jesus in Luke's Gospel comes to a near close, we should picture ourselves in these moments to get a grasp of what witnessing the Resurrection meant. In this part, we have women who were the first witnesses which wouldn't be popular during this time. If a lady was a witness to an event, her testimony was usually not given credence; and yet God let them be the first witnesses to the Risen Lord. Imagine what they were feeling as they ran with great joy to the apostles to give them this great news, but also worrying that their testimony might not hold much weight.

## Inner Turmoil

I could see it in today's world some questions that would arise in their hearts. "What if they think I'm crazy?" "How can I prove to them it wasn't an illusion or hallucination?" "Why would they believe us?" The first witnesses were not dealing with a race problem, but a gender one. Luke goes on to affirm this by saying the apostles did not believe their testimony. The word "idle" (λῆρος) literally means “nonsense”. Though the apostles witnessed miracles, they couldn't wrap their head around Jesus being alive, especially revealing Himself to women first. Peter and John ended up going to the tomb to see for themselves and realized the testimony was valid (John 20:1-10). They didn't see the physical Jesus yet, but they had enough evidence. The body was gone, yet His clothes were there. And perhaps they even asked in their heart, "Why would Jesus' mother lie? Why would Mary Magdalene lie? What benefit would they, or the others that witnessed the Risen Lord, get from telling a tale? Their witness isn't credible anyway."

## Self-Check

God may reveal Himself to us in ways that don't seem plausible, or even fit what we were looking for. Maybe He will speak to you through a child instead of an older person. Maybe you won't get the job you want now because there's a better one if you wait just a few years longer. God sometimes meets us in ways we're not aware of, and

I think that's the beauty found in the mystery of our Creator. He shows up when least expected. He arrives at just the right time.

## Him They Did Not See