When did Jesus become real to you?

There are thousands of arguments to prove the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ historically, and theologically. However all those arguments are vague and futile unless a person encounters the Lord personally. Even the disciples found hard to believe the word “Jesus is risen” uttered by the women who met the resurrected Lord. But it was their personal encounter with the Risen Lord that brought them to believe in the Resurrection. Today what made us to believe in the resurrected Lord? Is it the words of the people whom we respect? Do we believe because the Church has taught that doctrine for 2,000 years? Do we believe because such a belief gives us hope that we have a future beyond the grave? Do we believe because even nature itself seems to proclaim resurrection and new life as spring follows winter? Perhaps those may be the reasons to believe but the basic reason we believe is because in some way we have experienced the presence of the Risen Lord. We have encountered him in our lives. But the crucial question here is when have you encountered the resurrected Lord in your life? Or in other words when did Jesus become real for you? For every Christian, there is a moment when we encounter the risen Lord, when Jesus becomes real. For some, Jesus becomes real in a dramatic Damascus-road experience like that of Paul. For others, Jesus becomes real in a much more subtle way.

Maybe your experience is like that of John Wesley, who did not truly encounter the risen Lord until he had been a preacher for several years. In his journals, Wesley tells of the time when he encountered the risen Lord in a new way. On May 25, 1738, Wesley John 20:19-31 2 accidentally walked in on the meeting of an Anglican gathering on Aldersgate Street in London, and he heard Luther's preface to the Commentary on Romans being read. “About a quarter before nine,” Wesley wrote, “while Luther was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me, that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” One can hardly dispute the impact that that moment had, when John Wesley, who became one of the greatest preachers to the masses, encountered Christ. The impact of the moment when Jesus became real to John Wesley is still being felt today, for John Wesley is considered the founder of the Methodist Church.

Have you encountered the risen Lord? When was your heart strangely warmed? When did Jesus become more than a word for you? Do you remember that moment? Sometimes Jesus becomes real to those who are most opposed to him. Several years ago there was a young Marxist student who, on a dare, went into a church and told the priest that religion was just the opiate of the people, and that there was no need for religion in a communist society. The priest countered with a dare of his own, that the young man go into the sanctuary and look at crucifix and say, “Jesus died for my sins, and I couldn’t care less.” The student took the priest up on the dare, and he went in and said, “Jesus died for my sins, and I couldn’t care less.” But before he could leave, the priest said, “Do it again, and this time look into the eyes of Christ on the cross.” The young man went back in, looked at Jesus on the cross, and something happened in his heart that made it impossible for him to get the words out of his mouth. That young Marxist encountered the risen Lord that day, and twenty years later as he retold the story, he was telling the story as a priest.

When did Jesus become real to you? Do you remember? Something happens when people encounter the risen Lord. You see it in the disciples and in Thomas in the upper room. When people encounter the risen Lord, something happens within a person, and suddenly things are different. It’s a before-Christ, after-Christ dynamic, a formerly-but-now change in perspective. Paul reminds us of this change when he says, “If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation – behold, the old is gone and the new has come.” We look at the world differently once Jesus becomes real in our lives.

Before Jesus becomes real, Good Friday represents the real world where death, tragedy, hopelessness, despair, bitterness, anxiety, restlessness abound. Before Jesus becomes real, you look at the world and you assume that the forces of evil have the upper hand, that there is no hope of overcoming.  But the resurrection represents for us a new reality. When Jesus becomes real, then the hopelessness, despair, bitterness, anxiety, restlessness of our Good Friday existence are transformed. Healing and life are possible in ways that only God can grant. Hatred and animosity are conquered by the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Hope conquers despair. Divisions are broken down, and unity is made possible. Death is conquered by eternal life. When Jesus becomes real, truly it is a gift from God. And, like all gifts from God, it’s not our gift to keep, but to share. To the disciples in the upper room, Jesus said, “As my Father has sent me, I am sending you.” We have the opportunity – actually, we have the calling – to make Jesus real to others. How can you make Jesus real?