WWJD By Dr. Richard Youngblood
Question: If Jesus wanted people to believe in him, why
did he appear only to those who were already believers after his resurrection?
Certainly Jesus wanted people to believe in him. He said, “If you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins” (John 8:24). But the experience of witnessing the personal presence of the resurrected Lord was of such an overwhelming nature that one would no longer have the choice whether or not to believe. Jesus wanted people to believe in him; but he never forced himself upon them or used manipulative sales techniques to prove anything. Instead, he just put the truth out for people to hear and see—often making it sound anything but easy—and allowed each person to decide for himself whether to believe or walk away (Matthew 19:16-22). He could have called down thunderbolts and forced even his enemies to believe that he was God in the flesh, but that would have removed their freedom to choose whether or not to believe. Jesus wanted followers who would trust and serve him from their own hearts instead of men and women who cowered at his feet in fear because they had no choice.
We can best see this principle in operation in the way Jesus used miracles during his earthly ministry. His miracles were not primarily intended to persuade people. They were acts of compassion toward suffering people (Matthew 14:14). Thus, he often performed his miracles in private and then told those he so blessed to tell no one about him (Mark 1:41-44; 5:35-43). Instead of attracting people like a magician in a sideshow, Jesus wanted followers with the kind of faith that would result in a life-long commitment. Unlike many modern evangelists who draw crowds by their claims to do miracles, Jesus did not overwhelm those around him by his mighty power on order to remove all doubts.
In much the same way, the resurrected Jesus appeared only to those who had already recognized him as the Son of God (1 Corinthians 15;3-8). The resurrection of Jesus was the greatest of all miracles, but his appearances after his resurrection were not designed to bring faith. They were intended to strengthen the faith that already existed in his followers so they could continue in faith through the persecution and challenges that life would soon bring upon them. They had already made the choice to believe in him; but upon becoming witnesses of the resurrected Lord, these followers were then ready both to live and to die for him. The transformed lives of those humble but convicted disciples bore witness to the fact of the resurrection in such a powerful way that the truth of the resurrection of Christ has been unstoppable in its impact on our world for more than 2000 years.
Proof takes place in each individual mind. If a person does not want to believe, then no amount of Christian evidence will persuade him. The Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky once wrote: “The genuine realist, if he is an unbeliever, will always find strength and ability to disbelieve in the miraculous, and if he is confronted with a miracle as an irrefutable fact he would rather disbelieve his own senses than admit the fact.”
However, for those who have seen
enough of the suffering and hopelessness that fills much of the unbelieving world,
there is more than enough evidence of the resurrection of Jesus to bring faith,
hope, joy, love and fulfillment both now and forever. Which have you chosen, dear reader, to
believe or not to believe?
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