Faith Cometh by Hearing
From John 20
Mary of Magdala saw the stone was gone and ran to tell the others. They came. They saw. They left. As far as Peter and Jesus’ favorite were concerned, there was no reason to hang around an empty tomb. Though the latter saw and believed, the next verse (9) says “For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead.” Consequently, what he believed is somewhat unclear to my simple mind.
Nonetheless, Mary Magdalene alone and still weeping, and questioned by the angels about it, told them she grieved that the body of Jesus had been stolen. Then seeing someone she thought was the gardener, and responding to his inquiry of her state of mind, asked him if he was involved with taking her dead Lord away, and where the body had been taken.
As soon as the stranger spoke her name, she knew it was Jesus, called to Him, and grabbed hold of Him. Our Lord’s response was, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.”
She saw a man. She responded to a man. But she didn’t hear Him until He called her name.
This brings to mind a verse from my old fundamentalist bible school days, one of the many we memorized and were suitably rewarded for. In the King James parlance: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” [Romans 10:17]
Mary realized her Master was no longer dead, not because she recognized Him by sight, but because her soul responded to His call. And in her answer was the seed of faith that he was actually alive, not a ghost, not a spirit returned from the dead, but truly, physically living, really resurrected.
It was finally the Word (Christ) that she heard that gave her the capacity to believe in the impossible. A man that she saw executed and who died before her eyes, lives! It was not her sight that told her this, it was her faith.
Maybe Jesus’ command was His way of telling her that her faith could not be dependent on holding to His physical presence, any more that Thomas’ faith could be sustained by seeing and touching His wounds*. Faith takes root and flowers in the grace sown in our souls when we hear and accept the Word. Faith then becomes “the evidence of things not seen.” [Hebrews 11:1b] And even things not touched.
So, in response, Mary and I let go: she releases her grip on Jesus’ physical body; I relinquish whatever I use to convince myself that I am a Christian because of my good works, my correct beliefs, my church attendance, or any other extraspiritual activities. Mary and I are followers of the Risen One because of the grace of a loving Creator, who calls us to believe through His Word, once manifested in the flesh, but now with us body, blood, soul and divinity, from the faith we have been given, and have chosen to embrace. And now that Our Lord has ascended to the Father, we can truly hold on to Him here on earth.
*As per John 20-28-29:
And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
