Thursday I was down in Albany helping lead a workshop with some folks from the Albany First Methodist Church, and there was a young woman in the group who had a glow on her face the entire day. She was simply beaming. I later discovered that she’s going to be married next month.
Observing the radiant glow on her face last Thursday reminded me of a summer evening in 1973. It was a beautiful, warm night, with a clear sky and brilliant stars all around. Nancy and I were sitting on the hood of my father’s Oldsmobile Delta 88. Some of you are old enough to remember those.
We had been talking for a while, just enjoying each other’s company, and then I heard something come out of her mouth that I simply could not believe. The most beautiful girl I’d ever seen in my life, then or now, said to me: “I love you.”
I was absolutely stunned. This could not be happening. Yes, I audibly heard the syllables come out of her mouth, but I still didn’t believe it. I knew I must be dreaming, it was simply too good to be true.
Now you gotta remember who we’re talking about here. We’re talking about a young man who had grown up as Fat Boy, a young man whom the high school girls had always considered as a kind of surrogate “brother” to come to for advice and counsel, but would never consider dating, a young man who had a face covered with such a bad case of acne that he stills bears the scars today. We’re talking about me! I can be honest, I’ll never be mistaken for a Robert Redford or a Tom Cruise or a Paul Newman.
And yet here the most beautiful girl in the world was telling me that she loved me. It was beyond my comprehension. It was beyond my ability to fathom. It was completely outside the realm of possibility that Nancy O’Toole could love Dan Dunn. It was simply too good to be true.
Last Sunday we celebrated Easter. In the 24th chapter of Luke, we read the story of the 2 women who went to the tomb on resurrection morning and were greeted by the two men dressed in dazzling white who told them that Christ was no longer there, because He was risen. They went back to the Eleven and told them about their experience, but the disciples did not believe them because as the Bible says, “their words seemed to them like nonsense.”
But that’s not all that takes place on resurrection day. The very next passage in this chapter of Luke’s gospel tells the story of the two men who met the Risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus. They carried on a conversation with Him along the road, and when they arrived at Emmaus they had supper together.
While at the supper table, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. Then the Bible says “they got up and returned at once to Jerusalem.”
When they got there, they found the Eleven and the others with them still awake and talking about the things that had taken place that day. Then these two disciples told about their own experience with the Risen Christ and how they finally recognized Him when He broke the bread.
It’s at this point in the chapter when we come to our Scripture lesson for today. I invite you to follow along in your Bible or in your order of worship, as read from verses 36-49 of the 24th chapter of the gospel of Luke: Read the passage.
I really had fun looking at this passage this week because I received the gift of a new insight. In years past anytime I’ve looked at this passage I’ve thought to myself how absolutely obtuse and thickheaded the disciples were. Think about it: the women see 2 men dressed in white, see an empty tomb with only the linens lying there. They tell the disciples about this, and then Peter goes to the tomb and checks it out for himself.
Then 2 other followers of Jesus actually walk with Him and talk with Him for several miles on the Emmaus road, they break bread with Him, and they recognize Him for who He is. They return to Jerusalem to tell the others about this amazing encounter, and while they were in the midst of their story, Jesus Himself stood among them, He showed them His hands and His feet, and yet according to verse 41 they STILL did not believe.
I used to think the disciples were obtuse and thickheaded, and maybe they were. But I also think there’s something else going on here. I think they were having an experience similar to the one I had on the hood of Daddy’s Delta 88 in the summer of 1973. I think they were overwhelmed by something so wonderful, so incredible, so beyond comprehension, that they literally COULD not believe it, it was simply too good to be true.
Yes, Jesus had told them ahead of time that He was going to be killed but would then rise again on the 3rd day, but we must remember that we were not there when the events leading up to the crucifixion took place.
We can only attempt to imagine the heartache, the fear, the disappointment, all the overwhelming negative emotions that would have assaulted the disciples from the time Jesus was taken away from the Garden of Gethsemane and then brought before Herod and brought before Pilate and beaten by the soldiers and forced to carry His own cross and then having the nails driven through his hands and feet, and then to utter those heart-wrenching words, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.”
The disciples were already in shock. When you think about it, it’s no wonder that upon seeing the resurrected Jesus, they simply experience shock of a different sort. Yes their eyes see Him and their ears hear Him, but they cannot take it in. It’s too wonderful for them to believe. It’s beyond their comprehension, it’s too good to be true.
Notice the way Luke describes their “not believing” in verse 41. He says: “And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement…” To try and help us remember this, I’ve decided to call it the JAD Syndrome. The disciples were experiencing the Joyously Amazed Disbelief Syndrome. I invite you to write that down. The Joyously Amazed Disbelief Syndrome.
However, please notice that I did NOT say they were suffering from the JAD Syndrome. I said they were experiencing the JAD Syndrome. They were experiencing an event, an occurrence, a pouring out of God’s grace in their lives that was so amazing and caused them so much joy that it was simply too good to be true. In other words their disbelief is not based on doubt. It’s based on the reality of something so fantastic that they simply cannot comprehend it.
That’s what happened to me on the hood of a Delta 88 in the summer of 1973. But that’s not the only time it’s happened. I also experienced the JAD Syndrome on April 8, 1978, and again on August 31, 1980, when I held my newborn sons for the first time and counted their fingers and toes to make sure they had the right number. Intellectually, I understand the process of birth. But when I was holding each of my newborn sons I still couldn’t believe it. It was beyond my comprehension that this tiny, wiggling, beautiful baby was a part of me.
Imagine then, how Abraham and Sarah must have felt when they held Isaac for the first time. You may remember that story from the book of Genesis. God had promised Abraham that through Sarah he would be the father of many nations, and yet Sarah had not borne any children yet, and she was 90, and Abraham was 100. They must have wondered where God was. They must have experienced disappointment and heaviness of heart when they grew past the age of child-bearing and she still didn’t have the male heir they had been expecting.
But then one day God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her.” Abraham really experienced the JAD Syndrome with this event. There was no way he could fathom the joy and amazement of this miracle that God was promising to perform.
In fact the Bible records his response this way:
Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” Amazingly enough, Sarah did become pregnant and did bear a son, and they named him Isaac, which in Hebrew means laughter.
And Abraham and Sarah aren’t the only Biblical characters who experienced the JAD Syndrome.
Imagine the joyous disbelief that the young shepherd David and his father Jesse experienced when the prophet Samuel anointed David with oil and proclaimed him king over Israel.
Or think of the incredible amazement that Peter must have experienced when Jesus empowered him to walk on water.
Consider how General Namaan must have felt when he came up out of the Jordan that 7th time and saw that his leprosy had been healed.
Or what about Moses and the Hebrew people when they saw the waters of the Red Sea part and they were able to walk across on dry land.
Or the young girl whom Jesus raised from the dead in the 8th chapter of Luke. When Jesus told the people who were wailing and mourning the little girl’s death that she was not dead but only asleep, they laughed at him, and after He raises the little girl from the dead, Luke records one of the greatest understatements in the entire Bible when he says that “her parents were astonished…” I should say so.
Or think of the Shepherds who were out in the fields watching their flocks by night when suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and then a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest…”
I could literally stand here and tell you about Biblical experiences of the JAD Syndrome for another 30 minutes. But these experiences are not limited to the Bible. God is the same powerful, loving, grace-bestowing God today that He was in Biblical times.
You’ve already heard a couple of my JAD Syndrome experiences, but you’ve experienced the JAD Syndrome at some point in your life too. Maybe for you it was the return of a loved one from War. You received the telegram informing you of the imminent return of your son or husband or daughter or wife, but you really wouldn’t believe it until you saw them with your own eyes, and even then it was hard to take in.
Perhaps for you it was hearing the doctor say “you’re in remission,” or as in Ron’s case, “the tumor is gone.” You heard the words, you even saw the X-rays, but the news was so good and so amazing it was still difficult to take in.
Maybe for you it was the reconciliation of a broken relationship. Perhaps the other person called you up or wrote you a letter and asked for your forgiveness, or maybe your heart was softened and you’re the one who made the first move. In any event, you’d been seeking God’s help in this situation for years, and it’s finally happened. A bridge has been built, and repairs are being made to a relationship that you really thought was over.
Perhaps for you it was being delivered from the power of an addiction to alcohol or drugs or tobacco or pornography. In your brain you know it’s possible for these addictions to be overcome through the power of God, but you’ve been a slave to the addiction for so long, it really still hasn’t sunk in yet that you’ve not had a drink for 10 years or a cigarette for 10 days.
Or perhaps for you it was your conversion experience or the conversion of someone you’ve been praying for, for a long time. New life in Christ is really the ultimate experience of the JAD Syndrome for all of us. When you consider that our Awesome and Holy God loves us enough to die for us, we who compared to God’s holiness are so utterly sinful, that really is too good to be true.
And what I want you to understand is, that’s the point. If Christians cannot fathom the amazing grace of God that shows up in miraculous ways in their lives, then why would we expect non-Christians to be able to understand it? To say it another way: if we in the church find it difficult to recognize Easter, how can the unsaved people in our lives recognize Easter? It’s as we claim the “too-good-to-be-true” experiences of God’s grace in our lives that we are then empowered and equipped to pro-claim the availability of God’s grace for other peoples’ lives.
Turn to a neighbor and say “God’s been good to me!”
Turn to another neighbor and say “God wants to love you bunches!”
You see I believe there are people in each of our lives whom God wants to love bunches, whom He wants to invite into a loving relationship with Him. I also believe that God’s Holy Spirit is preparing the way for us to have the opportunity to share the love of Christ with these people in our lives.
I further believe that one of the reasons some of you don’t feel comfortable sharing Jesus with other people is that you have not learned to recognize and claim the truly miraculous events of grace that God has provided for you throughout your life.
It makes sense doesn’t it? If you find it difficult to recognize the amazing ways Jesus has made a difference in your life, then naturally you’re going to find it difficult to be able to tell someone else how Jesus can make a difference in their life.
Notice in our Scripture passage from Luke 24 that in his encounter with the disciples, Jesus moves the discussion away from what the disciples are personally experiencing in the encounter, and helps them focus instead on the fact that they now are given the privilege and responsibility of sharing the news of repentance and forgiveness of sins in all nations.
In verses 46-48 He tells them “This is what is written: ‘The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,’ and repentance of sin will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
In appearing to the disciples after His resurrection, Jesus significantly blesses them. They witness incredible events, events so joyous and amazing that they simply cannot believe their eyes. But Jesus doesn’t want them to simply soak up these events and sort of hoard them for themselves.
Instead He wants them to use these events as springboards to remind them that He is alive, that His purpose in coming to earth was to bring forgiveness of sins to a lost and dying humanity, and He then wants them to use these events as sources of power to share this fantastic news of His forgiveness with the rest of the world.
The same is true for us. God blesses us in rich and abundant ways, and He invites us to use these tremendous blessings, these “too-good-to-be-true” experiences as springboards from which to share with other people the love and mercy and grace of Jesus Christ.
There are people all around us who are lost and dying without Christ. They may hide it well. They may appear successful. They may seem to be on top of the world. But without Christ they are lost and dying, and it is our privilege and responsibility, it is YOUR privilege and responsibility, to help them see Jesus.
In 1974, sitting on the hood of a Delta 88, Nancy O’Toole transformed my life when she told me she loved me. 2000 years ago, hanging from the nails of a wooden cross, Jesus Christ made possible the transformation of everyone’s life who will ever live on the face of the earth.
Easter is real. Jesus is Risen. It’s too good to be true, but it’s true nonetheless. This week, I invite you to claim the ways the Risen Jesus has impacted your life.
I’ve inserted a card in your bulletin to help with this. There are 7 spaces there for you to jot down some of the too-good-to-be-true experiences that God has blessed you with. I suggest you put this card on your refrigerator to remind you of God’s gracious activity in your life.
So the first thing I want you to do is Claim the ways the Risen Jesus has impacted your life. The second thing I want you to do is Pro-claim. First you claim, then you proclaim. I encourage you to tell one person this week about the transformation that Christ has brought about in your life, and then as appropriate, I encourage you to find a way to tell them that that transformation is available for them too.
If Easter is real, then Easter makes a difference. To say that the other way: if Easter does not make a difference in your life, then Easter is not real for the unsaved people around you.
Which is it going to be for you? Is Easter going to be real or isn’t it? Claim and pro-claim. That’s our response to the Risen Christ.
