Tolstoy once told a story of a Czar and Czarina who wished to honor the members of their court with a banquet. They sent out invitations and requested that the guests come with the invitations in their hands. When they arrived at the banquet the guests were surprised to discover that the guards did not look at their invitations at all. Instead they examined their hands. The guests wondered about this, but they were also curious to see who the Czar and Czarina would choose as the guest of honor to sit between them at the banquet. They were flabbergasted to see that it was the old scrub woman who had worked to keep the palace clean for years. The guards, having examined her hands, declared, "You have the proper credentials to be the guest of honor. We can see your love and loyalty in your hands." 

A similar story is told of the great missionary to Burma, Adoniram Judson. Judson went to the King of Burma to ask him if he might have permission to go to a certain city to preach. The King, a pagan, but quite an intelligent man responded, "I'm willing for a dozen preachers to go but not you, not with those hands. My people are not such fools as to take notice of your preaching but they will note those calloused, work scarred hands." 

After his crucifixion, the disciples of Jesus were trying to sort out the meaning of the reports they had been receiving about appearances of the risen Christ. It was most confusing to them. Was it a hoax? They were not completely immune to superstition. Perhaps it was some kind of ghost. Suddenly it happened. Jesus himself stood among them. The disciples were startled and frightened. Then Jesus said to them, "Why are you troubled and why do questionings rise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself..." The response of the disciples is a sermon in itself. Luke tells us that they "disbelieved for joy..." It was simply too wonderful to be true. He was alive and he was with them right there. No wonder they had difficulty believing. Some persons still have that problem today. Many desperately want to believe but something holds them back. "See my hands and my feet..."

I.  It Is Difficult to Believe God Cares That Much.

In the first place, some of us have difficulty believing that God really cares about us that much.  Some of us are more comfortable with an impersonal God who is the First Cause, the Ground of Being, a Source of life and power but not of personality. The idea of God with nailprints in his hands and feet because of his great love for us is an idea we are not ready for. 

Some years ago the papers were full of a story about the death of seventy-eight people in New Delhi, India. There had been a bus accident and in the bus had been two castes of Indians. A man tied a rope to a tree, and all eleven "untouchables" climbed out to safety. But seventyeight Indians died because they would not use the same rope that had been used by the "untouchables." (1) How outrageous are the claims of the Gospel. The divine Creator of all that lives and moves and has its being, came down to earth and suffered and died to say to us that no one on this earth is untouchable. No one is beyond his love and concern. There is a beautiful story about the courtship of Moses Mendelssohn, the grandfather of the great German composer. Moses Mendelssohn was a small man with a misshapen, humped back. One day he visited a merchant in Hamburg who had a lovely daughter. Though Mendelssohn admired her greatly, she avoided him, seemingly afraid of his grotesque hump. 

On the last day of his visit he went to tell her goodbye. Her face seemed to beam with beauty but when he entered, she cast her eyes to the floor. Mendelssohn's heart ached for her. After some small talk, he slowly drew to the subject that filled his mind. "Do you believe that marriages are made in Heaven?" he asked. 

"Yes," replied the young woman. "And do you?" 

"Of course," Mendelssohn answered. "I believe that at the birth of each child, the Lord says, `That boy shall marry that girl.' But in my case, the Lord also added, `But alas, his wife will have a terrible hump.' 

"At that moment I called, `Oh Lord, that would be a tragedy for her. Please give me the humped back and let her be beautiful.'" 

We are told that the young woman was so moved by these words that she reached for Mendelssohn's hand and later became his loving and faithful wife. 

In trying to deal with the meaning of the cross on which Christ died, the early church came to understand that those nailprints in the hands and feet of the Master should have been ours. But God so loved the world that he sent his own Son to bear the burden brought about by the iniquity of us all. Can you deal with that? Can you believe that God really cares about us that much? 

II. It Is Difficult to Believe Life Goes on Beyond the Tomb.

In the second place, there are others of us who have difficulty believing that life really goes on beyond the tomb.  It simply is too wonderful to believe that there is a world beyond this one another existence in which that which dies here is resurrected to new life there. Yet such a conviction is at the heart of our faith. 

There is another beautiful love story. It concerns the love of Paul Tournier, one of the world's most beloved and respected Christian doctors, for his wife Nelly. In one of his books, Tournier describes how he and Nelly were able to talk about death after her first serious bout with coronary thrombosis while they were in Greece. She knew how gravely ill she was and that a second attack could leave her severely handicapped or could even be fatal.Their last month together was a time of intimate sharing. On the last day she said to him, "Perhaps it would have been better if I had died of my heart attack a month ago." 

Tournier responded, "And yet my Greek colleagues have done a good job. They saved your life. You are glad of that." "Yes, of course," she said, "if I can get back to Geneva and see my children and grandchildren." She was silent for a moment, and then added, "But if I had died, I should be in heaven now, and I should be meeting your parents." 

Tournier was touched by this. He writes, "You see, she also married my expectation of heaven!" 

He replied to her, "Well, when you arrive in heaven, my parents will thank you for having been the wife that you have been for their son." 

It was to be Tournier's last words to her. A moment later she put her hand on her heart and exclaimed, "That's it!" He asked, "Are you sure?" She answered "Yes." And she was in heaven.(2) The world simply cannot deal with that kind of expectation. Without the Easter faith not only death but life itself is ultimately meaningless. What value is there in love that ends beside a grave? 

I am reminded of a Jonathan Winter's satire sometime back on the funeral business. Winters played the enterprising owner of a Funeral Homea "full service" establishment that boasted of a cemetery with such things as underwater plots for those who had spent their lives in aquatic endeavors, a simulated construction site for those who were in the building business, a hospital-like crypt for those in the medical profession, and so on. 

The crisis began when the cemetery began to run out of space. Somehow they needed, in the words of Winter's character, "to get rid of all those stiffs." Finally he hit upon it. He would place them in the nose cone of a "burial rocket and launch them into outer space."  The idea worked! The government, the military, and his clients went for it. The movie ends with the President of the United States and assorted dignitaries holding their hands over their hearts while a corpse is being blasted into outer space. Cannons boom and a band plays. The last line of the movie is delivered by Winter's character. He looks to heaven and shouts, "Resurrection now" as the rocket thunders into the clouds. (3)  That is all the nonbelieving world can do with death - ridicule it, deny it, avoid talking about it. But not those who have seen the hands and feet of the risen Savior. He is alive and because he lives so shall we live!

III. We Have Trouble Processing the Implications of These Truths.

Many persons cannot believe God really loves us that much. Many cannot believe that life really does go on beyond the grave. Even more significantly, most people do not want to deal with the implications of those two truths.  What does it mean if there really is a God who is that intimately concerned about our lives? What does it mean if this life really is but a prelude to everlasting life? Paul Tournier says it meant two things to his life. First of all, about the age of twelve or thirteen he said privately, on his own, "Lord Jesus, I dedicate my life to you." He writes, "Of course, I did not fully realize the significance of thatand I said nothing about it to anyone. But Jesus took that naive child's hand and gradually led me to an understanding of what that dedication meant." 

Secondly, Tournier's consciousness of eternity led him to his career as a doctor. His talents were in the field of mathematics, but he concluded that the world would never miss having one less mathematician. He wanted to give his life to helping others. He writes, "Of course I realize now that a mathematician is as useful to the world as a doctor. But the thing that counted, in my simplicity, was the idea of service." A dedication to Christ and determination to give his life in service to others. That is the difference the thought of eternity made in Paul Tournier's life. 

The same kind of thing happened in the lives of those first disciples. From frightened and uncertain men marked by doubt and envy, they became apostles of great courage and self-giving. How about you? What difference has been made in your life by seeing the hands and feet of the risen Christ? Has it caused you to take more seriously your walk with the Man of Galilee? Has it had some effect on the goals you have set for your life? After all, if life is indeed eternal, some of our goals are going to seem awfully shortsighted and self-serving, are they not? Harold Kushner tell about a young man who left home to find fame and fortune in Hollywood. He had three dreams when he set outto see his name in lights, to own a Rolls Royce, and to marry a beauty contest winner. By the time he was thirty, he had done all three, and he was a deeply depressed young man, unable to work creatively anymore despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that all of his dreams had come true. By thirty, he had run out of goals. What was there for him to do with the rest of his life?  Those who have seen the hands and feet of the risen Christ and live their lives in the light of eternity never run out of a purpose for life. "See my hands and my feet..." God really does love us that much. Life really does go on beyond the tomb. What is your response to those two great truths?

1. George F. Regas, KISS YOURSELF AND HUG THE WORLD (Waco: Word Books, 1987).

2. Paul Tournier, A LISTENING EAR (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1984). 

3. Gerald Mann, WHY DOES JESUS MAKE ME NERVOUS?