Supposing vs Knowing
John 20:15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, "Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away."
My thoughts are not your Thoughts
Sometimes we say in jest, “Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind is already made up.” That is particularly true of things pertaining to our relationship with God. Somehow the created being thinks he or she is more intelligent than the creator. Ever since Adam and Eve fell in the garden, men have been deciding what is right and wrong rather than letting God tell them what is right and wrong. Men suppose that there is no God or they suppose that there are many gods. They assume that what makes sense to them must be the truth. However, God says, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).” We don’t think like God thinks and we are not the final authority regarding right and wrong and regarding eternal issues. God is. We are not God.
Supposing instead of Knowing
The disciples of the Lord were just like us. They had trouble accepting things that did not make sense to them. One thing that didn’t make sense to them was that the Lord had really come to die rather than to reign and that He would rise again from the dead. That is why when Mary came to the tomb and when she found the stone rolled away, she assumed (supposed) that the Lord’s body had been stolen and taken away. That made sense. The resurrection of the Lord did not make sense to her. However, her thinking caused her grief. She wept at the tomb. But when the Lord appeared to her and spoke her name, things changed. Sorrow turned to joy. Despair turned to hope. It was almost too good to be true. But the Lord had been raised from the dead. It was true. The angels gave witness to this truth when they said to the women who came to the tomb, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come; see the place where the Lord lay. (Matthew 28:5-6).”
Other things that we Suppose
The Jews thought that they knew how to please God because they thought that they knew the Old Testament Scriptures. But because their minds were made up, they couldn’t be confused with the facts. Thus, they didn’t see the Lord Jesus being the fulfillment of the Scriptures that they taught, The Lord said in John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” The Jews had seen the Lord do a notable miracle, but He had done it on the Sabbath and had also said that God was His Father making Himself equal with God. Instead of the miracle opening their eyes to the truth, they wanted to kill a man who wasn’t loyal to the party line and who obviously could have made doctors obsolete.
In Mark the Lord begins his earthly ministry by saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15)." We can’t believe until we repent or get our minds changed because we think wrong and we need an attitude adjustment before we quit supposing. Once we quit supposing we can accept what God says and we will know. Sometimes we think we know better than God about the issue of sin, sometimes it has to do with the issue of His justice, sometimes supposing has to do with the issues of eternal punishment. However, whatever our issues, we need to settle this in our minds: God is right even when that makes us wrong. Until we accept that, we will always be confused about God’s way of salvation and we will wonder why there are people that are so sure that they are right. Many of us are sure that what Gods says is right even when it makes no logical sense. Salvation by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ doesn’t really make logical sense to most of us. Surely we must DO SOMETHING to be saved, Right? Wrong! When we DO SOMETHING we have faith in ourselves. But what we need to do is to trust the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank the Lord!
As we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord at Easter time, we need to remember that just because the resurrection seems unbelievable does not mean that it is unbelievable. Christ is risen whether we believe it or not. The angels declared it, the disciples witnessed the living Savior after the resurrection, and we preach it today. We don’t need to suppose. We can not only know that Christ has risen, we can know our sins are forgiven when we have faith in the resurrected Lord.
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of April 16, 2017