Doubting Jin

Matthew 28 16-17

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.

Last night Mary and I had our usual talk in bed right before going to sleep. I shared a story about my co-worker and she shared a miraculous story from a book she read about a pastor who had died and come back to life. He was in a major car accident where his car got totaled and the EMT’s declared him dead at the scene. The story continues where two passerbys coming back from a church workshop felt compelled to pull over and check out the accident. The two passerbys asked the EMT’s if there was anything they could do and he replied that they could pray for some of the people injured that were still alive. One of the passerbys asked about the car that was covered in tarp and the EMT said, “Oh that guy is dead.” But for some reason God told him to go over and pray for that man in the car.

So the passerby goes over and starts to pray for the dead man who had been dead for 90 minutes already. Then he starts to sing hymns during his prayer. All of a sudden the dead man joins him in song! Startled the passerby runs to the EMT and lets him know that the dead man is alive.

Okay so I hadn’t intended on writing out this story in full when I started this post but let me wrap up. The dead man who came back to life is a pastor and he wrote a book about his visit to heaven during his death. He said that there was no bright light, but he passed through the pearly gates, and all of his dead relatives were there to greet him as sort of a welcoming committee. Then he woke up and regained consciousness.

So my reply to Mary’s story was, “He was probably dreaming.” And that really made her upset because the story really moved her and she was sharing from her heart. Then here I am just being my usual skeptical pessimistic self, kind of invalidating her experience.

That was not my intention but as I have posted in the past I am in general a very pessimistic person usually seeing the glass half empty. It is funny that this was the passage for today’s QT, because like Doubting Thomas, I probably would have been very skeptical about seeing Jesus back from the dead. It’s not something that happens every day. In fact he had to stick his fingers into Jesus pierced hands before he began to believe. I probably would have been among the "some that doubted" especially if I didn’t see it with my own eyes and only heard from word of mouth.