Angle Your Mirror Correctly

Years ago, my older brother made a homemade periscope for a school project. I remember how he and my dad stood at the dining room table and worked on fashioning the cardboard tube with the angled turns, and how they glued the pocket mirrors inside the tube so whoever looked through it could see around corners. The periscope looked like a right-angled Z when it was all said and done. Looking through the bottom tunnel of the Z, the mirror at the first angle reflected the mirror also installed at the upper angle of the Z, which showed what was outside the top tunnel of the periscope.

I thought it was super cool, and I held my brother in great esteem because he'd rigged such a mind-blowing device. I could hold the thing to my eye, look straight at a wall, and see around the wall with the use of the periscope. I could see past what was right in front of me that impeded my vision.

For the last month and a half or more, I've been blogging chapter by chapter through Genesis, and I have learned so much about God's work from the beginning of His creation. I finished the last chapter yesterday, and have been praying about where to go next. I'm not sure yet, so for today, at least, I flipped through the gospel of Luke and landed near the end on the account of Jesus' resurrection.

To set the stage: "On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus" (Luke 24:1-3).

It feels a little funny, surrounded by Christmas carols and lights and decorations and nativity scenes... to be concentrating on Easter, on the resurrection, but this spoke to me.

The women expect to find the body of Jesus. They've even gathered their spices, they've spent time preparing them. They don't, on the spur of the moment, just meander toward the tomb. They put thought into what they are about to do. They make preparation for their expectations. 

And when they arrive... their expectations give way to a different reality. "While they were wondering about [the lack of a body in the tomb], suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them" (Luke 24:4).

The women are so scared, they bow with their faces to the ground. I'm not sure bowing would have been my reaction; I would likely have wheeled around and high-tailed it. I'm glad these ladies don't, though, because otherwise, they will have missed a pivotal statement the angels make (for angels they are):

"Why do you look for the living among the dead?"

You're looking in the wrong place. Your expectations don't match reality. 

I'm going to jump down a couple more verses. The women rush back to tell the disciples what they have seen, and Peter bolts out of the room and sprints to the tomb (John runs with him, too, according to John 20:3-9, but Luke's gospel only mentions Peter). 

"Bending over, Peter saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away wondering to himself what had happened" (Luke 24:12). 

Peter sees the evidence of things that have happened already. But he does not see the reality of the events themselves. He is looking in the wrong place; his expectations don't match reality. 

See, in this upended world where everything the disciples have expected seems to be wrapped in grave-clothes and stuck in a tomb...

Peter has to have faith, to know that something has happened, even though he can't see it. He can see the evidence of the resurrection, but he can't see the resurrection itself. Hebrews 11:1 says: "Now faith is being sure what what we hope for... and certain of what we do not see." Peter goes away from the tomb, seeing only partially, wondering what on earth (and in heaven) happened.

This fracturing of perception isn't a new thing. Jesus Himself has discussed it with Nicodemus a couple of years earlier: "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going" (John 3:8). You see the trees bend with the wind (evidence), but you can't see the wind itself (reality).

There is a rapid unfurling of discovery that follows in the rest of the chapter. The reality of the resurrection has already occurred, now the evidence presents itself several times over, to many different eye-witnesses. 

At the empty tomb: Matthew 28:1-10
To Mary Magdalene: Mark 16:9-11
To other women: Matthew 28:9-10
To Cleopas and his fellow traveler on the road to Emmaus: Luke 24:13-32
To Peter: Acts 15:5
To the disciples in the upper room: John 20:26-31
To the disciples fishing: John 21:1-23
To the disciples on a mountain for the Great Commission: Matthew 28:16-20
To more than five hundred people: 1 Corinthians 15:6
To James: 1 Corinthians 15:7
To the disciples at Jesus' ascension into heaven (which may have been the same time as Matthew's account of the Great Commission): Luke 24:44-49
To Paul on the road to Damascus: Acts 9:1-19

All of these people first see the evidence of the thing that is in front of them... before they see the reality. They stare at the blank wall until they put the periscope to their eye and look around the obstacles in front of them.

I think many of us feel as though we've been staring at a blank wall for months. Why is this happening? Amid the pandemic, amid the unrest, amid the hatred and vitriol and what seems to be impending violence, amid the unknown and the riots and the natural disasters and the apocalyptic year of 2020... where are You, Lord?

I'll tell you the truth: it takes a daily dip into the Scriptures for me to see healing where there has been sickness, fulfillment where there has been questioning, peace where there has been pain, purpose where there has been disillusionment. 1 Corinthians 13:12 says: "Now we see but a poor reflection, as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."

My brother's periscope certainly didn't come with panoramic vision. He glued in two tiny pocket mirrors that gave the smallest glimpse around the wall. But that glimpse was there, enough to see the reality through the impediments. If we looked through the end of the tube, we could see the reality, no matter how dimly.

2020, for many, is a year stripped of hope. It has been a dark year, and even talk of vaccines seems like a far-off and faulty answer. I wonder... are we looking in the right places for our peace, our joy, our hope? Are we looking in the right direction?

"The people walking in darkness have seen a great Light; on those living in the shadow of death... a Light has dawned" (Isaiah 9:2). This verse is a prophetic word, spoken hundreds of years earlier, over the people living at the time of Jesus' birth. People, oppressed by a Roman regime, their homeland in the hands of another power, are walking through a dark time, searching for hope, wondering if the Lord they serve has forgotten them. During the time before Jesus' first coming, people are searching for hope. 

And a Light dawns. 

"For unto us a Child is born, to us, a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end" (Isaiah 9:6-7). 

"People walking in darkness have seen a great Light; on those living in the shadow of death... a Light has dawned." This could easily apply to today, as we wait for the second coming of Jesus. We are weary, oppressed by sickness and sin, wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom, famines and earthquakes. In a world that increasingly groans as in the pains of childbirth... it's dark.

But where are we looking?

A Light is dawning. 

"Look, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him!" (Revelation 1:7)

"For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever!

"Therefore... encourage each other with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

Be encouraged, and be prepared. The Light of the nations is coming.