Hello! It's good to be back after a short break! On this episode of History and Christianity and I want to focus on a little sentence, in this little book -- but I'll get to that in a little bit.
FIRST, I have a question: What would YOU say to someone who had abandoned you at a critical moment -- what would be the first thing you would say to them if you had a chance to run into them AFTER they had abandoned you?
This question came to mind as I was reading Thomas Goodwin's little book, "A Habitual Sight of Him." Today Thomas Goodwin was a minister, writer and teacher who was born in the year 1600 in a coastal community in England.
Now I know what you're thinking -- I never heard of Thomas Goodwin, why should I care about what he has to say about anything? That's a good question. He's not well-known today, but he influenced people whose names you're probably familiar with -- John Cotton, the guy who influenced the development of New England along the East Coat in what was then known as the New World. Goodwin influenced Jonathan Edwards -- When hear his name you probably think "the Great Awakening"--that's right--- and there he also influenced George Whitefield, an important leader of the Methodist movement of the 1700s.
But the reason Thomas Goodwin was popular was because he was very Christ-centered, as I think you'll see.
The question I raised about abandonment stems from my reading of his insights regarding Jesus after the Resurrection, when Christ first appears to His disciples. So let's just dive right in. Today young people talk about "ghosting," which is a form of abandonment. Psychologists tell us the impact on us can vary depending on how we react to it.
Jesus felt abandoned, too, but this is a very different form of abandonment. He had "been subjected to an exhausting series of late-night inquests, brutalized by Roman guards and marched through the streets of Jerusalem under a crushing weight; he is now nailed to the wood and suffering excruciating pain."
We can't relate to that and neither could his friends because we are told in the New Testament that when they saw the Lord Jesus get arrested "they all abandoned Him and fled." They ran off to save themselves rather than admit allegiance to Jesus, which would have likely meant they, too, would have been crucified along with Jesus on a cross. Imagine that.
Now with this context in mind, let's fast-forward to the first appearance of Jesus after he had been abandoned by the disciples --
Thomas Goodwin writes: Now when Christ comes first out of the OTHER world -- that is, from the dead, and he appears first to a woman named Mary Magdalene, he is --get this -- clothed with that heart and body which he was to wear in heaven -- and Goodwin asks, what message does He send first to them?
Goodwin says since the disciples could not relate to Him in His sufferings -- the phrase he uses is -- they did not know Him in His sufferings -- remember they didn't understand why the Messiah had to die, they fled -- so how could they relate to Him in his glory?
This is a reference to Jesus' body after the Resurrection. Now, to quote Don Stewart on this point:
"The body Jesus possessed, though like His pre-resurrection body, was in some aspects different. He could suddenly appear and disappear. In the locked upper room, Jesus suddenly appeared in the midst of His disciples. His new body had abilities the previous one either did not have or did not demonstrate. He did not have to eat or rest. He also ascended into heaven when his earthly ministry was finished. Consequently there are similarities, as well as differences, between the body that Jesus had while upon the earth and the one in which he was raised."
So Thomas Goodwin notes, "We would all think that as the disciples would not know Him in
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