John went to the tomb and saw that it was empty. He didn’t understand what had happened, but he recalled the promise of resurrection and believed it (John 20:8-9). His mind hadn’t yet caught up with truth. But his heart did. He demonstrated the way to true wisdom: receiving truth comes before understanding it.
Infinite truth is anything but irrational. God doesn’t ask us to be illogical. He does ask us to look beyond the logical, however. Eternal truth is more than our finite minds can grasp. We’re used to looking at empirical evidence and then drawing careful conclusions. The kingdom culture doesn’t give us that luxury very often. God is always stretching us, calling us to believe, putting in front of us unexplainable realities that we have to accept or reject before we fully understand them.
It’s best that way, isn’t it? If we serve a God we can completely understand, he would hardly be worthy of our worship. Our finite minds cannot get a handle on divine mysteries simply by empirical observation. We have to accept truth before we can fully understand it.
A beautiful aspect of God’s character is that he really does give understanding to those who receive truth first. He doesn’t withhold it from us. The explanations don’t come before faith, but he doesn’t withhold them; they usually do come afterward. Those who accept God’s ways are those who eventually understand them the best.
