Many people,
for instance, stumble at the stumbling-block of the cross, and
cannot bring themselves to believe that God would condescend to
suffer and to die for men. Others cannot make up their minds about
the resurrection. It seems to them a strange and impossible thing
that Jesus' body should have risen from the grave and ascended to
heaven, and that our bodies should rise also. That was the great
puzzle to the Greeks, who thought themselves very learned and
cunning, and were great arguers and disputers about all deep matters
in heaven and earth. When St. Paul preached to them on Mars' Hill,
they heard him patiently enough, till he spoke of Jesus rising from
the dead; and then they mocked; laughed at the notion as absurd.
And we find that the Corinthians, even after they were converted and
baptised Christians, were puzzled about this same matter. They
could not understand how the dead were raised, and with what body
they would come.
With such the Lord is not angry. If they really wish to know what
is true, and to do what is right; if they really are, as St. Paul
says, 'feeling after the Lord, if haply they may find him;' then the
Lord will give them light in due time, and shew them what they ought
to believe, and give them the sort of proof which they want.
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