Enter the Story is a yearlong series at Rockharbor Church through 50 key episodes of the Bible. Each week, I’ve been posting an AI-assisted expanded version of my message notes (which are usually around 1500 words).
You can find the rest of the series here.
For nearly a mile, you are inside solid mountain.
In the early 1930s, engineers bored straight through granite, using hundreds of tons of dynamite to blast a passage into the heart of the rock. When it opened in 1933, it was the longest highway tunnel in California. And then, at the end, you burst out—and there it is: El Capitan, Bridalveil Fall, Half Dome. A sweeping, panoramic view.
They call it Tunnel View.
It is a fitting contrast to something we know well: tunnel vision. When life closes in. When grief, doubt, or failure narrows what we can see until all that remains is darkness.
In the aftermath of Jesus’ death, that is exactly where the disciples found themselves. Their world had closed in. The hopes of Israel for a Messiah. The hopes of sinners and outsiders who had finally been included. The hope for a new age, a new world, a revolution. All of it seemed buried with Him.
Jesus’ death felt like the ultimate dead end.
But the resurrection is the most explosive thing there is.
Jesus did not simply come back from death; He went through death and made a way to life. Encountering the risen Jesus, the disciples went from tunnel vision to Tunnel View.
What do we see when we see the risen Jesus?
“Mary stood outside near the tomb, crying. As she cried, she bent down to look into the tomb. 12 She saw two angels dressed in white, seated where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head and one at the foot. 13 The angels asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying?’ She replied, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they’ve put him.’ 14 As soon as she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she didn’t know it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?’ Thinking he was the gardener, she replied, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him.’ 16 Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned and said to him in Aramaic, ‘Rabbouni’ (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, ‘Don’t hold on to me, for I haven’t yet gone up to my Father. Go to my brothers and sisters and tell them, “I’m going up to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”’ 18 Mary Magdalene left and announced to the disciples, “I’ve seen the Lord.” Then she told them what he said to her.”
John 20:11-18 (CEB)
Mary stands outside the tomb, weeping. She has known what it is to be excluded, to be unseen, to be pushed to the margins. Jesus had changed everything for her. To lose Him is to lose her place, her dignity, her sense of being seen.
When Jesus speaks, He first addresses her as “Woman”, and then He says her name: “Mary.” David Ford sees in this an echo of Eden. Adam, the first man in the garden, called the one from his side “woman”, and then named her, “Eve.” Here the second Adam in the garden of new creation calls her “woman”, and then by her name, “Mary.” It’s John’s way of saying a new Genesis is here.
Jesus brings us to a new beginning.
Some of us live with a kind of inner dislocation, as though we have lost our place. We may feel that we have lost sight of God. But the witness of the Gospel is this: God has not lost sight of us. Again and again, John gives us these personal encounters so that we might understand what it means to say that God so loved the world—not in the abstract, but one person at a time.
“Thomas, the one called Didymus, one of the Twelve, wasn’t with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples told him, ‘We’ve seen the Lord!’ But he replied, ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger in the wounds left by the nails, and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe.’ 26 After eight days his disciples were again in a house and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus entered and stood among them. He said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 27 Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here. Look at my hands. Put your hand into my side. No more disbelief. Believe!’ 28 Thomas responded to Jesus, ‘My Lord and my God!’”
John 20:24-28 (CEB)
Thomas’s story moves in a different direction. He is not overwhelmed by grief so much as guarded by doubt. When the others tell him they have seen the Lord, he refuses to accept their testimony. He wants something more solid, more certain. He wants to see and touch for himself.
When Jesus comes to him, He does not rebuke him. He does not shame him. He invites him to touch His wounds.
Our doubts are often born from suffering. Beneath the questions and objections of a skeptic, there is often a wound. Jesus does not meet us with abstract answers or philosophical arguments. He shows us His wounds.
Where is God in the suffering of the world? He is with the weeping mother, the cancer patient, the struggling couple, the betrayed spouse. God is with the suffering and the dying.
How do we know? Because the risen Jesus still bears His wounds.
“Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two other disciples were together. 3 Simon Peter told them, ‘I’m going fishing.’ They said, ‘We’ll go with you’. They set out in a boat, but throughout the night they caught nothing. 4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples didn’t realize it was Jesus. 5 Jesus called to them, ‘Children, have you caught anything to eat?’ They answered him, ‘No.’ 6 He said, ‘Cast your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.’ So they did, and there were so many fish that they couldn’t haul in the net. 7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It’s the Lord!’ When Simon Peter heard it was the Lord, he wrapped his coat around himself (for he was naked) and jumped into the water.”
John 21:2-7 (CEB)
Peter’s story takes yet different turn. After everything that has happened, he goes back to fishing. The one who walked on water, who confessed Jesus as Messiah, who led the others now returns to his old life.
He had denied Jesus. Not simply out of fear, but out of disillusionment. Nothing we know about Peter indicates that he is a man of fear. I suspect that when Jesus told him to put away his sword and then healed Malchus’s ear, Peter began to spiral. He watched Jesus get arrested and beaten. Was this the Messiah he had given his life to follow, the one he was ready to fight for and die for?
Disillusionment with God is the beginning of disobedience to God.
Peter’s denial began with a disorienting disillusionment. When expectations collapse, when the promises seem delayed or absent, it is not uncommon to retreat to go back to what is familiar, what feels manageable.
And it is there that Jesus meets him. Jesus recreated the scene of Peter’s first call; He took Peter back to the start.
Jesus asks Peter one question, three times: “Do you love me?”
Not, “Do you love the ministry or the church or miracles or revival?” Jesus refuses to seduce Peter with success. He draws him back to the person of Jesus— the true and beautiful Jesus. Do you love Him?
Are you like Mary, lonely and floundering?
Are you like Thomas, hurt and skeptical?
Are you like Peter, failing and ashamed?
Jesus is here, calling your name, showing you His scars, and returning you to your first love.
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