From my April 27, 2025 sermon.
One week ago today, we celebrated the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. In the days that followed, Jesus made many appearances to many people. On Easter morning he appeared to Mary, that afternoon he appeared to two men on the road to Emmaus, and that evening, Jesus appeared to the disciples. Then, one week later, as you heard in our Gospel for today (John 20:24-29), Jesus appeared to Thomas. There are also several other appearances recorded in New Testament, the most important one being this morning’s first lesson from I Corinthians 15:1-8, which says Jesus appeared to more than 500 people at one time.
These are all wonderful stories, but they do raise a question in my mind. Why is Jesus appearing to all these other people, and not to his own wife? In all these accounts, there is not one mention of Jesus appearing to his wife. My wife and I spend a lot of time together, especially now that I am retired. If I died, I think she would miss me. And if I came back from the dead, I think she would want to know about it, and see me. In fact, I think she’d even be a little irritated if I went all over the place appearing to everyone else in town except her. Why don’t we have even one story of Jesus appearing to his own wife?
At this point, you might be wondering “What is this guy talking about? Jesus did not have a wife.” Well, that’s what I always thought, until I heard all about it in the New York Times, on PBS, NBC, National Public radio, Time magazine, Newsweek magazine, and five best-selling books. They could not all be wrong, could they? There is no such thing as fake news, is there?
Well, actually, this is fake news, or I should say it is old fake news, because it created some controversy a few years ago. But I want to tell you about it now, because this sort of thing keeps coming up. There are many people in our culture who love to promote anything that will discredit our Christian faith. And the news media, always on the lookout for an attention-grabbing headline, will often report it without even a little fact-checking. Man drives car into ditch—no story there; it happens all the time. Man drives car into the HyVee produce section and destroys 600 tomatoes—now there is a story. Jesus rose from the dead—no headline there. People hear that in church every Sunday. But to report that Jesus was not even crucified, but got married, moved to France, and had a daughter—there is a headline that will attract some readers. And my main concern is that these types of stories have caused a lot of damage to the faith of those who have always believed in what they had heard about Jesus. More on that later.
So here is the story on the wife of Jesus. An ancient papyrus fragment was discovered dating way back to the 8th century in which Jesus refers to his wife. And many news outlets reported that some scholars believe this was an authentic document. Doesn’t that settle it?
Well, actually NO, it does not settle anything. I don’t know what reports you might have ever heard about this, or even if you heard any. But I tune in to this sort of thing, and some of the ways I was hearing the story reported, made it sound like this was some breath-taking new evidence that called into question everything we have ever been told in the New Testament. The reports made it look like a big deal. The true story, however, makes it clear this false alarm was based on nothing more than one incompetent (or deceitful) Harvard professor, angling for some publicity for her new book; and, uncritical journalists, eager to degrade the church’s message, even if the story is insignificant and completely unsubstantiated, which it was. But none other than the New York Times reported it as, and I quote: “An ancient piece of text that is reviving an ancient debate: Was Jesus Christ married? It is a debate that is still relevant today.” That is complete nonsense. This was never a debate, and it isn’t today, and the ancient fragment is worthless.
Here is what they have. Pictured above is the fragment that is in the news. It is about the size of a business card, and most of the writing on it is not even readable. What can be read says, “Jesus said, ‘My wife,’” and then several letters no one has been able to decipher, and then later, “‘is able to be my disciple.’” The words in between, and, the wider context, are missing. We know nothing about who wrote it, or why, or where it came from. The papyrus seems to be from the 8th century—old, yes, but that is at least seven hundred years after the life of Christ. The writing on it may be that old, or, it may be a forgery written recently on a blank fragment of old papyrus. It turned out it was not authentic at all. But even if it would have been real, it is dated from the 8th century! All four Gospels were written in the first century, within the lifetimes of eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus, with actual ancient copies of manuscripts dating from only a few decades later. Uninformed journalists are more than happy to call into question the tens of thousands of much larger fragments, and even full books, of the New Testament that we have from several centuries earlier, which stand up very well to all tests of historical validity. But then these same journalists are quick to believe a smaller, much later, mostly unreadable, questionable fragment, without any wider context. Even if it was authentic, it would prove nothing. Many strange things have been printed about Jesus going all the way back to the second century, and just because something is in print doesn’t make it true. (continued…)
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1 Corinthians 15:1-8 — Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
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