Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Do you think the gospels are incomplete? John did. He wrote, “I’ve written about some of Jesus’ miracles. Just enough so you can believe that Jesus is God’s son, and find the life he offers” (John 20:30-31).

John didn’t write to entertain. His words lead to life. And now in chapter 20, his theme of life comes full circle. In chapter 1 John said,  “In the beginning was the word. . . . In him was life, and that life was the light of human kind” (John 1:1,4).

Jesus brought life and light to God’s people in Palestine. His wine put new life into a wedding. His voice brought Lazarus back from the dead. His words gave the woman at the well a source of living water. When Nicodemus needed to get a life, Jesus recommended he try being born again.

But here we are in 2026. Where will we find life, we who didn’t see Jesus’ miracles or hear his teaching? To us, John’s gospel is a gift. “I write that you may believe and have life,” he says.

Fair enough. But how do two-thousand-year-old stories give us life?

To religious leaders, Jesus said, “You search the scriptures because you think they give eternal life. They point to me, but you won’t come to me. You don’t let me give you life” (John 5:39).

When I want my dog to pick up his ball, I point and say, “There’s your ball.” But he wags his tail and looks at my finger. He doesn’t get the point of my pointed finger. Like the Pharisees with scripture. They didn’t get the point that scripture pointed to.

Much of modern scholarship is like the Pharisees’ study of scripture. We ask, “What does the Greek mean? What do archeologists say? How do literary critics explain this passage?” These investigations help us understand the text. But the text is only a pointer.

What do you see when you look at John’s gospel? Stories? Or do you go where the stories point?

Let’s pray.

O Jesus, John’s gospel is a powerful story. But John says it’s merely a pointer to you. “These are written that you believe, and that believing, you may have life.”

Help us read John’s book with a heart that chooses faith. Help us see beyond the stories to you, our Christ, who is still alive and doing miracles. Help us move beyond a fascination with history to experience your life and power today.

O Jesus, cure the deadness of our souls. Cast off the unbelief that clings to us. Help us go where scriptures point us, to you. May the stories come alive to us, teaching us to live a new and better story where you teach us and give us the miracle of life.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

The first time Jesus met his disciples after the resurrection, Thomas was absent.

When they told him they’d seen Jesus, he wasn’t convinced. He said, “Whatever! I won’t believe unless I see him alive in the same body he died in. The one with nail scars in the hands and a spear hole in the side” (v 25). 

That’s an odd picture of resurrection. I hope one day when my cremated remains are resurrected, that my body will be changed. Maybe I’ll lose my sagging stomach and  brown age marks. Maybe my friend with an amputated leg will be made whole.

But Jesus accepted Thomas’ assumption that his resurrected body should look just like his buried body, so when he met Thomas, he said, “See my nail-scarred hands? Go ahead . . . touch the spear wound in my side. You can believe it! I’m back from the dead” (20:27). 

Shocked and surprised, Thomas exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” (20:28).

Did you hear that? Thomas’ statement in five little words is the simplest, clearest, and most unequivocal statement in John’s gospel that Jesus is God. In one breath, Thomas calls Jesus, “Lord and God.”

This may be the climax of John’s gospel. John wrote about signs and wonders and testimonies that made Jesus special. He called Jesus God’s son, Messiah, good shepherd, bread of life. He wrote about Christ’s miracles, about people worshiping him, and about how he borrowed God’s special name, “I AM”. But now, at last, someone–the doubting disciple, no less–calls Jesus “Lord and God”. That was a God-moment for Thomas.  

And then follows my favorite verse in John’s gospel, when Jesus says to Thomas, “You have seen me and believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe” (20:29). 

That’s me. Not seeing Jesus in the physical world, I see him by faith. 

I once said to my mentor, “I’m full of doubts. I don’t have much faith.” 

He replied, “Your faith is evident in the way you live. But in your thinking, if there’s no room for doubt, whatever you have is not faith. It’s knowledge, or something else.” 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, I live in the mystery of believing in you whom I have not seen. Of praying to an invisible God. Of feeling the wind of your Spirit, but unable to catch it. 

Thank you for Thomas’ gift of doubt. Thank you for showing him your hands and side. Thank you for inviting him to believe. 

You invite us too. “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.” For two thousand years your disciples have not seen you, but hope and faith continue. 

Accept our faith. Accept our worship. Accept our service. May our doubts turn ever more to believing, until we see you face to face.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Have you ever picked a lock? I was a summer janitor at a college and one day we found ourselves locked out. What to do? 

Aha. My credit card. The building’s old door latch quickly responded to my ministrations. We got our job done, locked up, and went back to the office. “Hey,” exclaimed the boss, the key’s still here. How’d you get in?”  

That’s not how Jesus did it. On Sunday evening of the resurrection, he stepped into a locked room where the disciples were gathered (John 20:19). 

What resurrection message do you think Jesus delivered? Did he confront the disciples for abandoning him? Did he reprove Peter for denying? Did he lecture them about how little they learned during their three-year apprenticeship? 

No. None of that. Instead, Jesus had four positive messages for the failed disciples. 

The first positive message: “Peace be with you” (John 20:21). Where did Jesus find peace in this situation? Not in fearful disciples tangled in a crisis of faith. Where did he find peace? Maybe in himself. Abandoned by friends, unjustly crucified, left in a dark tomb. Yet Jesus was at peace with it all. And he brought peace to his bewildered disciples. Not reproof, not anger, not disappointment. Peace be with you.   

Jesus’ second positive message to the men in the locked room: “As the Father sent me, I’m sending you” (John 20:21). Really? Does Jesus think these disciples are ready to unlock the door and take his message into the world? After the shambles of crucifixion weekend, where will they find competence and courage to do that job? 

In a third positive message to the men in the locked room, Jesus breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 10:22). Reminds me of Genesis, where God fashioned Adam from clay and breathed life into him. Now Jesus breathes on his disciples of clay. Will his breath, his Holy Spirit, bring them alive? Turn them from men in hiding to men with a message? 

Jesus’ fourth locked-room message is, “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you don’t, they are not forgiven” (v. 23). Jesus is delegating the mission of forgiveness. Perhaps even the mission of deciding who should be forgiven. I hope the disciples will use that power wisely.   

Those are Jesus’ four resurrection gifts to his disciples. Peace. A mission. The Holy Spirit. The power of forgiveness.

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, we live in a different world than you did. In our modern imagination, the universe was born in a big bang, expanded for billions of years, gave birth by chance to life, life which evolved into us. In our world, God is dead and we have locked the doors against him. 

And yet, and yet, we are your disciples, O Jesus. You stepped into time and space through our locked doors. You called us to follow you. You gave us gifts. 

The gift of peace in a chaotic world. The gift of a mission that gives us purpose. The gift of the Spirit who communicates your words. And the gift of forgiveness more powerful than political self-interest and war. 

Lord Jesus, help us receive your resurrection gifts. Help us move beyond our locked doors into the wider world of service. 

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

I like those mystery novels where the detective exhumes a body and discovers lead weights instead of a corpse. What happened to the body?

Something like Mary Magdalene’s experience at Jesus’ tomb. The entrance stone was rolled away. The tomb was empty. What happened to the body?

When she reported “The Case of the Stolen Body” to Peter and John, they ran to  investigate. They found burial clothes, but no body. 

John jumped to his own conclusion. This was no grave robbery. This was a resurrection! 

What would be more appropriate for Jesus? He called himself the resurrection and the life. He’d raised others from the dead. And you expected his grave would hold him? 

Mary, still not understanding, stayed at the tomb weeping. Bad enough that Jesus had been crucified. Stealing his body was unthinkable. 

When she looked again, two angels sat where the body belonged. They asked, “Why are you crying?” (John 20:15). 

And then behind her, a gardener asked the same question, “Why are you crying? Who are you looking for?” 

Through her tears she said, “If you’ve taken him, tell me, and I will get him.” 

The gardener said, “Mary!” and she recognized him as Jesus (20:16).   

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, what did your resurrection mean for Mary? What does it mean for us? 

We could wish it means we will not die. But those you raised from the dead, like Lazarus, died a second time and were buried. And they haven’t been heard from since. 

In your story, Jesus, you only died once. And then you were raised. Now you live with God, and your Spirit lives in us. 

We believe your resurrection, reported in the gospels. We believe your disciples who spread the word. We believe you live in us today. We believe your resurrection promises that we will be raised too. We wait for your coming again.  

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Have you purchased your grave site? Long before needed, my parents did–a double-depth plot in a rural cemetery near their home. In 1995, we buried my father nine feet deep. Twenty-three years later, we placed my mother’s coffin above his, at six feet. 

In Jesus’ time, that’s  a pauper’s grave. Richer people preferred a burial cave dug into soft limestone rock. Stepping inside, you’d notice a shelf for a recently deceased body, lovingly wrapped in cloth and spices. 

After the body decomposed, the bones were moved to the back, to rest with other family bones. This freed the shelf for the next customer. 

After Jesus died, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus the Pharisee took him from the cross and wrapped him in linen cloth, along with a large amount of burial spices. Then they placed him on the shelf in a never-used tomb. 

The Apostles Creed says, “He was crucified, died, and was buried.” Not nine feet under like my father, nor six like my mother, but in a purpose-built cave, with a stone sealing the entrance. 

During his active ministry, Jesus went to Jairus’ house where friends were mourning a daughter’s death. He raised the daughter to life (Mark 5:38-42). In another town he interrupted a funeral procession by bringing the corpse to life (Luke 7:11-14). 

But at Jesus’ death, there’s nothing about a funeral procession, weeping relatives, or mourning friends. All John says is that two men placed his body in its final resting place. 

Or was it final? Stay tuned for the rest of the story. 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, you interrupted funeral proceedings for Jairus’ daughter and for Lazarus and for the widow of Nain. But no one interrupted your journey from the cross to the grave. Wrapped and spiced and sealed in a tomb, you were lost to your disciples and the world.

I attended a celebration of life for a lady who was your friend, and mine. Instead of a solemn funeral, she had asked her daughter she wanted a picnic. So I brought lawn chairs and firewood. We roasted hot dogs, ate bannock, and enjoyed Vy’s famous banana cream pie. A wonderful way to celebrate her life.

But for you, Jesus, there was no celebration of life, no picnic, not even an old fashioned funeral. Just a burial that left family and friends lonely and dejected. 

Thank you for participating in the life we live and the death we die. Thank you for experiencing the cross and the grave. 

Thank you for living in us today, for walking life’s road with us, for preparing us for death, and for eternal life with you.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.