The Gospel assigned for today (Luke 24:35-48) is quite a dialogue between Jesus and his disciples.  The scene is set on Easter Sunday evening sometime after the story of the journey to Emmaus.

Jesus appears to his cowardly friends and encourages them by his appearance, his opening of the Scripture, and his message that they are "witnesses to these things".  And the things they are witnesses to are many.  Most significant in my mind is that the greatest event they witness to is a thing they didn't even see...his life-creating death on the cross.  The key moment of Jesus' life was missed and consequently as the sun dawned on an empty tomb they were doubtful. 

They missed it!  They actually missed it!  That's why, even as the two disciples are recounting what happened on the road to Emmaus Jesus comes into their presence and again they panic and think him a ghost.  They still can't believe and so Jesus has to explain to them what all this means yet again.

Why don't they believe?  What don't they see or understand?  He had only been telling them this for three years, maybe that wasn't enough.  Mary Magdalene told them he was alive.  Peter and John ran to the tomb and found it empty.  Angels bear witness to it.

The disciples couldn't believe because Jesus was beyond their experience.  He was greater than their work-a-day world.  It seems that our world is becoming like that, people just can't believe.  There are polls circulating that say Christianity as a whole is in decline, denominations of particular flavors are loosing membership.  A few polls suggest that Christianity is growing but these seem to be in the minority.  Is it that people, like the disciples, are unable to understand?

Now if you're waiting for a profound answer I have to stop you now because none if forthcoming.  Sorry.  

What I do know is that after the disciples experienced Jesus they broke away from their hiding and boldly proclaimed him - and what they proclaimed was Christ crucified and risen.  They proclaimed the cross - that event they happened to miss.  Somehow they understood through the wounds in the risen Christ that he really had died so that others might have life.

But there is a catch.  If you come want to come to Christ and know his salvation then you have to come to the cross.  Coming to the cross is a humbling event because the only way to get there is to confess one's sinfulness and do penance.  If I am going to be a witness to Christ then I must first confess this:  I am a sinner.  With this confession I can approach the cross and let Christ's blood and water wash over me and through me.

I suspect that the reason so many people just don't beleive is because Christians have forgotten how to acknowledge sin, do penance, and come to the cross.  Instead Jesus has been made into a personal buddy and his message has been transformed into the fluff of fairytales.

No, coming to a knowledge of Jesus' love for me comes after I, for love of him, strip myself of everything and cry out:  Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me a sinner.  Then, and only then will I become a true witness to the nations and maybe then people will stop their disbelief and believe.