Text: John 20:19-31
Jesus Appears to the Disciples
19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Jesus and Thomas
24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
26 Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
The Purpose of This Book
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
Even when we bolt our doors shut and shutter the windows, God can still enter.
Last week, I quoted you the following:
“[The disciples’] witness never wavered. Rather, they experienced an amazing power that even enabled them to work miracles! The lives and message of these men changed the course of human history.
“No reasonable explanation has ever been given to account for their transformed lives, except their own: they had seen Jesus alive.”[1]
This is what Robert L. Cleath in that article titled “Hope in the Midst of Horror.”
And yet, here’s what our lesson for this morning tells us: “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews…” It’s hard to square that with what Cleath writes, isn’t it? Reading those words, we do not get anything like the impression of bold, triumphant courage and world-changing missionary work that Cleath tells us about. The disciples we meet in today’s lesson aren’t going anywhere or telling anybody anything – they’re not even sticking so much as a toe out of the door!
The fact is, they are petrified with fear. At this point in their lives, they see absolutely no hope, either in the near future or even on the distant horizon. All they see in their immediate future is arrest, torture, and an execution just like what their friend, mentor, and teacher had just received. So they sat, as quietly as possible, cowering in that room, doors shut and locked, windows closed and barred, sweating profusely owing to both their fear and the stuffiness of the room…and waited…and waited…and waited to hear the tramping of marching feet coming closer and closer and for the inevitable pounding on the door by the centurion and the shouted command to open up so they could be taken into custody, tried, convicted, and executed in the same brutal way that Jesus had been.
So, no, we do not get any sense of resurrection joy in the opening statement of today’s lesson.
Usually, when we read or talk about this text, we either go right to the point where the disciples’ fear and sadness turn to disbelief, then joy, and then rock-solid faith, or we spend our time talking about Thomas.
But Thomas wasn’t the only hold-out. All the disciples were – at least at first – in the same boat.
I think this is important to note. And that’s because, in these fearful, doubting, confused men, we see the human condition. We see ourselves. I mean, let’s cut to the chase here: The disciples have heard that Jesus had been raised from the dead only from Mary at this point – and she’s been running all over town like a maniac, spreading the news to anyone and everyone that Jesus is not dead. She even claims she’s seen and talked to him!
But they haven’t. Mark, in his blunt way, tells us this: “[Mary] went to [Jesus’] former companions, now weeping and carrying on, and told them. When they heard her report that she had seen him alive and well, they didn’t believe her.”[2] All they know is that the tomb is empty, and the body’s vanished. Anybody could have just taken the body away – why anyone might do this is not really the point. Anyway, the body’s gone. One of them looked into that empty tomb and believed, John tells us, but even he is still huddling behind shuttered windows and locked doors.
Jesus is alive? Really, who could believe such a thing? Yes, Jesus had told them himself that he would rise again, but … well … seriously…
It was just too good to be true.
How many times in your lives have you experienced something that just seemed too good to be true? You wanted desperately to believe that whatever it was really was true, but somewhere inside you an alarm just kept blaring and wouldn’t stop. We even have a kind of proverb for this – don’t we often say “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is”? And yet, you clung to the hope and the promise of it – and then one day your hopes were turned to dust and you were left to wallow in disappointment. Human life is full of such highs and lows; but over time, we tend to become increasingly skeptical of such great-sounding promises. We can’t help it.
So we are in the same boat here as the disciples were that day. Jesus? Alive? They just can’t bring themselves to …
And then, in the blink of an eye, it all changes! Suddenly, there he stands! Jesus! Alive! Just as Mary said! Just as he said!
It IS true!
Can you imagine the joy the disciples must have felt as they saw Jesus again with their own eyes? There he stood, “as big as life and twice as natural,” as Rev. Alice B. Snow, one of my ministers growing up, liked to say.
Sometimes something that seems too good to be true actually is true and does happen!
An amazing, mind-blowing day. A day that had never happened before and would never happen again.
But Jesus doesn’t just show up that day to say “hello.” He commissions these men to do his work in the world. To help them, he breathes on them and gives them the Holy Spirit. From that moment on, they are no longer disciples – now they’re apostles. Then he leaves.
And what happens next? Nothing, apparently, because eight days later, they’re still cowering in that stuffy room with the door barred and the windows shuttered. The only difference is that now Thomas is with the others.
Jesus appears again. You might expect him to say something like, “Didn’t I just give you guys a job last week? What have you been waiting for? Get to work!” But he doesn’t. Instead, with great, loving care, he walks up to Thomas and says, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing.” Thomas – finally – believes, and Jesus tells him “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
He’s not just saying that to Thomas, either, but also to us. To quote another old phrase we use a lot: “Seeing is believing.” But today, we recognize that, for us as Christians, the opposite is also true: “Not seeing is believing.”
Somewhere in these two weeks, those tired, fearful men became the lions of faith that Cleath and Link tell us about. The truth of the Resurrection became their truth; the mission of Jesus became their mission – and they spent the rest of their lives carrying it out.
For they had seen and believed, as we do, that the cross does not have the final word. Death is not the end. Even though it flies in the face of logic and reason, Jesus’ Resurrection is real. Because of it, our resurrection is also real.
We have all heard this story more times than we can count. We can recite it backwards and forwards. But have we ever fully absorbed it? Or has it just pooled up on the surface of our minds, like drops of water on a sheet of wax paper? Have we heard the story, and instead of throwing open the windows and doors of our hearts to the warmth and the sunshine of God’s love and grace, just slammed them shut again and locked them?
Well, here’s another bit of good news: John tells us that, even if we do try to lock him out, Jesus will enter in, anyway. When we begin to doubt and fear – whether this week, or next week, or a decade from now — we can depend on the fact that the risen Christ will not stay away from us. We can put as many locks and dead bolts on the door as we like, but the risen Christ will come to us anyway. Our doubts will not keep him at bay.
We close doors. God enters in, anyway. We shut and bar our windows. God opens them.
In this time of Resurrection joy, why not embrace that great truth that Jesus is risen indeed? Why not allow it to transform us? We have nothing to lose by doing so, and everything to gain!
Then we, too, can proclaim with Thomas: “My Lord and my God!”
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
Let us pray:
Self-giving God, risen Christ, and blowing Holy Spirit: we are like your disciples: prone to doubt, full of fears, unsure of how to live, really live, as resurrection people. Come to us, this week and every week; grant us your presence and your peace; and grant us the lasting light of real faith. Amen![3]
[1] Cleath, Robert L., quoted in Link, Mark, S.J., Jesus: A Contemporary Walk with Jesus, Allen, TX, Resources for Christian Living, 1997, p. 114
[2] The Gospel of Mark, 16:10-11, The Message
[3] Emily Rose, https://jesusscribbles.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/sermon-second-sunday-of-easter-year-b-john-2019-31/