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.
Every Easter Sunday makes me positively euphoric – and last Sunday was no exception. I’ve been glowing about that wonderful day all week, and I imagine you have been, too. Easter Sunday is not just the greatest day in the Christian year, it is the day.
But then we come to today’s Gospel lesson, and there’s not a trace of euphoria in it. Instead, we read about bolted doors, and a group pf men sitting in the dark, cowering in fear, dreading to hear at any second the tramp of marching feet, thunderous pounding on the door and a gruff commanding voice shouting, “Open in the name of Caesar!” The text does say that they were behind that locked door “for fear of the Jews,” but given what had happened to them in the last few days – the Jews handing Jesus over to Pilate, Pilate handing him back to the Jews, the Jews saying, “no, he claims to be a king, so he’s your problem,” and Pilate finally sending him to Golgotha – it would be understandable if the disciples figured they were all in it together. “Trust no one” was a safe attitude to have, so better to just stay indoors out of sight.
We are a week – and two thousand years – removed from that first Easter Day. The disciples, however, are still in that day – the sun has just set, and – as far as they are concerned – there isn’t anything to be joyful about. Jesus, their friend and their Lord, is dead, and in his tomb.
Now, this strikes me as more than a little odd. There seems to be a major disconnect between the lesson from last week, also from John, which comes just before today’s lesson, where we read that Peter and that other disciple – whom we have come to call the “Beloved Disciple” – visited the tomb, and the Beloved Disciple “saw and believed.” So at least one of the men there in that place of awe and wonder had to have an idea of what was afoot. Peter, though, is apparently still confused, still trying to get his head around what has happened. He’s the one who looked into that empty tomb and saw the cloths lying there – but then just goes home. The Beloved Disciple gets it, but Peter just doesn’t, and neither do any of the others – except Mary, of course.
So, no, we do not get any sense of resurrection joy in the opening statements of today’s lesson.
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. The disciples have heard that Jesus had been raised from the dead only from Mary at this point. Not only does she make the outrageous claim Jesus is not dead, she even claims she’s seen and talked to him!
But the fact is they haven’t. Human nature being what it is, the disciples won’t “believe it ‘til they see it.” It’s like they’re suddenly all from Missouri, the “Show Me State.” 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.”[1] 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. The Beloved Disciple looked into that empty tomb and believed, but even so, he’s still huddling behind shuttered windows and locked doors with the rest of them.
Thomas has gotten a bad rap over the centuries. But, as we’ve seen, Thomas wasn’t the only one. 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. Things like that just don’t happen in the real world, where B follows A, where 2 + 2 always equals 4, where the sun always rises in the East and sets in the West, and where dead people stay dead.
Except for one thing: God is beyond even the natural laws we are subject to. God can do anything, including raise people from the dead.
And God works through our fears and doubts. Even when we bolt our doors shut and shutter the windows – and I don’t mean just physical doors and windows, either – God can and does still enter.
“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 …”
And then, in the blink of an eye, it all changes …
“Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’”
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, “Have you forgotten the job I gave you last week? What’s holding up production?” But 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.”
But here’s the thing: He’s not just saying that to Thomas, but also to us. Today, we recognize that, for us as Christians, not seeing is believing.
Somewhere in these two weeks, those tired, fearful men became the lions of faith that history has recorded. 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 hearing it is only half the job. The other half – the important half – is to absorb it, to “take it on board,” as the Brits say. We need to accept the truth and throw open the windows and doors of our hearts to the warmth and the sunshine of God’s love and grace!
The subtext of this passage is 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![2]
[1] The Gospel of Mark, 16:10-11, The Message
[2] Emily Rose, https://jesusscribbles.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/sermon-second-sunday-of-easter-year-b-john-2019-31/