2nd Sunday of Easter, April 15, 2007 “Series C”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Lord Jesus, through your death and resurrection, you not only defeated sin and the powers of death and evil – you came back to us, breaking through our locked doors, overcoming our reservations and doubts, calling us to follow you in newness of life. Keep coming to us, Lord, keep raising us from the dead, keep empowering us with the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. [1]
Our Gospel lesson for this, the Second Sunday of Easter, is the same every year, regardless of the cycle from which our lessons are drawn. It is John’s account of our Lord’s appearance to his disciples, with the exception of Thomas, on that first Easter evening. Then, a week later, after the disciples had shared with Thomas that they seen the their risen Lord, Jesus again appears to the disciples, revealing to Thomas the proof he demanded to see, before he would believe.
As a result, many sermons have been written and preached focusing on the skepticism of Thomas, which has resulted in his being forever dubbed, “Doubting Thomas.” It is a nickname that is truly undeserving for this disciple, whom scripture elsewhere holds up as a very faithful disciple of our Lord.
But this morning, I would like to take a rather different approach to this text, as suggested by William H. Willimon, in his commentary. He states, “The opening verse [of our lesson] sets the tone. The disciples are hiding behind locked doors. We are told that they are locked in because of ‘fear.’ We are not told the reason for their gathering, except for ‘fear of the Jews.’ This is curious. Perhaps the Jews that the disciples feared were their friends and relatives, because their Messiah had died such a [shameful] death.” [2] End quote.
Now, regardless of the reason that the disciples had gathered together that first Easter evening, we can’t ignore the fact that they did so in fear, behind locked doors. Some of their fear may well have been justified. After all, just a few days before, they had seen Jesus arrested, falsely accused by the religious authorities, severely beaten and nailed to a cross as a seditious person by the Roman governor. As Jesus’ closest disciples, they may well have been sought by the authorities for the same offense.
But I have never thought about the fear that Willimon alluded to in his commentary – the fear of facing the jeers and mocking of their friends and relatives, for having left everything to follow Jesus. A part of the fear that gripped the disciples that night, may well have included the fear of having made a fool of themselves – especially in light of the fact that the common belief of that time was that the Messiah would free Israel from Roman occupation.
Yet Jesus died on a Roman cross, and with his death came the end of any expectation the disciples may have held concerning the fulfillment of their hope, regardless of how they may have envisioned it. They had invested their whole being into following Jesus, trusting that he would lead them to a new and better life, and now he was gone.
And could it be that a part of the fear that they experienced that night, might have also resulted from the story that Mary had just reported to them – that she had seen Jesus, risen from the dead? After all, you and I have grown to appreciate the significance of our Lord’s resurrection, not only as we grow in faith throughout our years, but also through the benefit of theological reflection on the significance of Christ’s resurrection, which the early disciples did not have.
Thanks to the writing of Luke, in his Book of Acts, in which we can trace how Christ’s resurrection affected the lives of the apostles, and Paul’s theological insight of the resurrection for the life of the church, Easter is no longer frightening. But I believe that it must have been difficult for our Lord’s first disciples to comprehend.
Regardless of the reason, those first disciples were huddled together behind lock doors that first Easter evening, in fear! And some of their fear may have been a healthy fear, for their own lives. Given the climate for putting an end to Jesus and his ministry that week in Jerusalem, we might all have been behind locked doors, as our Lord’s disciples.
But fear can also be crippling. Fear can stifle health activity. In fact, hiding behind locked doors, regardless of the reason for our fear, can prevent us from living the life God intended us to live.
I may have shared this story with you before, but it is the truth. When I was growing up in Jeannette, during the summer months, my brother and I would often sleep out on my Mom and Dad’s front porch. It just seemed like the natural thing to do on hot summer evenings. And my parents probably enjoyed having the house to themselves that night. Of course, front door was never locked, so that Rick and I could use the bathroom.
But over the past several years, when I have visited my Mom during the summer, I have, on several occasions, nearly broken her screen door, as I wanted to go out and sit on her porch. It was locked! She now, always keeps it locked. Things have changed, since my early childhood days.
The neighborhood is not as safe as it once was. Mom is fearful of those she no longer knows, and who, I may attest, whoop and holler at all hours of the night. It is not the same neighborhood in which I grew up, and I’m not sure I would want to spend the night on her porch again. And since someone had recently tried to kick in her door, I would call her fear rather healthy.
But then, there are other fears that may not be healthy. For example, I had, for the longest time, a great fear of dentists. And when I first went to see Dr. Bost, after twelve years since I had been to a dentist, I was petrified. I was ready for him to pull all of my teeth and give me a set of dentures. That way, I wouldn’t have to see him again.
But after a few visits, I came to know and respect Tom. He put me on a regular schedule of cleanings and exams. He even told me to give up the snuff, which I did. And through my relationship with Tom, I have come to trust him. Oh, I may not look forward to my visits to his office, but I don’t fear them like I used to. The fear that I had was just not healthy.
Each of us have our fears. Some of them are healthy and some of them are, in fact, unhealthy. But what I would like us to focus on this morning, is that regardless of what might be the motivation of our fears, the risen Christ can break through our locks to life that our fears close, and offer us a new life.
Think about our Gospel lesson in this light. The disciples were hidden behind locked doors, in fear. They had gathered together to comfort themselves amidst their fear – fear for their lives, fear that might have come from looking foolish, fear of what the report of the risen Christ might mean for their future life. And in the midst of their fear, the risen Christ came to them. Their locked doors could not keep him out!
The risen Christ came to them, revealed himself to them, and in spite of their fears and anxiety, empowers them through the gift of God’s spirit, to unbolt the doors, and begin to live their lives proclaiming the Gospel, the good news that even death has been conquered.
And so they go and tell Thomas, who at first doubts their story, but none the less, continues to be in fellowship with the other disciples, gathered together with them, the following Sunday. And again, Jesus comes and reveals himself to them, revealing the wounds of his execution, offering his peace, as only God’s Spirit can give, and the doubts of Thomas, and the fears of them all, was overcome.
The truth is, God’s Spirit, the Spirit of the risen Christ, continues to come to us, even to this day. God’s Spirit is here, in the presence of our worship, in the proclamation of God’s word, and the celebration of Holy Communion, to help us break down the fear that binds us and enslaves us to hide our faith behind locked doors. On this day, the risen Christ comes to us, begs us and empowers us, to reach out beyond the doors of our church, spread the news of his resurrection to new life to our friends and neighbors.
Yes, this might be fearful to many of us. Yet the risen Christ has given us the power of God’s Spirit to overcome our fear, and proclaim his victory over sin and death. So let us take up the ministry to which each of us have been called.
Amen.
[1] William H. Willimon, Pulpit Resource, Year C, 2007, Logos Publications, Inc.
[2] Ibid
