2nd Sunday of Easter, April 19, 2009 “Series B”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, the resurrection of your Son, Jesus the Christ, has been the greatest news that the world has ever heard. It turns our priorities upside down, and draws us into an ever-deepening relationship with you, the source of life itself. Grant us your Holy Spirit, that we might continue to grow in faith, witness to others of your tremendous gift of redeeming grace, and live our lives in praise and thanksgiving as our Lord’s disciples. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
Our Gospel lesson for this morning is a familiar story. We know it well, at least those of us who come to worship on this Second Sunday of Easter. It is the appointed lesson for this day, every year, regardless of which series of lessons we happen to be following. And I’m sure you have sat through your share of sermons that have focused on poor old Thomas, who has, for his moment of questioning the witness of his comrades, forever born the label, Doubting Thomas.
And the truth is, we should be grateful to poor old Thomas, for he is a lot like most of us, if we would be honest about it. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is not the easiest truth to grasp and believe. I think Christians throughout the ages have struggled with what the church proclaims at Easter. And the fact that Thomas was not shunned by the other disciples, but together with them a week later, and the fact that he was not condemned by Jesus when he made his second appearance to the disciples, should give us all courage.
But this morning, I would like to take a different approach to this text, one that I am not sure I have truly explored before. And I would like to thank William H. Willimon for his commentary on our text, which helped me to see this lesson in a new light. [Pulpit Resource, 2009]
First, let us return to our Gospel lesson from last Sunday, the day of our Lord’s resurrection. There, Mark tells us, some women went to the tomb of Jesus early Sunday morning, two days following his death, to anoint Jesus’ body and assuage their grief. To their alarm, when they got to the tomb, the stone that had sealed the tomb had already been moved, and the body of Jesus was not there.
Instead, a strange man, dressed in a white robe, was sitting in the tomb, who told the women, “If you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, he is not here. He has risen from the dead. Go and tell his disciples that he will meet them in Galilee.” But the women left, Mark tells us, seized by terror and amazement, and said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. And with those words, many Biblical scholars believe, the oldest copy of the Gospel of Mark ends.
Well, given the social and political culture of that day, had those women
chosen to go to the disciples and tell them what they had experienced at the tomb, their story may well have been dismissed as some sort of idle tale, or delusional thinking due to their grief. The unfortunate truth is, women of that day, in that region, had little standing, as is still evident in the lives of women in the Mid-East. Just think of what we have seen as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, of how women are still treated in that region today.
But today’s Gospel is a different story. John tells us that the disciples of Jesus are gathered together behind locked doors, in fear of the Jewish authorities. For the threat to their lives was real. Not only did the disciples fear that they might also be accused and sentenced to the same death that Jesus had to endure because of their association with him, but according to Matthew, additional charges loomed against them. They were accused of stealing a corpse and perpetuating a hoax, both crimes punishable by death.
But in the midst of their fear, in the relative safety of their tightly locked door, the risen Christ came and stood among them. Just imagine the suspense of that moment! Here they were, huddled in fear for their lives, and their crucified and risen master comes and stands in their midst. I can picture Peter being the first to fall to the floor, trembling in total despair for having denied even knowing Jesus. I can picture the rest of the disciples following suit, for they all deserted him. I can imagine the fear that they felt from those whom they felt might do them bodily harm, was totally replaced by total fear and awe of being in the presence of the risen Christ.
And what is the very first word that the risen Christ says to them? “Peace be with you,” he says. “Calm down,” he says. “Do not be afraid,” he says. I think we could even phrase it another way, without doing damage to the text, by translating it “I love you,” or “I forgive you!”
Then, after showing them the agonizing wounds of his crucifixion, as if to assure them that it was indeed Jesus, he again said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you…” And with the gift of the Holy Spirit, the church was born.
A week later, this scene is repeated, only this time Thomas is present with the other disciples. Again, huddled behind locked doors, Jesus comes and stands in the midst of the disciples, and says those same words, “Peace be with you.” And without condemnation, he offers to Thomas the proof that would answer his doubt, although there is no hint that Thomas actually touched the risen Christ. He simply makes the profound statement, “My Lord and my God!”
According to Dr. Willimon, “The resurrected Christ goes back to, and appears before the very same rag-tag group of people who so disappointed him, misunderstood him, forsook him, and fled into the darkness. He returns to his betrayers. He returns to us… That’s what you see in today’s Gospel from John; the followers of Jesus, hunkered down alone, behind locked doors, but then the risen Christ comes to them. They are full of fear and doubt. They don’t come to him. He comes to them.” End quote.
This is the dynamic of the Easter message. Think about it. We don’t find Jesus, he finds us. The women set out on that first Easter morning to anoint the dead body of Jesus, but they don’t find him. He is not there in the tomb, where they thought he would be. Instead, a man in a white robe tells them he has risen, and to go and tell the disciples to go back to Galilee, where the risen Jesus would meet them.
And in today’s Gospel, the terrified disciples are not out seeking to fine the risen Christ. They are huddled behind locked doors, in fear for their very life, and the risen Jesus comes and finds them, appears to them, and empowers them to go and tell others about his victory over sin and death.
Perhaps Thomas expresses this dynamic best. After hearing the report of the disciples about the risen Christ appearing to them, he does not go out to the tomb to confirm that it is empty. He does not go searching the streets to find the risen Christ. He simply joins the others who cower behind locked doors in fear for his life, continuing to question in his heart what the disciples proclaimed, and the risen Christ comes and finds him. May we, through the power of God’s Spirit, come to trust and believe the those final words of Jesus, that even though we have not had the chance to personally see him risen from the dead, we can trust that he still seeks for us and comes to us.
As Dr. Willimon puts it, “We as of Jesus, ‘Show us what God looks like!’ God? God is the shepherd who doesn’t just sit back and wait for the lost sheep to head back home: Go goes out, risks everything, beats the bushes night and day, and finds that lost sheep…
Christians are the people who don’t simply know something the world does not yet know, or believe something that non-Christians don’t yet believe. We are the people who have had something happen to us that the world appears not to have yet experienced. The risen Christ has come back to us. Jesus is present to us, despite us. Therefore, we do not live alone…
When we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, time and again we look up and realize that we’re not walking by ourselves. When we come to some dead end in life, we look over the brink, into the dark abyss, and, to our surprise and delight, there he is, awaiting us. We give up, give in, come to despair, and find him near to us…
In life, in death, in life beyond death, this is our hope. Our faith rests upon an experience, upon countless experiences of Christ’s presence. The risen Christ has come back to us.” End quote. Amen.
