John 20:19-31
By: Ken Sauer, Pastor of East Ridge United Methodist Church, Chattanooga, TN eastridgeumc.org
“My Lord and My God!”
We live in the Age of Anxiety.
Our world is anxious and afraid.
Many older people are afraid their health will go bad and their savings will run out.
A number of younger people are afraid they won’t have any savings for old age.
Some fear the future, others dread the past.
Many college students are afraid that they won’t have a job when they get out of college, and some parents may be afraid that these college kids will never be able to “get out” on their own.
Middle-agers often wonder if their lives have amounted to anything and young people sometimes wonder if there is anything to strive for.
And all of us live in an age of terrorism, random violence and tornadoes!!!
The disciples faced some pretty heavy fears and anxieties on that first Easter evening as well.
Their lives, it seemed, were in ruins.
For three years they had devoted their lives to Jesus.
They had left home, jobs and security to follow Him.
They had watched as Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead and proclaimed the love of God.
And now, He had been crucified!!!
The worst of their fears had come true!!!
They were all alone in this scary world.
What would they do?
How could they cope?
Was life worth the living?
They found themselves caught in a whirlpool of fear and anxiety!!!
Even Peter, the boldest of them all, even Peter’s brave vows of loyalty were followed with fear-filled words of denial.
The mocking, the beating, the horror of Jesus’ death had left Jesus’ disciples understandably shell-shocked!!!
When they had been following Him, they never were able to understand what He was talking about when He told them that the Son of Man must suffer and die and then be raised on the third day.
They thought Jesus would never go away, never leave them.
As our Gospel Lesson says, “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews…”
“For fear of the Jews?”
The disciples were living in dread fear that the next knock on the door would be the signal that they would be the next ones to face a cross.
Everything was crashing in!
Then suddenly, on that first Easter evening everything changed!!!
Suddenly Jesus was among them.
No lock could keep Him out.
Jesus came right back into their lives.
He had not left them for good.
All was not lost after-all!!!
Far from it!!!
“Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’”
And that is the kind of God we have.
Can you imagine if Jesus had coldly looked at this frightened bunch and started to sarcastically berate their recent words and actions?
“Let’s see, Peter. Let me hear again what you had said. ‘Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will. Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.’”
“Isn’t that what you said?”
“So what happened, big guy?”
“And how about you James and John? Can you drink the cup of suffering that I drink? Can you?
Where were you guys?”
In His hour of need, Jesus’ disciples had scattered, and Jesus could have given them an angry lecture.
He could have made them feel even worse about themselves.
But He didn’t.
That’s not what God is like.
Instead, He said, “Peace be with you!”
For that’s what they needed the most.
That’s what they lacked.
They needed to be made whole.
They needed to be set free from the guilt and anxiety that was locking them in.
They needed what only Jesus Christ can give: forgiveness, new hope, and a reason for living.
And isn’t that what we all need as well?
When have you found yourself shaking in fear, behind locked doors?
Perhaps this is your normal experience.
Maybe, on the outside you are able to give off an air of confidence and nonchalance, but inside you are bursting with anxiety.
I had a friend who once confided in me, “Ken, when I was a kid I used to suffer from nightmares and when I woke-up it was such a relief.
Now the nightmares begin when I wake up!”
I think many of us can probably relate to this.
At least, much of the world can relate to this.
Notice that after Jesus said, “Peace be with you!” He showed the disciples His hands and side.
Then we are told that the “disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.”
It’s kind of similar to Mary Magdalene thinking Jesus was the gardener until He spoke her name.
In Luke’s telling of this story we are told that, at first, the disciples thought that Jesus was a “ghost.”
After they touched His hands and side they “saw the Lord.”
And so, then, again Jesus says to them, “Peace be with you!”
And this time, the disciples can truly receive Jesus’ words as His gift of peace and not just as “empty words” because they recognize that the Person Who is speaking them is “the Lord”!!!
Do we know that God is a God of peace and love?
Do we know that God is not a God of fear?
In 1st John Chapter 4 we are given these words, “we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love.
There is no fear in love.
But perfect love drives out fear…”
We need to hear that again and again and again until we are made “perfect in love,” and are able to receive “true peace.”
Do you know that the Bible says the exact phrase, “Peace be with you” 366 times?
That’s one time for every day of the year and even an extra one left over for leap year!
When troubles come upon us, when difficulties come our way it is easy to forget God’s promises and act as if Jesus never existed.
That’s one reason why a regular habit of worship, Scripture reading, and prayer is so important.
That’s why coming to Wednesday evening Bible study is so vital as well as attending Sunday school!
By making God’s Word and our fellowship with other Christian believers a regular part of our lives, we imprint on our hearts the words of Jesus so that when troubles do come and we are surrounded by difficulties, we will not flee from Jesus but run back into Jesus’ loving arms!!!
Let these words sink into your heart and your life.
Let them take root: “Peace be with you,” Jesus says.
“I have conquered death and the grave.
Is there any bigger obstacle than that?
I am the Lord of life and death and I will always be with you.
There is no circumstance in this life where you will be alone!”
We are told in our Gospel Lesson that Thomas wasn’t with the other disciples on that first Easter evening when Jesus came.
And he crossed his arms and declared, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”
So, a week later the disciples were together again and this time Thomas was with them.
And again Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”
“Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
“Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’”
Thomas is the first person in the Gospel of John to look at Jesus of
Nazareth and call Him God!
Yet this is what the writer of the Gospel of John has been aiming towards from the beginning.
“Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples,” John writes, “which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
John began his book with: “In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was God.”
And, “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.”
What does that mean?
What does that look like when it’s actually happening?
It looks like the story of Jesus!
Through Galilee and Jerusalem, back and forth with moments of glory and doom woven together until they meet on the Cross!
And now, a week after Easter we are confronted with a smiling Jesus Who has just walked through a locked door, saying, “Peace be with you!”
That’s what this Gospel is all about.
We serve a God Who has come into this world in order to bring us peace and make us whole.
We need not be filled with anxiety and with fear.
We do not face our troubles alone.
The God Who created the world is with us and loves us more than we could possibly imagine.
And the point is to believe in God, in Jesus, and through this faith to have life in His name.
John says, “In him was life”;
And yes, this life can be in us as well.
“to all who [receive] him, to those who [believe] in his name, he [gives] the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
And as He said to His disciples long ago…
…He says to you and to me today—“Peace be with you!”
Praise God!
Amen.
