Year C. Second Sunday of Easter April 22, 2001 John 20: 19-31
I believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Because I believe in Jesus I will live, even though I die, because whoever lives and believes in Jesus will never die. Amen.
Title: “Do not doubt but believe.”
The Risen Jesus appears twice; once to the disciples where he constitutes them as apostles of his Church in verses nineteen to twenty-three, and again, to them and Thomas who confesses faith in him rather than in his resurrected body verses twenty-four to twenty-nine.
John agrees with Luke that Jesus appeared to his disciples on Easter night in Jerusalem. Matthew and Mark 16:1-8 indicate appearances in Galilee. While it is not easy, on the basis of the scant evidence we have, to reconcile the data, neither is it difficult to imagine moments of awareness of the resurrection both in Jerusalem and Galilee at various times. After reporting about the empty tomb chapter twenty verses one and two and the experience of Peter and the Beloved Disciple, who alone comes to belief in the Risen Lord on the basis of signs, John has Magdalene return to the tomb. First she encounters two angels and then Jesus himself, whom she mistakes at first for the gardener. When Jesus calls her by name, Mary like the sheep in 10: 3-4 who hear and know the shepherd’s voice, recognizes Jesus and is sent by him to proclaim the good news to the disciples.
Now in verses nineteen to twenty three, Jesus appears inside a locked room on two occasions. On the first occasion the disciples, absent Thomas, are given the commission to continue Jesus’ mission by exercising power over sin. On the second occasion Thomas, who embodied disbelief, utters the strongest belief in Jesus as “My Lord and my God,” thus ending the gospel as it began with the statement “The Word was God (1:1). Verses thirty and thirty-one, state the purpose in writing this work; to believe in Jesus as Messiah and Son of God, and through believing you may have life in his name.
Verses nineteen to twenty-three Jesus’ appearance to the Disciples.
In verse nineteen, “peace,” this is a statement of fact rather than a mere wish. These first words of Jesus after the resurrection summarize its meaning of restoration of full communion with God and fellowship with one another. The Hebrew shalom, “peace” means much more than the absence of conflict. It means “fullness,” “togetherness,” “well-being,” “salvation” or “wholeness.”
“Doors were locked…Jesus came and stood,” this does not mean that Jesus’ body was like that of a ghost, able to pass through locked doors. Rather it means that Jesus, no longer subject to earthly laws, could make himself present at any time or place.
In verse twenty, “he showed them his hands and his side,” Jesus’ body was quite solid. The stress on the wounds indicates it was the same body as at the crucifixion.
In verse twenty-one, “as the Father has sent me, so…” This mission statement is modeled on “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.” The Father’s sending of the Son is both the model and the basis for the Son sending the disciples. They are to continue to do Jesus’ work.
In verse twenty-two, “he breathed on them,’ “Breathed” is an Old Testament reference to Genius 2:7, that God formed humans from dust and breathed life into them; and to Ezekiel 37:9, God breathed life into dry bones and raised them up. The verb was used for the first creation. Now it is used to express a new creation, the Church.
Receive the Holy Spirit, the same word “receive” is used for the Eucharist, which anticipated the death and resurrection of Jesus. It now expresses the Spirit of Jesus entering into them. They are consecrated and equipped as Jesus was. The Spirit is Jesus in a new mode of presence and power within his disciples. This is John’s version of their baptism. The gift of the Spirit is the sealing of personal relations between Jesus and his disciples.
In verse twenty-three, “sins forgiven…retained,” in the other gospels Jesus’ appearance specifies the general mission. In Luke it was to preach the forgiveness of sins; in Matthew it was to baptize; in Mark to preach the gospel and baptize; and here in John to forgive sins. They all amount to the same thing. The essence of the Church is to have power over sin. The statement here is a variant of what is found in Matthew 16: 19, the “power of the keys.” There it is applied especially to doctrinal decisions. In Matthew 18:18 it is adapted to all the apostles and applied to the power of church discipline. Here in John it pertains to the discipline of forgiveness. The saying depends on Isaiah 22: 22 “I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open.” The Aramaic for “shut” also means “hold, retain” and “open” also means “loose.” It is clear that Matthew and John have variants of the same saying. The meaning here is that the officials of Christ’s Church have a commission to forgive sins and to regulate how that is done. However, the whole Church has a commission to participate in that missionary effort. All are responsible to evangelize. The apostolic office is responsible for how it is done. The “retaining” of sin recognizes that, absent repentance, sins are not forgiven. Lutherans consider pastors to be holders of the office of the keys.
In verses twenty-four to twenty-nine. The Appearance to Thomas This story, created by John from a general theme of disbelief found in the appearance stories, is used to emphasize, first, the tangible character of Jesus’ resurrected body; second, that honest unbelief can grow into full faith without tangible proof; and third, what happens when one refuses to accept the word of apostolic witnesses and over-emphasizes the miraculous character of Jesus’ appearances. Thomas did not, after all, find it necessary to touch Jesus. It would have been a better quality of faith if he had not found it necessary to see him. He set up conditions for faith based on miracles. Yet, he learns that sense and sight are not the sufficient proofs he thought. The eye with which one sees God is not located in any physical body. He comes to make the supreme Christological pronouncement of the gospel, “My Lord and my God.” The Greek Old Testament translated Yahweh as “Lord” and Elohim as “God.” When used together it was “the Lord God.” Thomas makes it clear that one may address Jesus in the same language as Israel addressed Yahweh.
“Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed, These are Jesus,” last words in the original ending of this gospel. Chapter twenty-one was added later. Jesus uses the beatitude form to compliment those, including present day Christians, who believe in him on the word of the apostolic witness. Faith is not based on mere physical vision and can exist without it. As long as Jesus stood among them they could come to faith through the visible. Now another attitude becomes possible and necessary. Jesus is not said to have departed. He remains present in the Spirit.
In verses thirty and thirty-one, the conclusion, Luke gave the reason for his writing at the opening of his work. John gives it at the end.
“Many other signs,” He refers to the broader primitive tradition regarding Jesus. He has been selective in what material he has used.
“That you may come to believe,” the reading is in dispute. If it is in the present tense it means “keep believing.” If it is in the aorist tense it means “come to believe.” Both are attested and both would be valid. Believers would “keep believing” and non-believers would “come to faith.”
The principle enunciated here is: just as Jesus…so the Christian.
Jesus’ wounds remained on his glorified body, so will ours. Not necessarily only physical wounds, but emotional and psychological as well. This means that all our sufferings, when done in union with Christ, have eternal value, lasting worth. Suffering is the means to victory.
Our wounds can be scars that make us ugly- resentful, cranky, hypercritical, defensive- as we grow older through time. Or, they can be signs, evidence, proof of victories won over evil, as we grow stronger toward eternity. Suffering can give us the strength of character we need to pass through to the next dimension. If that is true, then the very suffering itself opens us up to that dimension here and now. When we suffer in union with Christ, that is, when we are aware of our pain and simultaneously aware of Christ and all he did and does for us, we share in his victory because we derive strength from him. When we realize that the Lord suffers with us, we cut our pain at least in half. When we realize that he is now present within our bodies and so knows our pain firsthand, we gain confidence that he, rather than we, will be victorious in this or that instance, as he was at Calvary. Because he bears the crucifixion in his resurrection, he continues to be victorious over sin and suffering in the body or bodies he now inhabits.
The appearance of the risen Lord did not reveal a flawless body innocent of suffering. It revealed a healed body innocent of sin. Belief in the risen Lord is not dependent on feeling his wounds, as Thomas first thought, but on believing he feels ours. He breathed his Spirit into his disciples so that he could continue to do his Father’s will and work until the end of time. He “begot” them “from above.” Just as Jesus’ body is no longer subject to the limitations and rules of time and space, so, too, our belief in him is not subject to the rules of logic and proof. Experience of him is enough. After all, Thomas never did put his hands into his wounds. At first, he required earthly proof before he would believe, but he came around to realize that there is a deeper proof, a deeper presence than the physically visible and tangible.
Jesus makes his presence known and or felt on his terms and timetable, not ours. Only when we accept that does he come, or more correctly, come forth in our awareness. But he comes not merely to visit us or to chat or to make us feel good, all of which is true enough. He comes to fuse with us so that he can use our bodies to continue to spread the word that God loves us and we are to love one another, not out of good feeling, but out of obedience to him whom we trust. It is his nature, the nature of the triune God, the God who breathes his own Spirit into us, who is addressed as Lord and God, Jesus the Christ.
Peace is a fact not a wish, a state of being created by Christ and bestowed on others by Christians, a blessing, and not merely a greeting.
Christ did not appear as a ghost. His body was solid enough for him to eat and real enough to have touchable, verifiable wounds and scars.
What is true of Christ, that is, that he is sent and loved, by the Father, is also true of Christ’s disciples.
The Holy Spirit is Christ in spirit form, capable of entering into a human’s body or person and energizing it.
The Church is people, united by the common experience and indwelling of the Spirit of Christ, commissioned to spread the forgiveness and peace and salvation of God as Christ to everyone, everywhere, in every age.
Belief in the resurrected Lord does not require physical sight or touch of him. It requires spiritual insight into him and allowing oneself to be “touched” by him.
The Holy Spirit; when we think of a ghost we think of that part of a person that refuses to die when the body is buried. So far, so good; but that is where the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost parts company with ordinary human understanding. Indeed, a human “ghost” might inhabit and travel around in regions beyond human sight and touch, but it can only “appear” or be present in our world in one place at a time. Our understanding of human ghosts or even appearing angels or demons is that they must follow the rules of time and space once they re-enter the earthly realm. The resurrected Jesus seems to have followed these rules also. Although we do have to reckon with his simultaneous or almost simultaneous appearances in Galilee and Jerusalem when we compare the four gospel accounts. However, those rules were suspended when he breathed his Spirit or Ghost into his disciples. Now Jesus’ more-than-bodily presence is simultaneously present in and to all disciples; and that presence is everywhere at the same time. That is different from your ordinary, run-of-the-mill ghost. The Ghost of Jesus does not haunt a person, but inhabits, energizes and transforms a person to be and become what the person could not otherwise be or become; and even more mysteriously that Spirit can be bestowed on others by the person possessing it, provided the power to do so has been given him or her by Christ. For instance, everyone can forgive, but only certain officials can officially forgive or publicly declare forgiveness under certain, defined circumstances, those who hold the office of the keys as described in Scripture. Everyone can forgive person-to-person wrongs, but some officials can forgive wrongs or, more correctly, declare them forgiven, not done to them personally. When Jesus breathed his very own Spirit upon and into his disciples he changed the rules of creation, of time and space, of sin and revenge, of justice and peace. He established a new creation, embodied as the Church.
The Body: The human body is the revelation of the human person and the human spirit within the person. Through the actions, gestures, postures, of one’s body one reveals oneself to the world. Christ’s post-resurrection appearances reveal that we, also, will continue to have the means to reveal our inner selves in a bodily way. That body will be the same as before physical death, yet different. How different and how the same we do not really know and do not need to know- yet. What we do know is that our physical body or person here and now, while we are still on earth, has already been changed by Christ. He inhabits us, that is, takes up the same time and space as we do simultaneously. There are two “spirits” in one body in every Christian. If we do not let the Holy Spirit rule over our bodies, and us, he moves out.
The Presence; certainly the Presence of the Divine, however we may conceive that Presence at a given time- be it as Father, Son or Holy Spirit, is to be enjoyed. We constantly converse with the Presence. We refer to his being present in all our doings and our conversing with others. He is a personal and friendly presence whom we immensely and intensely enjoy being with and aware of at all times and in all places. However, while on earth, this Presence is not only to be enjoyed but also to be shared with as many others as possible. The very nature of this Presence- love, peace, joy, forgiveness, embraces and reveals his desire to include all. Thus, we have a mission, a mission that extends and continues the very mission of Christ coming upon earth, and that is to spread awareness and acceptance of the otherwise hidden and unnoticed Presence of God. In heaven we will only enjoy, while still on earth we share and spread as well as enjoy. We do this by inviting those we meet and know to church, so they to can hear the Word of God. It is through hearing the Word of God in Church that one acquires the necessary faith to not doubt but believe. Amen.
