Easter 2

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Easter 2
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: April 11, 1999

TEXT: John 20:19-31 - Jesus Appears to His Disciples and Thomas Is Resistant to Believe

'Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." when he had said this, he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." . . . . . "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."'

ISSUE: Jesus appears to his disciples behind the locked doors, and they are commissioned to carry on his work. They receive a peace and an empowering Spirit of Jesus Christ to carry on. Thomas is typical of human resistance. He is reluctant and dismisses the insightfulness and empowerment. But Jesus as Lord is persistant and implores Thomas to believe. Doubt is is really unbelief. John's Gospel is calling upon the early church to be open to the experience of Jesus, believe in, trust in, have confidence in this ways and teaching, not in what's unbelievable. Honorable and blessed are those who have not seen but have deeper insight and faith in Jesus as Lord and our way of life. We are his living body in the world.
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John's Gospel tells us another story about Jesus' resurrection appearances. Remember that John's Gospel is written at a time when all of the eye witnesses of Jesus life and ministry are now gone. John is calling his community to believe, that is, to be faithful to the fact that Jesus lives. He continues as a real dynamic Spiritual presences, and Jesus is Lord.
In this story the a number of the disciples are locked in a room. People in these days did not lock doors. People who locked doors were thought to be up to something bad. But the locked the doors in this instance heighten the fact that the disciples are truly frightened that the Judean authorities, (or perhaps the Roman authorities) might be going to seek them out for punishment as disciples of Jesus. There is a feeling of terror. Yet, inspite of their fear, Jesus appears to them. Inspite of the fact that the doors are locked, Jesus appears. He becomes present to them and in their terror he offers them comfort, "Peace be with you." He shows them his woundedness, his suffering. The disciples rejoice at this meaningful appearance to them. Again the refrain, "Peace be with you." The unmistakeable living presence of the Lord appears to them. They experience the presence of the suffering servant who comes to them in their fear. A blessed peace overwhelms them.
The disciples then receive a commissioning. "As the Father has sent me, so I send you," says Jesus and he breathes on them, and continues, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
John is conveying to his community of early Christian believers that the Jesus is truly alive in some very real spiritual way, and they have a continuing partnership in that experience. They are called upon to remember the suffering, the woundedness of Jesus. That woundedness expressed his great love for the world. It expressed a great forgiveness. It expressed Jesus' uncompromising demand for justice for the poor and the oppressed. His presence expressed the continuing living demand spiritual presence of God to bring an end to the ungly way in which manipulation and domination exploited people. It expressed his desire to transform the world. If you wound Jesus and put Jesus on the cross, what do you get? You get an even more persistant revelation that God's love in Christ Jesus will prevail.
Those simple disciples are ordained, invited, commissioned, en gulf and enveloped into an ongoing meaningful, purposeful lives. They are to continue bearing witness to forgiveness, redemption, reconciling the world int he spirit of Christ. As God endwelt and commissioned Jesus, now He endwells the disciples and the living body of Christ persists in the world. John's Gospel calls his community to be open to the spiritual dynamic living ongoing presence of the living Lord in their lives. Don't beafraid, but breakout of the locked rooms, the entombments and bondages of life and of the world. Carry on the living presence of Jesus Christ.
Thanks be to God, obviously the disciples, and the early community of John trusted in the way of Jesus. They allowed him to be the empowerment for their lives and they carried on the message of forgiveness, love, and the demand for justice often in the face of great opposition. They dared to continue to proclaim that the ways and teachings of Jesus. They continued themselves in the face of great hardship to proclaim that Jesus was Lord and not Caesar.
The other part of this story that John tells is about Thomas, and it's an important part. Thomas is accused of doubting. He was the doubting Thomas. Doubt here really means unfaithful. To believe is to be faithful. His comrads tell him that Jesus lives. They have seen him; they believe he lives; they have seen his woundedness. Thomas claims that he cannot believe; he cannot have faith, unless he too sees the mark of the nails and can touch them. Thomas, for John Gospel, is the typical type of person who has a difficult time believeing, understanding grasping what the story of the life and ministry of Jesus is all about. He's like a blindman who can't seem to be enlightened. For Thomas it takes time. And time passes, a week according to the story.
Then again Jesus appears to Thomas behind shut doors. To the astonished Thomas again comes the refrain: "Peace be with you." Then Jesus says to him "Put (or more accurately 'thrust') you hand into my side. Do not doubt (i.e. be unfaithful) but believe. We get from this event, I think, the idea that resistance and uncertainty, doubt, unfaithfulness, is experienced by many. From the earliest beginnings of the church that was a problem. But in Thomas' desiring to believe in time Jesus Christ comes to him, not to condemn his lack of faith, but to give him a reinforced faith that allows Thomas to make the ultimate commitment: My Lord, and my God. He doesn't just believe there was a Jesus that lived, died, and was miraculously resurrected, but that God is experienced in Jesus.
The essential concluding message of the Gospel of John, who is intent upon calling his community to belief, trust, confidence in Jesus as Lord is the beatitude that rings down through the ages: "Blessed (honorable) are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
As we reflect on this passage of Scripture it is likely that we see ourselves. There may well have been times in our lives when we were open to an innocent acceptance of the stories of the miracles, and the resurrection of Jesus. There are, of course, times when we have been reluctant to really believe or to see the stories as true. There have been times when we can appreciate the wonderful beauty of the story of the resurrection. There are perhaps other times when life has been difficult and hard, and God or Jesus Christ does not seem very present to us, or alive, or even relevant. All of us at times struggle with our faith and our belief systems. But John's Gospel account says that "These (signs or stories) are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in this name." It is important, I think, to understand that God does not expect us to believe that which we cannot find to be reasonable or acceptable. God would hardly expect us to believe things that are deemed to be ridiculous. It's hard to believe especially in our scientific age that Moses split the Sea of Reeds (or Red Sea) by raising his staff, or that Elijah went flying off into heaven in a flaming chariot, or that Jesus walked on water, and climbed out of a tomb after being dead three days. What we do is hear, read, and inwardly digest these stories, and eventually seek to understand what is the deeper meaning of these signs and stories. What are they intending to convey for all times about God and his relationship with his people?
In today's story, the disciples are not concerned with how Jesus was or was not resuscitated. The resurrection is not about resuscitation of corpses. It is about a wounded Jesus who died at the hands of an evil world and insenstive people. It is about hatred, and how God will suffer and raise up the ones who serve him, and gives great meaning and purpose to their lives. The living Jesus as Lord, the Messiah, the Christ is the expression of a profound love, forgiveness, and longing for justice. The Lord will bravely live, and suffer, and die to express that Godliness. Try as the forces of evil will do to suppress the love and the justice, it keeps rising again, and again, and again. It rose for Mary Magdalene, the least of all. It rose for the disciples who were close to Jesus and their very spirits were revived and renewed by the renewing living Spirit of Christ. Thomas who couldn't believe unless he could touch Jesus is given time for meditation and reflection. He is given an understanding and patient community. In time he himself is enlightened and it dawns upon him in his fear and closed dark being that the wounded Christ lives and seeks him out.
The great stories of the scripture have their varieties of meaning. They astound us sometimes with their miraculous and sometimes by their anti-cultural emphasis. Yet they often come down to the expression of God's profound love for his creation. They tell how God hates oppression and suppression of his people. They teach us to be forgiving, rather than filled with hatred and holding on to old feuds. They provide us with hope for transformation and renewal. They assure us of God's ways often expressed in Jesus. Sometimes like Thomas in our humanity, we resist, and cannot allow ourselves to be enlightened, or able to join forces with Jesus in forgiving the sin and alienation of the world and living in a very different and open way.
Remember the father who had a son who was very ill with an evil spirit that was sometimes throwing the boy into the fire and water. Jesus said to the father, "Do you have faith?"
"I do have faith, but not enough. Help me have more!"
May God help us all to grow into an ever deeping relationship with Jesus Christ, - that's what faith is - that we may be enlightened and walk in his ways to share in his risen and living body in the world.