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Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter – April 19, 2020
John 20:19-31
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our risen Lord, Jesus Christ.
The disciples were locked up in a house and afraid. Boy, does that sound familiar!
It continues to be astonishing to me how many parallels there are between what the first Easter was like for the disciples and what things are like for us now as we celebrate Easter in this time of pandemic. Last Sunday I noted how on the first Easter there was no special music or floral centerpieces set out for a happy Easter breakfast. There were no egg hunts or festive hats. On the first Easter there was simply the message – the game-changing, life-altering new reality that Christ had been raised from the dead. We shared something in common with the disciples last week in that that’s pretty much all we had too! It was an Easter like no other for most of us. It was an Easter in which we were challenged to find our joy in the only place where it is truly found: in the bodily resurrection of our Lord, in the good news of his victory over sin and death.
Well, we continue to have something in common with the disciples as they experienced the first Easter. In our reading for today we find them on Easter evening locked up in a house and afraid. We too are, for the most part, locked up in our homes as we stay home in order to stay healthy. There is a lot of fear in our hearts – fear about the virus, to be sure, but also fear about the health of our society – both economically and psychologically. There is anxiety about the loneliness so many are experiencing right now – especially those who live alone. There is anxiety about how and when things might start to get back to at least some measure of normalcy without having this virus come roaring back at us.
Of course, the disciples weren’t afraid of a virus. They were afraid of the Jewish authorities. They were afraid that the same people who put Jesus on a cross would come for them next. But they were afraid for their well-being. They were anxious about their safety, their health – and that isn’t so far off from what we’re experiencing, is it?
But it was right into this situation where the disciples were locked in a house and afraid that the risen Lord came. Jesus came and stood among these scared, holed-up disciples and said, “Peace be with you.” Jesus showed them his hands and his side, proving that it was really him. Christ’s divinity was on display in his resurrected body, but his humanity was there too as his wounds were intact, like grim badges of authenticity that he was indeed their crucified Lord.
“Peace be with you,” Jesus said to them. And the disciples rejoiced. Even as they were still in the house, they rejoiced.
Of course, one of the disciples wasn’t there. We don’t know where Thomas was when Jesus appeared to the others –maybe he was out for a walk, maybe he was on a grocery run, maybe he was going to buy toilet paper in case they had to stay holed up for a long time – whatever the case, he wasn’t there. And when he heard the others say that Jesus had appeared to them, that they had seen the risen Lord, he wasn’t having any of it. “Unless I see for myself, unless I put my fingers into his wounds, I will not believe.”
Thomas didn’t believe the witness of the disciples, and so he missed out on the peace the risen Lord came to give.
Of course, as we heard, Jesus came back again a week later. Again, he said, “Peace be with you.” He invited Thomas to touch his wounds, but it wasn’t necessary. We are never told that Thomas took Jesus up on his invitation and touched him. The word alone seems to have been enough. Thomas heard Jesus say, “Peace be with you.” He heard Jesus say, “Do not doubt, but believe,” and it was enough. Thomas believed. “My Lord and my God,” Thomas said. You don’t get a better statement of faith in Jesus than that!
Now here we are a week after Easter Sunday, and I wonder how many of you might have missed out on the peace our risen Lord offers us. I wonder how many of you weren’t here last week for one reason or another. Maybe you were present for worship, but too distracted to hear. Maybe you heard it, but promptly forgot it – that’s a common problem when we’re all disoriented by anxiety and upended routines. I wonder how many of you doubt the witness of the disciples, the witness of the scriptures, the witness of the church. Don’t be afraid to admit that. I’m not saying it judgmentally. If it could happen to Thomas himself, it could happen to any of us.
But here’s the good news: even when we’re afraid and locked up in our houses, our risen Lord comes to us. The risen Jesus isn’t bound by walls, and he isn’t bound by space or time either. He comes to us through his Word and says, “Peace be with you.”
Even when we have our doubts, Jesus comes to us! Even when we are struggling to believe, Jesus doesn’t give up on us, He comes to us through his Word and says, “Do not doubt, but believe.”
In fact, this is precisely why the scriptures were written – to help you believe. Isn’t that what John himself says? “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”
We might still be locked up on our houses. We might even still be a little afraid or anxious from time to time. But our risen Lord is with us. Our risen Lord Jesus comes to us today through his Holy Word to give us his peace. He comes to help us believe, to help us have faith in him, so that we may have life in his name.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer