Message for Easter 2

Hide and Seek

Text: John 20:19-31

Poor Thomas…I have always felt that Thomas has been unfairly called “Doubting” Thomas, because he merely asked to see the Risen Lord, just as the other disciples were able to do—They didn’t want to believe that Jesus was risen—they couldn’t even take the eyewitness account of Mary Magdalene, who had seen Jesus in the garden—some commentators say that this was because the tradition-bound Jewish men could not accept the evidence of a mere woman—in Jewish courts, the testimony of a woman was not considered trustworthy. At any rate, the disciples struggled to believe that Jesus had indeed risen, as he said he would.The disciples have locked themselves in a room because they are afraid. I wonder how long they have been there and whether or when they plan to get on with their lives. If you think about it, the locked room is like a tomb where Jesus’ friends are huddling together, paralyzed by their fear into their inactivity and hopelessness. I always picture this room as hot and cramped, doors barred, windows shuttered—This isn’t like a fun game of hide and seek—This is more like Anne Frank and her family hiding in an apartment in Amsterdam. I can only imagine what it must be like to listen breathlessly for footsteps and to wonder if my fragile cover will be ripped away in the next moment.

Suddenly Jesus is there. John doesn’t tell us how he entered; he is simply there.

Even then, it must have been difficult at first for the disciples to believe their own eyes—you can almost picture them, staring, blinking, rubbing their eyes as if to wake up, not willing to trust this vision before them—were they going crazy? Had their grief pushed them over the edge into madness? Or was this some kind of ghost or apparition that has materialized in front of them? It seems that there was at least a moment of doubt, because when Jesus appears and says to the disciples, “Peace be with you.”, they seem too dumbstruck, too disbelieving to acknowledge him. The disciples are urged to look at his wounds to make sure that they are in the presence of Christ–not some ghost or imposter, but their friend and teacher. Jesus urges them to probe his wounds. You can almost sense the hesitation— somewhere inside they know if they touch, they will have to believe–it really would be easier all around if Jesus had stayed dead…

So Jesus shows them his wounds, and it is only then do they rejoice in amazement that Jesus is with them. Seeing the wounds helped them to believe. And so it was with Thomas—when Jesus appears the following week, it is only when Jesus reveals his wounds that Thomas is able to fall to his knees and make the power proclamation that Jesus is Lord and God—Thomas is actually the first to make that connection—that the crucified and wounded One is God. Now it would take the church literally a couple of hundred years to sort out the implications of what Thomas was able to grasp in that moment, but it almost takes my breath away when I try to imagine what that moment must have been like for the disciples.

This moment in the upper room is incredibly important for the future of the whole church—something powerful and dramatic must have happened to get the disciples out of their safe and secure hiding place and out into the world with the message of the gospel.
For me, the proof of the resurrection lies in the changed lives of the disciples. When this frightened group of Jesus’ followers was about to totally give up hope and abandon everything Jesus had taught them in order to run away in despair to Galilee; when these peasants, shepherds, and fishermen, who had betrayed and denied their master and then failed him miserably, suddenly could be changed overnight into a confident and dynamic movement, absolutely convinced of salvation and God’s work then no vision or hallucination is sufficient to explain such a revolutionary transformation.

I believe that it is not saying too much to suggest that if Jesus did not really appear to the disciples, then we might not be sitting here 2000 years later.

The giving of the Holy Spirit helped! Jesus breaths into them new life –breathing belongs to the image of the spirit which in biblical languages means wind and breath and spirit. Perhaps the image is akin to God’s breathing upon human clay in the creation story. Here is a new beginning. The Spirit, the helper, will help the disciples boldly proclaim the story of Jesus before the people.

What about us? What will it take to get us out of our sanctuaries and hiding places? What will it take to get us out into the world to proclaim the good news? Are we really any different than Thomas or the other disciples? We may say rationally that we know that we most likely will not see Jesus standing in front of us, we might even remember the motto of the reformation—“faith alone”—we say we don’t need signs or wonders and we may question the faith of those who ask for signs–and yet who among us would not love to see Jesus, to experience his presence just as the disciples did? As much as we might say that we stand on “faith alone” I suspect that each and every one of us is here because we are just like Thomas—we want to believe, we want to trust that what others have said down through the centuries, the witnesses of the power of God, we hope that we will get even just a small glimpse of Christ, and so we gather here with others who have the same hope—the hope to see and experienced in some way the reality that Jesus is alive, and this thing we call church is where we come to see Jesus—to see and believe. Jesus knew that the disciples would struggle with doubts and unbelief—that is why Jesus formed his disciples into the church and breathed on them and gave the church the Holy Spirit—the church is the living, breathing body of Christ made real. When we see the living and breathing church, we see Jesus.

Perhaps you might say that that is putting too much on the church—after all, the church is hardly perfect. That is certainly true; we have our share of wounds and scars—But so does Jesus. This is what Jesus formed us for—to be the Body of Christ for the sake of the world. It’s not like we’re left on our own—we have the promise and reality of the Holy Spirit, or do we need some kind of sign? Look around you—this is the sign—you and me, all of us gathered together here in this place—called together by God—this is the sign that the Holy Spirit is present.
What about people outside the church? How can we help them see and believe in Jesus? If we as the church are meant to be the Body of Christ for the world, then it is vital that when the world looks at us they see what Jesus wants them to see—not perfect people who never stray away from God, not self-righteous judges condemning the evils of the world, but wounded and broken people, just like them, sinners one and all, made whole by the wounds of Christ. Healed by seeing and believing and experiencing that love is stronger that death, forgiven and renewed by the waters of baptism and nourished at the table with the body and blood of our risen Lord.

Seeing and believing is not easy—we all suffer deep wounds that can blind us to the reality of God. These wounds run deep and healing deep wounds is hard work. And it’s work that is best done with the help of others. It takes the gathered community called the church to come to the aid of those who are wounded–to recognize in each other the woundedness we all share as humans struggling for wholeness.
We hope and pray and look this Easter season to the cross, and see our Lord and savior, to see his wounds, and remember. It is in seeing and believing, in remembering the wounds of Christ that we and indeed the whole world will be healed. Amen.

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