Easter 2
Jn.
20:19-31
4/7/13
Where was Thomas? That’s what I want to know. What was he doing on the evening of the first
Easter Sunday? He appears in our text
almost as an afterthought. Our text
begins by saying, “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the
doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came
and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’” You notice, there
is no mention of Thomas.
We are told that the risen Lord showed
them his hands and his side. When the disciples saw this, instead of being
startled and frightened they rejoiced because they had seen the Lord.
And
then, as if they might have missed what his presence meant for them Jesus said
to them again, “Peace be with you.” Before
Jesus appeared in their midst, the disciples were in fear. They were cowered together in a locked room.
John’s Gospel tells us that earlier that day Peter and presumably John – called
“the disciple whom Jesus loved” – had gone to the tomb and seen that it was
empty. Mary Magdalene had seen Jesus and
talked with him. In the verse just
before our text we hear, “Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I
have seen the Lord”—and told them what he had said to her.
But
this had not changed the fact that the disciples were fearful. They still feared what the Jews might do
them. In particular the eleven apostles
were well known associates of Jesus. It
was not hard to imagine that the religious leaders might come after them as
well into order to wipe out whole “Jesus movement.”
Jesus
entered into their midst and revealed himself.
He showed them his hands and his side.
He showed them the wounds that had been inflicted on Friday when he was
crucified. And in doing so he
demonstrated that he was the same Jesus.
Yes he had died on the cross. Yes he had been buried in a tomb. But now he had been raised from the dead and
was alive. Because this had happened, Jesus could stand in their midst and say
twice, “Peace be with you.” And because
the risen Lord spoke these words, they did what they said. They
gave peace.
And
then having given them peace and joy, Jesus gave them something else. He gave them the Holy Spirit by whom they
would speak Holy Absolution. Jesus said,
“As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said
this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you
forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness
from any, it is withheld.” Having given
them peace, he then gave them the gift that would deliver peace to others. He gave them the word of absolution that
applied the forgiveness he had won on the cross - the forgiveness that gave
peace with God.
But
what about Thomas? You notice that, like
our text, we haven’t mentioned him yet.
He wasn’t there. We aren’t told
why, so I guess the fact we don’t know doesn’t matter. What we do hear is his reaction when the
other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” He responded, “Unless I see
in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the
nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
Because
it is narrated as the very next thing, it is easy to miss an important
point. Our text continues by saying, “Eight
days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them.” It’s easy to skip from one Sunday to the
next. But there is a week in between.
That
must have been an interesting week for Thomas, and for the other
disciples. On the one hand, they had
seen the risen Lord! He has given them
peace. He had put the words of forgiveness in their mouths through his Spirit.
And on the other hand there was Thomas.
He was determined to remain in uncertainty and fear and he wasn’t going to
change except on his terms.
And
doesn’t that describe us sometimes? When life doesn’t go the way we want, we
can find ourselves in the midst of uncertainty and fear. Yet rather than listen to word of the Gospel
that brings us peace and assures us of God’s continuing love and care, we set
our own ground rules about what is going to have to happen for us to be alright
– for us to feel alright. We decide
what God is going to have to do so that we feel ok about life and the way God
is treating us.
And
so Jesus confronted Thomas. We are told
that eight days later, “Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood
among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’”
Jesus entered into their midst and said the exact same thing as the
previous Sunday. Once again the risen Lord appeared in their midst and gave
them peace.
Then
he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your
hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Jesus challenged Thomas’ unbelief. And in response Thomas confessed, “My Lord
and my God!” He became the very first person in the Gospel to say it exactly
right. In the first chapter of John we
are told about the Word, the Second Person of the Trinity, “In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And then John goes on to say, “And the Word
became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the
only begotten Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The One who became flesh now stands before
them in resurrected flesh. And this prompts Thomas to become the first person
in the Gospel to call Jesus “God.”
Thomas
left behind his demands. When given the
opportunity to do the very thing he had demanded, he didn’t follow
through. Instead he confessed that Jesus
was his Lord – the One to whom he belonged and who was over him. He confessed that Jesus was his God.
Jesus
then said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are
those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
And then immediately after this the Gospel tells us, “Now Jesus did many
other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this
book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
There
are times when we face challenges and difficulties in life and we want to be
like Thomas. We want God to reveal
himself directly and in ways that meet with our approval. But Jesus and the
Gospel of John say that this is not the way of blessing. In fact it ignores the way our risen Lord has
said that things work.
Before
Jesus arrived at the Garden of Gethsemane on the evening of Maundy Thursday he
told the disciples that he would be departing. But he would not leave them
alone. He would send them the Helper,
the Holy Spirit. In fact, Jesus said
that it was necessary and to their advantage for him to go away or else the
Spirit would not come to them.
Jesus
promised, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my
name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I
have said to you.” Our Lord promised
that the Holy Spirit would teach the disciples about Jesus and bring to their
remembrance what he had said.
Jesus went on to
say, “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the
Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.
And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the
beginning.” The Spirit’s job would be to
bear witness about Jesus. And he would enable the disciples to be witnesses for
Jesus as well.
Through the work of the Spirit they
would bear witness. In words alive with
the Spirit they would tell about the saving signs that Jesus had done. And all
of those signs found their fulfillment in the final great sign – Jesus Christ’s
death on the cross and resurrection from the dead.
The Holy Spirit bears witness
through the signs narrated in the Gospel. And so John is able to say, “Now
Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not
written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his
name.” The signs – the works of Jesus
such as his appearance today, the second Sunday of Easter – give and support
faith in Jesus Christ. They allow those
who have not seen with their eyes to see the Spirit revealed deeds of Jesus. It
is through them that Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, continues to come to us
Jesus comes to us through Spirit
worked word of these signs. But that
doesn’t mean that our Lord who rose bodily on Easter has left us without his
bodily presence. In fact he comes to us in
a way that points forward to our own resurrection. The Word became flesh and
dwelt among us. And in the Sacrament of
the Altar he continues to come to us in his flesh – his body. For Jesus has promised, “Truly, truly, I say
to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you
have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal
life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
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