Easter
2
April
27, 2014
John
20:19-31
When
it was evening on that day, the day of her coronation, the doors of the palace
Elsa had created from ice out in the wilderness were lock for fear of…well
everyone. Now they all knew her
secret…they all knew that she had the ability to create ice and snow. And in her attempts to run away and protect
everyone from her powers, powers that she had be trained to hide, she wound up
inadvertently leaving her kingdom in a perpetual state of winter. Resisting the pleas of even her sister, Elsa
believes that there is no way for her to reverse the frozen state she has
caused to come upon their kingdom. So
she continues to isolate herself in the ice palace, haunted by the fear that
her powers are becoming increasingly dangerous.
It
was evening of the day of the Resurrection.
The disciples had come together in a house in Jerusalem.
All the doors were locked.
They had gone into hiding.
That morning, they had received two visits from Mary Magdalene. The first visit had come very early in the morning.
She was frantic.
The tomb that they had lain Jesus’ body in was empty except for the cloths they wrapped the body in…and the body was no where to be found. Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved went to investigate and confirmed that the body was gone…and promptly took off running. The second visit they received from Mary was to inform the disciples that she had seen the risen Jesus. Indeed he had risen from the dead, just as he said that he would. And now the disciples hid.
They hid for fear of the Jews…and a very rational fear it was. To have been associated with Jesus at that time was a very dangerous thing. To have been exposed would have meant that they risked dying at the hands of the very people who had put their beloved teacher to death. But hadn’t they, in a way, been a part of Jesus being put to death? I mean, they fled as soon as he was arrested, Peter denied him three times that evening and only the disciple whom Jesus loved was brave enough to stand with Jesus’ mother by the cross…the rest had abandoned him.
And now their beloved teacher, their dear friend, their leader was dead and his body missing. And it would only be a matter of time before the Jews would come after them, too. So the disciples hid in fear.
…well, all except for one…
His name was Thomas.
Though he was never recorded as having said anything in the other three gospels, according to John, Thomas was the most inquisitive of the twelve. He was also the most vocally supportive of Jesus’ mission. A few weeks back we heard that when Lazarus died, while Peter and the others were trying to dissuade Jesus from going to Judea and walking towards his death, Thomas proclaimed “let us also go so that we may die with him!” And, in a couple weeks, when we hear Jesus say his farewell to the disciples, it is Thomas who inquires, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, how can we know the way?”
However, it seems that somewhere between that first Easter and now, the church has handed him the nick-name “Doubting” Thomas. And in his defense, Thomas, like Mary Magdalene, had picked up quite an undeserved bad rap. Yes…he was very blunt when he told his fellow disciples that unless he saw the marks on Jesus’ hands and touched the wounds on his hands and side he would not believe. But then again, the disciples didn’t believe Mary’s word that she had seen Jesus. John tells us that they did not rejoice until Jesus showed them his hands and feet and the wounds that they carried. And it seems as if it wasn’t until they were shown his hands and side that they actually recognized Jesus. So what’s the big deal about Thomas’ exclamation of disbelief? At least he was honest about it.
Thomas has definitely attained an undeserved bad rap. All he wanted a concrete witness to the resurrection of Jesus. He wanted what the other disciples got, a chance to see the nail marks in the hands and feet of Jesus. He wanted to see the gash in his side. He wanted a real and tangible encounter with the risen Lord. Wouldn’t you want to be a part of that moment? And where was Thomas when the others were hiding in that house with all the doors locked out of fear? Could he have been a believer in what Mary Magdalene had told the disciples? Is it possible that while the other ten were hiding out avoiding the Jews that Thomas was out looking for Jesus…searching him out so that he could see him alive for himself?? I have a theory that this is the case. My theory is that Thomas, the one who declared that the disciples should go with Jesus even if it meant going to their deaths with him, actually did believe Mary Magdalene and was out looking for Jesus because he was not afraid like the other ten disciples were because unlike the ten, Thomas was not afraid to die with Jesus for the sake of the Gospel.
Unlike the other ten, Thomas did not let fear keep him hidden in a locked room.
The disciples had come together in a house in Jerusalem.
All the doors were locked.
They had gone into hiding.
That morning, they had received two visits from Mary Magdalene. The first visit had come very early in the morning.
She was frantic.
The tomb that they had lain Jesus’ body in was empty except for the cloths they wrapped the body in…and the body was no where to be found. Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved went to investigate and confirmed that the body was gone…and promptly took off running. The second visit they received from Mary was to inform the disciples that she had seen the risen Jesus. Indeed he had risen from the dead, just as he said that he would. And now the disciples hid.
They hid for fear of the Jews…and a very rational fear it was. To have been associated with Jesus at that time was a very dangerous thing. To have been exposed would have meant that they risked dying at the hands of the very people who had put their beloved teacher to death. But hadn’t they, in a way, been a part of Jesus being put to death? I mean, they fled as soon as he was arrested, Peter denied him three times that evening and only the disciple whom Jesus loved was brave enough to stand with Jesus’ mother by the cross…the rest had abandoned him.
And now their beloved teacher, their dear friend, their leader was dead and his body missing. And it would only be a matter of time before the Jews would come after them, too. So the disciples hid in fear.
…well, all except for one…
His name was Thomas.
Though he was never recorded as having said anything in the other three gospels, according to John, Thomas was the most inquisitive of the twelve. He was also the most vocally supportive of Jesus’ mission. A few weeks back we heard that when Lazarus died, while Peter and the others were trying to dissuade Jesus from going to Judea and walking towards his death, Thomas proclaimed “let us also go so that we may die with him!” And, in a couple weeks, when we hear Jesus say his farewell to the disciples, it is Thomas who inquires, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, how can we know the way?”
However, it seems that somewhere between that first Easter and now, the church has handed him the nick-name “Doubting” Thomas. And in his defense, Thomas, like Mary Magdalene, had picked up quite an undeserved bad rap. Yes…he was very blunt when he told his fellow disciples that unless he saw the marks on Jesus’ hands and touched the wounds on his hands and side he would not believe. But then again, the disciples didn’t believe Mary’s word that she had seen Jesus. John tells us that they did not rejoice until Jesus showed them his hands and feet and the wounds that they carried. And it seems as if it wasn’t until they were shown his hands and side that they actually recognized Jesus. So what’s the big deal about Thomas’ exclamation of disbelief? At least he was honest about it.
Thomas has definitely attained an undeserved bad rap. All he wanted a concrete witness to the resurrection of Jesus. He wanted what the other disciples got, a chance to see the nail marks in the hands and feet of Jesus. He wanted to see the gash in his side. He wanted a real and tangible encounter with the risen Lord. Wouldn’t you want to be a part of that moment? And where was Thomas when the others were hiding in that house with all the doors locked out of fear? Could he have been a believer in what Mary Magdalene had told the disciples? Is it possible that while the other ten were hiding out avoiding the Jews that Thomas was out looking for Jesus…searching him out so that he could see him alive for himself?? I have a theory that this is the case. My theory is that Thomas, the one who declared that the disciples should go with Jesus even if it meant going to their deaths with him, actually did believe Mary Magdalene and was out looking for Jesus because he was not afraid like the other ten disciples were because unlike the ten, Thomas was not afraid to die with Jesus for the sake of the Gospel.
Unlike the other ten, Thomas did not let fear keep him hidden in a locked room.
And
I wonder if that is why Jesus appeared the first time when Thomas wasn’t
there. Thomas got something that they
didn’t, that part of being a disciple of Christ means not letting fear get in
the way of the Gospel.
One
thing that people often say is that the opposite of love is hate…but that’s
really not the case. The opposite of
love is fear. And I’m not talking about
fear as in the notion of having respect for, like Luther mentioned in his
explanations to the ten commandments, I’m talking about a fear that isolates us
and prevents us from being able to function.
There
are a lot of things that fear keeps us from being able to do, it keeps us from
taking steps down new paths, it keeps us from loving others. It keeps us from
accepting love from others.
It keeps on building walls around us that we
insulate and lock with steel doors and barred windows.
Fear
isolates us and keeps us from seeing the good out in the world. Fear isolates us and keeps us from going out
and doing good in the world.
As
Americans, there are many things that we have decided won’t keep us captive to
fear. Thousands still ran the Boston
marathon last week after the bombing a year ago, including many who ran it last
year. We still travel on planes every day and go up to observation decks in sky
scrapers.
But
many times we don’t speak out when we hear or see injustice because we are
afraid of what people will think of us.
Sometimes we choose to stand silent because it’s the easier thing to do
even though hunger and drugs wreak havoc on our communities. Sometimes we choose to not witness to our
faith and to the Gospel because we don’t want to be lumped in with folks who
have given the word Christian a bad rap.
And
in the same way that Elsa from the film, Frozen, let fear overcome her, which
caused her power to create ice and snow to get out of control and sent her
running to isolate herself, the ten disciples let themselves become so frozen
in fear that they were going to be the next to be killed that they isolated
themselves instead of going out and spreading the word that Christ had
risen.
The
same thing can happen to us, in the midst of all the bad things that happen in
this world, it can be easy to just clam up and want to hide within walls
secured by locked doors.
But
that’s not what Jesus wants, he wants us to have peace, peace that only he can
give. And the locked doors that we try
to put in his way are not going to keep Jesus from barging in and sharing that
peace with us.
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