EASTER 2C 2010
Text: John 20:19-31
When I returned to the office on Tuesday, after Easter and Holy Week, in our church life we have to look forward and think about what we are doing in the future. We had Holy Week and Easter behind us so now we just keep on going. But as I sat down to prepare this sermon, I felt like, wait a minute, I don’t want to do that. I want to enjoy the beauty and solemnity and reverence and joy of last weeks worship. I don’t want it to just disappear and have to move on. In a sense I think this is what Christians have felt down through the years because the Church as created what we call the Easter season. This Sunday we always read the same gospel from John that we read this morning. Next week we will read another resurrection appearance of Jesus, and through this season the Church keeps before us the doctrine, or teaching of the resurrection of Jesus. As I have said many times, and will say many more times, it is the resurrection that of Jesus that makes Christianity what it is.. that makes our faith different than any other faith in the world. As we read on Easter, Paul argues in 1 Corinthians that if Jesus has not been raised from the dead, Christians are teaching and believing in a lie, and we are, as the KJV version says: “of all men most miserable.”
Today and over the next 8 weeks we will be reading from the gospel of John. When I was in seminary, we spent one year studying Greek grammar. Then in our middler year, we began the year studying John in the Greek. They do this to trick seminarian into thinking they actually can read Greek, because John is written in very simple Greek. And it is very cool, but then you learn that the rest of the NT is not so simple. But the great experience of studying the Bible in the original language is that it makes you slow down and read the text very slowly, and is so doing, you learn so much more.
The gospel of John is a beautiful book, one, as I have quoted Martin Luther who said: “it is a pond that a child can play in, and a lake that one can swim in”… or something like this. The words flow very simply and easily, and yet the concepts are profound and mysterious.
At the end of our Gospel lesson this morning, John, like any good writer, clearly states his thesis, or reason for writing.
John 20:30-31 ( NRSV ) 30Now Jesus did many other
signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this
book. 31But 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.
All that John includes in his gospel is for one purpose, and that is to lead this reader to “come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God.” That is his goal. One of the first things we learned about John is that for him, faith is not a noun, and thus believing in a system of truth, but it is a verb… thus meaning it is active… and it is always a “believing in Jesus.” … an act of putting our trust and faith in Jesus.” If faith is active, then that means that our lives are governed, or affected by our faith. I like to think of the Christian life as a resurrection life. If, as we proclaim, Jesus is alive, then that affects how we live in our day to day lives. There is no compartmentalization of our faith. It infuses all of our life.. or at least that is our goal.
So in our lesson this morning, John tells us about the first appearance of Jesus to the greater group of disciples. In John’s account of the journey by the women to the empty tomb, he makes Mary Magdalene the central figure. She meets Jesus and then runs to the disciples and says: “I have seen the Lord.” Then that night, the disciples gather in a house with locked doors, because they are afraid that they might be arrested and killed like Jesus. All of a sudden, Jesus is in their midst, and his first words are “peace.” Now if we put ourselves in the disciples place, this is just the word we need to hear from Jesus, because we all fled from him and abandoned him in his greatest time of need. Jesus is assuring these unfaithful friends that he forgives them and loves them. John tells us that Jesus says “Peace be with you” twice! He shows them his tortured body, just as we read in Luke, and John tells us that the disciples begin to rejoice. Joy is filling their hearts. And then in an action that commentators don’t all agree about, Jesus breaths on them and says: “receive the Holy Spirit.” He follows this up with a saying about forgiving sins. This verse has been interpreted in many different ways by the church, but without going into all of that, it seems to me that the essence of this action is Jesus making forgiveness central to the mission of the church as a whole, not just to the clergy or leaders of the church. Forgiveness, as we pray in the Lord’s prayer, is to be central to our day to day lives.
Then John records for us that familiar story of Thomas coming to faith by seeing Jesus. I don’t like the name doubting Thomas, rather I would choose the name. seeking Thomas. Thomas was bold in his seeking of faith. And this, to me, is a good thing. An aggressive and serious searching out of what we believe is a good attribute. What I have seen over the years in so many people is a lazy seeking out of faith. Either people have some faith handed down to them from their parents and the church, and they do little to deepen it over the years… never struggling and reading and thinking… or.. people reject Jesus and Christianity without ever reading the Bible or even really knowing what the Christian faith is. So Thomas to me is a example of one who says: “I need to see.. I need to know.. and he lets Jesus know this.. and, in this story.. I believe Jesus honors the heart of Thomas. He speaks directly to Thomas, and addresses his needs for faith. And I think this Jesus will meet every seeker of truth, who seeks with an open and honest heart.
Now, when John wrote this
story, the Christian faith had been
spreading out into the world for some years,
we don’t really know for how many. But certainly, the story we read in Acts about Peter and
some other disciples had occurred before John was written. Here we see Peter
and the other disciples confronting the leaders of their nation boldly and
unafraid. They are put in prison. Then
they are beaten.. But this does not stop them from, in their words, being
witnesses of this scene that we read about in John. At one time they are
gathered together in a house, with the doors locked out of fear, and then they are in the temple and the
streets of
The change in their lives, of course, is rooted in their experience of seeing Jesus alive after he has suffered such a cruel and painful death. And in Johns account of this first encounter with the resurrected Jesus, Jesus says to them: “As the Father has sent me, so I sent you.” These disciple were given a mission, and they took it seriously. Matthew records the mission in these words:
Matthew 28:18-20 ( NRSV ) 18And Jesus came and said
to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey
everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to
the end of the age.”
A truth we learn from the lives of these first disciples is that Easter changes our lives. Just as the lives of these early disciples were changed, so should or faith affect our entire lives. From very early times, Christians were called people of the way. I like the image of us as living our lives in a certain way, or manner. Faith is action.. a way of life.. a way of living, governed by the compass of our Lord Jesus. With varying gifts and personalities, with weaker or stronger faith, we are all are called to follow the way.
But a central problem that we face in our country, and an established church like ours, is that so many of us think we know what the way is, but we have not spent any time really learning what the way of Jesus is. Some of us have what I would call a Sunday school faith.. meaning that we went to church when we were young and we learned a few things about our faith, but as adults we have done little to build upon this knowledge. Many of us often believe that since we grew up in a quote, Christian country, that the values and norms of our country are Christian, and then our faith gets mixed up with these cultural values.
A central reason for reading and studying the life of Jesus and his teachings is that our natural instincts are constantly challenged. In a real sense, the teachings of Jesus turn upside down our natural way of thinking, and thus our natural way of life. We only need to turn to the sermon on the Mount… Blessed are the poor, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted. Isn’t this a radical challenge to our way of thinking?
Don’t we really think: Blessed are those who have wealth and are comfortable: blessed are the strong and confident,: blessed are those who have good health and don’t face loss and have to mourn; blessed are those who are confident in their beliefs and don’t worry too much; blessed are those who are successful; blessed are those who can protect themselves; blessed are those who never have to suffer in any way.
If we stop and think about it for even a moment, we realize how radical it should be for us to be followers of Jesus. The Easter life, as Jesus said to his early disciples, is a life of mission. But since we often associate mission with those who go off to foreign lands or preach on the street corners, I like to think of the Christian life as a way of life. Our day to day lives are to be lived with the reality of Jesus and his will.
When we get up on the morning, what difference does our faith make? What are we doing with our lives? How does our faith affect our relationships? Should I remain faithful to my spouse… should I pay attention to my children… should I cheat on my income tax… should I lie to get ahead in my job… should I join with the other kids and make fun of this kid who is a little different… what does Jesus say about my attitude towards other people… how am I judging other people… how am I spending my money… what am I trying to do with my life… what is my goal… and I could go on and on…
In conclusion, wrapping this sermon
up, I realize when I preach like this that I am basically saying the same thing
over and over again, but the truth
is, many of us need to hear this truth.
Unless our entire life is being shaped and molded and challenged by the
teachings of Jesus and the scriptures,
and unless we are a little uncomfortable with our lives, then in my mind we are not seriously
attempting to live the Christian life. People of the way will find themselves
going against the grain of their culture. This has always been the case. This
is why Jesus was killed… Why Peter and the early disciples were arrested and
finally killed… why the early Christians were persecuted… why Christians in
other countries today are persecuted… and it is why we often feel uncomfortable
with our lives and the culture around us.. for getting more and living
comfortably and being successful and having the latest gadgets and living lives
of sports and of pleasure… and being healthy.. are not the central values of
the
The apostle John wrote his gospel so that we might come to a living faith, a faith which resulted in action, a faith which affects our whole lives. This of course, is an Easter faith. It is living the resurrected life. We prayed in our collect this morning, that we might show forth in our lives, what we profess by our faith. I pray that this might be your prayer this Easter season. Pray that, if you call yourself a Christian, what you profess will be lived out in your day to day lives. AMEN!