April 23, 2017
Lenten Devotions – Easter 2A

“When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 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 retain the sins of any, they are retained.” But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” John 20:19-29

Our text for today begins with a community of believers who are reeling from the recent events of the cross, and the early signs of the resurrection. Mary Magdalene has reported to the disciples that she has seen the risen Lord – and it seems like a good bet the other disciples are not true believers, yet. They must have been skeptical, although the text is completely silent on this issue. There is no disciple reaction reported by the gospel writer John on the news of seeing Jesus; though Matthew, in chapter 28 reports “when they saw Jesus on the mountain to which Jesus directed them, some doubted”. I just have this feeling their skepticism has gotten the better of them, too. Yet, they are not vilified by readers of this text over the years, not like Thomas. Just were just lucky to be in the right place at the right time. Having witnessed the crucifixion, and then the news that Jesus was missing from the tomb, well their emotions were most likely in turmoil. But, then it happened. Jesus appears in the room. How did he get there? The doors were locked yet there he was – if a stone could not keep him in, a locked door will not keep him out. And knowing that this encounter would most like really frighten the disciples, Jesus immediately ministers to them, by saying to them “Peace be with you”. In other words, Jesus is trying to tell them “easy there, do not freak out on me.”

Experiences with dead people can be unsettling. In the last few years, there has been a movement called “EVP” or Electronic Voice Phenomenon. People go to places that they believe there might be spirits of the dead, and they record themselves asking open ended questions posed to “the formerly living”. When they re-play the tapes, they will hear voices answering the questions, voices they did not hear when they taped the session. To me, this kind of experience is really unsettling. It is unsettling because we just can’t explain what we cannot see, when it comes to the realm of the dead, that is. But that is just one realm of experiences people have with the “formerly living”. Sometimes people see apparitions, they hear voices, they smell smells, they experience things and people that appear out of nowhere, and then vanish as quickly as they appeared. Is this the experience the disciples had with Jesus, appearing out of nowhere, speaking to them, and then disappearing? Is this something we should be frightened about? Were the disciples crazy – crazy from grief, from exhaustion, from emotions that they were just seeing things? I don’t think they were crazy. I think we are blessed with a God who just appears, not just to his disciples, but to us now, in this time and space, appears to us in dreams, in visions, in people, in words, in institutions, in the waters of our baptisms, and in the bread and wine of communion. The truth of Easter is that all of humanity is blessed with a God who defies the confinement of logic and grief and prejudice and fear, a God who blesses us by coming to us when we most need our God, and then sends us, fresh and filled with hope, back into a hopeless world.

Pastor Dave