Do you ever wonder why the
disciples were fearful? They had heard
these accounts that their Lord and Master had risen from the dead. Do you think they would be overjoyed and anxious
to see him, and yet they locked themselves up, the text says, for fear of the
Jews?
The first time Jesus comes
and says, “Peace be with you”. Thomas wasn’t there. And then a week later, again the doors are
still locked. They’ve already seen Him
once and they still had fear within them.
I’m sure that many of us
here this morning have had many fears in our lives and perhaps situations in
the world today make us even more a little fearful. Yet the powerful message of the resurrection
is to have faith, and to have life in the name of Jesus.
You know resurrection isn’t
just I believe Jesus rose from the dead.
Resurrection is believing in Jesus. I believe in You, Jesus. I trust you, Jesus, that You
are with me. And I think that’s why in
our gospel accounts Jesus comes a second time to Thomas and confronts him head
on. Notice each time Jesus comes He
says, “Peace be with you.” He doesn’t beat them up. He doesn’t call them cowards. He doesn’t berate them. He doesn’t say, “You disappointed Me.” He doesn’t lay
them low and say, “What’s wrong with you, you jerks.” He says, “Peace.” He reassures them. Notice in all the resurrection accounts Jesus
does not appear to His enemies, He appears to those whom He already had a
relationship with, to reassure them and to give them
hope.
There is a beautiful story
about a extraordinary woman. Her husband had been injured in a fire. While he had attempted to save his own
parents from their burning house. And in
the process of trying to rescue his own parents he himself was badly disfigured
and badly burned. And as a result of
that he was very self conscious about his appearance. Finally what he did is he actually went and
locked himself into his bedroom and refused to come out. He wouldn’t even let his wife in to see
him. He was so afraid of his
appearance. His wife did something
extraordinary. She sought out a very
prominent plastic surgeon and she told him the story. And the plastic surgeon said, “You know, I
will come and I’m sure that I can restore his features, and he won’t look
ugly.” And she said, “No, doctor. You don’t understand. He won’t let anybody see him. He won’t even accept my help.” The doctor said, “Let me try.” So he came to the house and he knocked on the
door. The voice from inside said, “Why
are you here?” He said, “I’ve come
because you wife has told me about your injury.
I believe that I can do surgery to restore your face.” Silence from the inside. Again the doctor knocked on the door. Again silence from the inside. Finally the doctor said, “Let me tell you
something about your wife. She wants me
to disfigure her face like yours in the hope that you will let her back into
your life. That’s how much she loves
you.” Because this is what the wife had
told the doctor before he came to the house, “Disfigure my face doctor, that
maybe he will know that I am with him in his pain.” So the doctor relayed this to the man behind
the closed, locked door. Silence again
from inside. And then slowly the door
began to open up.
I think that’s why Jesus, when
He came in the gospel account this morning, and He said to them, “Look at My
wounds. Put your hand into My side, feel My hands.
It’s really Me.” He wanted to reassure the disciples that even
in His risen life the wounds were still there, to let them know that He was
still with them in their disbelief, in their fear, in their wounds, in their
doubts, in their anxiety. And then He
could call them forth to move beyond the pain, because He was still with them.
What a powerful
message. What a beautiful image.
You know, for all of us
today, steeped perhaps in our own fears and anxieties, not seeing much hope in
the world, in the economy, in all the different things going on around us, it
is in the midst of this, again on this Easter Day that Jesus walks into your
and my heart and He says, “Peace be with you.”
To every person in this church this morning, right now Jesus is saying
that to you. Whatever your fears, your brokeness, your anxieties, your hurts, Jesus has been there
before you and He’s still with you.
Resurrection again means I
trust you, Jesus, that You are with me. And He calls you and me to be people of
peace. To go forth
from this Eucharist, and then to put more hope and life into our world.
Another way maybe to think
about this, you and I say we have faith and that’s why we’re here this
morning. And it isn’t again just I
believe, but I believe in you Jesus.
Ask yourself how has this faith, how has this gospel changed your
life? How has it not changed your
life? How am I currently living vs. how
I might live if I had no faith? Would
there be a difference? Would that
difference, might it be distressingly small if you had no faith? How am I living this belief in the
resurrection? Does it make a difference
in the way I live my life? Look at
perhaps some people who have no faith.
Are their lives any different than yours and mine, without passing a judgement on who they are or what they are doing?
Maybe you and I as people of
faith have to ratchet up another notch and be people who go forth from this
Eucharist today to bring life, to bring peace, to bring hope wherever you and I
go.
The first reading said,
“They shared everything in common and nobody was in need because of their great
love.” That’s given to you and to me as
well today.
So Jesus reassures us He is
with us still, because He is risen from the dead. Carry with you the mantra today of Thomas,
“My Lord and my God”.