April 3, 2016 THE GIFT OF BELIEF

John 20:19-31

Preface to the Word

Anybody who has ever known grief and disappointment, who has ever been wrung through the emotional wringer and hung out to dry... anyone who has had their dreams demolished, their hopes spoiled, their expectations vanquished by harsh reality knows what Jesus’ disciples were feeling the day or two following his execution on a cross. The scripture reading from John’s Gospel this morning places us in a house on the evening of that first Easter. The door, as John makes clear, is locked. The group sits disparaged and afraid. They talk to one another in quiet tones. They had been through a week from hell, an emotional and spiritual roller coaster. The one they had staked their lives on, the one they listened to and followed, the one whom they had banked their hopes on, the one whose dream captured their imaginations… that one had been crucified and buried. The might of Rome had squashed him like a bug. After all, the one proven way to kill a movement is to kill the ringleader. And now the future, in spite of all that Jesus had taught them and promised them, was at best uncertain. Was it time to give up? Had it all been for nothing? Had their hope and their faith been in vain?

Let’s you and I eavesdrop on those distraught disciples hiding out behind locked doors on the evening of the first day of the week when everything changed for them and the world...

Scripture Reading: John 20:19-31

SermonI.

  1. One thing the author of John doesn’t divulge to us is what these disciples talked about as they were gathered together in fear. I wonder what they were saying to each other. Were they angry? Were they pointing a finger at Peter for being a coward and denying the Lord when pressed against the wall? Were they accusing each other of running away when Jesus needed them the most? Were they wringing their hands, saying, “If only you had done this... if only I had not done that then none of this would have happened”?
  2. I wonder if they were starting to doubt, debating among themselves or with themselves about their foolish faith in this rabbi, asking themselves if it were all for nothing. Had they been misguided? Were they coming to the conclusion that all this kingdom of God stuff, all this talk about love and power, judgment and forgiveness, hope and servanthood was really impotent when the chips were down? And what good is it going to do them now? Were they saying to themselves that it was fun while it lasted but now it was time to get back to reality, to get on with life without the gilded edges, to slip quietly away now that everything was so obviously over?
  3. But all John will tell us is that they were afraid. They were afraid even though a glimmer of hope had already caught others in their group by surprise. Peter and “the disciple Jesus loved,” (whoever that was) had run to the tomb earlier in the morning and found it empty. They must have wondered if they could dare to let their hearts believe that it could possibly be true. Verse 8 in chapter 20 says that “...the other disciple, the one who arrived at the tomb first, also went inside (after Peter). He saw and believed.”
  4. But Peter and this other disciple Jesus loved, weren’t the first to find the tomb empty that morning. That honor goes to Mary Magdalene who was the first to find the vacant grave. But instead of believing, she wept. It was only after the Risen Christ called her by name that her spirit was reborn and she believed.
  5. Yet, after all this activity earlier in the day, here are the disciples in the evening, huddled together in their fear, with doors locked and hearts depressed. In the center of their despair the Christ appeared, “stood among them,” John says, and offered them peace. They saw his hands and his side, and, John writes, “they were filled with joy.” (vs 20).
  6. Maybe... Perhaps... Possibly... it was not all for nothing! Maybe... Perhaps... Possibly... it was not over. Maybe... Perhaps... Possibly..their faith was not in vain. Christ came to them in their grief and disillusionment, verified that he was alive, and filled their hearts with peace, joy... and hope. And just as they had taken the chance of placing their faith in Christ, Christ took the chance of placing his faith in them. “As the Father sent me,” he said, “so I am sending you.” It’s going to be up to you to let others know that I live. I’m counting on you.
  7. And with that, he breathed on them the breath of life and filled their spirits with the Holy Spirit. Are we paying attention? Not only is the Lord risen, but the eternal Christ, having given the dispirited disciples the gift of peace and having sent them into the world, then provides them with the equipment and the power they need for this mission. “...he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” (v 22)
  8. Maybe it would help us get the full impact of what John means here if we knew that the Greek word he used “emphysan” which we translate into English as “breathed,” is not used anywhere else in the New Testament. It is used, however, in the Greek Old Testament way back in Genesis 2:7 where, during the creation story, it says that “the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” Emphysan. Breathed.

The widely-read Bible scholar, Raymond Brown, couldn’t help but point out that:

Symbolically, John is proclaiming that just as in the first creation God breathed a living spirit into man, so now in the moment of the new creation Jesus breathes his own Holy Spirit into the disciples, giving them eternal life.

Jesus breathes faith into their fear. Forgiveness overcomes anger. Hope defeats despair. The renewed little band of believers is sent out into the world with the very power of God’s Spirit coursing through their souls, empowering them to live and proclaim the good news...

And the world is created all over again! Thank God they didn’t give up and slip away quietly in fear and despair.

II.

  1. But there was someone who missed all the action. The twin named Thomas wasn’t there when Christ showed up. Frederick Buechner writes about this in his book Listening To Your Life:

Nobody says where Thomas was at the time [Jesus appeared to the disciples]. One good thing about not having too much of an imagination is that you’re not apt to work yourself up into quite as much a panic as Thomas’ friends had, for example, and maybe he’d gone out for a cup of coffee or just to sit in the park for a while and watch the pigeons…

  1. Perhaps Thomas had not been expecting anything more to happen after seeing Jesus crucified on Good Friday. William Barclay ponders about this in his book on The Gospel of John.

Thomas, he writes, had to face his suffering and sorrow alone. So it happened that, when Jesus came back again, Thomas was not there; and news that he had come back seemed to him far too good to be true, and he refused to believe it.

Thomas’ big mistake, claims Barclay, was that he “withdrew from the Christian fellowship.”

  1. Thomas didn’t make it out to the cemetery in the morning with Mary. Thomas wasn’t with the other disciples, huddled together in the locked room on that first Easter evening. Thomas’ grief and disappointment seemed to have the opposite effect on him than it did for the others. Rather than joining in company with them to share the anger and grief, Thomas separated himself from the others and as a result kept missing Jesus when he appeared among them.

Finally, when Thomas did catch up with them, they were quick to share with him, “We have seen the Lord. He is alive. The adventure goes on. It’s not all over.” But Thomas had a hard time buying it. He wanted proof.

“Unless I see for myself the prints of the nails in his hands and jab my finger into his side where he was pierced with a spear, I will not believe – I can’t believe it. I won’t believe.” Unless you can prove to me that Jesus lives, as far as I am concerned this is nothing more than wishful thinking.

  1. Eight days later the believing disciples are together again in a house with all the doors locked. But this time Thomas is with them. Sure enough, Christ stands among them and extends his peace.

I would think that Jesus would give Thomas a bad time for his difficulty in coming around to belief. Jesus could have said; “Tough luck, Thomas! You should have been here on Easter.” Instead, Jesus says, “Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands; and put out your hand and place it in my side. Go ahead. Don’t be faithless, but believing. You need some proof that I’m alive, Thomas? OK. Touch me. See me. Believe in me. I’ll give you what you need to be convinced.”

  1. It’s funny. John never says that Thomas actually took Jesus up on his offer to touch him. All he says is that Thomas was so moved he exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus blessed Thomas even though he had a hard time believing. That is what Jesus does. He invites disciples, he evokes faith, and he blesses them. He came through their bolted doors to pronounce peace to fearful followers. He pulled up his shirt, offering his wounds as visible proof to Thomas. Jesus gives Thomas what he needs to believe.
  2. And then, so the story goes, Christ said, “Happy are those who don’t see and yet believe.” Jesus is busy blessing the likes of you and me who were not there on that first Easter. We were not there to see firsthand the empty tomb, or to reach out and touch the nail-scarred hands and the wounded side. And yet we believe. Right?
  3. And if in these days following the celebration of the resurrection we still find it hard to believe; if, like those first followers we are tempted to lock the doors to our reality and hide in fear; if we are tempted to just slip away quietly into the harsh, real world giving up on the kingdom of God movement here because we think it has failed us or because it feels false; if our inclination is to demand hard proof that Jesus Christ is truly among us and lives, then we need to entertain again this word of God from the Gospel of John, which tells of a troubled, doubting disciple named Thomas who stuck with his believing companions and was eventually blessed by Jesus, who gave him what he needed to believe.
  4. That’s the way Christ handles fear and doubt, says John. He gives us what we need. And he ends his Gospel saying, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written that you (meaning us) might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”
  5. In his paraphrase of the Bible called The Message, Eugene Peterson says this in his introduction to the Gospel of John:

In deliberate parallel to the opening words of Genesis, John presents God as speaking salvation into existence. This time God’s word takes on human form and enters history in the person of Jesus. Jesus speaks the word and it happens: forgiveness and judgment, healing and illumination, mercy and grace, joy and love, freedom and resurrection. Everything broken and fallen, sinful and diseased, called into salvation by God’s spoken word…

Keeping company with these words, we begin to realize that our words are more important than we ever supposed. Saying “I believe,” for instance, marks the difference between life and death. Our words accrue dignity and gravity in conversations with Jesus. For Jesus doesn’t impose salvation as a solution; he narrates salvation into being through leisurely conversation, intimate personal relationships, compassionate responses, passionate prayer, and – putting it all together – a sacrificial death. We don’t casually walk away from words like that.

  1. And this the way most of us come to faith. We didn’t actually see. We didn’t literally touch. We heard. We heard a story that wooed us into a “yes.” We heard someone call our name. Somewhere there was a word... a passage of scripture, perhaps a sermon or a song, a poem, a whisper, or someone’s personal testimony.

But we heard. And the word came alive and breathed the Holy Spirit into our lives.

III.

  1. But if we need something else, something beyond the verbal, the spoken... that’s fine, too, says John, because the living Lord will give us what we need. Like when we come to the Lord’s table during Holy Communion, we come with empty hands extended and we are given what we need.
  2. I don’t know what you need. I’m not always sure what I need or that you do, either. Maybe what we need is for Christ to come slipping through the closed, locked doors behind which we hide in fear, anger and frustration, and to say, “Peace.”

Maybe what we need is for Christ to say to us, “You need physical, tangible, visible, tactile, material, corporeal, empirical proof? Okay. Then come to the table. Taste the broken bread. Drink from the cup. This is my body. This is my blood.”

  1. It really doesn’t matter if you or I were there at Easter. That same one who danced from the tomb, his dumbfounded, dispirited, disciples stumbling after him, and who then appeared to them behind their bolted doors, comes to you and me, giving us what we need to believe.

And God knows, perhaps more than anything else here today, you and I need to believe!