Life in Jesus Name

Life in Jesus’ Name

John 20:19-31

If you go to the doctor with a health concern, there is a good chance that, if any tests are done, one of them will be a blood test. Research has shown that our blood can tell us things we can’t always see. By looking at our blood, we can predict our chances for having a heart attack, or we can identify reasons why we are tired, or we can figure out what kinds of diseases our body has been fighting off. Our blood has a story to tell.

The ancients also believed that your blood can tell stories. One of the first stories in the Bible is the conflict between the brothers Cain and Abel. It is a conflict that ends with the first death in the line we trace back to Adam and Eve. Cain was jealous that God found Abel’s gift more pleasing than Cain’s. Cain killed his brother, and when God called on Cain, Cain asked that famous question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Cain was hoping to avoid responsibility and accountability for what he had done. Since no one saw him do it, Cain thought there wasn’t any evidence to tie him to the crime.

What Cain didn’t know was that the blood of Abel had a story to tell. It is not a story that can be heard by human ears, but God can hear it. And we know this because God said to Cain, “Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!” (Genesis 4:10b)

The text doesn’t tell us directly what Abel’s blood said to God – afterall, only God can hear it. We don’t know if it was a narrative of how Cain took Abel far away from their parents before killing him. We don’t know if the blood simply shared the pain that Abel experienced as his life ended. But we know it was the blood that testified against Cain, by what God says next. “Now you are cursed from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood.” Cain had taken away Abel’s life, so Abel’s blood asked God to take away Cain’s life as a farmer. Abel’s blood cried out to be avenged. And in the history of humans, whenever there has been blood spilled, there has been a crying out for vengeance.

If Abel’s death was the first of its kind, then the death of Jesus on the cross is the first of another kind – itis the death of God. During Holy Week, we heard again how his disciples failed. They failed by denying Jesus during his trial, which ended with his death on the cross. The blood of Jesus fell to the ground, and the ground received it. And the question we need to consider is, “What did the blood of Jesus cry out?” If all the rest of human history is any indication, it would be crying out for vengeance against those who have denied and betrayed him.

John’s gospel tells us that the disciples were behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jews. We are to believe that they are behind locked doors because they are afraid that they will meet with the same fate as Jesus. And that was a very real possibility in those immediate days after the crucifixion. It was an actuality for the early church, as Christians were arrested, stoned to death, crucified, thrown to the lions, and killed in many other ways – allfor simply being followers of Jesus. It is with good reason that they are afraid, not just of the Jews, but also of the Romans.

The disciples were afraid, but I don’t think they were nearly as afraid as they should have been. Rather than worrying about what the Jewish leaders might do, or what the Romans might do, they should have been afraid of what God would do. They know the story of Cain and Abel. They know that they will be held responsible, and accountable, for the death of Jesus, the Son of God.

The doors and locks may have been enough to keep out the Jewish and Roman leaders. But doors and locks are never going to be enough to keep out God. God called on these disciples, in the form of the Resurrected Lord. Instead of being safe behind locked doors, the disciples are now trapped with no way out. It was time to face what they had done, or more to the point, what they had failed to do.

We don’t know directly what Jesus’ blood had cried out, but we can guess by what Jesus said to the disciples. And Jesus said to them, “Peace be with you.”

You can appreciate that this might have confused the disciples. Even as they were dreading it, they were expecting to be condemned. What Jesus said doesn’t make any sense to them. After all, doesn’t Jesus remember the crucifixion? Oh, yes, he remembers, showing them the nail holes in his hands, and the open wound where the sword pierced his side. Jesus remembers the denials, and the betrayals, and the dying – buthe also remembers the most important thing.

Jesus remembered what he had been trying to teach them, and to show them, and what he had modeled for them, all throughout his ministry among them. He remembered that God is love. He remembered that the steadfast love of God has the power to forgive, and the power to save, and the power to redeem, and the power to show mercy.

It isn’t enough, though, for Jesus to remember this. He wants his disciples to not only remember the power of God’s love, but to live this truth out among the people, just as he had done. As the Father had sent out Jesus, so Jesus sends out the disciples. And they are sent out to forgive the sins of the people in order to reveal the love of God, for that is the power of God’s Spirit at work in and among us.

Jesus wants us to remember this about God, as well. Yes, Jesus knows about our denials –and still Jesus says, “Peacebe with you.” Yes, Jesus knows about our betrayals –“Peace be with you.” Jesus knows about our sins, and our failures, and our shortcomings, and our unworthiness – and Jesus still says to us, “Peace be with you.” Jesus still says to us, “Go out into the world, enabled by the Holy Spirit, and bring peace to the world by forgiving the sins of the people.”

Our problem today in accepting that mission is that we were not there when Jesus appeared to those disciples. We didn’t see him with our own eyes. We didn’t feel his breath on our skin. There is no audiotape to confirm what was said, and there is no video to prove who said it. How do we know for sure that Jesus commissioned the disciples to forgive sins and to bring peace?

We can also see why the world might doubt their witness. The world is asked to take the word of a small miserable group of failed disciples that their crucified and buried leader somehow told them it was OK with him that they failed over and over again.

Their mission to forgive sounds like craziness in a world where there is a growing call for accountability. We want people to face the consequences for their actions, whether it is the failure to follow the rules, or whether it is their failure to adequately plan and prepare for every possibility. We live in a world that believes that if we remove the consequences for bad behaviors, then there is no reason not to engage in bad behaviors.

In this world, forgiveness is seen as weakness. Mercy is seen as a moral failing. The failure to hold persons accountable is put forth as the path that leads to the downfall of society. We have blurred the definitions so that “forgiveness” ends up meaning “license.” In this world, to forgive someone is to give them permission to continue doing wrong. In this world, to show mercy is to encourage someone to continue to make bad choices.

That isn’t much different from the world Thomas lived in. Thomas wasn’t with the other disciples when Jesus first appeared to them behind the locked doors. We can understand why he doubts the testimony of the disciples. This doubt is not based in having a weak faith, but in his strong belief that we are to be held accountable for our sins.

I think we need to make another distinction here. We doubt when we can’t believe. But this is different than unbelief, which is when we won’t believe. Let me say that again: doubt is when we can’t believe; unbelief is when we won’t believe. And that is an important distinction we see in Thomas. Doubt arises out of an honest struggle to reconcile what he knows to be true with what he is being asked to believe is true. Unbelief is grounded in an obstinacy that is dishonest about its purpose. Doubt arises because,in the darkness of our sin,we don’t know what we are looking at, so we are reluctant to come to a conclusion. Unbelief is a stand that proclaims that the darkness is not real, and that we can see everything we need to see just fine.

Thomas knows what the failure of the disciples, because it was his failure, too. Thomas knows that what they failed to do was terrible, and certainly the cry of Jesus’ blood must also be terrible. So, yes, Thomas has doubts about the testimony of the disciples. He has doubts about what they saw, because it doesn’t make any sense to him. And even if he can get his head around the idea that Jesus is alive, Thomas has doubts about what they heard, because he knows that there has to be consequences for denying, betraying, and participating in the killing of the Son of God. There has to be justice done, and there has to be punishment given.

Thomas wasn’t there before, so he doubts the witness of the disciples. Yet, there is something in what they say that convinces him to be there with them the next week. This is an echo of the invitation Jesus gave to the disciples to “come and see” if they want to believe. And Thomas wants to believe.

After all, Thomas saw Jesus heal lepers. Thomas watched Jesus talk with outcasts as if they were the most beloved people in the world. Thomas was there when Lazarus was raised from the dead. Thomas heard the parables that Jesus taught that revealed that God keeps looking for the lost and the least. And right now, after all that has happened, Thomas is lost. After all that he had done and left undone, Thomas feels he is the least. Thomas feels outcast, and perhaps even dead inside.

A week goes by, and they are again behind locked doors. It is still dangerous to be a disciple. There are still plenty of reasons to be afraid. And for Thomas, there is still this matter of the blood crying out to God. Thomas wants to believe that Jesus has defeated sin and death. He wants to believe that Jesus really does want peace for them, but he also makes it clear that he still has doubts. And that is important to notice, too. Thomas has a change of heart before he has a change of mind.

That is the first step towards believing that Jesus Christ is the victor over sin and death, and that our sins are forgiven. That is the step that most people forget about. Belief is not about accepting a set of doctrines as truth, but about offering your heart to God. Being ready to believe is a necessary part of turning our doubts into affirmations.

Thomas is ready to believe. And when Jesus appears to them, Thomas makes the first non-demonic affirmation in the Bible about Jesus being his Lord and his God. Mary Magdalene was the first to see Jesus raised, and the other disciples were the first to believe that they were forgiven, but it is Thomas who is the first to affirm that Jesus is Lord and God.

And this is an important step in our faith, as well. It is not enough to know that Jesus is raised from the dead. It is not enough to believe that your sins are forgiven. To be an Easter person, we also have to affirm that Jesus is our Lord and God. And that affirmation has to be more than the utterance of our lips, but the movement of our hands and feet revealing our faith working in love.

That’s what it means to live in Jesus’ name. It is less about being under the protection of Jesus, and more about being the Body of Christ, alive in the world today. It begins with what Jesus has done for us, but it becomes real when we allow Jesus to work in and through us. And the surest sign that Jesus is at work through us is when we forgive others, and when we work for peace with others, and when we worship God with others.

Our next hymn emphasizes that we know Jesus lives because he lives in our hearts. And we are so rightly excited to sing this that we sometimes forget how the hymn starts – I serve a risen Savior; he’s in the world today. Let us stand and affirm that we are the disciples of Jesus Christ, who serve a risen Savior by being his hands and feet at work in the world today!

UMH 310 “He Lives”