Easter 2A; John 20:19-31; St. Paul’s,
Smithfield, NC 4/232017
Jim Melnyk: “Invited, Not Accused”
The cartoon shows
the disciple Thomas standing before two of his colleagues. His arms are raised in dismay and a look of
consternation is on his face. “All I’m
saying,” Thomas is exclaiming, “All I’m saying is we don’t call Peter ‘Denying
Peter’ or Mark ‘Ran Away Naked Mark.’ Why should I be saddled with this
title?” One of his colleagues replies in
perfect church-speak, “I see your point, Thomas, but really, it’s time to move
on.”
The cartoon Thomas
may have a point. We still tell the
story of Peter’s betrayal because face it, if we can point to Peter’s betrayal,
our betrayals – both great and small – won’t seem quite as big. But we don’t refer to him as, “Denying
Peter.” Not as many of us know about
the tradition that it was the author of Mark who was seen fleeing the Garden –
actually running out of his robes – on the night Jesus was betrayed. But if you think about it, the story has
survived to this day because if we can point to Mark fleeing Jesus on that terrible
night, then the times we flee from our faith won’t feel quite so terrible. But we don’t refer to the author of the
oldest Gospel as, “Ran Away Naked Mark.”
Perhaps Peter and Mark get a break because we still have Judas to blame
for the big betrayals – and somehow that keeps us from shedding too much of an
inward light on our own souls and our own betrayals – both great and small.
But we hold tight to
Thomas’ struggle, hearing about it every single Second Sunday of Easter, mostly
because at least on some level we struggle with the resurrection – we too want
to touch the nail prints in Jesus’ hands, and see where the spear was thrust
into his side. I am convinced we
hold these images of Thomas, who actually was one of the more faithful of
disciples, because we need someone out there to give voice to our own
doubts.
If someone who
walked the dusty roads of Galilee and Judea with Jesus can doubt, then
certainly our doubts are understandable.
But we shouldn’t sell Thomas short – the risen Christ is as welcoming to
Thomas as he is toward the others – twice proclaiming “peace” to them, and
eventually even to Thomas, who is, according to Walter Brueggemann, “the voice
of our own doubt” (Walter Brueggemann, Sojourners
Online, Preaching the Word, 4/16/2017).
And so perhaps we do find some kind of comfort in one of the twelve
giving voice to our own struggles – and he seemingly will bear the nickname for
as long as we tell his story.
But jumping from last
week’s resurrection story in Matthew to this week’s story from John highlights
an interesting disconnect between the two Gospels. On Easter Day, according to Matthew, the
women who experience the resurrection are told to direct the disciples to
Galilee – it is there, where it all began, that they will be reunited with
Jesus. Today, according to John, it’s as
if the disciples never got the message – or if they did, refused to accept the
word of the women – “Really, Mary, we doubt it!” Jesus meets them in the upper room where they
are hiding in fear. What’s more, if we
pay attention to the setting of our reading from Acts, we realize we are hearing
part of Peter’s sermon given seven weeks later on the day of Pentecost – and
they’re still all in Jerusalem – whatever happened to Galilee? And why the differing accounts – all of which
can cause us to have doubts?
Brueggemann suggests
that the resurrection “shatters all of our [descriptive] categories and leaves
us in awe. It is for this reason that the earliest church had to tell the story
in many [differing ways], because none of the stories seemed fully adequate” (ibid). Matthew highlights Jesus’ ministry in Galilee
– the place where it all began for them, while John seems to be addressing a
community far enough removed from the actual resurrection that they’ve begun to
wrestle with doubts, and John wants to find a way to put his listeners’ minds
at ease.
What we do know is
that the resurrection was so out of the box for those who followed Jesus that
most of the feelings expressed range from confusion, to doubt, and to fear, as
much as they – and perhaps before they ever – lead to amazement and joy. And I imagine that range of emotions shown by
the disciples is familiar to us. That
may well be one of the reasons why it’s such a challenge to live Easter 24/365 –
24 hours a day, 365 days a year – that may be why it’s such a challenge to live
every day in the power of the resurrection, as resurrection people,and the reasoning behind our Collect for the
Day, praying that we “may show forth in our lives what we profess through our
faith.” .
Perhaps that’s why we are called to
pay more attention to ways in which Jesus reveals himself to his friends rather
than their many differing reactions.
Author Laurel Dykstra writes about the hope Jesus offers to a rag-tag
group of confused and fearful followers: “When Jesus [appears] to his disciples
[in John’s gospel], they [are] hiding upstairs in a locked room—the friends who
knew him best, who had betrayed him, who had pretended they didn’t know him,
who had run away when he was dying, who hid when he was arrested, who were
frightened and ashamed. [Jesus appears] among them and [greets] them. He
[doesn’t ask], ‘What happened?’ ‘Where were you?’ [He doesn’t say,] ‘You
[messed] up.’ He [greets] them saying, ‘Peace’” (Laurel A. Dykstra, Sojourners Online, Preaching the Word,
4/16/2017). Likewise, in Matthew’s first
account of the resurrection, Jesus’ first words to the women outside the tomb
are not challenges or recriminations, but rather he says to them, “Greetings!
Do not be afraid” (Matthew 28:9-10).
“No matter who you are,” writes
Dykstra, “no matter what [we’ve] done or think [we’ve] done, whoever [we] have
betrayed or let down, no matter how far [we] have gone from God, from Jesus,
Jesus doesn’t [ask us], ‘Where were you?’ [or say to us,] You [messed] up.’
Jesus greets [us] saying, ‘Peace.’ You are not accused, you are invited” (Dykstra).
“Do not be afraid!”
That language of invitation and
peace was driven home for me on Friday. I
came across several yard signs during my sabbath walk through my
neighborhood. The signs, one of which
now resides in our yard at home, welcomes people to Raleigh in sixteen
different languages. The campaign behind
the signs, which is now in Durham as well, is designed to create the important conversations
we all need to have about immigration, deportation, refugees, and sanctuary in
our communities, bringing to mind the commands in Leviticus to love our
neighbor, and to love the alien who resides in our land, as we love ourselves. As Easter people we are challenged to ask, “Who
is my neighbor, and how welcoming am I toward them?” “How do we live as people
who are not accused, but invited by God into new life?” and finally, “How
willingly do we choose to live as Easter people in the midst of the hard
questions of our faith and our day-to-day lives in this world?” 
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