Easter 2A, John 20:19-31; St. Paul’s,
Smithfield, NC 4/19/2020
Jim Melnyk: “Not Without Scars”
For centuries Christians have taken today’s lesson from
John’s gospel and named it the story of Doubting Thomas. Maybe it’s because if
we name Thomas the “Official Doubter of the Resurrection” we don’t have to
wrestle so hard with, or be troubled by, or fear, our own doubts – sort of the
way Judas becomes the “Official Betrayer” – saving us from having to examine
our own ability to betray one another and God. Or perhaps our focus on Thomas
as “doubting” is meant to assuage our own struggle and allow our doubt to
exist. After all, if someone who had supposedly lived and talked with Jesus –
experienced the troubles and heard the promises – saw the signs and wonders –
if he could still doubt and yet remain faithful, then maybe so can we.
Ask most of the Disciples on that first Easter morning what
they believed and you’d get a mixed bag of responses: “Well, the women are
telling some idle tales about...Peter and John reported...You see there were
these angels – we think...the stone was rolled away, but...the body wasn’t
there, however...” To be honest, based on the four gospel accounts about that
first Sunday morning, I doubt we would get even one solid “He is risen” from
anyone save Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph. Look where
we find the group later that evening – a fairly newly formed faith community
comprised of scared people hiding behind locked doors. They pretty much all had
their doubts – can we blame them? They weren’t yet ready to live what their
hearts longed to believe – because they were still having trouble believing it
themselves – even later in the evening with Jesus standing among them!
And there are times, wrestling with my own doubts, when I
can make Thomas in the Upper Room look like a bastion of faith! Just watching
the struggles of people over how to best manage life during a pandemic – the
anger, lack of respect and politics as usual in another presidential election
cycle – the challenges to meet the needs of frontline medical workers and
hungry children unable to receive school lunches – religious leaders who, in
the name of religious freedom, risk the lives of their congregations and anyone
else whose lives they each touch – well, it tries my faith and my heart as much
as it tries my patience. Where are you, Risen Christ? Certainly not alive in
many of your self-proclaimed followers!
But then again, we see story after story of people reaching
out to serve those in need – random as well as carefully planned acts of
kindness and care – and it strengthens me to continue the fight. I see our
congregation helping fund our local Front Line Appreciation Group, buying meals
from local restaurants to help sustain their businesses – and then giving those
meals to front line healthcare workers so they don’t have to live off fast food
– and I am strengthened in my faith.
But Thomas and his doubt
aren’t meant to be front and center in today’s gospel lesson – at least not the
way we usually portray it all. The story is not meant to separate Thomas from
the other disciples as someone whose faith is somehow less true – just as it
isn’t meant to chide us when we struggle with our own doubts. “At the heart of
the story is Jesus’ generous offer of himself to Thomas.”[1]
The story we call “Doubting
Thomas” in John’s Gospel is about a Jesus who comes to us where we are and how
we are – not demanding acceptance, but
inviting belief. It’s a story about someone who says there will be a time
when we have to move beyond our senses to make sense of what God does for us in the mystery of Easter. This
story is about a Jesus who honors Thomas’ needs – a Jesus who meets Thomas
where he must meet him – so that Thomas, along with his companions, will be
able to proclaim the wonder and power of Easter.
This story from John’s
gospel reminds us that “resurrection doesn’t mean you wake up without scars.”[2]
The whole purpose of Jesus showing his followers his nail-scarred hands and
feet is meant to drive home that reality – that the Jesus they meet on this first
evening of the Resurrection shares a very real continuity with the Lord they
had come to know and love. Throughout our lives there will be more Good Fridays
than we would ever want – and each new Easter in our lives – each experience of
resurrection life we have, will carry with it the scars of each and every
battle we face. The current pandemic will most certainly leave its own scars –
both figuratively and literally. And yet every time we will come through
finding ourselves a new creation – alive and empowered by the life-giving
Spirit of the resurrected Jesus in our lives.
The wonder and power of
Easter is in Christ’s risen presence in our hearts, in our lives, in our
actions – in the way we live and move and have our being in the world around
us. The Risen Christ comes among us offering the gift of peace – of wholeness
and life – and even in the midst of my most serious doubts that wholeness and
life sustains me. The Risen Christ comes among us and offers a wholeness that
calls upon us to be a transformed people called to transform the world.
Jesus breathes on his
disciples and we are reminded of the Spirit of God (Ruach, meaning spirit, breath, or wind) moving over the waters of
creation, of God’s breath breathed into the nostrils of the first human, and of
the wind or breath of God filling the once dried out, dusty, cracked and broken
bones of Israel stretched out before the prophet Ezekiel – “Mortal, can these
bones live?” Yes! Yes they can! The breath of Jesus is the continuing, transforming,
and empowering breath of God – it is the breath of life. It is Easter!
And so Easter is about
finding one’s breath when the world around us feels like the deep vacuum of
outer space. It’s about finding wholeness after a great loss; about finding
truth in face of the world’s lies; courage in the midst of fear; hope in the
midst of despair; justice where there has been only oppression – it’s about
finding life where there has only been death.
In the end, it’s not our
doubt or our skepticism that matters most – it’s the willingness of God in
Christ to be present with us, and for us, in the midst of those doubts, that
matters most – in the touch of a friend, a helping hand, taking a stand for
justice, welcoming the stranger, or something as simple as offering an
encouraging word. When I see someone choose a path of compassion and grace
instead of the easier, and often more alluring path of self-service, lack of
care, greed or hatred – I sense the presence of the Risen Christ.
For you see, Easter is
about more than the ongoing presence of Jesus in this world – though it is
that. Easter is also about God’s vindication of Jesus and his Gospel that
proclaims God’s passion for this world. Easter is God’s “yes” to Jesus, and
God’s “no” to the powers that killed him. And Easter is unbreakably tied to the
gift of God’s Holy Spirit in the life of those who follow the risen Christ –
God’s commission to each and every one of us baptized into Christ to continue
the work of Jesus in the world. As God sent Jesus into the world to proclaim
Good News, Jesus now sends out each of us, scars and all, to do the same.
“Peace be with you,” prays
the Risen Christ. “The Shalom of God – the wholeness – the fullness of God –
the transforming power of God – be with you and shape you – the fullness of God
make you alive again,” prays the Risen Christ. “Now go, and be witnesses to my
love.”
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