Second Sunday of Easter
Notes
Transcript
Easter 2B
Easter 2B
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed - hallelujah!
Earlier this week, New York City Pastor Timothy Keller said, “The early Christians did not believe because they wanted to believe. They didn’t believe just because it was an inspiring story. They believed because the evidence was so overwhelming they were forced to believe it in spite of everything they actually thought.”
I’ve been mulling over this ever since I encountered it. This puts the episode with Thomas in a whole new light, doesn’t it? We always call him “Doubting Thomas” because he refused to believe without evidence, but Jesus eagerly gave him the evidence he needed to believe. Jesus gave him exactly what he needed to help him in his faith.
And honestly, are the other apostles any better? Look back at how our Gospel lesson started. “Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you.’ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.” Not until Jesus gave them proof were they glad. Not until they had EVIDENCE did the disciples believe that it was Jesus standing there among them.
I don’t know that I’m any better. I have doubts rather frequently. More frequently than I want to admit to myself, let alone publicly. There are plenty of things that cause me to have doubts. I don’t like this about myself, but I’m not going to lie about it. It’s true. And the Gospel lesson this morning lets me know that I’m not alone. Even the apostles - the CLOSEST of Jesus’ own followers and friends - had doubts.
Let’s think about who these people were. Here we had a group of 11 men (by this time, Judas was dead), all of whom had given up everything to follow Jesus of Nazareth. They left home and family, job and hometown. They had barely the clothes on their back, and little else, to follow this carpenter’s son who they had come to believe was the Christ - the Messiah foretold by the prophets. Christ had come and was going to deliver them from, well, “oppression” was what the prophets said. That must mean he was going to get rid of the Romans who were occupying the Promised Land, right?
Well, the Romans executed him at the request of the chief priests and scribes. Jesus said something about being killed, but they thought that was just a metaphor. He wasn’t really going to die, was he? But he did! They all scattered when he was arrested, but John was there at the cross with Jesus’ mother, and he saw Jesus breathe his last breath. He saw the guard pierce Jesus’ side, and blood and water came out, but Jesus didn’t even flinch. He was surely dead, and they buried him.
So much for all that “Messiah” talk. What kind of a Messiah lets himself get arrested, tortured, and executed? How can he deliver us if he’s dead? Oh sure, Mary Magdalene says that she had a vision of Jesus or something yesterday at the tomb, but did she really? After all, Peter and John were there, too, and they didn’t see Jesus. Why would Jesus appear to Mary Magdalene and not to Peter and John? She wasn’t an apostle; she must be just crazy with grief.
So what should these 11 men do now? They have no one to follow. They don’t know if they’re safe, or if they’re going to be arrested and killed also. They don’t know if they should stay hiding for a while, or if they should sneak off back to Galilee and see if they can get their old jobs back… What should they do here? It sure seems like hope is gone. Evil has won. Might as well give up and accept what *is*.
And right in the middle of all this despair and hopelessness, Jesus appears to them and gives them what they need - something to help their belief. Evidence - visible, tangible evidence. And with all that they were facing in that moment, I don’t blame them for needing that. “…the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews...” - yeah, their faith was lacking in that moment. What’s the opposite of faith? Fear. Fear had a tight hold on them, and they couldn’t overcome it. Not on their own, anyway.
Now notice this: did these men go out and look for Jesus? No, they did not. Jesus came to them. Jesus appeared to them in a way that only the Son of God could. Locked doors could not keep him out. And his appearing to them showed them that death itself had no power to hold him, either. Making certain that they knew he was risen, he proved that he was not a ghost or a spirit by showing them his wounds - the holes in his hands and the spear-puncture in his side. They could touch his very flesh and tell that it was really Jesus. He did what he said - he rose from the dead!
All, that is, except Thomas. He wasn’t there for Jesus’ appearance, so he needed that same evidence. He needed what they had received. He needed Jesus to step in and do for him what he did for the other 10. And Jesus did. It was his purpose to do this before his ascension to the Father. Now that he is ascended, you and I will not benefit from such a visit…and that’s okay. We’re not meant to have that sort of experience. It’s not our time. Not yet, anyway.
That’s not to say that Jesus doesn’t reveal himself in other ways. The Risen Christ reveals himself to us in different ways. This Gospel lesson is just one way. We may not have been there to see this happen with our own eyes, but the evangelists - like John - wrote it all down so that we could share in their experience. “[These] are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
This is the Gospel for us. Reading it and studying it and hearing it proclaimed is one of the most important ways for Christ to reveal himself to us. When we give him the opportunity to reveal himself to us frequently, it is of real benefit to our faith and our life in Christ.
We also have his Holy Supper, which we will celebrate shortly. Even though we don’t understand exactly how he does it, this little wafer and small sip of wine are so much more than just pressed wheat flour and fermented grapes juice. These elements somehow mysteriously become vessels for our Lord and Savior to use to reveal himself to us. He instituted this meal specifically for this purpose - that we would participate in it as he commanded, and that he would be present with us in that meal. It is his will for us to do this so that we would remember him, and that he would come to us. Luther writes in his Large Catechism: “...what is the Sacrament of the Altar? Answer: It is the true body and blood of the Lord Christ in and under the bread and wine which we Christians are commanded by Christ’s word to eat and drink.
As we said of Baptism that it is not mere water, so we say here that the sacrament is bread and wine, but not mere bread or wine such as is served at the table. It is bread and wine comprehended in God’s Word and connected with it.” [Theodore G. Tappert, ed., The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press, 1959), 447.]
This is what I come back to when I have doubts. I go to the Word first. Then I seek the Sacrament. I find the Risen Christ where He told us He would be - in His Word and His Sacraments. There my faith can be refreshed, recharged, renewed.
What does it mean for us that the tomb is empty? What does it mean for us that Christ is Risen from the dead? Jesus spent roughly 3 years from his baptism to his crucifixion teaching, doing signs and wonders, and proclaiming God’s promises. People who sat at his very feet hearing him in person had a difficult time believing that he was who he said he was. Then he told them he had to die and then would be raised again in 3 days, and from what we read in the Gospel accounts, they didn’t really believe that either…until they saw him again in person.
Having doubts is not the end of your faith. It doesn’t mean that you have lost ALL of your faith. Having doubts is simply part of the struggle we face with sin every day, nothing more. Don’t make it out to be more than it is. It will find ways to try to creep into our hearts and weaken our relationship God. It will try. It will make attempts to draw us away from the path God wants us to be on. Doubt is something all of us face. Remember this: the hardest way to fight doubt is to try to do it alone. And you don’t have to.
Remember my favorite Dietrich Bonhoeffer quote? Let me refresh you if you don’t. He said this: “God has willed that we should seek and find God’s living Word in the testimony of other Christians, in the mouths of human beings. Therefore, Christians need other Christians who speak God’s Word to them. They need them again and again when they become uncertain and disheartened because, living by their own resources, they cannot help themselves without cheating themselves out of the truth. They need other Christians as bearers and proclaimers of the divine word of salvation. They need them solely for the sake of Jesus Christ. The Christ in their own hearts is weaker than the Christ in the word of other Christians. Their own hearts are uncertain; those of their brothers and sisters are sure.”
“Living by their own resources, they cannot help themselves without cheating themselves out of the truth.” Perhaps I should have said that we SHOULDN’T try to fight doubt alone…from what Pastor Bonhoeffer tells us, it’s pretty dangerous! So seek out your brother or sister in Christ and ask for their help, or their prayer, or just to read the Bible together. Boost each other’s faith. You might even discover that that very same person you asked for help from needed a little help of their own.
The last 15 months or so has been unlike anything I could have imagined, and I know most of you feel the same way. I’ve spoken with a lot of you about that. So I *know* we all have doubts. I know all of us have some fears about what’s happening in our country and around the world, what’s going to happen with this pandemic, and what’s changing in our society. There are days when it seems like everything is broken. And that’s when God reminds me that everything *is* broken…at least, everything in this world is broken.
But when I look around and see what God is doing in the middle of all of this chaos, I *can* see Him at work. I see people turning to God with more passion than they were before the pandemic. I see people helping others in new ways that we might not have thought of before we all went into lock-down mode. I talk to people who want to know more about what Christian faith means beyond just Sunday morning…and they want to do something about it.
Brothers and sisters, God is doing something. I don’t know everything that He’s doing, but I see parts of it. I know some of you see it, too. So now we ask ourselves: what is He calling us to do? What is He calling us to be? That may be as a church family, or that may be as individuals, but I am asking that all of us would please be open to hearing that call, whatever it may be. There is plenty of need out there, and we have some wonderful gifts in our church family. One way to measure church success is when we can find a need in our community that our gifts can match, and we focus our effort there.
This is what it means to “believe that Jesus is the Christ...” And that by believing we may have life in his name. That’s the kind of life God wants us to have, and that’s the kind of life I want us to share together. Let’s keep our eyes, ears, and hearts open to those kinds of needs that our gifts can meet. That is how we will answer God’s call for us to proclaim his good news.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed - hallelujah!
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.