April 07, 2024 | Rev. Loren McGrail
Easter Us
John 20:19-31
Rev. Loren McGrail
Holmdel Community United Church of Christ
April 7,2024
The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Caravaggio
They were hiding upstairs in a locked room, the friends, his followers, who knew him best, who couldn’t stay awake when he was praying, who had betrayed him, who had pretended they did not know him, who had run away when he was dying, who hid when he was arrested, who were frightened and ashamed. He appeared to these ones and greeted them warmly. He didn’t ask, ‘What happened?’ or even ‘Where were you?’ He didn’t rebuke them, ‘You deserted me, or You screwed up’. He greeted them saying, ‘Peace.’
We who are monitoring wars around the globe, literally feeling the earth move beneath our feet, our planet falling apart, we need this ‘Peace be with you’ like a balm or a shield of protection. Jesus offered this greeting after showing them his hands and side so they could recognize that he was indeed risen, that he was indeed their Lord.
Notice the text doesn’t say, “and when they repented or when they had promised to be more faithful followers, then they were worthy of receiving Jesus. No. Jesus comes to them and us in the midst of our fears, doubts, and even shame. As Nadia Bolz Weber puts it,
“It takes more than locked doors and lack of faith or low self -esteem to keep Jesus out. In fact, when we are at the point in life when our failings and shortcomings are so unfiltered, when we are at the point in life when we have blown it completely, when we are so undeniably aware of our need for God’s grace — it is then that God comes to us just as we are, bringing us peace and forgiveness. It’s just like God to barge in uninvited through our fear and locked doors to remind us, whether we like it or not, that we are forgiven, that we are more than the sum total of our bad choices and more even than the sum total of our good choices.”
Dear Ones, you are more than the sum total of your bad choices and more even than the sum total of your good choices. Is this not good news? No matter who you are, what you’ve done or think you’ve done, whoever you have betrayed or let down, Jesus greets you saying, ‘Peace.’ You are not accused, you are invited.”
And then Dear Ones, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Like God’s breath to the first humans, Jesus revives them. Once revived he commissions them, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” The chain is completed. From the Father to the Son, from Jesus to the disciples, from the disciples to the world by way of becoming a new creation, by living by the Spirit.
Then the one who touched lepers, the blind, and the lame and who had allowed himself to be touched by a bleeding woman, anointed by another in Bethany, who received Judas’ kiss, who was stabbed by Roman soldiers in his side, and who finally was washed and rubbed with oil after his death, said to Thomas, the one had not seen yet his Lord and who needed physical proof, who needed to see the marks, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”
I love Thomas for his yearning for wanting a living encounter and daring to confess his uncertainty. Mystic Suzanne Griffith says, “For Thomas, the privilege of doubt is a deeper embrace. Invited to place his hand in the divine wound, Thomas touches the interior flesh of the Beloved.” I love that Jesus appears to this skeptical disciple scarred and wounded with a body that still bears its traumatic history of suffering.
Dear Ones, please look at the painting on your bulletin. When you look at this painting by the Italian painter Caravaggio depicting the scene, Christ is drawing Thomas’ hand into his wound. It is an intimate moment, is it not? Christ bows his head over Thomas’ hand, gazing at Thomas as he draws him towards his wound. Thomas’ whole being is absorbed in the wonder and horror.
Theologian Debi Thomas imagines that Jesus winces when Thomas touches him because it would signal a real flesh and blood encounter with real pain saying, “I am with you. I am with you where it hurts. I don’t float thousands of sanitized feet above reality.” After death, Dear Ones, Jesus will dwell in the heart of the chaos of life and where-ever and however we dwell.
When Thomas meets Jesus’s wounds, he recognizes him, “My Lord and my God.” Resurrection happens again like this when we recognize Jesus as our Lord. Jesus does not criticize or judge the disciples for their fears or doubts. His wounds are marks of his love---earned scars through enfleshing love. No, he shows them and invites them to touch and see.
Dear Ones, the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Trust your doubts as part of your faith journey. Honor your questions. Live into them as the poet Rilke said in his masterpiece Letters to a Young Poet, “Live the questions now, perhaps then, someday, you will gradually, without noticing, live into the answer.”
I would like to leave you with a few questions to ponder this Second Sunday in Eastertide:
- How do you honor your questions or pursue your doubts?
- Whose wounded bodies have you touched or been touched by that have allowed you to feel God’s presence?
- What evidence are you looking for to believe? or What evidence of resurrection have you experienced?
- How do you allow your own wounded self to be known by others?
- Have you experienced Jesus’ gift of peace? Can you imagine sharing this with another?
Dear Ones, we cannot hide from the Risen Christ. Allow him to find you, to remind you what he came to teach us, gift us. Invite him to Easter you by breathing new life into you so you can bring peace and forgiveness. And yes, one more thing, invite him to give you Easter power and joy strong enough so that you too can touch and bring healing to the wounds of our fellow creatures who are broken and bleeding. I end with these words from the theologian and poet Walter Brueggemann:
You defeater of death, whose power could not hold you,
come in your Easter,
come in your sweeping victory,
come in your glorious new life.
Easter us,
salve wounds,
break injustice,
bring peace,
guarantee neighbor,
Easter us in joy and strength.
Be our God, be your true self, lord of life,
massively turn our life toward your life
and away from our anti-neighbor, anti-self deathliness.
Hear our thankful, grateful, unashamed Hallelujah!
Amen.