Easter 2

Mike Bowler

Acts 5: 27-32   John 20:19-31

May my words and our thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord. Amen

It doesn’t seem so long ago that we were celebrating Christmas, the birth of Jesus, where God, born as the baby Jesus came to walk as a Man among us. No sooner has the new year got through its first third than we are in the period of Lent, culminating in Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter Sunday last week. It is really quite a whirlwind of happenings, that we have observed for generations. Yes, we need a continual reminder as to who God is, what he did for us, and why we are on this earth. Over the last couple of weeks or so, we have remembered Jesus’s journey towards the cross, His triumphant entry into Jerusalem, the Passover, His betrayal, trial and his death upon the cross.  Three days later, we celebrated the risen Christ, as amazing to us, who have had the advantage of having heard the story before, as it was to the disciples and those who witnessed it those years ago in Jerusalem. Our celebration of Easter, with hot cross buns, chocolate eggs and easter bunnies is so very different form that first Easter Sunday, and its aftermath. 

We come to today. The readings from John’s Gospel chapter 20 covers events of that Sunday long ago. Before dawn, the tomb is found empty by Mary Magdalene. Some of the disciples see it for themselves. Mary meets Jesus whom she mistakes for a gardener and is sent to the disciples with a message. The passage for today takes us to late on Sunday evening. The disciples were together in a locked room. Possibly the same room where they had shared the Passover meal with Jesus, His last supper. They were behind locked doors in a state of terror. Jesus had been tried, sentenced to death and crucified only three days before. And to make matters worse, the body of Jesus had been removed or possibly even stolen from the tomb. The Jews were out for blood and they had already got a taste of it when they convinced Pilate to send Jesus to the cross. The disciples possibly thought that they would also be hunted down and summarily dispatched, with or without the help of the Romans. Every creak of the stairs could have been assailants approaching the door. It must have been very frightening, there in the darkness of a closed room. Their world was collapsing around them. They would have only been human to have thought that this was the end of the road for them as it had been for their Lord.

Then Jesus came and stood amongst them and said “ Peace be with You.” On the face of it, this was a common Hebrew greeting “Shalom aleichem”. He knew what their state of mind would be after the events of the last few days. Jesus wasn’t just greeting them casually. This was a divine offering of Peace, an inner rest and calm. I would imagine the disciples were somewhat speechless. This was totally unexpected. No door had been forced open. Jesus was just there amongst them. In their frightened state of mind, in the dim light of that room, they probably thought they were seeing a ghost. Indeed Jesus showed them his wounds to establish completely who he was.  What Jesus said next was a commission to them. “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (v21) and He then breathed on them and said “Receive the Holy Spirit”. The relationship with God and man stretches back to Genesis, where “the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being.” (Gen 2:7). This breath of the Holy Spirit was a re awakening, a new creation, the Church was being re created for a divine task, in the New Covenant.  At this point, Jesus was saying that His work on this earth might be nearly over, but he needed the disciples, the Church, to take His message to the rest of the World. The disciples weren’t just taking a message from a dead leader, in His memory, in the hope of carrying on His good works. No, that would not have survived the barriers which were to lie ahead. The process would have petered out. Failure was almost assured. The disciples were taking the Message from a risen Jesus Christ, who had given them divine peace, commissioned them, re created and empowered them with the Holy Spirit. In the wonder, confusion, disorientation of that first Easter day, a wonderful thing had happened.

But one disciple was missing from the room that Sunday night.
Thomas, also known as Didymus, was a twin. Didymus is a Greek word for twin and Thomas itself is a derivative of an Aramaic word for twin. We therefore don’t really know his name, and we know nothing about his Twin. What happen in the part of Johns story has given us the term Doubting Thomas. This incident is only mentioned in John’s gospel, which makes it even more special. Thomas was one of the twelve disciples so was close to Jesus. He was devoted to Jesus and courageous. Earlier in John, Thomas was recorded as saying, at the time of Lazarus’s death, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” (John 11:16). Thomas was probably also a bit of a pragmatic pessimist. He was aware that the road that Jesus and the disciples were journeying on was inevitably going to lead to the cross. What happened to Jesus was not therefore unexpected by Thomas, but still left Thomas grief stricken. He may have been wanting to be by himself, alone with his grief, and removed himself from the company of the others. He was not with other disciples that Sunday night.
He got to hear that the others had seen the Lord! His pessimistic nature did not let him believe this report without proof. He wanted to put his hands and fingers where the nails and wounds were. Thomas had known Jesus for some time and shared the journey with him and had foreseen that the journey would possibly end badly. He possibly thought the statements of Jesus reappearance after being crucified and laid in the tomb were wishful thinking. The facts and the words weren’t tying up. There needed to be further evidence.

A week later, the disciples were again at the house, but this time Thomas was with them. Jesus returned and stood amongst them, and said “Peace be with you”. Jesus knew Thomas needed proof, so He invited Thomas to touch his wounds and said “Stop doubting and believe.” (v27) Thomas believed.

Jesus said “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (v29) At that time, in that week after the first Easter, there may have been very few Christians who had not seen the risen Jesus. This was a message to not only Thomas but to future generations as well. Other believers would be coming that would not have the benefit of seeing, which goes against the common statement that “seeing is believing”. We are told a couple of verses further on in the gospel of John that “these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God,   and that by believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31)

What can we learn from Thomas? He had chosen to cope with his loss without the company of the other disciples. This is a habit that we all are probably capable of doing as well. When we are struggling with a loss, or stress or dilemma, or even to pray, we are perhaps inclined to keep it privately to ourselves. Indeed Jesus did this himself. In Luke it is written that “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” (Luke 5:16). Thomas chose to withdraw from Christian fellowship at a time when he felt grief stricken. As a result, he missed the first coming of Jesus, which was witnessed by his fellow disciples. This can happen to us as well. If we withdraw from Christian company at times, when we may feel that we are walking alone with our troubles, we are possibly missing the great comfort and occurrences within Christian fellowship that may just not happen when we are in isolation.

I certainly found this, along with many other Christians, when were in lockdown over the period of this pandemic. Whilst we were isolated, we could share and connect with other Christians with Zoom services and wattsapp messages. We could be together in our separation.
Thomas was a man of his word. He wasn’t prepared to say he believed if he did not believe. This honesty meant Thomas didn’t pretend that he didn’t have doubts. He had to be sure.
Alfred Tennyson wrote “ There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds.”

It is better to be honestly doubtful than to casually repeat things that haven’t been thought out well or that are not really believed.
Thomas’s doubts were not leaving him on the fringes of accepting the risen Lord. When the proof had been offered and received, Thomas said “My Lord and my God” (v28). He wholeheartedly acknowledged Jesus. 

Let us take courage and be grateful that although Thomas had doubts, He believed and through the gift of belief that God gave him, in that room, we might also be blessed with the divine belief. So let us accept the commission given to the disciples “as the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

Christ has Risen! He has risen indeed, Alleluia!
Amen