EASTER 2A - Acts 2:14a, 22-32; Psalm 111; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31 - 30 March 2008 -

A sermon given by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

 

Recognition, Confession, and Action

 

JESUS, THE DISCIPLES, AND THOMAS

Let’s review this resurrection story for a few minutes.

 

According to John, this was the second appearance of the resurrected Jesus, and it happened in two stages, beginning that first Easter night. Here’s the sequence.

 

- Even though Mary Magdalene had reported earlier in the day that she had seen the risen Lord, all the disciples except Thomas were hiding out in one place, out of fear.

 

- Jesus’ resurrected body, though there was some continuity with the past, was a different kind of body, because he was able to pass through locked doors. Suddenly he stood among them and said “Peace be with you” and showed them his hands and his sides.

 

- Once they saw his scars, his disciples saw who he was. The light bulb of recognition came on, and they rejoiced.

 

- He wished them peace - shalom - again, and then gave them a mini-parable of what was to come, when he said, “As the Father has sent me, so I sent you.” Just as Jesus was sent into the world, so would they be, too. They would be given a mission, and to do this mission, they would be empowered by God. And so, breathing on them, he said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” They would receive that Holy Spirit, in a big way - and for good - fifty days later, on the day of Pentecost.

 

- Did I mention that Thomas wasn’t there? That turned out to be a key part of this particular resurrection appearance, because when Thomas returned from wherever he had been, and the ten told him, excitedly, just as Mary Magdalene had before them, that they had seen the Lord, Thomas didn’t believe them. He’d known these guys for a while now, and they should have been credible witnesses, but Thomas wasn’t prepared to believe that Jesus was alive again, in a new way. And so he made the remarks that have become famous, thanks to John’s gospel, and which have cast him in our minds - and in the minds of many over the centuries - as “doubting Thomas”. He said, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and I put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hands in his side, I will not believe.” (John 20:25)

 

- Evidently another trait of the risen Jesus was that he could hear things even though he was not physically present or visible in the room. It was now a week later. The doors were not necessarily locked, but they were shut, and Jesus did that appearing-through-closed-doors thing again, and this time Thomas was there. And he wished them all shalom, and then he immediately spoke directly to Thomas and said, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” (John 20:27)

 

- Thomas, according to John, didn’t put his finger anywhere, or reach out his hand to touch Jesus’ side. He just said - and this is not a small thing that he did - “My Lord and my God!” He confessed - he proclaimed Jesus as Lord and Messiah and God, all in that moment.

 

- Jesus went on to say, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” That would be a reference to all of those, including us, who did not live during the time of Jesus, who - through the testimony of reliable witnesses - would come to believe that Jesus was Lord, Messiah, and Son of God.

 

- Through tradition we hear the end of this story. Thomas’ sending took him to Parthia (modern-day Afghanistan), Persia (modern-day Iran), and India (modern-day India). According to Indian Christians, Thomas planted the church in Kerala, India and was martyred in Madras, in southern India. (Through the Bible Through the Year, John Stott, p. 275)

 

FAITH AS R-C-A

 

This story says something to me about the components of faith. Perhaps, if it is helpful, you can remember them with the letters R, C, and A.

 

R stands for recognition. Faith begins with recognizing who God is, and recognizing where and how God shows up in the world. After Jesus had lived and been crucified and then started showing up in various places and to various people with a resurrected body - as in the story we just heard - people started to say, “This was a unique man. He had the best attributes of humanity, but he also had divinity in him.” They recognized something different in him.

 

C stands for confession. Those who saw these special, unique traits in Jesus proclaimed it to him and to others. To confess doesn’t just mean to be sorry for your sins and to repent - to turn away - from an old way of life. It does include that. But it also means to acknowledge and declare one’s faith. And so they called him - they confessed him to be - Messiah... Lord... Son of God.... King of kings and Lord of lords.

 

A stands for action. Jesus said they would be sent out, and they were. Empowered by the Spirit, these disciples who had been terrified, these same ones who had been locked behind closed doors, as they feared for their lives, became men and women of great courage and action. They went out from Jerusalem, telling anyone who would listen about how they had encountered God in Jesus Christ, what a life-changing experience it had been, and how their journey with Christ continued.

 

They told the story in different ways. They were sent to different places, as we just heard in hearing the story of where Thomas went. Fortunately for us, some of them wrote of their experiences, and those stories and testimonies became part of our Bible. The writer of 1 Peter put it into words this way:

 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5, emphasis mine)

 

The proclamation here says that because of what God has done for us through Christ, we are the beneficiaries of a new birth, a living hope, an inheritance, and salvation.

 

New birth - no more locked doors or fear ruling our lives... we can go into the world with faith and courage, because God has conquered even death itself, and given us a new way of being in the world

 

Living hope - because Christ has been resurrected, we too will be given a resurrected body when we die; not only that, but according to the Bible, the universe will eventually be renewed, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth

 

Inheritance - we inherit, because of Jesus’ actions on our behalf, life with God; it begins now, and it is eternal

 

Salvation - a very rich word... I would argue that it begins now, too, but is not completed until sometime in the future, after our final judgment occurs; it includes the notion of being delivered from an old, destructive way of life that leads only to death, and being transferred into a whole new world, a whole new way of being; it also includes the idea of being healed, and that healing comes with time, with growth, through ongoing companionship with Christ

 

John’s proclamation, at what was probably the original ending to his Gospel, is this: “... these are written so that you may come to believe [or, “may continue to believe”] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31)

 

CONCLUSION

 

Thomas didn’t believe his fellow disciples, when they first told him that they had seen the Lord. None of us lived in that time. None of us have seen Jesus living among us. And yet, we have the testimony of reliable witnesses - those who did live with Jesus, listen to him, eat with him, see the scars on his hands and feet and side. Their testimony, including Thomas’, has been passed on to us, through the Bible. Ultimately, whether we have faith or not comes down to these three things.

 

Do we recognize the risen Jesus’ presence in our lives, through the power of the Spirit?

Do we confess him as our Lord, Savior, and Messiah?

Do we see that we, too, are sent out into the world in Jesus’ name, and do we go, telling others, in our own unique ways - “by word and example” - the Good News of God in Christ?