Easter Reality - Open Doors

Easter 2b, April 15, 2012 (John 20:19-31 with Acts 4:32-35 in the bg)

Is it easy to live into Easter reality? Is it easy for us to abide, to dwell in Jesus whom we have not seen with our eyes or touched with our hands?

 

It wasn't easy for those early disciples to live into Easter reality. Mary Magdalene had come from the empty tomb. She had told them about her experience – how the one she thought was the gardener was the Lord. But they hadn't believed her – at least in the sense that such "belief" made any difference in their lives. For when we meet them later that same day, the first day of the week, they are behind locked doors, AFRAID. We are not sure if they are afraid because they may have feared for their lives or because they were afraid of being censured by the religious leaders of the religious establishment – or even because they were still so traumatized. What we do know is that they are paralyzed by fear. They have cut themselves off from the rest of the world despite Mary's testimony that she has seen the Lord – that He is alive!

 

Lest we jump to conclusions about them – about their lack of faith in literally abandoning Jesus and now not trusting Mary's word that she has seen the Lord, we need to examine ourselves. Are we ever behind locked doors? Such doors can take many shapes. We too have heard the confessions of faith  of others. Perhaps these others include parents, grandparents,  or friends. Certainly the others' confessions include the confession of Scripture proclaimed again and again. For me that has been happening throughout my entire life. But do we live into that reality? Are we moved like those Christians in Acts to actively care about whether others have enough by giving, even sacrificially of ourselves? Are we moved like those early Christians in I John to tell others about our experience of God in Jesus - death and evil, hatred and apathy, consuming anger do not ever need to control us? Or are you, am I still behind locked doors, not sure that we can TRUST GOD with  ALL THE STUFF of our lives – with being laughed at or scorned or not having all that we might like, if we truly completely trusted God?

 

Too often I find myself behind locked doors. How about you? (Pause)

 

But even behind locked doors, there is One who can penetrate. That one is the risen Lord, our Lord, Jesus the Christ. He comes to those early frightened, paralyzed, disbelieving disciples. Do we hear what he says to them? Do we hear what he says to us? His are words that God often speaks when God appears to people – because if we even begin to glimpse that it is God through the Spirit or the risen Son who is actually speaking to us – well we may be frightened to paralysis, frightened almost to death.

 

Jesus comes and stands among those frightened disciples in their "locked up" state. He says, "Peace be with you." Then he shows them his hands and his side – yes the brutal wounds with which he has been afflicted. Then he says a second time, "Peace be with you!" But now he doesn't stop there. HE GIVES THEM MORE, MUCH MORE. He speaks further: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." Then he breathes on them. Yes he gets close enough to them not only to touch them, but that they can experience his very breath. He says to them even as He breathes on them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

 

In Jesus' breath they receive God's own Spirit. But this isn't just for their own edification. This is also for the sake of others. Even as they are being forgiven, (and how they need such forgiveness!) - they are to forgive others. They are to let go of other's sins, that others may experience what they are experiencing – new life with God, new life with each other. Only hours, indeed seconds before,  such life seemed literally and utterly impossible, especially for them. They had been retaining their own sins reflected in their paralysis and locked doors. But now... who knows what might be possible? (Pause)

 

An older more experienced Pastor mentioned to me that the refusal to forgive corrodes our souls. I think that it was his way of saying, that when we are unable to experience forgiveness ourselves, to admit our own serious shortcomings - our pretense, our hatred, our anger, our lack of trust in God – then we are literally behind locked doors and cannot live fully.

 

There are many movies that portray this in vivid ways. One comes clearly to mind. Ordinary People, early 1980's, features a seemingly ordinary family- successful, seemingly loving, very middle class. But when the older of 2 sons is killed in a boating accident everything comes unravelled. The younger son attempts to kill himself. He feels that he doesn't measure up in either of his parent's eyes to his brother who has died. The mother tries to pretend that everything is OK when inside she is seething at the reality of the loss of her son. But she cannot admit to herself or to anyone else her anger or her own desperate need for healing. In the end the father and the younger son get help and begin the healing process. They experience new beginnings and much forgiveness from God and from each other. But the mother closes herself off and is literally all locked up... Yet, it doesn't have to be that way!

 

The early disciples are just beginning to experience the freedom, the possibilities and the risks of forgiveness. One of their number wasn't with them that first night. They try to tell him (Thomas) that they too have seen the Lord. But Thomas is sceptical. I don't blame him. All that he is asking for is that he be afforded the same privilege the they were. He too wants to see  – the risen Jesus. He wants tactile proof. He intends to be more deliberate than them. Thomas intends to touch Jesus' wounds.

 

A week later Jesus comes to the shut doors of those disciples. Yes, the doors are shut again – it's a recurring problem. We are not told whether the door is locked, but it is shut. This time Thomas is with them. Jesus comes looking for Thomas wanting to move Thomas from not believing, not trusting Christ – to a living trust, a life that no longer hides behind "closed doors". Once again Jesus says to all of them, "Peace be with you!" Then he directs Thomas to actually touch him with his finger and his hands, to no longer disbelieve but to trust!

 

Do you notice what happens next? ... Without touching Jesus  Thomas confesses his personal trust in Jesus. Thomas says of Jesus, "MY LORD and MY GOD!"

 

By God's grace (and only that – although "that" is so much!) Thomas is beginning to enter into Easter reality. Such trust exceeds sight. For most of us such trust may begin with sound. It is the Spirit's work to move us and all to such faith. It is this same Spirit that Jesus breathed upon those early disciples behind their locked doors. It is that same Spirit which is showered upon us in baptism, from whom we are to live every day.  It is that Spirit Who moves us to see our own sin – as serious as that is: our own hatred, our own apathy, our own lack of trust in God. But in seeing our own sin or even before we realize how "locked up" we are – it is the risen Christ who comes to us in so many ways. He wills to bring a peace that is not some warm fuzzy but a peace that calls us to live with one another honestly, caringly and openly, because we are joined to other in Christ's suffering, death and resurrection. It is this peace that calls us to go out into the world as we experience forgiveness to seek to share with others forgiveness and honesty, new life.

 

This is Easter reality. May it be so with us and through us for Christ's sake, Amen.