April 7, 2024
“Have Life in His Name”
John 20:19-31
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
John 20:19-31
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to 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.”
But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Have Life in His Name John 20:19-31
This story is for the rest of us, the disciples who have been called to ministry in the name of the Risen Christ some two thousand years later. I find it comforting that the authors of the Gospels include stories like this one for us post- first Easter people, stories which let us know that we are not alone in our doubt, in our uncertainty. I find it comforting that the authors of the Gospels included stories like this one about Thomas who like us need to actually experience, who need to have a physical revelation of the Risen Christ in our lives. I appreciate that the authors of the Gospels felt the need to include stories such as this one to let us know that we are not alone in our need to have something more; something real, that we do not want the resurrection to be an experience that someone else tells us about. Rather instead, we want, we need it to be something tangible, something that we can come back to time and time again, for strength, for renewal, for hope, for a reminder that this world does not have the last word.
As I have thought about Thomas’s reaction, as I have thought about the disciples’ response to the empty tomb, I can’t help but notice that after this life changing news, they went back to the familiar. They went back to the comfortable. They tried to go back to life as they knew it. They went back to the upper room where they last had Jesus physically in their midst. They went back to what they used to know. Even Thomas said that he needed, that he wanted, to touch Jesus, to be assured that it wasn’t all a dream.
In our text, we find this group sitting around wanting to go back to the familiar, to the comfortable when the Risen Christ breaks through and reminds them that the empty tomb changed everything. He reminds them that they cannot go back to the way things used to be because those things, those modes of operations no longer work in this new reality. The Risen Christ challenges them to let go of this worn out narrative of “well, we have never done it that way before” and embrace the good news, share the good news so that all will have life in his name.
Or let me say it this way….Some two thousand years later, it is easy to sit in our pews and say that we would have reacted differently to the news of the empty tomb, that we would have believed. Yet, here we are, the second Sunday after Easter, already falling back into our routines, myself included. We need stories like this one to remind us that we can’t go back. We have been changed. We have embraced a new narrative. We have been called to a new mission, to a new way to be..and that way does not work in a world where comfortable and familiar are the preferred modes of operation.
The gift of the empty tomb is the physical reminder that this world will not, does not have the last word, that we as disciples are called to share the good news of God’s grace and God’s love so that all will have life in his name. The gift of the empty tomb is that it is a physical reminder that we have a choice, that as disciples, we are at a crossroads moment for our faith, for our congregation, for ourselves. It would be so easy to go back to what we used to know. It would be so easy to go back to what is comfortable but the empty tomb reminds us time and time again that everything has changed. And that way no longer works. It challenges us to think about what’s next for us as people of faith, as communities of faith. It challenges us to think about how we as individuals, how we as communities of faith will incorporate, how we will live out the message of new life in all things and through all things.
You see, sometimes when we think about life after the Empty tomb, too many times we become trapped in the darkness of the unknown that there is no way we can ever contemplate let alone imagine what the future may hold for us. So instead of moving forward, we become stuck. We become closed off. We become unable to dream, unable to vision the possibilities of new life, the possibilities of hope, the possibilities of the Beloved Community coming to fruition here on Earth.
That’s why We need stories like this one to shake us up, to wake us up, to offer us hope so that we will be open to the very real presence of God at work in our midst. We need reminders of how we can, how we do, encounter the Risen Christ in our lives here and now so that we will be open to what the future may hold. We gain courage from these experiences so that we can truly become the very real, the very living, moving, breathing Body of Christ here on Earth for all of God’s children. Stories like this one remind us that the resurrection wasn’t a one and done event.
So to borrow from the author of Joh, if we hear nothing else today, please hear this: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name”. May it be so.
Amen.
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