My Lord and My God

My Lord and My God

The disciples were gathered behind locked doors in fear and confusion.  Fear of the Jewish religious authorities and confusion about what had happened.  They had either seen for themselves or had been told that the tomb was empty.  Where is Jesus? Would they all soon see him?  He did say he would rise after three days and now it’s past that.  Where is Jesus?

I think all of us at some point in our lives find ourselves behind locked doors.  Often that is accompanied by a feeling of fear and confusion.  The locked doors can be either physical or mental.  We ask ourselves that same question; “Where is Jesus”.

The disciples gathered in that room soon had an answer to that question.  

“Peace be with you”. In today’s reading Jesus uses this phrase three times.  Why that many?  Imagine if you can the feeling of that locked room.  To say tensions were running high would be an understatement. Upon the arrest of Jesus, the disciples fled, not staying to support their teacher. Their betrayal would be on their minds. The disciples had no idea what the Jewish or Roman authorities would do to them if they were found.  Look what had happened to Jesus.  Fear would be on their minds. They also were asking themselves and each other about the resurrection of Jesus.  Could it happen? Would it happen? His body is missing from the tomb. Where is Jesus? Confusion would be on their minds. Jesus spoke the words; “Peace be with you” to calm them.  

I’m pretty sure if we listen carefully enough, we can hear Jesus say those words to us too.  While it might not be an audible, “Peace be with you” that we hear, Jesus does wish us peace and calmness.  Especially when we are behind those locked doors.  Jesus is here for us.

In the reading, John tells us that the disciples were behind locked doors, and then Jesus stood among them.  Jesus must have shape shifted in some way from outside the locked door to inside the room.  Or did he?  Quite possibly he was always with them.  After all we are told and many of us feel that indeed, Jesus is always with us. He doesn’t come and go, he is always here.  

After his initial greeting, Jesus showed the disciples his wounds and then again said the words; “Peace be with you”.  I often wondered why Jesus wasn’t resurrected with a perfect body.  Why continue to have the wounds of the cross?  I think Fleming Rutledge best answers this question when she says; “ For ever and ever, the price that was paid by the Son of God will be the measure of his love”.

Jesus then repeats his greeting; “Peace be with you”. He had too.  Imagine being in that room.  First of all you can almost smell the anxiety and confusion present. Then all of a sudden, Jesus appears. He shows you the wounds he received from the crucifixion. The crucifixion you fled from.  How do you respond? Jesus needed to calm the disciples, so once again; “Peace be with you”.

“As the father sent me, so I send you.” When he said this, he breathed on them and said to them. “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, there are forgiven them; if you retain the sins, they are retained”.  The disciples received the Holy Spirit. Before Pentecost. Had John just committed a theologian faux pas? At first glance you would have to say yes.  But upon a closer look, I don’t think so.

In John, the promise of the Spirit was for His indwelling the believer, not for being baptized by the Holy Spirit, a different act. What happens in John and what happens during Pentecost are different activities of the Holy Spirit. Additionally, when Jesus meant for the disciples to receive the Holy Spirit, it was in a different sense.  In John, it was to forgive sins.  In Acts, during the Pentecost, the Spirit was given to provide power, to be a witness. Yes this passage is a difficult one, they do exist in the Bible.  At some point we will come to an understanding of these difficult passages.  We will be like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

During this rather incredible meeting with Jesus, there was one who was missing. Thomas. He has gone down in history as the “doubting Thomas”, but that has been unfair. His disbelief was shared by all the disciples in fact. He was the one who vocalized his uncertainty. He needed proof that this was really Jesus.  “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.” For Thomas to believe, he needed to see the wounds of a crucified Jesus.  

A week went by and the disciples were once again behind locked doors, this time Thomas was present.  Then, Jesus appeared.  And for a third time greeted the disciples with; “Peace be with you”. Jesus turned 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”. Jesus had just presented Thomas with the proof he had required. Jesus had answered all his questions.

The reaction of Thomas?  “My Lord and my God!”  Reading the words of John we don’t find out if Thomas actually did touch the wounds.  Thats almost immaterial here.  What does happen to Thomas is startling. When he sees the crucified Jesus standing before him alive, he confesses Jesus as God.  Although Thomas was at one point behind the others in faith, he leaps to the front of the line with his realization that Jesus is now God.

Jesus doesn’t pat Thomas on the back for this acceptance. Jesus looks to the future to you and I.  We believe through a long line of witnesses going back to the disciples who did actually see the Risen Christ.  So, if seeing is believing as it was for Thomas, for you and I, believing is seeing. This faith we have is not intellectual, a vague or general feeling but it is an openness, acceptance and trust directed to God in Jesus.  With this faith, we can join Thomas in saying; “My Lord and My God!”

Perhaps though, Peter says it best; “ Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”