Second Sunday of Easter: Believing in the Resurrection We Cannot See

Scripture Basis

 

John 20:19-31 (NRSV)

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked 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, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Blog Reflection

I really love Thomas. Good for him! Thomas was not ready to believe a story based on what he had been told. Thomas wanted to see the evidence of the disciples' description of what happened. Thomas was not satisfied with the words of those who had told him. Thomas wanted to see for himself if the story he heard was true.

"Truth is a funny thing sometimes" said Ninny Threadgood in the movie Fried Green Tomatoes. Truth can be frightening.  Truth can also be a very grim picture of reality. Truth can cause us pain as well as happiness.  Truth is also something we prefer to see rather than be told.  What we are told, we can have some kind of skepticism about. 

That is what Thomas did.  Thomas met the story of Jesus' resurrection from the disciples with skepticism.  Perhaps Thomas wanted to be sure that if he was going to commit the rest of his life to telling others about the resurrection he wanted to see it for himself.  I am willing to bet that there was one disciple among them that felt that Thomas was doing them a favor.  He wanted to see the resurrected Christ, so that they could too, to confirm what they might have thought was their imaginations playing tricks on them.

The resurrection for us who cannot see Jesus and/or place our hands in the nail prints of his hands or his side, believing in the risen Christ is more than being able to see and touch.  We have to believe in it through the lives of those who claim to profess it as a part of their faith.

In his Easter Day sermon, The Very Rev. Dr. John Hall, Dean of Westminster Abbey said:

It is not a truth easy for us to receive but it does lie at the heart of God’s purpose in Christ - and it is what Easter is all about: the triumph of self-giving love. Our human instinct is to get and to grasp, to hold on to what is ours, to exercise influence, authority and power. This is quite different from the way God shows us in Christ: the way of self-giving love.

In another paragraph Dean Hall says:

What changes their (the disciples) mind? What makes them get it? The body of Jesus is wrapped hastily in cloths and buried in a borrowed tomb hewn out of the rock. They seal a great stone over the entrance. The end. You know what happens next. We have just listened to St John’s account of the first Easter morning. The tomb is empty and the body gone. Peter and the Beloved Disciple come and see. The risen Lord Jesus appears to Mary of Magdala. Later he appears to the other disciples in different places and in different ways. This is not resuscitation. The body of Jesus has not been revived. This is different. Sometimes they fail at first to recognise him. Mary Magdalene thinks him the gardener. He comes and goes mysteriously. But he is no ghost. They do know it is the Lord. They eat and drink with him. Thomas is able to put his fingers into the holes in his hands and his hand into his side.

There are many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people who have an earnest desire to believe in the goods of the Christian Faith.  What keeps them from believing?  What they are not seeing.   Like Thomas it is not enough for LGBT people to be told that God can "change" their lives in a good way while suggesting that the one thing that they simply cannot change, nor will God change, has to be changed in order for them to give evidence of the resurrection in their lives. 

That is not Good Friday for LGBT people.  That is not Easter Day for LGBT people.  That kind of thing is already hell.  And that kind of thing is precisely why so many young LGBTQ people take their lives through suicide. Because they feel that there is no hope for them in God unless they "change" which leads to them suppressing that part of themselves that was not meant to be suppressed.

If that is the picture of the resurrection that Christians want LGBT people to have, no wonder they would prefer to stay away.

If the resurrection is best evidenced in the "handing over of power" and the "triumph of self-giving love" by trusting in God with a situation as is, then Christians must help LGBT people including teens see that they can approach the risen Christ just as they are, and find fulfillment in God as good and holy people.   Without having to submit themselves to an ex-gay group to feel like that is their only hope. 

To believe in the resurrection we cannot see would be the Church handing over the need to dominate and supercede other religions and points of view that do not fit into the ideal of a Caucasian, heterosexual, English speaking/writing, wealthy, healthy, employed male.  To give evidence of the resurrection so that those who have not seen the risen Christ and yet believe would have to include seeking to end the violence against African Americans, Native Americans, women, LGBT and so on.   It is not enough to wish good things on those who cannot help themselves as James suggest in James 2: 14-26.  "Faith with works is dead."  Faith in the resurrection without working to end prejudice and violence might as well be a dead story.  The Easter story stopped at Good Friday. 

We know that Christians can and do produce really good results when we work for a better tomorrow for those who "walk in darkness and the shadow of death."   When Christians make historic changes that help people see that Christians really seek the good will of all people without necessarily converting every person, new friendships and movements for change begin and thrive.  The wounds of indifference and hate do get healed.  Forgiveness, trust and love help build bridges "between your heart and mine" as Naomi Judd sang, when Christians put aside prejudice and serve others because it is the right thing to do.

As we continue through this Easter Season, let us become the evidence people need to believe in the resurrection they cannot see.

Prayers

Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for the Second Sunday of Easter, Book of Common Prayer, page 224)

Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  (Prayer for Social Justice, Book of Common Prayer, page 823).

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.  (Prayer attributed to St. Francis, Book of Common Prayer, page 833).