|
Reading: John 20:19-31
-
Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia.
I am Reverend Elder Cecilia Eggleston, Moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches, and I bring you Easter greetings from the Council of Elders, the Governing Board, and the MCC staff.
Will you pray with me?
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 Child of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
When I was young, I went through a phase of watching soap operas. The Australian ones, Neighbours and Home and Away, were my favourites. It was fascinating watching a very different lifestyle from my experience in England, and the characters were written out in a much more interesting way. No one in a British soap died from a shark attack!
As I got older, I noticed how plotlines were developed. A cat would appear that had never appeared before, and then there was a whole storyline about the cat, involving some of the characters in a comedic, tragic, sympathetic, or hostile way. The cat was only mentioned because it was significant to the plot, to give meaning to the story, to show aspects of the characters involved. In the writers’ room for the soap operas, so many storylines would have been developed and then rejected each week, as the production team thought about the significant moments they wanted to convey.
This is what we hear from the writer of John’s gospel:
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 Child of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Remember, the gospels were not written on a fancy laptop and emailed or printed out, or even bashed out on a typewriter. They were written out by hand on papyrus or parchment. The word “manuscript” comes from the Latin: manu (hand) and scriptum (written). These memories and stories were sometimes dictated to a scribe who wrote them down. The original manuscripts were then copied and recopied by hand over many centuries. The sheets of papyrus or pieces of parchment were glued or stitched together to form scrolls that could be up to 30 feet/9 metres long. There was no punctuation, no paragraphs, no chapters, no verse—just a continuous flow of letters.
Part of the reason why it is not always clear what scripture states is because errors crept into the copying process, so variations in the different scrolls started to appear. This whole aspect of biblical literature is fascinating… and not for this sermon!
The point is, just like the scriptwriters, somebody, somewhere, decided what stories would be included to tell the story of Jesus and what was vital to pass on to those “who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
So what is it that is so vital for us to understand from these encounters between the disciples and the risen Christ? There are several big themes in this passage alone:
- Resurrection
- Peace
- Forgiveness
- Doubt
- Faith
Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to the disciples, knowing where they were and managing to get into a locked room. The writer of the gospel goes into detail about Jesus inviting them to examine his wounds, to experience that the torture and death they witnessed on Calvary did happen; to recognise that the person standing before them was Jesus. He appeared twice in this account, each time showing his divine nature by ignoring the natural boundaries of walls and a locked door.
This death-defying resurrection shows us that God is powerful beyond measure and beyond the laws of the universe. Things that seem impossible to us are not impossible to God. Jesus rose from the dead and was alive and present with the disciples.
The first recorded words that Jesus spoke to his disciples were, "Peace be with you." Jesus came to bring peace and to strengthen the disciples with the Holy Spirit. He did not offer riches or power or revenge. He offered peace.
Isn’t that our deepest desire? To sit and know, deep down, that all is well with our soul. That peace that passes all understanding. The peace that sustains us in hard times and enables us to be content in good times.
I invite you, at some point today or during this week, to sit quietly, close your eyes, and just focus on your breathing. In and out, in and out. Even if you only manage a few breaths before your mind starts to wander, you may still glimpse and experience that deep peace that Jesus offers.
The disciples were going to step out into a whole heap of challenges if they truly responded to Jesus sending them out into the world. They needed to carry that peace with them to get them through, just as we need it today. In the midst of the world’s turmoil, it is still possible to experience and live in the peace of Christ.
On this first appearance, Jesus also reminded his disciples about the power of forgiveness. Forgiveness and atonement are important aspects of the Jewish faith. John the Baptist called people to repentance on the banks of the Jordan, offering forgiveness through baptism. In the words Jesus spoke at the Last Supper, he told his followers that his blood would be shed for the forgiveness of sins.
If we forgive someone, we are releasing them. We are also releasing ourselves from that situation, moment, or experience. If we don’t forgive someone, they retain our unforgiveness and we retain—we keep—the offence, pain, and hurt that has been caused to us. Forgiveness is not always easy. It is a process, not an event. It may take a lifetime. We may only be able to forgive a part of what happened to us. Jesus reminds his disciples, including us, that forgiveness is in our hands to offer and to receive.
Christ could have chosen not to forgive Thomas. Instead, he responded with love, patience, and kindness, giving Thomas what he needed in order to believe, to feel safe, to understand that the impossible had happened. Jesus didn’t banish Thomas or smite him with lightning. Jesus allowed for doubt and fear of the unknown. He still loved Thomas and knew what he needed in order to feel safe again, to restore his faith again. We are still loved, in the midst of our doubts and fears. It is okay, like Thomas, to ask for what we need in order to grow in faith.
And, like Thomas, we need to be willing to change our minds and be open to the possibility of God offering us something beyond our current experience. It is one of the great gifts of MCC that so many of us are engaged in ministry in ways that we never thought were possible. God’s love for us has been revealed in ways that we never thought would happen. Just think for a moment about your life. Where are the moments for you, in your life?
Finally, Jesus blesses those who, like us, will believe, even though we have not seen Jesus in the way that the disciples experienced him. We are already blessed by Jesus, because of the faith we have in Christ and through the faith that we have:
- Faith that sustains us in hard times, when we so desperately need to feel God’s peace;
- Faith in times of doubt and unforgiveness;
- Faith in those moments when we experience new life in the resurrection, when something happens that renews our faith and fills our hearts with joy.
Resurrection. Peace. Forgiveness. Doubt. Faith.
There is so much for us in this resurrection story. I wonder what we would choose to write if we wrote the gospel of our experience of Jesus.
May the joy of resurrection be yours today. Amen.
| 
