+Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!!
This is known as Easter 2 Sunday by clergy. “Easter 2” sounds like a movie sequel. But instead, it simply means that a whole week has gone by since Easter.
During the season of Easter, there are two liturgical changes that you should know about. First, we do not read from the Old Testament. Instead we have a second helping from the New Testament, often from the Book of Acts.
Secondly, we do not have a general confession in this season. The death and resurrection of Jesus redeemed the world, and so we live in the bright light of that act for fifty days—so inspired, so graced, so forgiven, that a confession is not needed. Wow.
One would think we’d find the world transformed by the resurrection, but a whole week has flown by and now we find the gospel reading set in a locked room where the disciples are hiding and our first lesson shows the almost fanatical devotion that Peter and the apostles had. Let’s look at the first reading first.
In the text from the Book of Acts the once disheartened followers of Jesus have been running loose in Jerusalem doing “signs and wonders.” The common people hold them in “high esteem.” Great numbers are joining them. The poor are bringing their sick hoping that Peter’s shadow will fall on them to make them well. These are the people of the day who have no hope of health care.
The government officials are not happy with this. They have the apostles thrown into prison. But an angel delivers them saying, “Go to the temple; tell the people the whole message about this life.” So the apostles went and when the high priest and his cronies found that the apostles were back on the streets teaching the people, they sent police to arrest them (again) and drag them before the court. That’s where the scripture today begins.
The authorities tell the apostles that they must stop teaching about Jesus—just stop it–and the Apostles answer, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” So they will continue telling about Easter, continue healing the poor, no matter what the police do.
At the other end of the spectrum is the gospel this morning. It is actually set in the first day of the week—several days before the events of the first reading. If I had thought of it sooner, we could have read them in chronological order rather than liturgical order.
The juxtaposition is intentional. In fact, there will be more of this as we proceed in the weeks ahead. The intent is to show how Jesus’ disciples can go from bewilderment and gut fear to bold preaching and ministry.
One vehicle for this transformation is in Thomas looking at the wounds of Christ. I think I’m safe in saying that few of us are shocked by Thomas’ doubt. That may because we are all living in a post-modern world that is governed more and more by the autonomy of the individual opinion. “Oh you can talk about truth, but the only truth that is real to me is the truth that I decide is real.”
So, not only are we not shocked by doubt; we probably extol it.
But what about how willing Jesus is to show Thomas his wounds? Does that shock you? We don’t want to look at wounds.
As a priest and former hospital chaplain, I’ve had my fair share of individuals who were all too eager to show me their scars, their incisions, their wounds. Thanks, but no thanks. I’m a little queasy thinking about Jesus asking Thomas to touch his wounds. ‘Doubt’ I can deal with; those ugly marks of human suffering on the body of the risen Christ move me to an uncomfortable place.
Frankly, as a child of the 50’s, there have been times when I really wished that Jesus had been more like a superman, “faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.” These days, Hollywood might portray Jesus as the divine avatar that enters another world to save its inhabitants from destruction.
It would be easier to think of a Christ like that. I have had people ask me to “Tell God to make that person do…” Instead, we get a Savior who is recognized by his scars. Too human?
When I have been in the presence of death in the hospital room, as I was just last night, I really have yearned for a Christ who would magically and thoroughly remove the grief and the earthiness of the moment. But all I can offer is a Christ with scars.
Our Christ descends into the valley of the shadow of death, into hell itself, the hell of suffering through which we may all walk at one time or another. We do not have any superhuman high priest to instantly wipe away our weakness, but we do have a Savior who has shared fully in all our experience.
And as I have stood with families, it was all I had to offer—and……..it is enough.
Those shocking scars were enough for those disciples and, obviously, for Thomas. They were enough for Thomas to overcome his doubts and to awaken his faith.
I know my history well enough to know that gods were not intimate with their creation. For Jesus to come along and so dramatically show how intimate God wanted to be with his creation, this was a radical departure from the religions of the time. And I think this is what Thomas realized and internalized.
Maybe that is where we each need to be at in order to be converted by the limitless love of Christ.
I was encouraged this past year when I read The Shack by William Paul Young. The shack itself was a powerful metaphor for the human heart that has been scarred by abuse and pain. It is the house where we hide our wounds. In the book, Mac, the main character, confronts his “great sadness” when he opens the door of his shack. There he discovers not some vengeful god, but the all-embracing love of the Trinity who had been in the midst of his wounds all the time.
In Christ’s invitation to Thomas to touch the scars on his body, he was inviting all of us to experience the presence of Christ by touching the scars in our own lives. There is no doubt about it—that would be shocking.
Thomas had his conversion experience. He knew because he saw. He immediately knew what the resurrection meant now for him. And he went on to carry the Word of God to the far-off countries of Pakistan and India where there are still churches that carry his name.
My question for you this morning is this: What does the resurrection of Jesus Christ mean for you?
I don’t mean the story of the resurrection. I don’t mean the poetry and the drama of the resurrection story. What does the physical resurrection of Jesus mean for you?
If we feel as though we have to hide behind locked doors, for fear of the fundamentalists or the secularists, Christ will take the initiative and come right on in.
If we are honest at this point, let us blurt out our need, ask God to meet us at our shack, our house of doubt. God will take it seriously and respond.
If we are faithful, God who is faithful and just, will forgive us and speed us on to action in his name. And we will do wondrous things…in his name.
In the mean time…we say Alleluia…without a doubt. Because Christ the scarred is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Amen.
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