March 30, 2008
(Second Sunday of Easter)
Resurrection Here and Now
by
The Rev. Joe Behen, Clergy Assistant
Acts 2:14a,22-32 • Psalm 16 • 1 Peter 1:3-9
• John 20:19-31
(From
The Lectionary Page)
What does the Resurrection change about my life? What is the nature of resurrection, and how am I supposed to respond to it? It seems that these are the kind of questions that the writer of today’s gospel is addressing. “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.” Resurrection certainly has something to do with what happens after physical death, but it seems that this passage from John’s gospel would have us to look in the here and now to find out what difference the Resurrection makes.
“…it was evening of the day of Resurrection… and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews.” The disciples’ fear was directly related to the image that they undoubtedly had of what had happened to Jesus in the horrible events of the previous few days. Even if they had run from the scene of the crucifixion in fear, how could they not have a gruesome image in their minds of what had happened to him? The possibility that this would happen to them also was quite real. But what if that’s just the point?
As they sat in the locked room, the disciples could almost feel the nails being driven into their own hands. Maybe they could even picture the view of the world as it must look like when hanging on a cross. They might have even guessed how it feels to know that for the rest of their short life, they could not be disconnected from the wood that held them fast, struggling for life while being pulled towards death. It was the equivalent for them of Jesus’ agony in the garden described in the synoptic gospels. All this is to say simply that their fear was quite real. Tradition tells us that this is in fact what awaited them in some way. Until Jesus appeared to them fear was controlling their every action, every thought.
While crucifixion is not our own reality, we do have fears of our own that are so real as to be tangible. We can imagine hearing the doctor telling us grimly that our life span is reduced to a matter of weeks. We can imagine ourselves or those we love most dearly being sent into combat. These fears can also be more subtle, but equally paralyzing. For some of us job security feels like a small thread upon which our livelihood and that of our family hangs. Or maybe it’s the thought of going to a job that seems to suck the life from you, and that perhaps you see no escape from it. This can create despair that seems to direct you against your will. We all know that these fears are very real.
Our fears have a way of controlling us. Sometimes we are very aware of this, but other times our fear slips into the background, especially if it has been with us for a while. We learn to live with it and even imagine it to be gone. But it still drives us. Our lives can become defined by our various methods of keeping these fears at bay.
So what do we have to learn then, from the disciples? What actually changed for them in that locked room? How did the resurrection of Jesus make a difference? It’s important to notice that the Risen Christ becomes present to them precisely in this context of fear. “…the doors of the house were locked for fear, and Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’” This peace that the resurrected Christ offers does not remove their fears as a reality. They are still very much present, and what they fear remains quite possible, if not even likely. What Christ’s Peace does do, however, is to take those fears out of the driver’s seat, and it puts them in the trunk where they belong. This peace makes quiet the voice of fear. We can now be led by Christ rather than by fear.
The first thing that John wants us to know about the resurrection is that it is very real. “After Jesus had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.” Jesus is not with them in spirit only. He is with them in the body. He is with them here and now, in time and space. And it quite literally changes everything. Redirected by the presence and the peace of the resurrected Christ, the winds of fear subside. A new wind is felt, which alters the course of the world forever. “Jesus breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”
The Resurrection is hope made tangible, made real. It is Truth that is shown very concretely to surpass the smaller truths of our lives that for us, as for Thomas in today’s gospel, so often seem more real. They seem more real because they can be seen, touched, and measured. A wise person once said that when we “enslave ourselves to observable fact, we are in fact setting artificial limits on the human understanding, starving our imagination and blinding ourselves in small increments to Truth.” [Tolkien, J. R. R., The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien] Jesus’ bodily presence to the disciples is not greater than his presence to us, here and now. John makes this perfectly clear. “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” In other words, his being seen by them is for the purpose of the rest of us knowing it. It is for the purpose of changing our lives. It is for the purpose of allowing God’s Truth to guide our lives rather than our fears.
As Rowan Williams has often said, “Grace is not abstract.” God is present to us not as an idea or concept that we are to believe in despite the realities of the world. God is present to us in the midst of them, as the greatest reality of all. God is with us in our lives as they are. The things that cause fear to exist in our lives are quite real, but they do not have the last word. A new wind is really blowing.
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
