Walking around the courtyard you will see a few Easter lily’s scattered around. They reminded me of a year when I entered my church to find the lone lily which had been forgotten. This lone lily stood tall and green, so much so that the glorious white bloom had yet to open declaring the hope, joy, and peace of the resurrection. It seemed to be a week or two late, a little behind, like it had missed the memo that the tomb is empty and the Jesus is alive. Every year the Easter lily symbolizes the recognition of new life and the radiant white bloom trumpets God’s love and glory on the day of resurrection.
Now you and I are the Easter people. We know the joy we have found in Christ. We professed he is risen with the antiphonal response “He is risen Indeed!” I can’t help but wonder if, as we packed up the Easter decorations, as we look towards warmer weather, and as we return to our busy lives if we have lost some of the passion and celebration of Easter. For Easter is not a day, but a season, a time for revelation of Christ and the ways our risen Lord became real to the believing community.
Our passage this morning starts the day Mary discovers the empty tomb and spans a week. We have just lived through two weeks. It is the time when our risen Lord becomes real to his disciples just as he had become real to the women.
Where do we start? We start with the disciples hiding out in a room with locked doors afraid of what the Jews might do to them for having followed Jesus. Yet they have already received the amazing memo- Mary’s declaration of the Jesus is alive! They have heard the news yet they live in fear, trapped behind closed doors that keep them from the joy of their salvation. For doubts and disbelief, grief and confusion are at the table with them. It is into this scene that Jesus chooses to come. He meets them where they are, bringing the Holy Spirit, the divine comforter and motivator to dwell with them. Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit into them uniting them in the ways of God. Absorb that image- Jesus, God’s son, breathing the essence of God into their presence, much like God the creator breathed life into Adam and into your being. They are immersed in living presence of God. So they rejoice; their hearts sing. So filled with God’s presence they are sent; they go forth proclaiming the risen Lord! They are taught forgiveness and love all in this revelatory moment with their risen Lord.
Thomas missed out. Thomas was like the lone Easter lily that missed the miracle of Easter, the one waiting to open into the hope of new life. You see he was not there when Jesus came, bringing the Holy Spirit. Thomas wants proof, he wants what the other disciples received, what Jesus freely offered – to see the hands and side of Christ the marks of his crucifixion.
Now much has been made about doubting Thomas- his disbelief, his needing proof, his declaration, “Unless I see the mark of the nails and put my finger in his side, I will not believe.” Thomas has become the archetype of disbelief, the person we resonate with if we are questioning our faith, the one who embodies the doubts we entertain when life gets hard. Thank God we have Thomas, for each of us has our own wonderings and questions, our own times when we ask God, How can I get through this situation? Scripture is filled with people, faithful people who doubted; Sarah who laughed when she was told she would conceive, the liberated Israelites who doubted, before God sent the manna from heaven, the disciples who hid behind locked doors, and of course Thomas. Paul Tillich a wonderful theologian reminds us:
- Doubt is not the opposite faith. It is one element of faith.
So when your doubts come, trust you are not alone, you are living out your faith as best you can, continually bringing your questions and hope to God, just as Thomas did. Thomas asked for what he needed to believe and then time went by. I think that happens with us as well. Lift your questions to God and then trust that in time, in God’s time, an answer will come. For a week later Thomas gets his answer.
This story is not really about Thomas, but about Jesus. For Jesus came to Mary at the empty tomb, Jesus came to the disciples, not letting locked doors stand in his way. Jesus came to Thomas offering exactly what he needed to believe. And it doesn’t stop there, Jesus came to the 5,000, Jesus came to Saul transforming him to Paul a great witness to Christ, and Jesus is coming still. Our risen Lord comes to us, not letting anything stand between us and God. And when he comes, in the hands that bore the nails, he comes bearing peace. Jesus brings the most gracious gift of peace. “Peace be with you.” he says not once, or twice but three times. Peace be with you is a common greeting, but now Christ has transformed it into the peace of God, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. For with this peace comes the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit- the presence that Jesus breathed upon them. Spiritual peace enters into the moment of doubt and fear and then abides beyond. Paul speaks of being in the presence of God and knowing peace. “The Lord is near… 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
I want to share a story, a story a widow shared with me from her life. A few years back, she had become very tired; maybe exhausted was a better description. At 62, she had worked in a helping profession her entire life, had cared for her sister, and had raised seven (7) daughters. In the darkness of the night she was crying out, God how long do I need to work? When can I retire? Every time she wanted to retire, someone else had a need. Family means she would always rise to the occasion and help in any way she could. All alone in her room with the door shut, in the darkness of the night she was praying to God, asking when? In a way that defies description, she recalls having a sense that there would be a tragedy in her life. She could not describe the tragedy, she didn’t know when, she just felt it in her bones. Soon thereafter an overwhelming sense of peace and calm; a presence descended. Jesus came to her. Jesus came to her bringing peace. A peace that comforted her, that gave rest to her weary soul, and then ushered her into a blissful sleep. That same presence remained with her when she got a knock on the door a few hours later. Her daughter came saying the police were here and there had been an accident. Her beloved husband Henry had been killed in a car accident. Yet as she retells the story her strength came from that sense of peace, that sense that God was with her and that she knew what she had to do. Imagine the doors of doubt flinging open, imagine the doors of fear and grief, but with a calming reassurance, she told me how the peace and presence of Christ guided her through. It was a very trying time, but it was the presence of God, the peace of Jesus that gave her strength. She experienced the Peace of God, the peace that passes understanding. For the Lord was near to her, Christ’s peace guarded her heart and mind throughout this difficult time. Christ’s peace came in that moment – a moment of life and death, doubt and belief, grief and hope when peace transcends these opposites uniting them in the divine. Tragedy struck. Yet God’s care and abiding presence was stronger and Christ’s peace sustaining and comforting.
Jesus came saying, “Peace be with you.” Earlier in John we hear tell of Thomas and Jesus talking about peace and the Holy Spirit and Jesus saying:
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” Live in the Peace of our risen Lord, trusting his eternal presence is yours both in the times of doubt and grief as well as the ups and downs of everyday life. For peace, Christ’s peace comes in quieter ways as well, in the balance of our faith, in the stillness of a quiet morning, in the calm knowing we are intimately connected to our God. For when we breathe in the Holy Spirit, and abide in Christ’s peace then we live in God’s presence. Our doubts and fears melt away, no longer do we need answers, but rather we stand before Christ declaring as Thomas did, “My Lord and my God!” Amen.
