Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (John 20:19-31)
Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
When it comes to understanding the Christian faith, there is one simple principle that we should hold to: the text, the whole text, and nothing but the text. Everything is given to us in the bible. We don’t have to go poking around for hidden, secret meanings to the clear words of Scripture—what the bible says it means, and what it means it says. And so Christian pastors are not really called to interpret the word of God for people, but simply to speak the word of God, to proclaim it, to give the word of God a voice. And when this happens, one of two things happens—either people are convicted of their sin, or they are comforted with the forgiveness of sin. Either their wounds are exposed, or they are healed. Either the door of heaven is shut in their face, or it is wonderfully opened for them.
This is exactly what Jesus commands his apostles to do today when he says: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
We call this the “Office of the Keys”: speaking the law and speaking the gospel. It is a pastor’s job to speak both—to speak whatever Jesus commands—and the Holy Spirit then takes these words and applies them to people who hear it, to convict people of sin and to bring them the comfort of Jesus.
But before we get to that part of our gospel reading today, I’d like us to back up a minute. It’s all very well for Jesus to come into this room today and speak these words to his apostles, but who is this Jesus, and what’s the occasion, and what’s so special about what happens in our reading today?
In the last couple of weeks, with the celebration of Easter throughout the world, the church has come into the forefront of the public media, having the opportunity to say its piece about what Easter means. Also, at the same time, it is also a time when those who want to mock and ridicule Christianity seek to do just that, even though they are often not given an equal platform with the church at this time of year.
But one thing that I have heard a little bit this year is the idea that “Jesus is a zombie!” People say this: “Jesus must be a zombie, because he comes back from the dead.” They also say that his followers must be zombies too because he asks us to eat his body and drink his blood! But there’s little message in the background of this little quip which goes like this: “Nobody is stupid enough to believe in zombies anyway, so who on earth would so be stupid as to believe that Jesus rose from the dead?”
So, once we’ve gotten to the point where the insult has rolled like water off the duck’s back, we’re still left with this accusation (even though it is a silly one) against the Christian faith, that “Jesus was a zombie.” What do you think? Was he a zombie?
In the days before horror movies, this question wouldn’t have been asked, but we really have to know what the difference is between Jesus and a “zombie”.
First of all, it seems that the concept of a “zombie” originally came from West African voodoo. And basically, with horror movies aside, it has to do with a person who has died who is brought to life through witchcraft and is under the control of the person who has used the witchcraft. The word “zombie” seems to have either come from Haiti or from West Africa referring to this sort of witchcraft.
Now at Easter time, there are two words that we describe when we talk about Jesus: firstly, we say he is risen, and also, we say he is alive.
A zombie is not risen, but only merely resuscitated, or having “come back” from the dead.
A zombie is not alive, but still under the power of death.
So let’s go the text, the whole text, and nothing but the text to see what our Gospel reading claims to have happened according to the Apostle and Evangelist St John.
We read: On the evening of that day [that is, on Easter Sunday], the first day of the week [that means Sunday], the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when the saw the Lord.
So we see that there is a great miracle that takes place. At the end of John 19, it says that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took the body of Jesus to a tomb nearby to Golgotha, and it says: “they laid his body there.”
When it comes to funerals, most people think that a comment like that—“they laid his body there”—amounts to the full stop at the end of the story of a person’s life. There’s nothing more to tell. There’s nothing more that could happen. The body’s in the grave, and that’s it.
But in our reading today, it says that Jesus did two things: he came and he stood.
Normally, anyone who had been killed by crucifixion and laid in a tomb wouldn’t be coming and standing anywhere, but not in the case with Jesus.
So if it says he came, we should understand that he made use of the ability to move. And he wasn’t just passing through, but he came and stood among them. There’s nothing tricky about these words: they are simple enough, and describe this great miracle. The passage doesn’t say that he appeared out of thin air, but that he came—he used his free will to come to this place and to stand there.
Now a zombie, by the way, would not come of his free will—he would simply be moved like a pawn on a chessboard. That’s not what happens here. Jesus is not a puppet on a string.
But we read that he stood in a particular place: he came and stood among them. He could have gone to all sorts of people who were responsible for his death and wreaked his vengeance on them. But he doesn’t—he goes to his disciples, all of whom had abandoned him and fled, and he stands among them, and says: Peace be with you.
What does he do? He forgives them. He brings peace to them. All the let-downs of the past are forgotten. They’re not important anymore. Jesus simply comes to allow his disciples to share in the joy of his resurrection.
And then, we read: When he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The words “peace be with you” are great words, but Jesus wants to show his disciples the reason and the basis for that peace: his wounds. Colossians says that Jesus made peace by the blood of his cross. And Jesus comes to show the disciples that everything is now at peace because of those holy and precious wounds. But also, he shows them his hands and side to show to them that it is the same Jesus, and that it is not a ghost, but that it is him in the flesh.
But you see, this is why Jesus is not a zombie. Zombies don’t come in peace: they are the work of the devil at worst, and the figments of people’s dark imaginations at best. They only come to take and attack. Jesus comes and he brings peace, and he brings peace through his wounds. And in the midst of all this, it says: Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
This gladness was not a forced gladness. They were not in the presence of a bad smell here, something deathly. Jesus wasn't standing there as a resuscitated corpse under a spell, he was not standing there as a walking cadavre, some kind of Frankinstein. He is standing there as their Lord and God, risen from the dead, and the Lord of Life.
In 1 Cor 15, St Paul writes a great chapter there about the resurrection. And he says: “But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow it not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.”
So Paul compares resurrection to planting a seed. When Jesus died and was buried, he was planted like a seed in the ground. When he rose from the dead, it wasn’t like they dug the seed up again, but rather, the seed grew up into a beautiful plant. So Jesus is not resuscitated, he is risen. His body has no corruption and no rot. He is pure and fresh and clean from death, and he has surpassed death and defeated it. And so, when he shows the disciples his hands and his feet, he brings them peace, he brings them happiness, gladness, refreshment, gladness, rejoicing. That’s why often the butterfly is used as a symbol of the resurrection—resuscitation would be simply breaking open a cacoon and pulling the caterpillar back out again. Resurrection is that the caterpillar breaks out of the cacoon as something new and beautiful. In biology, they call this “metamorphosis”. The same word is used in the New Testament when we talk about Jesus transfigured body. The word for transfiguration in Greek is metamorphosis.
And we see here, Jesus body, beautiful and glorious—there’s something special about what happens, because the doors were locked, but this is not a hindrance to him. He still comes and he still stands among them. Jesus body is full of life and victory. There is no death there. And so when we talk about the Lord’s Supper, there can be no accusation that we are cannibals, because Jesus is not calling us to eat dead flesh and putrid blood, but his own resurrected and living body and his own holy and life-giving blood, through the bread and wine. The Lord’s Supper is planted in us as a down-payment in advance of the resurrection on the last day that we will share with Jesus. “The body of our Lord Jesus Christ and his holy precious blood keep you in body and soul until life eternal.” And so Jesus comes to us in the Lord’s Supper surpassing time and space, just as he passed through the closed doors on that first Easter Day.
But notice that if it weren’t for his words, we wouldn’t know what Jesus’ intention was when he went to his disciples. He says “Peace be with you.” And so just as the Father sent him, he sends out his apostles to bring the same peace to the whole world: the forgiveness of sins. Pastors actually perform this action every Sunday, and also whenever people want it, if they want to receive the absolution privately. This is something that we as Lutherans need to think about and use much more often. The absolution is a great gift of Jesus which he breathes out with his Holy Spirit for the benefit of the church.
But also, we as Christians bring this peace everytime we speak the forgiveness of sins to each other in our homes and among our circle of friends, when someone has wronged us or we have wronged someone else. Every time the forgiveness of sins is spoken in church in the authority of the pastoral office, or in our individual lives and vocations, the peace of Jesus’ wounds is brought to that place.
But you see, the peace of Christ, the forgiveness of sins, doesn’t exist without his wounds. Thomas knew this, and this was the main issue for him. He knew that without the holes in his hands and feet and the slit in his side from the spear, there was no peace and no forgiveness. He didn’t want a ghost, he didn’t want a zombie, he didn’t want any voodoo or magic trick. He wanted the resurrection from the dead, he wanted victory over death, and nothing less than that. And even though he had the greatest doubt, in the end he makes the greatest confession of truth: My Lord and my God!
In the church today, Jesus does not show his wounds to us before our eyes, but he preaches his wounds into our ears. He sends his apostles, evangelists, pastors and teachers into the world to preach Christ crucified. So Jesus says: Have you believed because you have seen? Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed.
So as we come into the presence of our Lord Jesus today, let us continually ask him to do what he did to his disciples on that first Easter Day: He came. He stood among them. He spoke his peace to them. And he showed them his wounds.
And when Jesus does those things in our midst, then the words will also be fulfilled in us: Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
Happy Easter to all of you!
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, come and stand among us today. Speak your words of forgiveness, the words of peace to us which have made possible through your blood on the cross. Let us come and take refuge in your wounds, from which your blood dropped down for the sin of the world, and also my sin. You have turned my mourning into dancing, you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness! Alleluia! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment