Rev. Tom Lenhart
Meditation: March 30, 2008
“Recognition of What?”
1 Peter 1:3-12and John 20:19-31

            Let us pray.

            This is one of the "low" Sundays in the church year. Lent and Easter have come and gone. We have navigated the roller coaster that is Holy Week -- from the high of Palm Sunday to the low of Good Friday finally to the joyous summit of Easter morning.  Easter is over -- time to move on is generally how we think of this time of year.  Yet, in the church’s calendar this Sunday is not described as the first Sunday after Easter but the Second Sunday of Easter. In the life of the church, Easter is not over but just beginning on Easter Sunday. The Gospel text this week from John – the story of Jesus’ appearances to the disciples in the upper room and then a week later to doubting Thomas is unusual. It is the text that we read every year on this Sunday. Normally, our Sunday texts change every year over a three-year cycle but not this Sunday. As a preacher I find this annoying because I have already preached about it and it isn’t clear to me that I have anything new to say. But I am reassured -- sort of -- that no one here is very likely to remember what I said last year about this text.

            There is, however, a reason that this text is repeated -- namely, that it illustrates a fundamental question that arose for the disciples and arises for many of us every year– can we truly embrace the message of Easter?  Now, you might say why is that important? Do I really have to believe in the resurrection?  The answer, of course, is that we in this church and denomination above all else affirm individual conscience in matters of faith. We understand that faith is a journey that we are all on though not always in the same place on that journey.    

            Having said that -- the message of Jesus Christ is quite simply incomplete without some understanding of Easter. One of the things I find annoying are classical music radio stations that play the first or the second movement of a symphony or the overture to a piece but rarely play the composition all the way through. The music played often is wonderful but without the whole something is lost -- so too in matters of faith. If the final story of Jesus life ended on Good Friday, we would have the life and preaching of an extraordinary figure – one worthy of emulating with every fiber of our being. We would have an individual willing to die for us.   But would we recognize him as the Son of God come into our world to share our lot -- our joys and sorrows --as human beings? Or would he be instead a special prophet who – like so many -- came to an untimely end?   Would the final victory of love over power be an open question? And would we be certain of God’s continuing presence through Jesus in all of our lives. And finally, what of that promise of the victory of life over death?  Easter is the final movement in our faith symphony. It pulls all the themes of the prophecies and promises of God together. But faith in this final movement is not easy -- that’s the reason the season of Easter goes on for seven Sundays.  That is why the Bible is filled with the appearance stories. It was hard even for those who knew Jesus best to have faith in the resurrection.

            Let me be upfront -- I love these post-resurrection stories, including today’s text from John – not simply because I share the same name as one of the principal figures. No, I like these stories because they reveal that the disciples were just like us. Think about the situation they faced. It’s Easter Sunday evening and the gang of disciples has reconvened in their secret place. Just three days before one of their own has betrayed their leader. And shockingly, he has been subjected to a sham trial – convicted by the authorities for no reason other than for who he was and what he preached.  And then he was crucified just like a criminal. And now someone has stolen his body for who knows what reason. Sure, Mary Magdalene says she saw him and that he lives and goes to be with God, but you know Mary --a little hysterical at times. Yes, they were frightened and scared. The door to the upper room is after all locked. Who knows what the authorities will do to those who follow Jesus. If they really want to stamp out the movement, then maybe they will hunt down Jesus’ followers as well.

            But they also gathered because they were confused about their faith. How could this all have happened? If Jesus was the Messiah – the new King David -- why didn’t he save himself?  But, of course, there were those times when he had said this was going to happen  -- that “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and scribes and be killed and after three days rise again.” (Mark 8: 31)  The disciples were confused and, I suspect, more than a little doubtful as to what had happened to Jesus.

In law school I had a very annoying Professor who taught me Torts. It is the subject that covers harm to people -- such matters as the laws of negligence, libel and slander and civil assault.  It is the area of the law that is most ad hoc and case specific. As law students we (and I include myself) felt that mastering tort law was like grabbing Jell-O. We wanted rules, certainty and predictability. At the end of virtually every class one of us would ask a question seeking some principle or rule to cover the subject of the day that we could write down and apply.   Professor Hill would say in response to us, “some say yes and some say no, you now know as much as I do” -- leaving us in total doubt and confusion. That is how I picture the early disciples doubtful but not really disbelieving. If truly they had simply concluded that this Jesus was not who they thought he was – if they had disbelieved, they would never have gone to the upper room. And, of course, we know that Jesus appears to them, shows them his wounds – the clearest evidence of his continuing life and of the resurrection.  That reflected the definitive offer of proof  and certainty, we never got from Professor Hill.

            And then there is Thomas. It is not enough for him that his friends and fellow disciples all tell of Jesus’ appearance to them. No, he wants to see Jesus and to put his hands in the wounds. He wants proof positive of the physical process of the crucifixion and resurrection.  And again Jesus is willing to show the wounds to Thomas. But despite all the great medieval paintings depicting Thomas reaching out to touch Jesus, the text does not establish that Thomas actually touches the wounds. No, the moment of recognition comes when Jesus lovingly offers to show his wounds,

Reach out your hand and put it in my side.

Do not doubt but believe.  [To which Thomas responds] …

My Lord and My God.

 In that offer Thomas understood in his heart Jesus’ enduring and persistent love of him and of us. That love, I believe, is the strongest proof of the resurrection -- that eternal and abiding love did not die on the Cross. Unlike the disciples we do not have the wounds to touch or even a resurrected Christ to see and to speak with. But we do see that enduring, divine love reflected everyday in the world around us -- in the smile of a friend, the hug of child, the touch of a loved one and the presence of one by our sick bed.

One of the signs that we have grown up is in the way we understand love. When you were young did you ever take one of those magazine tests --  to find out if by answering the following questions you really loved another. If you score over a certain total, that proves you’re in love!   But at some point we realize  the answer is not a proof test but rather, “I know because I can feel it in my heart, I just know and believe it.” Such love is real. Jesus love for Thomas and for us is real, enduring and boundless. It did not die on the Cross. In that divine love we experience everyday is the truth of the resurrection. Seeing may be believing, but most assuredly believing is also seeing.

            While we focus on Thomas and the disciples in our gospel passage, Jesus is truly the central figure. Think about him. His closest followers are beset with doubts. He does not turn from them or admonish them to pull themselves together, to remember what he has said and what they have been through together. Rather he meets them where they need to be met. If they need to see his wounds so be it -- he will show them. Jesus understood that doubt is not to be despised or debased. Why because in Paul Tillich’s words “doubt is not the opposite of faith, it is an element of faith.”  Faith is a journey and an active process. Jesus says to Thomas

Have you believed because you have seen me?

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet

come to believe”

 It is not by accident that Jesus used the words “come to believe”. It is a process -- a journey. No matter how beset by doubts we are, God will not turn from us. Because God’s love of us did not die on the cross we will be provided with the support we need on that journey.

            Understanding Easter is not in Thomas Merton’s wonderful phrase “a sphinx’s riddle, which we solve in one guess or perish.” [1]  It is OK to have doubts and to be skeptical. That’s why the season of Easter continues. If you could ask Jesus one question face to face what would you ask -- none are out of bounds.  Amen