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The Second Sunday Of Easter
Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery hast established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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The Second Sunday Of Easter
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Scripture citation(s): John 20:19-31; II Peter 1:3-9
A Sermon by
The Rev. Canon Carl Turner
on
John 20:19-31; II Peter 1:3-9
✛
Blessed Are They Who Believe It Before They See It
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Saint Thomas followed Jesus for three years, and in those three years his ability to believe his eyes and ears must have been stretched beyond his imagining. Prior to Jesus calling him as a disciple, would Thomas have ever imagined he would see the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, the dead rise from the grave? If he had been told beforehand, would we blame Thomas if he had said, I’ll believe it when I see it? But Thomas followed, and he was an eye witness to things that defy our senses. Thomas stood witness to blind men recovering their sight; to the ears of the deaf being opened, to long-suffering women being healed. Thomas saw numberless crowds of people healed day after day until one day Thomas stood outside the tomb of a friend, and watched a weeping Jesus raise a man out of his tomb who had been dead and buried for four days. After three years, it would not have mattered if Thomas believed his senses or not, because these things had become established facts in his life.
For Thomas to say, I can’t believe that woman who was stooped over is standing up straight, or I can’t believe that Lazarus is back from the dead wouldn’t matter, because there’s the woman standing up, and here’s Lazarus sitting at supper with them after he had been dead and buried. These are now matters of fact. At some point, no matter how incredulous he might have been going into this endeavor of following Jesus, Thomas would have been confronted with matters of fact that moved him from doubt to certainty. If he ever wondered if a man could be raised from the dead; if he had ever doubted the possibility; if he had lacked faith or hope that such a thing could come to pass; if he had ever said he wouldn’t believe unless he saw it, Thomas had to confront the evidence of his own eyes and ears and touch when he heard Lazarus, saw Lazarus, and touched Lazarus, a man raised from the dead.
But believing established facts is different than placing one’s faith in things not seen, or hoping for things not yet seen. So, that when Thomas discovers that Jesus has been arrested, put on trial, sentenced to death, executed and his dead body is placed in a tomb, we can sympathize with Thomas if he thinks that his life with Jesus has ended. Even more so, because we are told throughout the gospels that the disciples did not readily understand Jesus’ predictions of his death and resurrection. Furthermore, when Thomas hears from the other disciples that they have seen their dead Lord, and he listens to their claims that he is alive, we cannot blame Thomas that he said, I won’t believe it until I place my hands in the wounds our Lord received at his execution before I will believe that he is raised from the dead.
Before Thomas will accept the claims of his friends, he wants this miracle to be established as a matter of fact. And then it is, as we just heard in the gospel lesson as recorded by John. Jesus appears to Thomas and invites him to thrust his hand into the wounds, if that is what he requires. Thomas appears to be convinced without having to probe the wounds, and he makes a profound confession about the resurrected man standing in front of him: My Lord, and my God. This confession does not come without comment from Jesus. He says to Thomas, do not be faithless, but believing. Thomas, because my resurrection has been presented to you as a matter of absolute fact, you have believed that I am resurrected. But there will be countless others who will believe in me without ever having seen me, alive, dead, or resurrected. They are truly blessed for their faithfulness. They have not seen, yet they will believe. When Jesus said that, he might very well have been thinking about you. You, specifically. Think about that…
After this account of the words exchanged between Thomas and Jesus, John goes on to write this: “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you might have life through his name.” John wrote down the things that he did write down so that you might believe that Jesus is the anointed savior of the world sent by God to save the world from sin and death, and the way that would be accomplished was for Jesus to die for our sins, but conquer death by withstanding its hold on human nature. Peter echoes this truth when he quotes King David who says this about the messiah: “He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption.” You see, the messiah went down to death’s realm, which to us has always seemed a prison from which no one escapes, but Jesus went into that prison, and then he came out, returning to earth and to life.
As far as the Apostles, and many other eye witnesses, were concerned, Jesus established this exodus as an absolute fact. Like other incontrovertible facts, it didn’t matter whether Peter, James, John, Thomas, Carl, Joel, you, me believe it or not. It’s just true. But it is important that each one of us believe it because it leads to another essential step into faith we each have to make in order to partake of its benefits. Even Thomas, who had the opportunity to thrust his hand into Jesus’ side had to make this step, and even Jesus’ presence with him at that moment could not entirely assure him about what came next. The progression is this:
Do you believe that Christ is risen? Thomas did by seeing. We must believe by faith.
Do you trust that because he is risen, death has been conquered? Even Thomas would have to take this on faith.
Do you dare hope that you also will be resurrected from the dead? All Thomas, and you or I can do is hope. The question is, dare we?
Listen again to Saint Peter from his Epistle: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith– being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire– may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
This is not metaphorical language or some vaporous spiritual experience. Peter is preaching to us about daring to hope for the reality of our own resurrection because of Jesus’ resurrection. To Peter, this is no “cunningly devised fable” but an established fact. And as a result, you who believe will receive an inheritance that will not perish or become defiled. And that inheritance is being kept in heaven for you by Jesus until such time as he comes again to reveal and give it to you. In the meantime you who believe are being protected by God through faith. It may be a while before you receive the inheritance. You may suffer trials waiting for it to come. You may even sleep in your own grave for an age, but please put your faith in the general resurrection of the dead like you would an established fact.
Do that, and on the day that the trumpet sounds, and Jesus begins his procession towards earth, your soul will flee, from wherever it rests, to meet your scattered body. The earth will quake with the opening of the graves of all the dead, and you will rise in praise and glory and honor as you go forth to meet your savior and redeemer, your resurrection and your life, Jesus Christ. You might think to pray for this faith in the words of Saint Peter: Although I have not seen Jesus, I love him; and even though I do not see him now, I believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for I am receiving the outcome of my faith, the salvation of my body and my soul in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
The mystery of faith for us is this: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. The hope is that on the day when Jesus does come again, my tomb, and yours will be as empty as his was on Easter morning.
