In our readings from Acts and John, we get two very different stories of the apostles responding to the risen Christ. But they both actually point to the same teaching.
Luke and John reveal a false choice
Easter 2B | Acts 4:32-35, John 20:19-31
In Holy Week, we traced the last week of Jesus with the gospels of Mark and John. But the lectionary cuts out a valuable part. Now when I say valuable, I mean it’s essential for our understanding of what is going on in this gospel. And essential for understanding what Jesus wants after the resurrection.
It happened Maundy Thursday. Right in the middle of Jesus’s last night with his disciples.
He finished washing their feet and begins to warn them about what is going to happen. He is truly troubled and tells them that he is to be betrayed by one of them there.
John’s description is cinematic. One disciple is laying back. Then another, Peter leans back and whispers to Jesus — asking him what he means by such a warning. He replies that he’s going to give bread to the betrayer. Then he dips a piece of bread in the dish and hands it to Judas.
Peter somehow misses the signal because none of them understand what’s happening. They’re all confused. But this is the moment. Judas is turned and departs into the night.
This is the part cut out from Maundy Thursday. Because what comes next is included. Now without half of its context. Jesus says that he is giving them a new commandment: to love each other.
“Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
He tells them to love each other after washing their feet and right after Judas has gone to betray them.
In their confusion, I bet they think Jesus is talking about the foot washing. But for us? We’re told to love in the horror of betrayal.
The Fear of the Resurrection
Arriving now at this gospel, after the betrayal and the Passion, the crucifixion, and the tomb. And then, on the third day, to find it empty, Mary crying, disciples racing to it and then running away, and the man (she thought he was the gardener) says her name and she instantly knows its Jesus.
He tells her to take the good news to the disciples; tell them that he’s back, but going away again. Get ready.
And yet we receive this story today, not with joy but fear. They’re hiding in the upper room. They don’t want to be found. This is where Jesus finds them. He comes to them and they are afraid.
A quick note about Thomas.
He’s not there when Jesus shows up. They’re all there but him. They’re holed up in this room, the doors are locked, all imagining the death which stalks and waits outside. But Thomas isn’t there.
Where’s Thomas?
They are all there except him. We can’t know, but the implications are that he is out there, where the danger is. Thomas is out where he could be killed! Is it heroic? Did he just draw the short straw? Is he following Jesus by serving the poor or out getting bread, milk, and toilet paper?
We do know that before the Passion he offered to follow Jesus to his death. His one big speaking part before this is to face death boldly. I can’t help but think that’s what he’s doing.
The moniker of Doubting Thomas attributed to the only one brave enough to take Jesus at his word is appalling. He isn’t there because maybe he is the only one willing to leave.
A week later, Thomas is back.
Then they are all there.
This should give us pause, that perhaps Judas, still one of the twelve, is there when Jesus returns. He gets to experience Jesus the way the others do. He is with Jesus to believe.
Now they are all there. Frightened and brave, reunited and given equal treatment.
Here, the words, about not seeing and yet believing call us back.
“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
These words don’t discriminate or punish Thomas. They’re a callback. Just a few days. When was it? Was it Thursday? It seems so long ago. From that section skipped by the lectionary…
“Very truly, I tell you, whoever receives one whom I send receives me; and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.”
A word offered in the flesh, received by the Spirit, sent by God to believe.
His own words next tell of betrayal and love. Love everyone. Does he mean even the one who betrayed? Love each other he says. But he can’t mean Judas! we think.
Love.
As Jesus says in another gospel
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them…But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.”
(Luke 6:32,35)
Is Judas there? Do they love him? Do they believe?
The Joy of the Resurrection
What a contrast we get in another account: Luke/Acts. At the end of the gospel we call Luke, the apostles are in the Temple praising God every day. They aren’t hiding, they’re out in plain sight! They aren’t cowering in fear, but praying with joy!
This other picture of Easter seems like such a contrast. For the disciples in Luke, it is a joyous celebration in thanksgiving until the Ascension. A story which continues into its second half — a gospel for the Apostles which we call Acts.
This reading is totally different. They aren’t cowering in fear and scarcity, they are reveling and sharing in their sufficiency. They give from what they have and share in it.
Rather than offer the statement about the poor always being with us as a justification for not sharing, here, the apostles have gathered for
“There was not a needy person among them”
Because they sacrificed themselves to make sure none were in need.
They were filled with grace and power. Not because they believed a creed, but because they lived out the sacrificial love Jesus preaches.
Our Joy
We usually make John’s gospel tie belief to a lack of doubt or more directly to a confession that Jesus was raised as salvation for the world. But it would seem this isn’t the idea of belief the evangelist actually has in mind.
Belief in John and Luke both center on sacrificial love. Not in doubt and fear or anger and anxiety, but in persistence in the face of controversy and trouble, hope and compassion toward those who need support.
Love is the first priority. More than prudence, certainty, and self-preservation. Everything hangs from our love.
So now we are blessed with two pictures of Easter: of fear and of joy. In one, Jesus busts through the locked doors, circumventing the protections the apostles erect in fear. And he comes to remind them that safety isn’t their priority — love is. That’s how you’re to be known — how you love each other.
In the other, the apostles are out in public, sharing their joy and their possessions. They defy the culture of consumption and reveal the power of compassion.
Our receiving both today reveals that we have the same choice. We must choose between fear and joy. But we also get this choice knowing that Jesus has already made his choice for joy. And even if we choose fear, he’s willing to keep coming until we transform our fear of scarcity into the joy of sufficiency.
Perhaps we could save him some trouble by just following his new commandment to love each other. It is the least we could do. After all, that’s what he’s getting at anyway.