We usually center our attention around Thomas, faith, and doubt. But this, like others, is really a story about Jesus.
Easter and the work after
Easter 2B | John 20:19-31
The gospel is not about Thomas. It is the Good News of Jesus, the Christ.
And yet for centuries, this story, which includes a very familiar disciple struggling with belief, is treated like its main figure is Thomas. That this is about Thomas and his belief.
It is not.
The gospel is about Jesus. Our way to God.
Thomas is electric as a character in the story. His response to the experience is so rational and relatable: he so stands in for us.
When it comes to Easter, we as humans in this postmodern world spend far less time on Christ’s resurrection than we do on whether or not you or I believe it occurred. For most of us, Jesus plays second-fiddle in his own resurrection story.
So let us venture to put Jesus back at the center of this story.
The disciples locked themselves up. Even as Jesus had encouraged them to go out into the world; here they are. Inside, doors closed and locked.
And Jesus comes in anyway.
Isn’t that the message? How we lock up and confine ourselves and Jesus can show up anyway? Almost as if it isn’t about us.
He shows up and offers them peace.
”Peace be with you.”
What we say every Sunday. After we hear the word, respond to it, pray for for those in need, confess our sins, and receive absolution. After we have prepared ourselves and our community to live a transformed life, we turn to one another and wish our neighbors Peace.
I know a few here don’t mind that the pandemic has reined in our touching and our getting into each other’s space. That maybe some good will come from it as we make our peace-giving more theoretical and at a distance. Of course, we’ll see about that.
But in peace, Jesus reveals himself.
He shows his wounds to them. His hands and side are still pierced.
Our brains reason about the body and whether a resurrected Jesus should have wounds. But that isn’t really how this story plays out.
Jesus shows the marks of human violence. He shows them what evil was done to him. So they can see it themselves. It is humbling and empowering to show the marks of life and personal pain to other people. To let them see you. This is a moment of real intimacy.
And then Jesus repeats himself:
“Peace be with you.”
And then expands it.
“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
In peace. Jesus has been sent to send us. This is the outgrowth of teaching, connection, intimacy. Of being with them. He prepares them, encourages them, compels them to go and offer the peace they have been given. To share it.
Not just to each other. But to those not in the room.
Missing It
Then Jesus breathes on them. [An image that was perhaps far less frightening before the pandemic.] He breathes on his friends and closest followers and says
“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
He gives them the power of forgiveness. Not a command to forgive. This isn’t be nice or you don’t get ice cream. Jesus gives them the very power of forgiveness.
He’s quite literally saying to the disciples If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. Literally and spiritually. Jesus tells the disciples that they are quite literally responsible for the forgiveness of the world.
And “if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” In no uncertain terms: if there is hell on earth, then we are condemning our siblings to it.
Jesus puts the power of eternal life in our hands.
So we are responsible for the forgiveness of everybody.
Talk about feeling the weight of the world!
And Thomas missed out. He didn’t get Jesus breathing on him.
Thomas is the first recipient of Christ’s peace. The first to receive the forgiving spirit. And how does he receive it?
I want it from Jesus himself.
And the following Sunday, Jesus shows up. Offers peace. Then offers the same wounded intimacy. But Thomas doesn’t need it. He doesn’t need what he thought he’d need: the physical touch, the proximity, the essential proof of humanness.
He proclaims:
“My Lord and my God!”
Words more potent than the silence of the other apostles.
And then, in a directness we mistake for snark, Jesus pronounces a blessing for all who come after them.
“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
We weren’t in that room, but we are blessed to believe. Blessed because God’s forgiveness was offered to us.
The Power of Forgiveness
This is why we must recenter this story on Jesus, because we are constantly at the mercy of our egos. We want to center it on ourselves. Or on Thomas. We make it a war between belief and doubt.
But most importantly, we usually center our focus on the body of Jesus rather than the mission he gives us.
Or the power he breathes on us.
Forgiveness of sin.
The power to make heaven and hell right here.
You and I haven’t created all of hell on earth, but we maintain it through systems of inequality. And we condemn people to it by our reluctance to forgive, our shrewdness of heart, or our passion for vengeance.
When Peter asked how many times must we forgive, Jesus said Not seven. Seventy times seven. The number seventy was used for all the nations of the world. The seventh day is the Sabbath. The seventh year is the Jubilee Year, when all debts are forgiven.
How much must we forgive? The world. All of it. All people and debts. Everything. To save it.
This is our super power. The power Jesus gave his followers to pass on to every generation. Forgiveness.
To save the world. On Earth as in heaven. With daily bread. Forgiveness of debts. Safety from evil. Because the Kingdoms of the world are nothing compared to the Kin-dom of God.
In our midst. By our hands. Loved into being by the love of God shared with us to share with everybody else.