Easter 2 C
Seen and Unseen Fears
St. John 20:19-31
3 April 2016 – Redeemer
They had both doors locked. That’s how afraid they were. That’s what Saint John tells us. The doors being locked. That’s plural doors – inner and outer door. Storm door and steel, solid core, double dead bolt door. They had seen what the Jews had done to Jesus, and even though they had heard reports of the resurrection, they knew what they had seen. The Jews had killed Jesus and they were next.
Thomas is so afraid he isn’t there. He doesn’t want to be seen with the other disciples. We’ll sing of Thomas at the end of the service – These things did Thomas count as real, the warmth of blood, the chill of steel, the grain of wood, the heft of stone, the last frail twitch of flesh and bone – that’s Jesus’ death and burial. That’s what Thomas had seen and he was afraid.
So we have people inside the room who are afraid and Thomas outside the room afraid – and they are afraid because of what they see. They are just like us inside this room today. Aren’t you afraid of what you see? a freshly dug grave, a test result the doctor wants to show you, a child who has shut his ears to your calls and his eyes to your ways, a job that is a dead end, a spouse who doesn’t care about you anymore. These things we count as real. (Thanks Chad Bird for that).
Then into that room of men afraid of what they have seen comes Something they have never seen – a Risen Man. Locked doors don’t stop Him. Stone walls don’t hinder Him. He is simply there and standing among them.
Now those disciples were facing a whole new sort of fear – the fear that comes from a guilty conscience. They hadn’t believed. Peter had denied the Lord. John Mark had run for his life from the garden of Gethsemane. Earlier that day they had called the women’s report of the resurrection an idle tale, nonsense. Now they feared how God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ would regard them. They were standing before the judgment seat of Christ Himself in that room. Now the unseen haunted them – sin, guilt, shame, rejection, hell, damnation, God’s curse.
To their seen and unseen fears, Jesus says, “Peace be with you.” That isn’t merely Jesus’ greeting, that isn’t His Minnesota, “How are you doing?” What Jesus says He does, what He speaks He gives. He has borne the sin of the world on the cross. He has suffered the hell of God’s anger over our sins. He finished sin, death, and hell on Good Friday and now He is risen from the dead. He purchased peace. He owns peace so when He says “Peace be with you” He delivers that peace to you. That is the peace of forgiveness, the good news that Christ died for sinners and you qualify for His forgiveness. He takes care of the unseen fears with His peace of forgiveness.
Then He takes care of the seen fears by showing them His hands and side. His body is real. His death was real. His tomb was real. His risen and living body is real – hands with scars, side with a hole. When they saw Jesus real, alive, flesh and blood risen – they were glad – because they had a real Savior, a flesh and blood God, who had healed the sick, made the lame to walk, given sight to the blind, died and rose again – triumphant over every enemy seen and unseen they had faced. Now they had a future that no thief could steal, no trouble could unsettle – they had the peace of forgiveness for their sins and the promise of their own real bodily resurrection.
The really good news on this Second Sunday of Easter is that Jesus did not do this only for the 11 apostles, or only for the twenty or so disciples in that upper room. Jesus didn’t die for a few. He shed His blood and offered His body for the sin of the whole world, and now He gives His gifts to His Church to give out to the world, “And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
Do you know what the word forgive means? In this passage it means “to send away someone’s sins.” It calls to mind a practice the Lord gave to Israel in the Old Testament. On the day of atonement the High Priest took a goat, laid his hands on the goats head, and confessed the sins of Israel over the goat. Then the goat was led far out into the wilderness to die with the sins of the people and take them away. When you forgive the sins of someone who repents you are proclaiming that Christ has taken away their sin, that God regards them as forgiven. To withhold forgiveness is actually “to hold” sin to a person. The person who wants no forgiveness, who believes sin is fine and fun, is not forgiven. Their sins are held to them and when they appear before God’s judgment seat – their sins will be with them.
Now on to Thomas. Thomas didn’t want to be seen with the disciples – maybe he worked a night shift and was tired, maybe he was doing yard work and didn’t want to stop, maybe he was simply terrified of leaving his own house and being seen with those Jesus people. But when you miss church you miss Jesus, you miss forgiveness, you miss peace, you miss all your fears being overwhelmed and overcome by the real and risen Lord Jesus.
Thankfully Thomas had friends in that upper room who loved him and cared for him. The disciples told him they had seen the Lord – and really that word means they kept on telling him, every chance they got, Monday through Saturday. Listen Thomas Mary Magdalene saw him, Clopos saw him on the road to Emmaus, the 10 of us saw him in that upper room. Even though they have seen – and eye witnesses should be enough – Thomas wants to see himself. In fact seeing won’t even be enough for Thomas, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
The next week the little band is together again – this time Thomas is with them, but the doors are still locked, both doors, double dead bolted locked again. They need more Jesus because their fear still clings to them. Jesus comes again with peace, “Really guys, the doors are still locked. Oh Thomas, you’re here. Good.” Peace be with you. Then as another proof that Jesus is true God He knows exactly what Thomas has asked for and He gives it to him, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” (John 20:27, ESV)
There is some debate whether Thomas actually pressed his finger into the nail wounds and ran his hand over the hole in Jesus’ side. I think he did because that is what His Lord invited him to do. Thomas believed when he saw the risen Lord and he who believes would do what the Lord asked of him. He didn’t do it for himself, but for Jesus and for you. These men, the Apostles, were given proof that Jesus was raised, because they and they alone were called to be witnesses – seeing the evidence first hand, touching His risen flesh, and then confessing it for us, Jesus is “my Lord and my God.”
The Lord gives Thomas exactly what he needs, but not for Thomas, for you, for every other Thomas among us who doubts. We have not seen and yet God has called us to faith by the testimony of these witnesses. They witnessed to the risen Lord by the preaching His Word, by baptizing the nations in the name of the Triune God, by feeding the baptized with the body and blood of our Savior under the bread and wine. For this single purpose – that we might hear their witness and believe that Jesus rose from the dead, that we have a real and risen Savior, and that we might be at peace knowing that we have no reason to fear our enemies seen and unseen. In the name of Jesus. Amen.