Christ the Resurrected and Wounded One: Easter 2a

The holy gospel according to John (20:19-31)

¹⁹When it was evening on that day,

      the first day of the week,

      and the doors of the house

            where the disciples had met

            were locked for fear of the religious authorities,

      Jesus came

      and stood among them

      and said,

            “Peace be with you.”

      ²⁰After he said this,

            Jesus showed them his hands and his side.

                  Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

                  ²¹Jesus said to them again,

                        “Peace be with you.

                              As the Father has sent me,

                                    so I send you.”

                  ²²When he had said this,

                        Jesus breathed on them and said to them,

                              “Receive the Holy Spirit.

                                    ²³If you forgive the sins of any,

                                          they are forgiven them;

                                    if you retain the sins of any,

                                          they are retained.”

²⁴But Thomas (who was called the Twin),

      one of the twelve,

            was not with them when Jesus came.

                  ²⁵So the other disciples told him,

                        “We have seen the Lord.”

                  But Thomas said to them,

                        “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands,

                              and put my finger in the mark of the nails

                              and my hand in his side,

                                    I will not believe.”

²⁶A week later Jesus’ disciples were again in the house,

      and Thomas was with them.

      Although the doors were shut,

            Jesus came

            and stood among them

            and said,

                  “Peace be with you.”

            ²⁷Then he said to Thomas,

                  “Put your finger here and see my hands.

                        Reach out your hand and put it in my side.

                              Do not doubt but believe.”

      ²⁸Thomas answered him,

            “My Lord and my God!”

      ²⁹Jesus said to him,

            “Have you believed because you have seen me?

                  Blessed are those who have not seen

                        and yet have come to believe.”

³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples,

      which are not written in this book.

            ³¹But these are written

                  so that you may come to believe

                        that Jesus is the Messiah,

                              the Son of God,

                  and that through believing

                        you may have life in Jesus’ name.

The gospel of the Lord.

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Every year on the second Sunday of Easter we encounter Thomas and the other disciples. Earlier in the day, Mary came and first said that someone had taken Jesus’ body and then later returned with more information to proclaim the Good News to the disciples: “I have seen the Lord.”

Having received this Good News, we then encounter the disciples that evening locked up in the house “for fear of the religious authorities.”

Every year, we hear this post-resurrection account in the Gospel of John, and it got me wondering: Why is it even in the gospel at all?  This question came up a couple times this week when I was talking to folks.  A lot of the time we ask ourselves what meaning a story might have or might be trying to convey, which is important to ask.  But one of the gifts in reading this particular resurrection account each year is that it gives us the opportunity to dig deeper into the story.  To wonder why it’s there, why the writer of John’s gospel chose to tell this story.  At the end of the account, it even says that more happened that isn’t written down, so why this one?

The story itself is a story of the disciples who, even after hearing the Good News from Mary that “Christ is risen!” remain scared and locked up in their house—most of them anyway.  Thomas is not locked up inside, but instead somewhere out in the community.

So why would a story of scared disciples be important to include in the Gospel of John?

The Early Church was a persecuted church.  Crucifixion, the capital punishment of that time, was a common tool of the Roman Empire to keep people in line—to enforce the Pax Romana.  This “Roman Peace” was not the true peace of free movement and expression that we might think of today.  Pax Romana was military power repressing any dissension, conflict, or perceived threat to the Empire.

So considering the Roman Empire’s terror tactics, and the religious authorities willing to work with them to exclude these Jewish rebels who are challenging the system that has been working “well enough,” there was plenty of reason for followers of Christ to be afraid.

But Mary has “seen the Lord!”  Last week we celebrated the Resurrection of Our Lord—Easter Day.  We proclaimed that God in Christ is more powerful than these forces of evil!  And the Early Church was even closer to the Resurrection, so how could they be scared?

Well, we have the promise of Resurrection—of life that vanquishes death, but Christ was still crucified.  Ultimately, Jesus shows up for the disciples minus Thomas and then again for Thomas himself.  And Jesus doesn’t show up in a body the way many of us might think a resurrected body should look.

Jesus breaks into this locked and fearful room and his whole body reminds them of exactly why they’re scared to begin with!  This resurrected Christ still bears the wounds in his side, hands, and feet.  There’s probably still evidence of the mocking crown of thorns and lashes inflicted before the crucifixion itself.

Christ is risen! …and Christ is (still) wounded.

And a week later, when Thomas is with the disciples, they are still shut up in the house.  And again Jesus, the Wounded and Risen One, shows up in their midst, embodying the crucifixion and the resurrection.

And maybe now the disciples will venture out into the world.  Maybe this resurrection story is for a community in fear.  Maybe this story is meant to be both reassurance that the power of resurrection is real—alive and at work in the world—and reassurance that following Christ can mean both crucifixion and resurrection—it can still be scary and dangerous.

Yet Jesus proclaims again and again, “Peace be with you.”  Into the fear and anxiety, into the doubt and disbelief, Jesus speaks words of peace—not of protection from all harm, but of presence and purpose that is greater than any harm.  Peace that is hope, which rests in God’s love.  Jesus speaks peace that has purpose.

Jesus, in his wounded and resurrected body proclaims the peace that at times “surpasses all understanding,” and that at its heart, comforts and encourages those in the Early Church and us today.  Christ’s peace does not proclaim us protected from all harm or struggle.  It proclaims God’s presence with us in all of life—in our woundedness, in our joy, in our fear, and in our courage.  And it gives us another chance at faith.

This peace, proclaimed to disciples who take a while to embrace and embody the resurrection, gives hope to those of us for whom faith is a journey.  We have hope that if it takes the disciples a while to embrace the resurrection even in the face of fear, then it’s ok when our journey of faith is slow, when we hang on to our fears, our doubts, our disbeliefs. 

When the Early Church needs to know that the Resurrected One is also the Wounded One, then we all receive reassurance that our wounds—the parts of us that we might want to be “fixed” or “healed” might just be parts of us that, like the rest of us, God loves immensely.  They might be the parts of us into which Jesus breathes and brings “Peace be with you” the most clearly.

Thanks be to God.