Rome Improvement 04/11/2021

MORE POWER!  MORE GLORY!!  MORE SPIRIT!!!

SURVEYING THE SITE—John 20:19-31

Here we are back to the Gospel of John. Mary has gone to the tomb. She has told a disbelieving group of disciples that the stone was rolled away and that “they” had “taken the Lord away and we do not know where they laid him.” In a demonstration of anxious energy, Peter and the beloved disciple have a foot race to the tomb where they discover that Mary might be right. At least the body is absent.

We are told, “Then they believed.”  What does this mean? Did they believe that Mary was right? Or did they believe that Jesus was raised?

Later Mary goes to the garden again where she meets the gardener and discovers that he is Jesus. Again, she comes to the disciples with news they find incredulous. She says, “I have seen the Lord.”

Now, at evening, the disciples are gathered where they can lock the door against those whom they fear would do them harm. For some reason, Thomas, one of the twelve, is not there. Forgetting that Jesus told them that he is the door of the sheepfold in chapter ten, they are hiding.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

Now when evening of the day of resurrection had come, the disciples gathered in a place where the doors were shut. They feared the Jewish authorities. Jesus came and stood among them, greeting them, saying, “Peace to you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

When the disciples realized that the one who had penetrated their secure place was the Lord, they were glad that it was he and not the authorities they feared. Again, Jesus said to them, “Peace to you. As the Father has sent me, so now I send you.” And then he breathed on them, saying, “Receive the Holy Breath. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain them, they are retained.”

Now one of the twelve, Thomas, called Didymus (twin), was not there when Jesus came. So, the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” Thomas said to them, “Unless I see, in his hands, the mark of the nails, that is, put my finger in the mark of the nails and put my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

After eight days, the disciples were again gathered, and Thomas was there. The doors were again shut, but Jesus came and again stood in their midst. He said, “Peace to you.”  He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Cast out your hand into my side. Do not be disbelieving but believing.”

Thomas responded, “My Lord! And my God!”

Jesus said, “Have you believed because you have seen? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

Now Jesus did a whole bunch of other signs in the presence of the disciples that are not written in this book, but these are written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and then, believing in his name, you may have life.

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

It is important to note that today’s reading includes two separate stories. The first takes place on the evening of the resurrection; the second a week later. Each of these stories has its own import for us.

As Adam and Eve met God in the Garden, so Mary has met Jesus is the garden where the work of new creation has just begun. In the evening when God would come to talk with Adam and Eve, so now Jesus comes in the evening of the first day of the week to initiate the new creation. As the wind/breath of God breathes on the face of the waters in Genesis, so now Jesus breathes the Holy Breath/Spirit over the faces of the disciples. Though this breath is strong, it is a breath that brings peace, wholeness, confidence.

With this inspiration comes sending. As Adam and Eve are sent from the garden, so now, the disciples are sent from their enclosure. When Adam and Eve hid in the garden, abdicating their full relationship with God, God expelled them from the garden and set a door/barrier to the garden with a guard preventing entry. Today we see the disciples hiding from a full relationship with God behind a shut door. As Adam and Eve hid in fear, so now the disciples hide in fear. As God came and spoke to Adam and Eve in their fear, so now Jesus comes and speaks with the disciples in their fear.

As Jesus says, back in chapter ten, the door/gate is Christ himself. The very thing that the disciples have closed themselves away from is what opens a way to new creation. This way includes all rights and privileges of new creation living—both the forgiveness of sins and the ability to retain them. But, before the disciples should practice these privileges, they need to take responsibility for their own actions and recognize their places of grace. They have locked themselves away in fear just as Adam and Eve did. They have chosen a relationship with one another rather than a relationship with God. And in the evening, God has again come to forgive and send them from their place of safe hiding into the world.

When Thomas returns from wherever he has been, the disciples report that they have seen the Lord. As Peter and the disciples did not believe Mary Magdalene when she reported that she had seen the Lord, and they found it necessary to see for themselves, Thomas repeats the pattern; Thomas needs to see for himself.

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

Is the name Didymus mentioned for a purpose? In early Church history a teacher of theology in Alexandria is named Didymus the Blind. Could the designation of Didymus for Thomas refer to blindness? The name of Thomas already means twin. Why say it in again another language? When Thomas says that he needs to see Jesus by touching him, is he asking to see as blind people see?

There are many unanswered questions in Scripture, but, given the above information, I presume that Thomas is either blind or significantly visually impaired. The term “twin” may refer to the habit of those who are blind to hold onto another person while walking. In following another, the one who is blind “twins” the movements of the sighted person.

But setting that aside, the need of touch as an identifier of Christ’s resurrection continues to affirm that these appearances of Jesus are not phantoms, they are corporeal appearances. The body of Christ is something that has substance to it. We can touch it. We can smell it. We can hear it. We can see it. And in the eucharist, we can taste it. The resurrected body of Christ is completely sensual. Thus, our Nicene creed states, “We believe in the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come.” In our Apostolic creed we say, “I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”

How are we able to be so certain? Our certainty comes from Thomas.  He demands incarnational proof. “I must be able to see in the way that I know the world. I must touch it.” The other disciples have seen Jesus through sight, heard his voice, and the smell of his breath upon them, but Thomas is upping the game. Thomas needs touch.

In an ironic statement, Jesus tells Thomas, “Do you believe because you have seen? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” It may very well be that the unseeing Thomas believes because he cannot see. He is the one who sees while not seeing and makes way for the rest of us who lean on his tactile knowledge.

Many know this story as “Doubting Thomas”. This “doubt” is more “without belief” or “without trust”. If Thomas is blind, sighted people may have told him so many things over his lifetime that have been unreliable, that he, still in his grief over Jesus’ death, cannot depend on the testimony of the others.

Maybe, if the others have seen, Thomas needs to see too. And so, Jesus calls us all, with Thomas, to claim his resurrection for our lives, to say with confidence, “My Lord. My God.” Not as a personal statement of salvation but as an affirmation of what the other disciples have come to know.

HANGING THE TRIM

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” Or maybe, “Blessed are those who cannot see and yet believe.” In the world of the totally blind, these words create a place at the table, a sense of inclusion in the body of Christ. There will always be those who can say, “I have seen the Lord,” but in touch, Thomas presents a relationship of intimacy that transcends sight. It is not better. It is different, and further demonstrates Christ’s willingness to meet us where we are.

Christ continues to stand in our midst and there are those who will see him, but his presence in known more fully than that. We know him through sound, smell, and taste, as well as touch and sight. Enter into the place where he is laid. Hear the music and the words. Smell the candles and the wine. Touch the bread and the hands of those around you.  Taste the goodness of Christ’s body and blood; let it become part of you. Then, encountering Christ as we are able, let us trust in his name. Let us go out to share the good news:  “’This is my body given for you,’ Jesus says. Peace to you.”