2nd Sunday of Easter
John 20:19-31
When 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 unbelievers, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As God has sent me, so I send you.” 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 retain the sins of any, they are retained.” But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he 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.”
A 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.” Then 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.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But 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 his name.
Peace Be with You
The disciples were afraid. Their leader, their teacher, the man who had taken care of them and loved them and showed them the way of God, was dead. Jesus was dead. And, for all they knew, they were going to be next. And, so they barricaded themselves into a room and locked the door.
Can you imagine what it must have been like in there? That paranoid feeling, jumping at the sounds that you would hear outside, thinking that the soldiers were coming to get you? How were they supposed to move forward from all this? What were they supposed to do? I can imagine them talking to each other in hushed tones, whispering about their fears, their worries feeding upon each other and getting bigger.
They had their hope that Jesus was going to come back, because that’s what he said. That he would come back. We have to assume that they had their doubts as well. We don’t know if they any kind of plan beyond locking themselves up in that room. They were afraid, and their situation was grim.
But suddenly, suddenly, Jesus was there! The door was locked, but somehow, Jesus was in the room with them! And, they were so excited to see him! He showed them his hands, and he showed them his side, and he said, “Peace be with you. Peace be with you.”
I remember using this text for a prayer meditation with the youth group at my internship site, and I kept coming back to that phrase: “Peace be with you.” I kept seeing this image in my mind of Jesus looking at the disciples, with his hands held out in this kind of claming manner as he said it. “Peace be with you. Peace be with you.” And, as I was seeing that image in my mind, I got the sense that God was telling me that I was worrying too much. That I needed to put my faith in God, and allow God to do what God was going to do. And when I realized that, this feeling of peace just welled up inside of me, and I was able to let go.
I really needed that peace. Jesus, holding his hands out like that, that was the exact image that I needed to see. Because, at that time, graduation was coming up and I kept thinking about all of the things that I need to do; I was getting really stressed out about it. Now that I look back at that time in my life, I honestly don’t know how I was supposed to do it all
I’m sure most of you have noticed that the reproduction of the mosaic that I made while I was in seminary is back up in the Fireside Room, again. That was the mosaic that I was desperately trying to finish before graduation. The whole thing is about 34 feet long and 3 ½ feet tall; for some reason, the first four inches and the last four inches were cut off in the reproduction. I was doing the mosaic as part of my concentration in Christian Spirituality, and having worked on it for as long as I had, I knew there were still over 200 hours of work left before it would be done. So, of course, I was worrying about finishing it, and worrying about my finals and that papers that I had to write, and worrying about my ordination process; I just had a lot going on.
Which is why I needed what that text was telling me. That Jesus is always with us in the midst of our troubles, in our worries, in our anxieties. Jesus is with us, his arms open and welcoming, and saying, “Peace be with you. Peace be with you.”
I’ve shared this story before, but it’s been a while, and I thought since the mural is up again, it was worth revisiting. I was sitting in Holy Grounds, the student common area where the mosaic is, and I wasn’t working on the mural because I was getting over a cold and I didn’t feel good, but this horde of people just descended upon me, insisting that we have a mural work party. Most of them had never helped me with the mural before, and I had no idea that they were coming. We blasted some music, and broke some plates, and stayed up really really late, some of us not leaving until after three in the morning, and all together, we must have put in at least 40 work hours into that thing. It was amazing! It was beautiful, and it reminded how much I loved being at that school. The thing that made realize that it really was a God moment and not just some coincidence, was the fact that one of the people who came to help was a prospective student. I had only just met her earlier that day. I shook her hand after chapel, and I honestly thought that I would never see her again. But, she was there, a total stranger, smashing plates with a hammer and gluing the pieces onto the wall. I didn’t have a plan for how I was gonna finish the mural, other than last minute, crazy panic, which to be honest, had been my M.O. for most of my life. But, at that point, I didn’t even know if last minute crazy panic was gonna work. But, God had a plan. God always has a plan.
I needed that reminder about the ways in which God can work in our lives. I had gotten so caught up in thinking that I had to do it all by myself, that I had to make a plan and execute it. I had no idea that God was gathering a group of people to help me; I probably should have been asking for help the whole time. Being part of the church means being part of a community, part of God’s family. And, we have to be open to the ways in which God is working through us and through community to bring wholeness and healing into our lives.
This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t make plans; I don’t think we should walk through life, aimless and wandering. God wants us to do things, to help people. Plans give our lives structure, so that we can actually get things done. But, sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where a plan just isn’t going to cut it. Sometimes, we find ourselves locked in a dark room asking, “Where does our help come from?” We have to have faith that God is going to help us. Because the choice is either to keep trying, to keep working, trusting that God will see us through, or fall into despair and hopelessness, where we can’t help anybody. Where we can’t even help ourselves.
Now, I want to add here that planning does not mean a rigid adherence to a set path. No matter how carefully we plan, no matter how many contingencies we have, life will find a way to mess things up. Life is complicated, and we need to make room for course correction. And, we need to have the humility to understand when our plans don’t line up with God’s plans, and that to stand in the way of God’s plan is the way of folly and futility.
As for the disciples, we know a bit about happened to them. Their lives weren’t easy. They were ridiculed for their belief; they were persecuted and killed. But, they lived their lives doing God’s work. And, they were filled with joy and love, knowing that their purpose was God’s purpose. And, while I’m not going to say that I’m an advocate for martyrdom, I will say that I am an advocate for living into God’s will.
One of the contributors to the mural was famous for saying, “Hope is not a plan.” But, hope should be a part of every plan that you make. And, my hope is, that in whatever plans you make for the future, that you take a moment to look and listen for God. Because, while hope may not be a plan, God’s will certainly is, and we can have hope in that. Peace be with you. Amen.
~ Rev. Charles Wei
