Eyes

Scriptures:       Acts 2:14a, 22-32 , I Peter 1: 3-9         John 20:19-31

Eyes

Locked rooms can be stuffy places, but it was in a locked room that the disciples began their week.   Jesus, their leader, had just been arrested by the religious authorities and executed by the Roman authorities.  Who was to say that, having started by killing Jesus, they might not continue by rounding up and killing Jesus’ followers?  And so Jesus’ disciples felt it best to keep a low profile – and besides, they needed time to grieve and to answer for themselves the question, “Where do we go from here?”

Where indeed?  The disciples had left work and family behind to follow Jesus.  Could they just go back to what they’d done before, back to what they’d been before?  And yet how could they move forward.  Two of the women had come to them with some cockamamie story about angels and an empty tomb and Jesus come back to life, but aren’t women always having attacks of the vapors and such?  The disciples sent Peter and John to check out the women’s story, and the tomb was indeed empty…but beyond that, all bets were off.

And then the Risen Christ appeared to them, saying “Peace be with you!”  Jesus showed them his hands and side so they could see that the one standing before them was the one who had been crucified.  Jesus then commissioned them – “As the Father sent me, so I send you” – and breathed the Holy Spirit into them, thus equipping them to do as Jesus said.

Thomas had not been with them – perhaps he was picking up some takeout Chinese food for the disciples to nosh on – and when the others told  Thomas what they’d experienced, Thomas said his famous words, “Unless I see the mark of the nail and the spear, I will not believe.” 

Thomas gets a bad rap – “Doubting Thomas”, he’s called.  Yet until Jesus’ appearance, the disciples had no more use for the women’s testimony than Thomas had for the disciples’ testimony.  And in any case, doubt is no enemy of faith; indeed, doubts are nothing more than mileposts on the road of faith.  As evidence that we worship a gracious God, Jesus came a week later and went through the whole scene again, allowing Thomas to see the wounds of his crucifixion, telling Thomas, “Do not doubt, but believe”.  Thomas answered Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” – which actually is more than we hear from the other disciples.  In any case, at this point Jesus essentially brings us, the readers of John’s Gospel, into the story, as he tells Thomas, “Have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”  At this point John, the author goes on to explain the purpose for writing his Gospel – and his purpose is all about us, the readers:  “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.”  John is writing his Gospel not just to give us an edifying, uplifting story, but so that we can, as much as possible, experience Jesus in the same way John and his community experienced Jesus.

Locked rooms are stuffy places.  The disciples’ fears had them locked behind closed doors, had them essentially placing themselves under house arrest.  It was the risen Christ who could equip the disciples to unlock the door, to leave their stuffy locked room and go out into all the world to proclaim the good news to all.

Locked rooms are stuffy places.   Behind what locked and bolted doors have our fears imprisoned us?  Fear and self-preservation are useful survival instincts, but in our brokenness, humans have a way of allowing fear to drive us in ways that God never intended.  The fear that may have been helpful in alerting our ancestors to run from wild animals is unhelpful when it drives us to avoid challenges such as strained relationships and difficult workplaces.  Sometimes in trying to avoid pain, addictions such as alcohol and drugs can lock us away from the lives God would have us live.  It is the Risen Christ who can enter our locked rooms, breathe new life into us – the new life that comes of being led by the Spirit and send us out into the world with Good News to proclaim.

As many of you know, Shawn and his crew filmed scenes for the movie Shawn is making.  During the week, I emailed Shawn to ask which scenes would be filmed today after church.  And in one of his replies, Shawn emailed about the awesome work Bao, his videographer, is doing with the filming, especially with the scenes of our sanctuary with all its wood hues.  Shawn said, “It’s the same camera I used before, but Bao knows how to work magic with the camera settings.”

“We have seen the Lord!”, the disciples told Thomas.  “Unless I feel the mark of the nails…I will not believe,” said Thomas in reply.  “Have you believed because you have seen? Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed,” said Jesus.  It’s all really about our eyes, about our vision – or about how we use our mind’s camera settings.   Viewing our world through eyes of fear and despair limits our range of vision, until, like the disciples before Jesus’ appearance, we can’t see beyond the four walls of a locked room, until, like Mary in the garden, we don’t recognize Jesus even if he’s right in front of us.  The eyes of faith, by contrast, help us to see Jesus in the most unpromising places and the most unlikely faces.  The eyes of faith lead us to leave our locked rooms, the fears that box us in, the certitudes of the past that may keep us from seeing the possibilities of the present and future. 

In the words of an old hymn, “Be Thou our vision, O Lord of our hearts.”  May the crucified and resurrected Christ clear away the doubts and fears that block our vision.  May Christ lead us – and lead our congregation – beyond the locked rooms of our fears and past failures and into the light of God’s love.  Amen.