When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, 28 saying, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.” 29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority. 30 The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.” – Acts 5:27-32
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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 Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 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.”
26 A week later his 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.” 27 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.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 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.”
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 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 20:19-31
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Welcome to the second week of Easter! Like Advent and Christmas, the season of Easter continues for a few weeks beyond the actual holiday, so during Easter we have 40 days of celebration. Our scripture readings during this time will focus mostly on what Jesus did after his resurrection, and on what the disciples did immediately following Jesus’ ascension.
With this in mind, we’ll be hearing a lot from Gospel of John and the book of Acts in the next few weeks. These two books together give us a good idea of what happened after Jesus’ resurrection. They don’t tell us everything; there is a lot that happened in those days that wasn’t written down. But we know that Jesus spent time in Jerusalem after his resurrection, and we know that while he was there, he didn’t have any contact with the religious leadership or with Pilate or Herod. We also know Jesus spent some time the region of Galilee, some of that time with his disciples. We would probably be safe in guessing that Jesus also went home to see his mother and visit his family. Scripture doesn’t tell us this specifically, but scripture does tell us Jesus’ brothers didn’t believe in him during his lifetime (John 7:5) yet after Jesus’ resurrection his brother James became a disciple and it’s believed he wrote the book of James in the New Testament – which is quite a turnaround from non-believing!
Still, at the end of John’s gospel John tells us: “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.” (John 20:30) So there’s a lot we don’t know about what Jesus did during his last forty days on earth. But what we do know is more than enough to share over these next 40 days; and as John says in his gospel, “these things are written so that (we) may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing (we) may have life in his name.
This Sunday, our readings from John and Acts give us living examples of the work the Holy Spirit does in the lives of the disciples. We’ll begin with the Gospel of John today, and the familiar story of the man known to history as “Doubting Thomas”.
Our reading from John begins on Easter Day. The disciples have gathered in a locked room, afraid that what happened to Jesus might also happen to them. By now they’ve heard word from the women that Jesus has been seen alive, but they’re still feeling uncertain and afraid.
Suddenly Jesus walks into that locked room – without using the door! It seems resurrection bodies can do some things our bodies can’t. At any rate the disciples recognize Jesus immediately – his new body still has the old scars. They can see the whip marks and the places where the nails were.
Jesus immediately says “Peace be with you” – using the word shalom, which is not just an absence of fear but a presence of well-being, physically and mentally and emotionally. When Jesus speaks the word shalom, the word is active: what he speaks becomes reality. The disciples lose their fear. Jesus then commissions them saying: “as the Father sent me now I send you.” This means they are now all apostles – the Greek word apostle meaning ‘people who are sent’.
The apostles are prepared by Jesus to go out in the power of the Holy Spirit, which Jesus breathes onto them. The Holy Spirit – the third person of the Trinity – is often compared to ‘wind’ in scriptures: the Bible says “the Spirit blows where it wills” – but Jesus can and does direct it to his disciples. The message the disciples are given to share is a message of forgiveness through faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection; and this message is proclaimed by the disciples boldly and without fear.
In our world today many people doubt this message. Many people say “I’m a good person and I do good things, but the Bible was written over 2000 years ago. I don’t believe all that ancient supernatural stuff about people coming back from the dead.”
The best answer I’ve ever heard for kind of skepticism comes from Chuck Colson, one of the men convicted and sent to prison in the Watergate scandal. Colson became a Christian while he was in prison, and he said this:
“I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. […] Because [in the Bible] 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one [of them] was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured [all that for a lie]. Watergate [involved] 12 men, 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn’t keep a lie [secret] for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie [secret] for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.”[1]
That’s Chuck Colson. Going back now to the upper room with the disciples, we find one of them is missing: Thomas. We’re not sure where Thomas is, but when he returns to the group they all tell him “Jesus has been here! He’s alive!”
But Thomas says, “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.”
Caravaggio
Thomas has taken a lot of flack over the years for saying this… but when you get down to it, he’s not asking for anything more than what the other disciples have already seen. And he’s not willing to commit until both his mind and his heart are satisfied with the truth.
In a way I think that’s a wise thing, especially for us who live in today’s world, where email scams and Ponzi schemes are a dime a dozen. It’s a good thing to ask questions if something seems to good to be true. The good news is that God never rejects the sceptic. God meets those who doubt, where they are, when the doubts are honest ones.
Theologian Mary Hinkle Shore says this:
“Thomas will not be shamed into believing, or shamed into… keeping his unbelief to himself. […] Thomas’s journey to faith makes his story especially important for an audience of would-be believers…”[2]
So Thomas’s words are especially good for people to hear when they’re not sure what they believe. Meanwhile Jesus is willing to meet Thomas where he needs to be met – and Jesus will do the same for us. At the same time, Jesus says, “blessed are those who haven’t seen and yet believe”, which speaks directly to all of us who are not eyewitnesses of the resurrection but have come to faith in more recent years. It gives us hope that Jesus meets us, just as he met Thomas; and Jesus commissions us just as he commissioned the disciples.
Turning now to our reading from Acts: this scene takes place in and around the Temple, after the resurrection and ascension. The disciples are now living and moving and teaching in the power of the Holy Spirit which Jesus has given them. As they do, large groups gather to listen. The disciples heal the sick and cast out demons, and they proclaim Jesus as the Ruler and Savior of the world.
From an ancient Roman point of view, the disciples are walking on thin ice because only Caesar can claim to be Ruler and Savior of the world. And the religious authorities in the Temple are afraid the Romans will hear this teaching and stir up trouble. Most of them did not believe the rumors about the resurrection; and some of them had paid off the soldiers who were guarding the tomb to say someone had stolen the body.
The religious authorities arrest Peter and John as they’re preaching in the Temple in Acts chapter four. They warn them sternly not to do this any more and then set them free. The disciples then gathered around and prayed for boldness, and returned to the Temple in Acts chapter five, healing people and preaching. The High Priest and the Sadducees were “filled with jealousy” and arrested them again and put them in prison, but that night an angel of the Lord brought them out of the prison and said “go back and keep on preaching” – which they did at daybreak the next day. They were arrested again (Groundhog Day?) and this time they were brought before the whole council which included the Pharisees as well as the Sadducees.
The High Priest tells them, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.” And Peter, acting as spokesperson for the apostles, says, “We must obey God rather than men.”
Peter has his loyalties right. But there’s one side note I need to make here: this passage, and these words, have been used and mis-used for the past 2000 years to blame the Jewish people for the death of Jesus. I can’t say this strongly enough: this is not true. First off, Peter was Jewish, and Jesus was Jewish, and all the disciples and all the believers up to this point in time were all Jewish. The religious leaders were wrong not because they were Jewish, but because they didn’t listen to Jesus, and because they mis-used their authority to conspire to kill an innocent man. (End of side note.)
This meeting of the council, meanwhile, started to look like it was going to end in a theological free-for-all until a Pharisee named Gamaliel stood up to speak. (This takes place just after our reading in Acts that we heard this morning.) Gamaliel was considered to be one of the greatest theologians of his time, and he was the teacher of a bright up-and-coming young Pharisee we will someday know as the apostle Paul. Gamaliel stands up and says: “hear me. Consider carefully what you propose to do.” And he goes on to talk about the many false teachers who have passed through Jerusalem over the years (and he names them) and he says their teaching proved to be false and quickly died out. And if these men are preaching a message of human origin, it will likewise die out; but if the message is from God you may find yourselves fighting against God!” The council takes his advice, and they have the disciples whipped and set them free. And so the news of Jesus’ resurrection spreads throughout Jerusalem and all of Israel.
So summing up this morning’s readings…
First, in the beginning we see the disciples hiding in fear. It’s hard for us to imagine what they felt seeing Jesus dead on a cross and then buried. It was the shattering of all their dreams. It called into question everything they had invested their lives in. But God did not leave them in sorrow for long. One very long, silent Saturday, and then… the Lord is alive again! Some of the disciples met Jesus on Easter morning, and many more later that day. Sorrow turned into joy, faith was fulfilled!
Second, Jesus immediately renewed the disciples’ commission to preach the good news to the world. This good news is: “The Kingdom of God is at hand – change course and believe the good news!” To which the disciples now add, “and this is proven by Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.”
Jesus will shortly be returning to God the Father, so he gives the disciples the Holy Spirit as a guide and teacher. The Holy Spirit is described in scripture as “the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”
The disciples – and today, we also – are therefore called to:
- Believe in Jesus Christ, as Messiah, Saviour, and Prince of Heaven.
- Believe in Jesus’ ability and willingness to cleanse us from sin.
- Receive the Holy Spirit, and with that Spirit the power for ministry. (we’ll hear more about this at Pentecost)
- In the power of the Spirit, make Jesus known to others.
Knowing and learning the Scriptures is just a beginning; it’s a living faith in Jesus through the Holy Spirit that opens the door to eternal life. When Thomas saw Jesus alive for the first time, he exclaimed, “My Lord and My God!”. Let this be our testimony also. AMEN.
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Preached at Carnegie United Methodist Church and Hill Top United Methodist Church, April 24 2022
[1] Chuck Colson, GoodReads.com, https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/555921-i-know-the-resurrection-is-a-fact-and-watergate-proved
[2] Mary Hinkle Shore, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/thomas-2/commentary-on-john-2019-31-5
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