John 20.19-31
Quasimodo Geniti, the First Sunday after Easter
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
By evening of that day, Jesus’ disciples had heard the women’s testimony that Jesus had risen. Peter and John had gone to the tomb and seen for themselves that it was empty. All that lay in the burial place was the linen and head wrapping in which their Lord had been wrapped. They had also heard from Cleopas and another disciple how Jesus had met them on the road to Emmaus, opened the Scriptures to them, and only revealing Himself to them when He began to eat with them. They come to the others and tell them, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” (Lk 24:34), for the risen Christ had appeared to Simon Peter at some point in the day as well. These men had several testimonies that their Lord had, in fact, risen from the dead and was alive.
All these eye-witness testimonies began to build up their faith. They began to believe. But their faith was weak. That is why that evening the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews. The Jews—the same ones who had arrested Jesus, tried Him, and crucified Him—knew that Jesus’ body was not in the tomb. They knew because some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened (Mt 27:11) St. Matthew tells us that the elders assembled, consulted amongst themselves, then bribed the soldiers with a large sum of money to tell people, “His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept” (Mt 27:13). That the Jews knew of Jesus’ resurrection—though they would not have called it that—filled the disciples with fear. If they had had no compunction about crucifying the Christ, the Son of the living God, they would not disapprove of putting His disciples to death. In fear and little faith, they fortify themselves that evening with shut doors, unsure of what would happen next.
But what happened next was that Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” Shut doors are no issue for the One who passed through the stone earlier that morning. Shut doors may keep out angry Jews—and keep in fearful disciples—but not the Son of God. He passes through the door because as the eternal Son of God, He can go wherever He wants whenever He pleases. And that evening, it pleased Him to enter the room where His disciples languished. He enters, stands in the midst of the ten disciples who were present, and speaks the antidote to their fear, “Peace be with you.” They have nothing to fear from the Jews, from their own sins, from death and hell itself because Jesus is alive to give them His peace. Then He shows them the antidote to the unbelief with which they had been grappling, for when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. All the accounts that Jesus was alive were true. They weren’t tricks of grief on anguished hearts. They were figments of sorrowing imaginations. He was the very same Jesus whom the Jews had crucified. And He was standing in the midst of them, showing them the trophies of His victory over death. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. The risen Christ had come to bring them peace of conscience and proof of His resurrection.
But Christ wasn’t finished. He said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” As His heavenly Father sent Him into the world to redeem the world from sin, so He now sends them out to preach that redemption. He calls them to be His apostles and immediately equips them by breathing on them then saying, “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.” He gives them the Holy Spirit so that they might be faithful and bold to do this: forgive the sins are those who are penitent and retain the sin of those who are impenitent. For Christ came to earn perfect forgiveness for all mankind, and He succeeded in that. But the forgiveness He had earned must now be divvied out. These men are to go into sinful world even as Christ came from His Father into the sinful world. These men will suffer for the sake of their calling even as the Lord suffered—and died—to fulfill the calling His Father gave to Him. These men will go forth, forgiving the sins of the penitent and retaining the sins of the impenitent as apostles of Jesus and ambassadors of Christ through whom God pleads with sinners: be reconciled to God by repentance and faith.
But Thomas wasn’t there that evening. In fact, Thomas was not even where the ten disciples were spiritually. They believed, though weakly, that Jesus was alive. They grappled with unbelief. But Thomas had given himself completely over to it. When the ten tell him, “We have seen the Lord!” he will have none of it. “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” Hadn’t Jesus showed the ten His hands and His side? But just as the ten struggled with the eyewitness of account of the women, others, and Peter, so Thomas refused to believe the ten’s eye-witness account. He sets the bar even higher than seeing Jesus. He wants to touch Him, put his hand in the mark of the nail and in Jesus side. This is not doubt. Doubt is the limping back and forth between two opinions. This is unbelief.
For a week the Lord allows Thomas to continue in His recalcitrance. That means the Lord allowed the ten disciples a week to mourn over Thomas, for that week Thomas was outside of faith, without salvation. But on the next Sunday evening, Thomas was with them. The doors were shut once again. Had the ten’s faith begun to weaken? Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” He strengthens their weaking faith, proclaiming His peace to them to fortify their faith in the fact that He was very much risen from the dead. He turns to Thomas to deal with the unbeliever in the group, and says, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” Jesus gives him what he thinks he needs, and Thomas can only answer in faith, “My Lord and my God!” He confesses Jesus as Lord and God—unlike so many today who refuse to allow Jesus to be either Lord or true God. But even more, Thomas confesses Jesus to be his Lord and his God. Christ enters the room of Thomas’ heart, the doors shut and casts out unbelief so that He may dwell in Thomas by faith, give Him peace, and sent him into the world to proclaim this same peace to the penitent.
Then Jesus says something which runs counter to all our thinking and human reason. “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” It isn’t bad that Thomas saw Christ and believed He had risen from the dead. Thomas, like the other apostles, had to be a witness of Christ’s resurrection (Ac 1:22). Thomas had to be able to say with Peter on Pentecost, “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses” (Ac 2:32). Thomas, like the others, had to be led to faith in the One whom they had seen, so that they might, by their preaching and writing, lead you to faith in the One whom you have not seen. For as often the gospels and epistles are read, heard, and penetrate the heart, the apostles’ witness and teaching continues its work. Their work continues in the office that they held, and gave to others, the office of the ministry which exists to forgive the sins of the penitent, to speak the peace of Jesus to the fearful and doubting, and, when necessary, to retain the sins of the impenitent so that they might see the severity of their sin and their great need for forgiveness, and return in repentance.
The apostles’ ministry continues until the end of the age so that you who have not seen the risen Christ with your eyes, may yet believe that He is risen. And not only that He is risen, but that He is risen for you, to forgive your sins as often as you repent; to speak peace to your conscience as often as you think on His promises; to drive fear, cowardice, and unbelief from your heart. He is risen for you, to dwell in your heart by faith, to daily renew your mind, so that you delight in His teaching, walk in His ways, and pursue His paths. There are times when you may wish you could see the risen Lord who dwells in your heart. There are times you are tempted to imagine that if you could only see, then all doubt, cowardice, and fear would dissipate. But that is not for you. It was for Thomas. It was for the apostles. But you, you are among those whom Jesus calls as blessed. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Why? Because faith is the victory that has overcome the world. That is why there is no need to fear as the disciples did. For by faith, you have overcome the world, for you are blessed, for you have a risen Christ who is your Lord and your God. Amen.
May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
