Second Sunday of Easter 2023

John 20:19-31

Rev. Neli Miranda

 

The last two chapters of John’s Gospel (20 and 21) tell us how the first community of disciples lived, understood, and responded to Jesus’ resurrection.  Mary Magdalene, Peter, the beloved disciple, and Thomas, each show us different human paths on how to respond and embrace the transformation that God brings us through Jesus’ resurrection.

 

The first thing we notice in John’s account is that no one in the community expected Jesus’s resurrection. No one had understood his previous announcements… it was the love, devotion and service of Mary Magdalene and the other women that brought the great announcement of life to the community, for where there is love and service, there is life and light! 

 

Mary’s devotion led her to be the first person to see the Risen Jesus on Easter morning and after her encounter with Jesus, she was sent to announce the great news. She is recognized as the first apostle of the good news of the resurrection. Although her voice had not been heard throughout John’s account, we hear it in chapter 20 where she has a few lines; the last one is the most powerful, “I have seen the Lord.” Her powerful announcement illuminates 20 centuries of Christian history!  

 

However, it seems that on that Easter morning, the other disciples did not believe her announcement. Immediately, after Mary’s announcement John takes us to the Easter evening and shows us a community trapped in fear, “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews…” (20,19). Certainly, our fears lock us up and prevent us from hearing and seeing the good news of Life. However, Life has no barriers and reaches us even in our deepest confinement like the Risen Jesus who came and stood among his disciples that Easter evening.  His familiar greeting “Peace be with you.” illuminated that dark evening.

 

Jesus does not come to his disciples like a great superhero celebrating his fantastic feats. Rather, John tells us that Jesus shows his disciples his crucifying wounds which speak of his suffering and death on the cross. His wounds speak of suffering but also of hope; his wounds tell the community that it is not just a terrible Friday of death; his wounds testify that pain and death can be overcome.  By showing his wounds, Jesus also tells us of his solidarity with those who are wounded by the crucifying realities of injustice in our world.

 

The Risen Jesus and his crucifying wounds make the disciples rejoice and realize that Jesus’ resurrection announces the recreation of a world where the power of death has been conquered by Jesus, the firstborn from the dead. In the light of this recreation, Jesus says to them again, “Peace be with you,” As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When Jesus says this, he breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (20,22). The verb breathe is the same verb used to describe the first creation when God breathes the breath of life into the nostril of the first human who becomes a living being (Gn 2:7). Now, in the new creation, it is the Risen Jesus who breathes the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Life, into his disciples to be a living community who brings life and releases the broken world:  “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (20,23).

 

The words sin and forgive may be interpreted in the light of the new creation and in a liberating way. The term sin comes from the Greek ἁμαρτία, which can be interpreted as more than a kind of moral failing: brokenness. Also, the term forgive, instead of its traditional interpretation may be interpreted as release. Thus, in the new creation, the Holy Spirit empowers Jesus’s community to release the world from its brokenness.  Today, can you feel the Spirit of God leading you to proclaim God’s release among this broken world?

 

As we continue reading John’s account, we find that there is always someone in a community who needs more time to encounter the Risen Jesus.  This is Thomas, one of the disciples of the first community. He was not with the disciples in their first encounter with Jesus, so when they told him “We have seen the Lord”, he did not believe them; he wanted to see Jesus’ wounds. More than a morbid desire, Thomas wants to heal his own wounds through seeing the wounds of the Risen Jesus.  So, as Jesus never leaves one behind, a week later, Thomas had an encounter with the wounded Jesus who tells him, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe”(20,27). Healed by the wounded healer, Thomas reacts with a great profession of faith, “My Lord and my God!”

 

All in the community had seen Jesus and his wounds and so they believed. So, Jesus’ words to Thomas, more than a reproach are a declaration of a blessing for all those who would have believed without having seen him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you believe. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”(20,29). Can you today touch Jesus’ wounds and heal your own? Can you hear Jesus’ words saying: “Blessed are those who do not see and yet believe”?

 

Whom do you identify with in John’s account? With Mary, Peter and the beloved disciple, or Thomas? It seems that some encounter the Risen Jesus very early in the morning like Mary, others at evening like the other disciples, others next week like Thomas, and others need more time…  Whichever, we must know that we are having an encounter with the Risen Jesus and participating in the new creation! AMEN

https://dailyverses.net/john/20/21