Second Sunday of Easter 2024

John 20: 19-31

Rev. Neli Miranda

 

“I have seen the Lord!”

This is Mary Magdalene’s glorious announcement on Easter morning. Very early, while it was still dark, she had come to the tomb to prepare Jesus’ body for his final burial, but what she found was that the stone had been removed from the tomb and with great anguish she saw that there was no body inside.  As the morning advanced, she experienced great desperation and desolation as she continued to seek for Jesus’ dead body; however, at the end of her seeking, she encountered not a dead body but the Risen Jesus!  The removed stone and the empty tomb had now transformed into good news. So, with great joy she went and announced to the first community of Jesus’ disciples, “I have seen the Lord!”

Mary Magdalene’s announcement has brought light, joy, and hope to twenty centuries of Christian spirituality, but on that early Easter morning, the first community of disciples was paralyzed by fear, grief, and skepticism and unable to really listen to Mary Magdalene’s glorious announcement. John, the evangelist, does not tell us anything about the disciples’ reaction to Mary’s announcement but immediately takes us to the evening of that day when we see a community paralyzed by fear, “…and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews…” Definitely, the disciples had not heard Mary’s joyful proclamation. The signs of the removed stone and the empty tomb still did not make sense to them, and they feared facing Jesus’ fate.

How many times in the midst of distressful and despairing moments have we heard good news but unable to truly listen?

While the fearful and troubled disciples locked themselves in their “panic room”, the Risen Jesus came among them and said, “Peace be with you.”  Shalom, the Hebrew word for peace, implies much more than a single greeting or wish for peace and happiness. Shalom conveys a sense of fullness and perfection. Shalom is the divine desire for all humans to live full, abundant lives. When there was no more than fear and despair, the Easter greeting Shalom transformed the life of the first community!

After Jesus’ greeting, he showed his disciples the wounds which confirmed his identity as the One who had been sacrificed, but more specifically, his wounds were signs of his victory over death. His wounds became a source of comfort and encouragement for the disciples and they felt joyful as they recognized that indeed they were facing the Risen Jesus. Then, Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you” and sent them into the world to continue his mission. Like in the first Creation when God breathed the breath of life into the first human’s nostril, Jesus breathed on his disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The disciples became the new creation, the new humanity empowered with the Spirit of God to proclaim the message of forgiveness and reconciliation in the world. Each one of them was able now to proclaim, “I have seen the Lord!” 

Dear sisters and brothers, may this new Easter celebration guide us to the encounter with the Risen Jesus, to the renewal of faith, to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and renew or Christian mission of proclaiming forgiveness and reconciliation in this broken world.

In this new celebration of Easter, what signs speak to you of the Risen Jesus? Have you seen the Lord?

AMEN!