Scripture: John 20:19-29; John 20:3-4; 1 John 1:1 Series: Easter
The risen Christ, recognized by his scars, breathes the Holy Spirit on the disciples and gives them a transforming power of pardon that must never be cheapened into a worldly forgiveness which shields abusers and keeps things the same.
Illustrations: recognized-by-scars-not-face, jesus-through-locked-doors, wesley-sophie-hopkey-communion, not-a-mutant-serum, jesus-turning-over-tables
April 27
The disciple Thomas is such a rich and vibrantly brilliant figure in the Bible. He is such a shining figure of that sometimes people forget what Jesus is saying when he first went to see the disciples.
This is the evening of resurrection. The only disciples in the gospel of John who have seen Jesus, at this point, were the women who had gone to the tomb, and Peter and John, who awkwardly raced there.
“Peter and the other disciple left to go to the tomb. They were running together, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and was the first to arrive at the tomb.” John 20:3-4 CEB https://bible.com/bible/37/jhn.20.3-4.CEB
For the rest of them, they are scared. There’s a lot of violence going on in the community. The disciples of Jesus are afraid. They are afraid of what is going to happen to them. And then Jesus appears in a somewhat supernatural way. The doors are locked and Jesus gets in. I guess he could have climbed through the window. Maybe he did. Maybe he didn’t. If he can rise from the dead, sneaking into a room isn’t a stretch.
Whatever the case, Jesus appears to them and says, Peace. Jesus was speaking but speaking wasn’t enough; he had to show the wounds in his hands and on his side. They don’t hear what Jesus has to say until he shows the wounds; that’s when the disciples knew it was him. They did not recognize his face, they recognized his scars. Let’s say that again. It’s very important. They did not recognize his face. They recognized his scars.
Then Jesus goes on and says to them, Peace be with you. The father has sent me, so I am sending you.
Okay, this is where we start to get all wonky. I mean, Jesus appearing through locked doors is kind of wonky, but at first glance, what is even wonkier is that Jesus doesn’t send the disciples here. He says, as the father sent me, I am sending you. He tells them he’s sending them but he doesn’t send them. He breathes on them. He gives them the Holy Spirit that lets them forgive the sins of any. This power also lets them hold back forgiveness, which is another thing that is confounding. All of this happens before we get to Thomas.
Now, maybe the disciples are just so excited from seeing the scars and knowing that their Rabbi and friend is alive that they don’t pay attention to the other things.
But we, today, in the season of Easter, have the distance of time to be able to look at the scripture, to read it, and to try and figure out a little bit of what is going on, which comes back to this question of forgiveness and mercy and the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is a great power that Jesus is giving his disciples, the power of pardon. They give mercy to whom they give mercy, and they withhold mercy to whom they withhold mercy.
Well, the first part sounds good. The second part doesn’t sound as good. It doesn’t sound good because, if we think about the disciples, or really anybody having that incredible power and using it for their own gain, it is quite unsettling.
To take an example from Methodist tradition, John Wesley was a priest in the Church of England. He was a missionary to the colony of Savannah He spent a lot of time and had a lot of morning walks with the niece of the most important businessman in the colony named Sophie Hopkey. They spent a lot of time together.
After a while, John doesn’t propose and Sophy ends up marrying another guy. John gets all flustered and he doesn’t give her or her new husband communion. He withholds it. He says that she’s lying and that she needs to be honest because she had told John that she wouldn’t get married and then she got married so she lied to him. It’s quite a power move.
It can be tempting to think about people using the power Jesus gives his disciples like John Wesley used his authority, but that would be divorcing the power of forgiveness from the presence of the Holy Spirit. You’re separating it from that presence. The Holy Spirit is the full extent of the power. The disciples weren’t injected with a mutant serum that gave them superhuman abilities of forgiveness or non-forgiveness. The Holy Spirit entered their lives in a new way, to forgive the sins of others, to forgive the ways people have strayed from God, strayed from their family, strayed from themselves.
Jesus isn’t talking about the forgiveness of someone who sins against me.
True mercy, true letting go, true offering up to God is a powerful gift. It can really only come from the Holy Spirit. And I think the discernment of whether to forgive or to withhold is about trust in the Holy Spirit. It is about offering mercy to the ones who are seeking it; not to those who are not.
Mercy is a means of conversion, transformation, of changing the path, of being on another road and it can be cheapened, but cheapening it does not cheapen God or the Spirit. Often our imagination needs to be transformed in order to see the possibilities of forgiveness: forgiveness of others forgiveness of ourselves.
In the season of Easter, we need to be open to that transformation. If Jesus rose from the dead, maybe we can forgive that person in our lives. Forgiveness is not about covering up abuse or sugar coating abuse. If Jesus rose from the dead, maybe we can forgive ourselves.
And this power of pardon, of mercy, of forgiveness, that Jesus gave the disciples, this is the sending that Jesus speaks about. Mercy is active. It goes places. It changes things. Mercy is not about the status quo. The status quo is not forgiving. The status quo is eye for an eye. The status quo is the path of destruction. The status quo is living for the expectations of others. The status quo twists the divine gift of forgiveness into a way to maintain power structures and forms of abuse that would make Jesus turn over tables. Worldly forgiveness keeps things the same. It is a lie that deceives and keeps people in structures of abuse. The way we can tell the difference between the lie of worldly forgiveness which tells people to forgive their abusers but has no word for abusers, and heavenly forgiveness. The Holy Spirit offers something more than the world. Heavenly forgiveness transforms. If it is not transforming and converting, it is not the action of the Holy Spirit. If it is keeping things the same way, it is not the action of the Holy Spirit.
The disciples receive the power of mercy when they see the scars of Jesus because they did not recognize his face. He had changed through resurrection and they would change.
So we get to Thomas. When Jesus is talking to Thomas about blessed are those who don’t see and yet believe, he’s not comparing Thomas to the disciples. He’s comparing Thomas to us. This is about you and me.
Have you believed because you have seen me? He says, blessed are those who have not seen him yet have believed.
We, 2000 years later, are offered a chance to believe without seeing. Jesus is talking about us. But Jesus is also not taking away are senses. The goal is not for us to irrationally believe.
We are also given the chance to see the scars of Jesus, to touch the scars of Jesus. What John says at the start of his first epistle.
“We announce to you what existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have seen and our hands handled, about the word of life.” 1 John 1:1 CEB https://bible.com/bible/37/1jn.1.1.CEB
We are blessed when we believe without seeing, we are also given the chance to see the scars of Jesus today, and in that, we, like the apostles, are given the power of forgive through the Holy Spirit.
It’s a mighty thing. It’s a powerful thing for the Holy Spirit to be with us. It is not a trivial thing to receive Jesus in the brokenness of this world. And to be specific, we see the wounds of Jesus in the broken of this world. You see the wounds of Jesus in the brokenness around us, of our neighbors, of our friends, of ourselves: we see the wounds of Jesus, but we also see that they have been healed and he is risen. Death did not defeat him. The wounds do not defeat him. Even when they lock the door to keep everyone out, Jesus comes into the room and says peace. Even when we lock out everyone from our life, Jesus comes in and says Peace. He shows himself by his wounds. He gives himself through the spirit.
May we not be afraid to show ourselves by our wounds. May we not be afraid to give ourselves by the Spirit. May we not be afraid to forgive. May we not be afraid to seek forgiveness. May we not be afraid to live like resurrected people even today. We are not alone. God is with us. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.