2 Easter, Yr B (2024) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
2 Easter, Yr B (2024) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
John 20:19-31 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
In the name of the one, holy, and living God:
who was, and is, and is to come. Amen.
A friend of mine is a cardio-thoracic surgery PA.
He told me that one Good Friday,
he began an operation by making an incision in the side of a patient’s chest.
It struck me that he was making an incision in order to save someone’s life,
while on Good Friday
Jesus was pierced in his side to ensure his death.
And yet, as we hear in today’s Gospel reading,
it is seeing that very wound in Jesus’ side
that allows the disciples to rejoice in the possibility of new life.
So…once again,
death and life,
fear and joy,
co-mingle.
It is worth reminding ourselves that today’s gospel reading
takes place the evening of the first day of the week.
For us sitting here, a whole week has passed…
but not for the disciples.
Following the horror of Jesus’ crucifixion just three days prior,
the disciples have locked themselves away in fear.
If Jesus could be crucified,
then perhaps they could be, too, as his followers!
They have locked themselves away in fear.
Maybe they are trying to figure out what in the world to do now.
Something in this itinerant preacher’s manner had called them forth from their lives.
So much so that they had let go of all they had in order to follow him.
They had accompanied him day and night for three years,
teaching and healing and baptizing…
touching the untouchable,
speaking to the ostracized,
setting people free from the demons that besieged them.
This man, Jesus, was the Messiah,
and when they were with him,
they knew that to be true.
He emboldened them to believe that life could be different.
Being with him gave them a courage they had never known:
like healing on the Sabbath because life was more important than the Law…
or turning over the tables of the money-changers to up-end an oppressive system,
or giving sight to a man born blind,
or raising up the lame or straightening up a woman nearly doubled over.
You couldn’t keep company with a man such as this and not believe that the rough ways just might be made smooth,
and the valleys raised up,
and the mountains brought low.
This man brought forth life in this world.…
And yet…
just a few days ago he had breathed his last
and a sword pierced his side
and blood and water, of all things, came gushing out.
“It is finished,” he said.
It is finished!
It is over.
Hope is gone.
Jesus was laid in the tomb,
and the tomb was sealed.
The Marys said the tomb was empty, but
where was Jesus?
They didn't even have a body to comfort them.
So they locked themselves away in their fear,
their despair,
their doubt,
their hopelessness.
At least they could be together,
shutting out the world and any threats that loomed…
aside from the darkness that threatened their own hearts.
And then in the shimmering dusk some man appeared among them.
Who knows where he came from…
perhaps he snuck in through the window or climbed in through a hole in the roof.
“Peace be with you,” he said.
“Peace!”
Are you kidding?
Our Messiah, our healer, our teacher, our leader, our Savior, is dead!
Who are you to talk about Peace?!
And then this man did a remarkable thing:
he showed them nail wounds in his hands
and the hole in his side that had been pierced by a spear.
All of a sudden their hearts began to burn, and their eyes lit up.
Alleluia! Jesus is risen.
So, Jesus says again…now that they can hear him:
“Peace be with you.”
My friends, he says, peace be with you.
You need not sit here locked in fear.
The Light has come into the world, and the world has not overcome it.
I am fascinated by this story.
It is fascinating that the disciples do not recognize Jesus until they see his wounds.
Somehow, some way, Jesus has been raised from the dead,
but in his resurrected body they do not recognize him…
something about him has changed profoundly.
Jesus has changed enough that the disciples do not recognize him at first glance.
And yet, despite what has changed in his appearance,
Jesus maintains his wounds after the resurrection,
and that is how he is recognized.
Jesus and his disciples meet each other in their wounds.
Jesus speaks a word of peace into their fear and anxiety and despair.
Yet, “Peace” was not the only word Jesus had for his disciples.
He also said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
They have a mission.
Jesus sends them to be a light to the world as he had been…
to witness to the ever-widening, ever-expanding love and Grace of God
in a broken world.
After he said this, Jesus breathed on them…
filling them with God’s life-giving Spirit.
“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them;
if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Go and free the world, Jesus says.
And free yourselves.
Having been whipped and scourged and mocked and spit upon,
Jesus was hung upon a cross and pierced in his side.
As he hung upon that cross, his prayer was this:
“Forgive them, Father,
for they have no idea what they are doing.”
They do not know that in their hunger and thirst for power,
they are crucifying the one who loves them.
They do not know that they are putting to death the very one who offers them life.
Forgive them.
Set them free.
Open their eyes to the one who will not retaliate but will lay down his life in love.
Let them see that the shackles of death and pain and despair are broken open
and healed by the bonds of love…
that God walks into our very places of doubt and fear and speaks a word of Peace.
As God accompanies us in our dark places,
we, too, are called to remind others that God is with them,
that a wounded God meets us all in our wounded places,
and calls us forth from the tomb into new life…
even if we can’t see that life right now.
My friends, the Easter news is this:
Christ is risen!
Christ raises us to new life – even in the midst of darkness,
and Christ calls us forth to proclaim the Good News!
Alleluia. Alleluia. Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. Alleluia.
