Sunday Sermon 11th April 2021

 John 20: 19 ccm

When people ask me what are my favourite Bible passages, I have to say John chapter 20 is right up there. John 20 is the chapter I go to when I need to be reminded of Jesus, the passage I go to when I need to be comforted, and the passage which made the confusing business of faith come together for me.

I can remember being asked to prove the existence of God, by someone who was determined to prove that God couldn’t possible exist – it just wasn’t logical, it wasn’t rational and there was no scientific evidence. My defence was to read to him John chapter 20. Because John 20 is the story of how very vulnerable, confused and emotional people came to a real relationship with the resurrected Jesus and to experience their own personal Easter resurrection. It is my story and I suspect it is the same for many of you here this morning.

It is the story of Mary Magdalene, of some bewildered disciples, and of Thomas, the disciple who couldn’t believe his friends. This is the story of how Jesus appears to those who love him; firstly to Mary, then to the disciples and finally to Thomas.

The other gospels also give us their version of the resurrection story, and again and again the disciples fail to recognize Jesus. Mary thought he was the gardener, the two men on the road to Emmaus only recognized Jesus when he broke bread. Peter doesn’t recognize Jesus when Jesus cooks breakfast on the beach.

They all needed to accept this new reality of Jesus appearing to them. They all knew he had been executed, they knew he was laid in a tomb, and yet here he was, talking to them, eating with them, and telling them what he wanted them to do.

If you ever have any doubts about the resurrection, remember the other doubter, Thomas, who could not believe what the other disciples were telling him. They had seen Jesus, but this was just too hard for Thomas.

When Jesus appeared to them again, he already knew and understood Thomas doubts, and he told him “look at my hands, put your hand into my side. Do not doubt but believe”. Jesus didn’t berate Thomas for his lack of faith, he gave Thomas exactly what Thomas needed: reassurance and love.

Thomas and all the other disciples were blessed to have seen the risen Lord with their own eyes. But Jesus knew that for every one of us here this morning, we would have to believe without seeing. And Jesus calls us blessed, because we have the faith without the physical evidence. Isn’t that amazing: Jesus knows how hard it will be for us to have faith.

In his book “meeting Jesus again for the first time”, the author Marcus Borg writes that in both the Greek and Latin languages, the word believe did not mean accepting a set of doctrines or teachings. It actually means, “to give one’s heart to”. Believing does not consist of giving one’s mental assent to, but involves a deeper level of oneself. The knowledge goes from the head to the heart.

If we believe in God, we give our hearts to God. It means moving from the rumour of God to the experience of God, from having heard about Jesus to being in a relationship with the spirit of Christ. The desert fathers used to that that we need to listen with the ear of the heart.

Easter is a time for us to reflect on how we see Jesus and how we see the spirit of God amongst us.

Do we have preconceived ideas about God, so much so that at times we fail to recognize God. If Jesus appeared here this morning, would we recognize him? Could we see the movement of the Holy Spirit?

The disciples knew for a fact that Jesus was risen: they talked with him, they touched him, and they knew he wasn’t just a hallucination.

They accepted Jesus great commission – go out and tell others what you have seen. Go out and tell them that my tomb is empty, tell them that I live, tell them about me.

As Easter people, we know that Jesus is risen, we proclaim it every week and we shall do so again shortly in the words of the creed.

In this easter season, now it is our time to share what we have experienced, to go out with conviction and tell others what we know. Give others the good news: that the crucified Christ is the risen Christ and we are his people.

AMEN