Sermon Preached by the Rev. Sam Frazier, Vicar

Saint Andrew=s Episcopal Church, Haw River, NC

April 19, 2009

2^nd Sunday in Easter, Year B

The Easter story in the Gospel of John concludes behind closed and locked doors.  The Gospel writer makes a point of saying that, on the first night of the week, the doors were locked in the room where Jesus= disciples were gathered.  And the doors were locked for a good reason.  Many Jews were out to get them, and so the disciples were afraid.  They were afraid people would remember their association with Jesus and come looking for them to execute them also.  John also says that Thomas is not with them.  But he does not say who else is missing - Judas.

We are told that the Risen Jesus came right into the room through the locked door!  This account of Jesus appearing as a live person to his frightened and confused disciples was written, as John says at the end of this chapter of his Gospel: SO THAT YOU MAY COME TO BELIEVE THAT JESUS IS THE MESSIAH, THE SON OF GOD…@
An important aspect of this experience is that the disciples are suddenly confronted with a victim.  They recognize Jesus.  They recognize his wounds.  They are overjoyed, but they must also feel the emotions that anyone feels who is confronted by a victim. And Jesus was a true victim.  He had been the victim of a form of execution so horrible that the Romans themselves abolished crucifixion in the fourth century as being too cruel.

Few people expect to be confronted by victims, and the disciples were no exception.  The main point of terror is that it has no survivors.  The ultimate victim is the one who does not live to tell.  Ordinarily victims do not come into the room, which is just as well, because when they do, everyone, perpetrator or innocent bystander, feels uncomfortable.  It is a brave person who makes room for victims, because they remind us of what we want to forget.  So it is with Jesus= sudden appearance.
The memories come flooding back.  Each disciple has a different memory of what happened, but they all share the same guilt, the guilt of omission, guilt for what they did not do, guilt for what they did not say on the night of terror which swept Jesus away.  They also all shared the guilt of running away to save their own skins.  They remembered.  They remembered their fear as soldiers arrived at the Mount of Olives to arrest Jesus and carry him away to imprisonment and an impromptu trial.  They remembered running away in the darkness and repeatedly denying that they had any association with Jesus.  You see, it wasn’t just Peter who denied Jesus.  They all denied Jesus.  They remembered and they felt the guilt.
Then Jesus the victim speaks.  He does not point an accusing finger, but rather extends his open wounded hands to all those men who ran away.  He does not speak accusing words, rather he says SHALOM which means peace.  This word is used as a greeting and expresses a hope that all is well.  It is also a word for health and well being, and by using it Jesus wished wholeness for his disciples.  He knew what they were feeling and he wanted them to experience the grace that comes from forgiveness.  All that one needs to do from behind those locked doors is to look at Jesus= body and know that grace does not come easy.  But grace is what Jesus brings to his friends huddled in fear, huddled behind closed doors.  Grace does not come easy, but Jesus gives it so freely.  Jesus is alive though he is scarred by death.  He is the Ultimate Victim, but he returns to break the cycle of victimization.  We all know that usually when a victim does come back, it is to accuse the guilty one or ones, but Jesus changed that for all time.  Jesus= appearance to his disciples reveals that accusation and guilt are not the ultimate power.  They are not the last word.  Forgiveness is the last word, and that is what Jesus brought to his disciples, and that is what Jesus brings to us.  Forgiveness.

The great 13^th century theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas, wrote these memorable words about Jesus the victim:

“O saving Victim, opening wide the gate of heaven to us below, our foes press on from every side, thine aid supply, thy strength bestow.  All praise and thanks to thee ascend for evermore, blest One in Three; o grant us life that shall not end in our true native land with thee.”

The Gospel of John tells us that the power of the Spirit is interchangeable with the power to forgive.  And Jesus gave both of these to his followers who were locked up in that room trying to hide behind their own fears and hurts and guilt.  They still had an important lesson to learn, namely, that forgiveness is giving up any hope of having a different past.  Forgiveness is leaving the past as it is.  But forgiveness is also the key to the future.  Only those who are forgiven can forgive, and forgiveness is the heart of Christian community and Christian mission.  Forgiveness is the way forward into the future.

In forgiving us, Jesus gives us the key to the locked door of our lives.  And once it is unlocked and open, it cannot be locked again.  Watch out, because new and unexpected things will happen!  Jesus will send us out.  Others will come into our lives to experience forgiveness - the wounded, the stranger, maybe even Judas.  And then they too will go out into the sunshine.  One thing is certain.  With forgiveness, there is no going back to the old life behind locked doors.
When we are hurt, when we are bewildered, when we are blind, when we are even dying, Jesus comes into the room of our life.  The spiritual writer, Margaret Guenther, wrote: AHe still comes in everydayness.  He still says, See my hands and my feet.  Don=t avert your eyes from my wounds out of politeness or disgust.  Look at them.  Put your finger here.  Don=t be afraid.  Remember the incarnation.  I came among you first in human flesh - flesh that can be hurt, even killed.  Flesh that can embody God=s love.@

Jesus does not come into the room of our life to take away our pain or cure some terminal disease we may have, but rather he comes to wake us up, to wake us up to the transformation that is always there if we trust him, if we rely on him, if we allow him to have his way, if we accept the forgiveness he so freely gives us.  Thanks be to God! AMEN.