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Life in his Name
by The Rev. Canon R. Craig Smalley
[ Above: The Incredulity of St. Thomas by Caravaggio ]
Year C, 2 Easter, John 20:19-31
April 11, 2010
unedited
Can you remember a time when you received undeserved forgiveness? I have on numerous occasions in my life, but there is one in particular that I share with you today. It is something that took place in the summer of my freshmen year in college and it is one of the many wonderful seeds of faith that God graciously planted in my life to lead me toward belief in him.
Some of you have probably heard before that I attended what is referred to as a maximum-security college, The Citadel. I did so well my first year that I was invited to attend summer school. Normally that would be a bad thing, but Charleston is not a bad place to spend one's summer and more than that, summer school at The Citadel was great because you got to be a normal person. You could live off campus so one of my teammates from the soccer team, David Aycock, and I had an apartment off campus on King Street. It was fantastic and we were experiencing the freedom that normal people experienced and we decided to do one of those things that we had heard about normal college students doing and we took a road trip down to Florida and while down there I crashed my car.
Somehow I managed to limp the car back to Charleston, but it would not drive after that point and being the considerate person that I am I thought that my dad had a lot on his plate and tomorrow would be a good day to tell him about what I had done. An amazing thing happened as the summer went on, tomorrow was always a better day. This stretched on and on and unbeknownst to my father created a separation between us in our relationship. I was so burdened with the guilt of what I had done that there was a break and separation in our relationship.
As the summer went along mom and dad came to visit and after what was a very short tour of our apartment my father asked me, “Son, where is your car?”
So I took dad out to show him my car and as we walked toward it there was this burden upon me because, unfortunately, I realized that I was completely guilty; I had no good excuse for what I had done, I was clearly guilty, and I was burdened by that. So I showed my father the car and I prepared myself for the rebuke that was to come, which I justly deserved and what happened next I can remember clearly to this day. As my father looked at the car and then looked at me, he shook his head and said, “Son, why didn't you tell me about this sooner? I could have done something about this.”
I remember this for many reasons. One, it was not the typical response of my father, but more than that, it was an example of God in his wonderful, graceful way planting a seed of faith and belief in my life helping me to understand the message of the gospel.
My father gave me forgiveness and restoration when what I deserved was judgment and rebuke. In so doing, our relationship was restored. The barrier that had existed as a result of my actions was lifted and the relationship between the two of us was restored.
As I share that with you this morning it is not surprising as we hear the gospel placed before us. We find the disciples gathered together behind locked doors in fear and trembling. It's no surprise of course that they are afraid. They saw what had happened to Jesus and part of them certainly had a very real and significant fear that what had happened to him would happen to them next. But it's much more than that isn't it? They have the burden and baggage of what had happened in their relationship with Jesus, of what had happened in their relationship with God. They had promised to be with him always no matter what came and in Jesus' hour of greatest need they had fled from him, denied any relationship with him, denied ever knowing him. And now the shame and the burden and the guilt of that weighs upon them and they gather together behind locked doors.
However, we also see, that locked doors are nothing compared to the power of the risen Jesus as he appears in the midst of them and as he appears in the midst of them surely they are prepared for the rebuke which is coming their way, the rebuke which they justly deserve.
In place of that we hear Jesus' words of restoration to them, “peace be with you.” We see the power of that forgiveness Jesus gives to them to free them of their burden, to change them, to give them a sense of joy and freedom. Jesus comes and fulfills the words, which John recorded earlier in his gospel that they would go through that time of fear, that they would go through that time of sorrow, but that God would appear and their joy would be returned. Jesus has come in his risen body to fulfill the promise he had made to them. We see as he extends to them unmerited forgiveness he also breaths upon them and gives them the gift and power of the Holy Spirit for their lives.
One of the things that John is so wonderfully clear about in his gospel is his purpose. He writes toward the end of the passage, which we hear today, “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31)
We see that Jesus comes forth into the world to extend to us forgiveness of sins, to extend to us his joy that it might be complete in us, to give us his peace, which passes all understanding, to give us life, to restore us to our relationship with our Heavenly Father. Jesus as he appears to them, as he gives them the gift of peace and restoration, as he gives them the gift of the Holy Spirit, he shows them his hands and his side. The proof of his crucifixion, of his resurrection from the dead and we see what is true for them is true for you and me as well, those words spoken long before, that it is by his wounds that we are healed, that it is by his blood that we are washed and made clean. It is through what he has accomplished once and for all through the cross and resurrection that you and I can be restored in our relationship with our Father. Through Jesus' cross and resurrection the baggage, the burden of our sin and shame are lifted from us that we might be restored fully in our relationship with our God and Father.
Jesus forgives them, Jesus restores them, Jesus equips them with the Holy Spirit and sends them forth to be his witnesses as we are sent forth to be his witnesses; witnesses not to how good you and I are, but to how great our God is, how merciful he is, how he forgives and restores us through the cross and the resurrection.
We hear the good news shared with us this morning, that God from the very beginning had his plan and purpose that Jesus shared in the third chapter of John's gospel, that the Son of Man came into the world not to condemn the world, but that through him the world might be saved. You and I can have hope and have peace and have joy not in our accomplishments but in Jesus' who came forth into the world, who through his cross and resurrection has restored us in our relationship with our God and our Father who gives is his peace. And we remember that in the name of our God who is the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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