Against the Wind: John 20:19-31 - Second Sunday of Easter

 ¹⁹When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” ²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

  ²⁴But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

  ²⁶A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁷Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” ²⁸Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

  ³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. ³¹But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Two summers ago, I enrolled in a beginner’s woodworking class. On the first night, I marveled at all the hand-made furniture and artworks the instructor had on display. I also noticed his hands… 

He said, “If you stick with this, your hands will show it.” He had been working with wood for six decades; before he could read. As a result, the skin of his hands was hardened with scars and callouses. This was how his body protected itself from further injury.

Whenever something terrible happens to you, your heart, mind, and soul will harden themselves just the same.

Consider Thomas: History hasn’t been too kind to him for voicing his doubts, but we need to give him a break, considering what he’s been through. Thomas and his fellow disciples gave up their entire lives to follow Jesus. They witnessed God’s awesome power at work in him. They believed he was God’s Son. And in the space of a few days, Jesus is struck down in humiliating defeat. His death exposed their faith was a delusion. 

So, for Thomas, doubt was his soul’s way of protecting itself from additional life-altering trauma.

And we shouldn’t think that the other ten disciples succeed where Thomas fails. Jesus appeared to them seven days ago. But they’re still locked down. They’re still afraid.

When you think about it, believing that Jesus was risen from the dead was the easy part. The scary part was what his resurrection was going to mean for their future. 

As I said on Easter Sunday, embracing the promise of resurrection is the most audacious act of faith there is, aside from loving your enemies. Jesus was raised 2,000 years ago. But there’s chaos and evil in the world right now. 

Resurrection talk doesn’t bring the dead back to life. It doesn’t make pain and suffering go away. The things you see on the news, and the things you see with your own eyes do not support our claim that Jesus will win the victory.

When reality does not reflect the promises of God’s word, doubt is inevitable.

Doubt is how your soul instinctively reacts to disappointment in God. When your faith is wounded, doubt provides safety, security, and control—to protect you from being hurt again. 

Thomas was settling into the safest existence he could find in the aftermath of the crucifixion. This is why he refused to believe the disciples’ testimony. When Jesus shows up, crucified but also risen, his whole world is turned upside down, once again. But in this crisis, Jesus restores Thomas to faith. He restores Thomas to relationship. Suddenly, the future is wide open with new possibilities. Where once there was fear and despair, there is now peace and rejoicing. This is why Thomas cries out, “My Lord and my God!”

This is what Jesus does when you put your soul in lockdown as you try to heal from your wounds. With his love for you and the world being so strong that the grave could not contain him, your doubt cannot keep him out. 

Your challenge is to follow Jesus out of the doubt—and that’s where it gets hard. Like Thomas and the disciples, Jesus sends you into the future with a promise of strength and peace. But living the resurrection life makes you vulnerable in a way that doubt and despair do not. Trusting God does not guarantee that you will never be disappointed in God. Good deeds do not always lead to good outcomes. 

But you will not see the glory of the risen Christ amid the status quo. Resurrection is not found in the avoidance of change and vulnerability; nor is it accomplished in the drive to get your own way.

Living in hope means running against the winds of chaos, death, and evil. You are defying self-interest by looking out for the needs of others, while trusting God to provide for your own. Your peace of mind is not acquired through the exercise of power or control, but by letting go and trusting God. 

Resurrection love is the blessing we are given to share with the world. We are sent out, by the Spirit’s power, to proclaim with our words and especially our deeds that God is not okay with hunger, with greed, and dehumanizing abuse and oppression. We are sent out against the headwinds of chaos, empowered by grace, to meet God’s children where they are; to be living signs that Jesus is risen, and that resurrection is God’s plan for them. 

Covid-19 has greatly afflicted an already afflicted world. Everything is changing faster than we can process it, and the winds of chaos keep blowing harder and harder against us. Nevertheless, Jesus stands in this place and says, “peace be with you.” Wounded but resurrected. Died but now alive. Strengthened by the love that raised him from the dead, we move forward into a future full of perils but also possibilities. Forward, we go, vulnerable, broken, against the wind, but forward in grace—secure in the promise and full of hope, to do God’s work—trusting that when we do, we will join Thomas in saying, “My Lord and my God!”