Now What? Sermon for Easter 2

For this Easter 2 weekend, the texts are Acts 2:14a, 22-32, Psalm 16, and John 20:19-31. I found a lot of inspiration this week from Pastor Delmer Chilton’s Lectionary Blog column over at Living Lutheran.

Between Sunday worship services, the Sunday School kids at St. Peter went to Valley View nursing home and sang for the residents, so that’s where the picture here is from. You can see video over on St. Peter’s Facebook page.

As I’ve been preparing for this weekend, I’ve decided to give it a new name. Technically, today is “the second Sunday of Easter.” The festival celebration of Easter was last week, but we’re officially in the Easter season for seven weeks, all the way until Pentecost.

So this is the Second Sunday of the Easter season, and I’ve decided it should be called, “Now What? Sunday.”

We’ve had the excitement and joy of Easter, now what? Jesus is alive, the tomb is empty, death has been defeated, now what? Where do we go from here?

Our gospel reading today from John picks up a few hours after last week’s Easter story. Early in the morning on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene, another Mary, and a few of the other women who followed Jesus had gone to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body. When they got there, they found the stone rolled away, the tomb empty, and an angel waiting to announce to them the good news that Jesus is alive.

The women run back to share the good news with the male disciples, and at least Peter and another disciple run to the garden to see the empty tomb for themselves. The men find the empty tomb, but miss the angel.

Today’s story picks up a few hours later that same day, with 10 of the 11 disciples gathered in a locked house, wondering what comes next. Only Thomas is absent from the group.

We don’t get to hear what exactly is going on inside these disciples’ heads, but we know they’re scared, hiding with the doors locked. Obviously, as we read, they’re scared of the Jewish leaders, scared that they might be next. As a follower, it’s not a good sign when your leader gets killed.

In addition to their completely legitimate fear of being arrested, I imagine they’re also just overwhelmed. They’d given up everything to follow Jesus, and everything had been going so well. At the Passover meal, they had all declared their commitment to the cause. They all claimed they were willing to follow him all the way to death.

And then one of their own betrayed Jesus, and the rest of them failed to follow through on their promise. When he was arrested in the garden, all of them ran away in fear, perhaps sneaking back to witness their friend’s torture and execution.

These men are traumatized. Everything they thought they knew about who they were as disciples has been shattered. They had given up their families, their jobs, they’d given up everything to follow Jesus, and now there’s nothing left. Now what?

Sure, maybe the tomb is empty, but who knows? Did they really trust the women? And even if the women are right and Jesus has been raised, what’s that mean? Maybe Jesus is alive, but would he even want them anymore? After all, they’d abandoned him. Now what?

And then Jesus comes to them, and stands among them. He’s alive! And he has something to say about what’s next.

Look at what Jesus offers to the disciples in their fear.

First, he greets them with the words, “Peace be with you.”

Peace be with you. In that greeting, he tells them all is forgiven. Jesus isn’t interested in finding new, better, more faithful followers. They may have abandoned him, but he’s not going to give up on them. Good news there for us who so often miss the point or ignore Jesus’ commands!

Just in this short reading, Jesus offers these words of peace three times, twice in the first visit and again when he comes back the next week. The disciples are so overwhelmed, I think they needed to keep hearing it.

Peace be with you. Jesus comes into the midst of fear and doubt and uncertainty, and he gives his followers the gift of being at peace with themselves and the world.

The story is not over. The cross is not the end. Death has not won. God hasn’t given up. Be at peace, because God is still at work. We remind each other of that promise when we share God’s peace with one another in worship. We pass on this gift from Jesus.

After Jesus comforts the disciples, after he calms their fear with his peace, he gives them a new purpose. He lets them know his mission isn’t over. There is still plenty of work to do to bring about God’s kingdom, and their job isn’t done. He tells them, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

As the story continues into the book of Acts, these disciples go from timid followers hiding in a locked room to bold leaders preaching the gospel and sharing the good news of Jesus. They’re renewed in their mission. And of course, we today are on the same mission.

To help them understand, Jesus shows them his hands and his side. He’s alive again, but he still bears the marks of the cross. The Son of God, the one who is God in the flesh is now the Crucified One. His very body shows the cost of God’s love.

Showing the disciples his hands and his side proves it really is him, which is what Thomas is so concerned about, but it does more than that.

When Jesus shows the disciples his wounds, he doesn’t just tell them who he is, he tells them who they are and who they’re going to be. They too will suffer for the sake of God’s kingdom. Things he said before like “take up your cross” and “lose your life for my sake” start to make a lot more sense.

Seeking to bring God’s kingdom to reality has a cost. Their purpose is to serve the world God loves, even to die for it if necessary, because that’s what Jesus did. Being sent by Jesus is a mission that will consume their entire lives.

That’s pretty overwhelming, but Jesus isn’t finished yet. He gives them one more gift.

In verse 22, he breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” They’re not on this mission alone. It’s not like God is turning over this whole business of reconciling the world into God’s kingdom to them, and then stepping back to see how it works out.

Soon, Jesus will no longer be with them in person, but this is still God’s mission. God in the person of the Holy Spirit will be with them, supporting them, guiding them, working through them.

In a way, Jesus breathing on them is giving them new life. The word there for “breathing” into them is the same word as in the creation story back in Genesis 2, where God forms humanity out of the dust of the earth and breathes life into them.

It’s the same word we heard a few weeks ago in Ezekiel’s vision with God breathing life into the dry bones lying in a valley. The disciples have new life breathed into them. God is with them on the mission, and that makes all the difference.

This is not the end of the disciples’ story, or the end of God’s story. This is the beginning.

From these fearful, overwhelmed people hiding in a locked room, we can follow the history of God’s work all the way to today, where you and I are part of the same church these disciples started.

The same Holy Spirit Jesus breathed into them is alive today, guiding us as well. We are on the same mission.

As the Father has sent Jesus, so Jesus sends us. Peace be with you.
Amen.