Second Sunday of Easter
Listen to audio version
Readings: Acts 10: 34-43 and Mark 16: 1-8
The resurrection narratives in the four gospels centre, of course, on the events of the first Easter morning. Matthew, Mark and Luke don’t tell us very much subsequent to Easter Day, but John has other resurrection appearances of Jesus.
Today’s gospel reading starts on the evening of Easter Day, and then jumps forward to the incident with Thomas a week later. The resurrection of Jesus was first revealed to Mary Magdalene and other women at the tomb, and John reports that Peter and ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’ ran to the tomb to find it empty. The later verses of Mark say that the women went back to the other disciples who didn’t believe what they were telling them. We can imagine the uncertainty; perhaps expectancy that Jesus had risen, perhaps incredulity, but also fear of the authorities. They had done away with Jesus; would they now be coming for his followers? So we hear that the group were meeting behind locked doors – perhaps the Upper Room of the Last Supper – for fear of the Jews.
Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” He says it not once, but twice in a short space of time. We’re used to hearing that Hebrew greeting Shalom, peace; in some parts of the Middle East you would hear Salaam. But what does ‘peace’ mean? When we talk about, and pray for, the peace of the world, we are naturally asking for a cessation of violence and hostilities. But, of course, peace is about far more than just an absence of war. You could say that there is peace in North Korea, for instance, in that it is not a country at war, but we certainly wouldn’t say that everything is alright there. Peace came to the world in 1945, but an iron curtain descended east of Berlin, bringing decades of totalitarian rule, to which Russia and its satellites seem to be returning.
But this isn’t the Peace that Jesus is bestowing on his disciples in today’s reading. This spiritual Peace arose from Jesus’ conviction of his Resurrection. He showed the disciples his hands and his side, so that there could be no mistake in identification. This was the same Jesus they knew, but different – transformed. He appeared before them even though the door was locked. The body of his resurrection was capable of new and strange powers.
The biblical commentator William Barclay says that ‘peace’ in today’s passage means far more than ‘May you be saved from trouble’. He believes Jesus’ greeting means ‘May God give you every good thing.’ On a personal level, peace is something we all long for. In our blessing at the end of the service we often ask for the peace that passes all understanding – a deep and inner peace. Finding that peace isn’t always easy. Encumbered by baggage from the past and anxious about the future, present peace with a restful mind often eludes us.
Bishop Guli Francis Dehqani relates that, in her experience, peace is found by an acceptance of what has been, and a surrender to God of those things beyond our control which are yet to come. Maybe it’s a kind of handing-over to God, not in a ‘resigned’ sort of way, but in faith and trust that he has brought us thus far and will give every good thing.
Generally, we like to be in control, to set our own agenda, to feel that we’re calling the shots. It can be quite a learning curve to move towards this point of acceptance. But I’m sure we’ve all known people close to the end of their lives, who are much better in spirit when they have reached the point of acceptance and have stopped struggling. In our lives of faith, too, a handing over to God can be a release. I’m sure you have heard before the famous words of St. Augustine of Hippo – “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
But in today’s reading that Peace was also given for a purpose. It may seem odd that Jesus utters a second Peace. After all, one doesn’t say ‘Good evening’ twice to the same group of people. Here, the phrase was repeated because something more was to follow. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Just hours after their Lord’s resurrection, and just a couple of days after the trauma of his death, the disciples are being given their marching orders; the Church was being constituted. Those cowering, timorous disciples, huddling together in a locked room for mutual reassurance and protection, were first given peace and assurance, and then made into a formal body, and told to set out on a divine, world-saving mission. Then Jesus breathes on them, a symbolic act meaning that he is making them sharers of his life and power, his essential Spirit. So they have no need to be afraid. He bestows his Peace, “May God give you every good thing.”
But then comes something more, and perhaps, unexpected. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” Jesus says, and adds “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” William Barclay notes that it is the great privilege of the Church to convey the message of God’s forgiveness. It’s often said that forgiveness is the great scandal of Christianity. We still live in a world where the old order of ‘an eye for an eye’ has not quite passed. But with Jesus, justice joins hands with forgiveness, pointing to a new way of being. Forgiveness doesn’t replace the need for justice, but it opens the way towards the possibility of new life emerging from hurt, pain and suffering.
“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” So does that mean that we have the power either to forgive or not to forgive, and that if we choose not to forgive, then the person who has wronged us remains unforgiven? That seems to be the obvious reading, but, of course, some repentance for wrong doing is needed for us fully to experience the power of forgiveness. But, as Bishop Dehqani points out, the strange thing is that forgiveness brings freedom not only for the sinner, but also for the sinned against. It can loosen the hold of hatred and bitterness and pave the way for reconciliation and healing. How refreshing it is to meet people who really have forgiven hideous wrongs done to them in the past.
I’m thinking of Eric Lomax, who suffered horrendously from the Japanese whilst working as a prisoner-of-war on the Burma railway. He spent a lifetime coming to terms with what had happened, seeking out the guard who had most abused him, meeting him in a spirit of reconciliation 50 years later, and forgiving him. I’m thinking of Marian Partington, whose sister was murdered by Fred and Rosemary West in Gloucester, and her book “If you sit very still”, where she describes how she came to be able to forgive. I’m thinking of the parents of Tim Parry, the 12-year old killed in the 1983 Warrington bombings. They never knew exactly who was responsible for their son’s death, but became focussed on turning something bad into something good, setting up a Peace Foundation to help young people in the diverse ethnic communities in Warrington understand each other better. It seems to me that these people found real peace within themselves.
And we haven’t even got around to Thomas yet this morning. Doubting Thomas. Once a person has acquired a reputation, for good or ill, it’s quite difficult to shift it. Mary Magdalene – the fallen woman: quite possibly not so. Peter – the one who denied Jesus three times – but we know the sequel. Thomas, the doubter, but that isn’t the whole story. He needed to know the reality of Jesus’ resurrection for himself – not second-hand – and maybe that should be a healthy quest for us, as well. We’ve been given intellect and enquiring minds to use, not to subdue. I can’t help feeling that so-called ‘doubting’ Thomas had more peace in his heart, as enquirers may have, than those who accept everything told them, but don’t own it themselves.
But we were thinking last week that were we to have physical proof of Jesus’ resurrection now, it probably wouldn’t make that much difference to our lives. That is because we are among those who Jesus counts as ‘blessed.’ “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” The experience of millions of Christians is that believing leads to seeing, and not the other way round. When we live from day to day assuming that there is a good and loving God, changes take place. We are much more aware of a purpose in life, and things make sense that previously didn’t. Jesus made it clear to Thomas that proof is a privilege, not a right.
An Easter prayer:
Grant me, risen Lord, trust in your resurrection. So inspire me with the breath of your Spirit; so bless me with your peace, that my fear is transformed into joy. May I be sent to go to others and to be as Christ to them, Amen.