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When Easter Meets Pentecost
(John 20: 19-31)
(A Sermon preached April 15, 2007 at University United Methodist
Church, East Lansing MI by Kennetha Bigham-Tsai)
We are a church which follows the Christian liturgical
calendar. That calendar begins with Advent, and proceeds through the seasons of
Christmas, Epiphany, Lent and then Easter. Pentecost is the season that follows
Easter. It is the time in the Christian year when we reflect upon the sending of
Spirit-empowered disciples into the world to do the work of Christ. Pentecost is
the time when we read that well-known passage in Acts about the wind coming into
that upper room where the disciples had gone to pray; the tongues of fire
lighting upon them; them speaking in other tongues and then going into the world
to preach. Pentecost is the season of the Christian year when we celebrate the
creation of the Church.
Pentecost begins at the end of May. But, we are still in
the Easter season. We are still in the season in which we celebrate and reflect
upon the resurrection of Christ and what it means in our lives. We are still at
Easter, but the writer of John is not. He has one foot in Easter and the other
in Pentecost.
What I mean is that this passage in John is certainly about
the resurrection of Christ and so is an Easter passage. However, this passage is
also about the commissioning and sending of disciples and so is also a Pentecost
passage. For friends, at the center of this passage in John 20 is this
statement. " As the Father has sent me, so I send you." This passage is
about the disciples being commissioned to ministry. It is about the disciples
being sent into the world to be the risen Christ for the world and to do the
work of Christ.
What Jesus is essentially saying in this passage is this--“As
God has sent me into the world, so that the world might know the love of God
revealed in me. So I send you into the world, so that the world might know God’s
love revealed in you. As, God has sent me into the world so that the world
might be reconciled to God and so know eternal life. So I send you into the
world, so that the world might receive reconciliation and life.
The disciples are being sent into the world to be the risen
Christ in the world-- to be the revelation of God in Christ in the world. The
center of this passage is the fact that the disciples are being sent. This is
the great commission in the Book of John. The risen Christ appears to the
disciples and then sends them into the world to be the Christ and to do the work
of Christ.
Yes, this passage is primarily about the sending of the
disciples, but there are a few elements which under-gird that sending. When you
send someone to do something, you surly look for certain qualities in that
person that might suggest that they can do the job for which they are being
sent. When you send someone to do something, you would also most certainly give
them the necessary equipment and the resources for the job which you are asking
them to do.
Take a bicycle messenger as a simple example. Were you to
send out a bicycle messenger to deliver an important package, you might want to
make sure that the person you are sending can ride a bicycle. If the person
cannot, then you might want to teach them. You might also want to provide your
bicycle messenger with other necessary resources, like a bicycle and a helmet.
Otherwise, they cannot possibly carry out the mission which you are asking them
to carry out.
For almost anything in life we want to make sure that the
people we send and commission to do a certain work have the skills and resources
necessary to do that work. We want to make sure that they have the bicycle and
the helmet and that they know how to ride the bike.
And so in this passage in John, we see Jesus sending the
disciples, but also ensuring that they have the resources to do the work for
which they are being sent. And so the obvious question that arises is, “What are
these resources? What are the things that are necessary for the disciples to
carry out the work of the risen Christ in the world?”
I want to suggest to you that the very first resource is
sight. Before these disciples are sent out into the world to be the risen Christ
for the world and to do the work of Christ in the world, they must see and
recognize the risen Christ. The first resource necessary for these disciples to
carry out their commission is a revelation of the risen Christ. Without this
revelation of the risen Christ, how can they proclaim Christ’s resurrection?
Without this revelation of the risen Christ, how can they be the risen Christ
for the world?
They must have this revelation, and Jesus gives them this
revelation. He appears among them and shows them the marks of the crucifixion on
his body. He shows them the marks on his body as a way of connecting the earthly
Jesus with the risen Lord. Jesus shows them the marks so that they might know
that he is the one who has walked and talked and eaten with them—so that they
might know that he is the one who was crucified for them. He shows them the
marks of the crucifixion so that they might know that the Jesus who was
crucified is also the resurrected Christ who stands with them.
Jesus shows them the marks and they “see” the Lord.
Without this “seeing”—without this revelatory event, how can the disciples
possibly do the work for which they are being sent? Without this seeing—without
the revelation that this is truly the Lord—the incarnate God, revealed in Jesus
Christ who was crucified and now has risen and has been glorified—without this
revelation, how can the disciples possibly carry out the commission to be the
risen Christ in the world and to do Christ’s work? So Jesus reveals himself to
the disciples and they rejoice and proclaim, “We have seen the Lord.”
They make this proclamation to Thomas, who says, “Unless
I see the Lord for myself, I will certainly not believe. Unless I touch the
scars on his body, I will certainly not believe.”
Thomas is asking for no less than what the other disciples
have already received. The other disciples have had a personal encounter with
the risen Christ. They have seen his scars. Christ has been revealed to them,
and that revelation has led them to belief. Thomas wants the same revelation the
other disciples have had.
And so Jesus appears to Thomas, and he tells Thomas,
“Reach out your hand and touch the marks in my hands. Reach out your hand and
touch the marks in my side. Reach out and touch me Thomas and see. And once
seeing, believe that I am the risen Christ—that in me God is revealed to the
world.” And so Thomas touches Jesus and sees.
Isn’t that interesting? Thomas sees through a touch. I
wondered about this. Why couldn’t Jesus have just shown Thomas the scars as he
did for the other disciples? Instead, Jesus does more than provide visual
evidence, he allows Thomas to touch him. He allows an intimacy to Thomas because
Thomas has asked for that level of intimacy. Thomas has asked not just to look
at Jesus, but to touch the scars on his body. So, Jesus reveals himself to
Thomas through a touch—through an intimate connection to Thomas. And Thomas sees
and believes and proclaims, “My Lord and My God.”
Thomas, who has experienced the intimacy of a touch, makes
the most exact proclamation of the identity of the risen Christ so far in this
passage. The disciples had simply recognized that he was their Lord—the Jesus
who had walked and talked and eaten with them. He was Jesus who had risen from
the dead. But Thomas takes this proclamation a step farther and proclaims that
the risen Christ is, “My Lord and My God.” It is Thomas who fully
connects Jesus Christ with God. It is Thomas who finally fully understands that
in Christ, God is revealed.
Now, Thomas and the disciples have what they need to carry
out the commission for which they are being sent. The disciples and Thomas now
have an understanding of the revelation of God in Christ. This is most
essential, because they are being sent into the world to be Christ for the
world, to do the work of Christ and to proclaim the good news that in Christ God
is revealed to the world. This revelation of God in Christ is essential. But
there is still one resource which they are missing. And Jesus gives them this
resource when he breathes on the disciples and gives them the Holy Spirit.
For you see these disciples cannot be the incarnate Christ
in the world without the Spirit. It is only when they have received the Spirit
that they become the extension of the risen Christ and therefore the extension
of the incarnation of God in Christ. It is only when Christ has breathed into
them the Spirit of God that they can become the revelation of God in Christ to
the world.
And so they receive the Spirit, and when they receive the
Spirit they become one with God as Christ has been one with God. When they
receive the Spirit, they become a part of the Holy Trinity and an extension of
God’s incarnation in Christ. They become an extension of the risen Christ. And
when they become Christ for the world, they can do the work of Christ in the
world.
And now I must say something more specific about that work.
Look at Jesus’ statement again. “ As God has sent me, so I send you…
Receive the Holy Spirit… If you forgive the sins of any, they are
forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
Friends, the disciples are being sent into the world to
continue the work of Christ in the world. And that work is revealed in this
statement about forgiveness. “If you forgive the sins of any they are
forgiven.”
This is a difficult passage to understand. However, it is
clear that the work of Christ had to do with the forgiveness of sin. For didn’t
John the Baptist testify (as recorded in John 1:29) about Jesus, “Here is the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Didn’t Jesus repeatedly
say, after healing someone, or perhaps after a conversation with a woman at the
well, “Your sins are forgiven, go and sin no more.” The work of Jesus
Christ had to do with the forgiveness of sin. And here is Jesus sending these
disciples, not to judge people for their sins, but to continue his work and
forgive.
Jesus calls these disciples to ministries of forgiveness.
For, through forgiveness people experience the compassion and love of God
revealed in Jesus Christ. Through forgiveness people are reconciled to God
through Jesus Christ. Through forgiveness the brokenness of humanity is healed.
And so Jesus commissions the disciples to forgive. If they
forgive sins, the world will see the love of God in them. Then there will be
healing and reconciliation and people will come to love God.
If the disciples fail to forgive, then the work of Christ’s
forgiveness will not take place. The work of Christ’s healing and of Christ’s
reconciliation will not happen. If they do not do the work of Christ and
forgive, then people will not come to love God. If the disciples fail to
forgive, the world will not see the risen Christ revealed in them.
This ministry of forgiveness is the ministry for which the
disciples have been sent. And this is the ministry for which we, as the Church,
have been sent. We have been sent into the world to be the risen Christ to the
world. We have been sent into the world to reveal God in Christ to the world.
Therefore, we have been sent into the world friends not to judge the world or to
make sure that the world believes as we believe. We have been sent into the
world to forgive and so to bring reconciliation and healing to the world--to
demonstrate God’s love for the world.
God so loved the world that God became incarnate in the
person of Jesus Christ who died for the forgiveness of sins that all might have
eternal life. God so loved the world that God became incarnate in a
Spirit-empowered Church which is called to forgive sins so that all might be
reconciled to God and so have eternal life.
This is the great commission of the Church—this mission of
forgiveness. If we are faithful in carrying out this commission, then Easter
will meet Pentecost—and the world will know the risen Christ in us. As God
has sent me, so I send you…If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven
them—if you forgive Church, the world will know the risen Christ in you. If you
forgive, the world will know the love of God through you.
So go Church into the world and forgive. Christ has
empowered you with God’s Spirit. Christ has allowed you to touch the marks in
his hands and so has revealed himself in all of his glory to you. Christ has
sent you and called you to this great work of forgiveness. Amen.
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