John 20:19-20, 24-28 *
Dear Friends in Christ,
By my count there are 23 butterflies fluttering about our sanctuary today. Three of them are on our Easter banner, and two each are on the ten yellow cloth-draped crosses on our interior pillars. The fact that all these butterflies are a part of our Easter décor is not by coincidence, but by design. Very briefly, here’s the story…
Long, long ago the butterfly was appropriated by Christians as a natural symbol of Easter. The connection is this: just as a butterfly bursts forth into new life from the confinement of it’s tomb-like cocoon, so the Living Christ burst forth from the confinement of His tomb on Easter Sunday. The butterfly symbolizes the great transformation and change that the resurrection brought about.
Our text for today makes no mention of butterflies, but it does continue the Easter theme of change and transformation. As we turn to it, we will see quite clearly
THE TRANSFORMING EFFECT OF THE RISEN CHRIST
1. On His disciples in general,
and
2. On one disciple in particular
3. On us, His disciples today
19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. The time is Easter Sunday evening. That the disciples were together is easy enough to understand. They had been through a lot, both as individuals and as a group, and they needed each other’s strength.
Try to imagine being there. There can be no doubt that Good Friday was fresh on their minds. In fact, they were probably now just beginning to process what had happened. A week earlier, on what we call Palm Sunday, Jesus’ popularity seemed to be at an all time high. Then came a whirlwind of events and by week’s end their Leader, their Master, and their Best Friend was gone. Many of the disciples were fisherman. They must have felt they were suddenly on a rudderless ship…
Then, as if this wasn’t enough to deal with, reports had filtered back to them of an empty tomb. On top of that, people whom they knew and trusted claimed they had actually seen the Risen Christ. Now, more than ever, they needed each other. So those who had scattered in all directions after Jesus’ arrest late Maundy Thursday seek each other out.
Our text tells us they “were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews.” Besides being confused, they were scared. Again, not hard to understand. They probably reasoned that what happened to Jesus could also happen to them, His followers. So they took what must have seemed to be the only precautionary measure open to them. They locked the doors.
All in all, a rather sad, dark and foreboding scene. But that was about to change. Big time.
Because our text reports that suddenly “Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’”
Again, try to imagine.
Try to imagine what your initial thought would have been had you been a
disciple in that room. Probably
something ranging from the question “could
it really be Him?” to the insistence that “it can’t be Him because He’s dead and I saw it with my own eyes.” Anticipating this kind of wonderment, Jesus
showed them His hands and side. He gave
them the assurance that yes, it was Him; Yes, the reports they had heard about
a resurrection were true. And the
response? “The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord…”
Let’s pause at this point and make some observations. If wished to summarize our text so far in one brief sentence, it would be this: The Risen Christ brings peace and joy. When Jesus appeared on the scene and said “Peace be with you,” it was more than a greeting. It was a declaration. And also a gift. Because Jesus provides what the word says: Peace. We know this. There is peace in knowing Jesus.
The peace we’re talking about is more than just a feeling, although that is there as well. It is a reality. In other words, peace is first and foremost a state of being. Those who know and believe Jesus Christ live in a condition of peace with God. All anger, dissatisfaction and righteous indignation that God once had toward us and our sin has been taken away. Jesus bridged the gap that sin put between us and God. Jesus smoothed over the rocky relationship that had existed between sinners and a just God.
How did He do this? By becoming one of us and then taking our place. First, by doing perfectly as our substitute what God asks us to do. After that, by suffering the punishment we as sinners deserve.
Here’s the heavenly equation: We committed the crime, Jesus did the time,
and God gives the credit of Jesus’ work to all who look to Him as Savior. And the fact that He rose from the dead is
the proof that He is indeed the Savior He claimed to be… Writes the
hymnist: “Through Jesus’ blood and merit I am at peace with God.”
That true condition of peace naturally leads to a feeling of peace. There is an inner peace peculiar only to the Child of God. It is the tranquility and serenity of knowing that the Risen Lord is watching over our lives. It is the warm confidence of knowing that because the big eternal things like forgiveness and salvation have been taken care of, all the comparatively small and temporal things in life will be as well…
And the wonderful by-product of peace is joy. Specifically, the joy of knowing:
He lives to silence all my fears; He lives to wipe away my tears
He lives to calm my troubled heart; He lives all blessings to impart.
Yes, the Risen Christ brings us peace and joy…
Returning to our text, we now turn from the transforming effect the Risen Christ had on His disciples in general to the account of one disciple in particular, Thomas. We are told that for one reason or another Thomas was not with the disciples that first Easter evening. Perhaps he was especially despondent over the events of the last few days. Everyone handles their grief in their own individualized way, and maybe Thomas just wanted to be alone. Whatever the case, he wasn’t in the room with the disciples at the time of Christ’s appearance.
When Thomas did return, he obviously found the disciples in better spirits than when he had left them. And although they must have recounted the event they had just experienced with great animation and happiness, Thomas was unimpressed. “… He said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.” These are the words of a skeptic. Thus forever the name: Doubting Thomas.
Well, if proof is what Thomas wanted, proof is what he
got: 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and
Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among
them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your
finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop
doubting and believe.” And he did,
for 28 Thomas said to him,
“My Lord and my God!”
A transformation before our very eyes. Thomas the doubter became Thomas the
confessor. That was the effect the Risen
Christ had on him. And it wasn’t just some
kind of momentary, feel-good, existential “encounter” with Christ. This was the real, long-lasting deal. Tradition and church history tell us that
Thomas eventually went to the land we presently call
The Risen Christ had the same transforming effect on all the other disciples in that locked room as well, for all the original disciples there that night remained faithful to the end, serving in different mission fields, and everyone of them, with the exception of John (who suffered in other ways), died for the cause of Christ. The resurrection transformed them from scared men hiding behind locked doors to bold proclaimers of the Risen Lord they had seen…
And so it is with each of us. How can it not be that we, too, are changed when we consider the resurrection? When we ponder the Risen Christ and all that Easter means, how can we not be a little happier? How can we not feel closer to the Lord who has done so much for us? How can we not want to live more for Him and less for ourselves? How can we not be strengthened and filled with peace and look upon life a little differently when we say (as we blessedly can), “I know that my Redeemer lives?”
Indeed, the Risen Christ changes lives. He changed the lives of His disciples. He changed the life of Thomas. He changes ours as well…
And to know and feel the full impact of this transforming power we must take to heart the words Jesus spoke to Thomas: “Stop doubting and believe!” These are words which we very well may need to repeat to ourselves several times a day: “Stop doubting and believe!” What should we stop doubting?
That God is in control… Or that He’ll take care of us… Or that He’ll provide for us… Or that He’ll never forsake us… Or that everything He does is out of love and according to the big picture of what is truly best for us… Or that He will keep all His promises… Or that He has forgiven us all our sins (including – and especially – those we are having a hard time forgiving ourselves)… Or that He knows what He is doing, even in the unexplainable things in life.
Sometimes we forget these things. Then we worry. And the peace and joy we’ve talked about ebbs away…
But Jesus says to us in every area of our life, “Stop doubting and believe!” For I
am risen and I live for you… I live
To silence all your fears; I
live to wipe away your tears.
I live to calm your troubled heart;
I live all blessings to impart…
I live to transform
your life from doubt to confidence; from fear to victory. Trust me!
During World War II an English scrub woman was asked how she slept so soundly through those terrible nights when German planes were bombing her city. This was her explanation: “The Good Lord promised that He would watch over us, and I trust Him. There’s no sense in two of us staying awake at night.” Such is the transforming effect the Risen Christ has on the believer.
Because transformation is what the Risen Christ is all about. He changes lives and calms hearts. He provides peace and creates joy. And we are the direct beneficiaries of all the changes He brings about…
May the blessings of the resurrection continue to comfort,
strengthen and uplift us. These
blessings are and always will be ours for as long as we, like the transformed
disciples and transformed Thomas, “stop
doubting and believe” that He is risen.
He is risen indeed.
Alleluia. Amen.