Being Present: Wounds and All

John 20:19-31           

Rev. Dr. Mary Alice Mulligan

Did you notice the front of the bulletin does not say the first Sunday after Easter. It says the second Sunday of Easter. Easter is not a day to celebrate the Resurrection and then go back to “normal” life. Easter is a seven-week season, because the resurrection of Jesus cannot be understood in one, quick, albeit exciting worship event. You might remember last Sunday’s sermon focus, “Trusting without Seeing,” since you don’t get to see the Resurrected Christ any more than those first women that Mark reported showed up at the tomb. You have to trust without seeing. But what are you supposed to trust? Just like every believer, you need time to absorb what new things God might be trying to teach you this Easter Season about the divine power to overcome sin and death. About faith and forgiveness. About the presence of the Spirit. So, from the 20th chapter of the Gospel of John, listen for the word of God.

When 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.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “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.” But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So 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.”

A 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.” Then 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.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But 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.

We don’t want to miss an important detail. Jesus is raised with his wounds. The resurrected Christ still has where nails and spear ripped his flesh. Jesus appears to 10 disciples here (10 because not Judas and not Thomas), wounds and all. In fact, he shows up saying words of peace, which John reports, he had just spoken days earlier at their final meal together when Jesus explained his leaving and promised the Holy Spirit as Advocate to accompany them. He said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” (John 14:27) However, when he speaks peace on Easter evening we have no indication they recognize who he is. It’s only when he shows them his hands and side, the evangelist tells us, “Then they rejoiced when they saw the Lord.” Apparently only after seeing the wounds did they realize the mysterious figure among them was Jesus raised. We can’t fathom exactly what John tries to describe. The Risen Christ passes through a locked door, but retains mutilated physical flesh, which helps his followers recognize him.

However, most importantly for us, the One who stands among them still has divine power. As promised, he fills his followers with Holy Spirit. Quite different from the extravagant display we will see in May on Pentecost, with tongues of fire and loud wind as the Spirit comes. Here, Jesus just exhales the Holy Spirit onto and into them, which they receive with power to forgive sin.

Then just in case we are not quite sure the resurrected One actually had those wounds still, the scene repeats a week later with Thomas, when Jesus is more direct. “Stick your hand in my gaping side.” Poor Thomas gets a bad rap for doubting. “I’ll believe it’s really Jesus alive again when I touch where the spear went in.” But we should notice, everyone is doubtful. Each Gospel shows people at the tomb confused, frightened, doubting, even when an angel tells them Jesus is raised. Only when they see Jesus do they believe. When Mary tells the disciples she has seen Jesus, they still huddle behind a locked door. When Jesus comes among them, they finally recognize him when he shows them his wounds. So no surprise Thomas wants to see the injured flesh in order to believe. We all doubt until we see. Jesus is raised, wounds and all.

So we shouldn’t be surprised that we keep our wounds, too. We can expect whatever wounds we are carrying will still be with us, even as we grow in our commitment to the Risen Christ. We might wish all our wounds were healed and gone as our faith grows, but no. Vestiges of damage remain.

Those of us who were here on Maundy Thursday evening heard the explanation that church people are not perfect. We are not whole. Jesus only constructs the church from broken people, not because he only chooses broken people to work with, but because, broken people are all there is. Everyone is broken in some way, no matter how much healing work we do.

But let’s think what happens when Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into his followers. Although not a sophisticated image, we might think of the Holy Spirit like Crazy Glue, sticking all our wounded, broken pieces back together. So we are sort of whole but scars remain where the Spirit is holding us together. Some claim a repaired break is stronger than the original. Maybe so, but either way, we can trust the Spirit can repair us, no matter how broken we are.

One other promise about the Spirit, given by the Risen Christ. When followers receive the power to forgive or retain sin, the power is for the good of the community. Forgiving each other solidifies our community. Retaining someone else’s sin keeps us disconnected, broken. As we forgive sins the Spirit is able to form us into a community of faith together. Maybe we don’t get stuck together with Crazy Glue, but if we look, the community of Christ is unbreakably strong together, because the Holy Spirit connects us with bonds that cannot be broken. When some crack or breach begins, we can let it fester until something breaks off, or we can use the power of God’s presence among us through the Spirit to repair whatever jeopardizes our community unity. After all, none of us is perfect. Our wounds may be Crazy Glued together, but we all have permanent scars.

Which is why Jesus keeps showing up. No matter what, the Risen Christ will keep coming among us. Just as the Risen Christ kept showing up on Easter, then in a week to Thomas, and later sharing breakfast on the beach. Granted we may not be thrown to the ground and blinded like Acts 9:1-31 reports happened to Paul, but the Resurrected One is all around.

Think of the person who gave up on prayer; quit attending church; not sure anything is worth believing in; but then some crisis hits and the person falls the floor saying, “Help me.” And there is the presence of the Risen Christ, because Christ never left. Experiencing the presence of the Risen Christ is not something we can record with a camera phone. But not being recordable is actually a benefit we receive from the mix of images and stories reported in the Gospels. They are inconsistent. No one can piece all of the post-resurrection stories into a unified whole, because the Gospels were not written as history books. They are faith-making books, which means as we experience God’s presence in our lives, we already have permission to put our story into words different from anyone else’s. Don’t get me wrong. Each of our stories needs to be consistent with Jesus’ teachings and with the big ideas of God’s Realm of compassion and loving forgiveness. But it doesn’t have to be like anyone else’s. Our experience comes from God after all, so of course each person has a unique one.

African American scholar, Brian Blount says Jesus taps into the coming Realm of God which allows the future to explode transformatively into the present. So we know the Risen Christ is present among us when the wholeness and peace and joy of God’s ultimate will for humanity are experienced even momentarily. When holy moments of God’s future are experienced now, there is the presence of the Risen Christ. Blount calls it a "moment where future power throbs so powerfully that it radically transforms present reality.”[1] It is a moment of redemption, healing, wholeness, and salvation happening because of the presence of the Risen Christ. Whenever we need mending, the Risen Christ keeps showing up.

[1] Brian K. Blount, Go Preach! Mark’s Kingdom Message and the Black Church Today (Orbis, 1998), 12 (see also 8).