Year C Easter II Acts 5:27-32 Revelation 1:4-8 John 20:19-31

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

These words, from the Revelation of St. John the Divine, are powerful and mysterious. They make us think, they make us pray, and they should strike deep fear and reverence within our hearts and souls. John, who spoke these words of God, was a mystic who will later in his revelation say of himself, I was caught up in the Spirit on the LORD’s Day…

And as we hear this we ask ourselves, are we? It is a terrifying thing to be caught up in the Spirit, and it asks much – much more than some of us believe we are willing or able to give.

Now many signs and wonders were done among the people through the apostles. Then the high priest took action; he and all who were with him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), being filled with jealousy, arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison.

These verses come from the same chapter in Acts from which our First Reading today was taken. They help introduce what is happening in today’s lesson. It’s far beyond the ken of the high priest and his minions that these outspoken, heretical fellows might indeed be the followers of the long awaited Messiah. The popularity they enjoy does nothing to endear them to the temple leaders, and so, action is taken to silence them. Throwing them in prison will certainly, as we would say, put a lid on their activities. It would certainly do that to us, but prison does not have the effect on the apostles that the high priest had hoped for.

“Then someone arrived and announced, ‘Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!’”

You might think the synagogue would be the correct place in which to preach the Good News of Jesus, but that is not the case, and so once again the apostles are arrested and brought before the high priest. One can’t help but wonder what’s going through the high priest’s mind as the apostles are brought in to face him. Perhaps something like, “Here we go again!”

Surprisingly, the men are treated fairly well as they’re dragged in, but the gentle treatment is due, not to any recognition of who they are, nor of the Truth of what they are saying. The high priest is simply a practical fellow who wants to avoid being stoned by an angry mob, and since the apostles are currently popular with the general Jewish public, he sees to it that the apostles are not injured or maltreated in any way.

In all of this, the high priest sees a nuisance, but has not recognized the Truth of what the apostles are teaching, and he isn’t at all interested in their “heresy”. What he is concerned with is his reputation and his personal safety as he says, “You are determined to bring this man's blood on us".

Though he totally misses the fact that the apostles have indeed found the Messiah, in everyday terms the high priest isn’t a fool. He’s an average individual. He isn’t into the mystical and mysterious ways of the Spirit or with whatever these followers of the executed Jesus are talking about. Rather, he is preoccupied with myriad responsibilities and normal human concerns.

He is, in fact, someone much like us. But sadly for him, he is also someone who happens to have missed the most important thing that will ever happen in his life.

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 . . .

What has happened to the disciples since the resurrection? We have several Gospels that give us different glimpses into their lives. Peter, James, and John went back to fishing. It was the Risen Jesus they encountered. Some of the disciples left town. It was only in the breaking of the bread along a dusty road that led them to recognize that the storyteller was Jesus and that they were walking in the wrong direction. And in John’s Gospel, the one we heard this morning, there was Thomas.

What do we know about Thomas? He isn’t a major figure in the Gospels, not like Peter or John and James, but in John’s Gospel he appears in three major stories. We first hear of him just before Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. The disciples know the Jewish authorities are seeking to stone Jesus, but, because Lazarus has died, Jesus says He will go to Mary and Martha. Even though Jesus is risking His life in doing this, and the disciples seem to believe He will be killed, Thomas immediately says, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”

Later in the Gospel, Jesus tells His disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you… and you know the way where I am going.” Thomas seems to think this is a geographical location and says, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”

Still, we really don’t know enough about Thomas to assess his character, let alone to accuse him of being an habitual doubter. What we do know is, he’s Jewish. He’s a twin, that’s what his name means, but we don’t know who his twin was. He’s devoted enough to Jesus to at least contemplate dying for Him. He doesn’t want to be separated from his Lord. He wants to know where Jesus is going and how to get to Him. And yet, for all that, Thomas isn’t there for Jesus when He is arrested, tried, and put to death. At the crucial moment, Thomas runs away.

After Jesus crucifixion, Thomas has gone into hiding, somewhere in the city. Like all the disciples, he is terrified of the Jewish establishment, which he, like the others, assumes will next be after him. All the disciples are dealing with the same raging emotions: fear, scorn, ridicule, anxiety, a sense of failure and its ugly cousin, shame. Except for Thomas and Judas, they have all locked themselves in an upper room, shutting out the world, and locking themselves in. It’s the way many of us cope when life and death overwhelm us. Forget mystical truths. We shut out everyone and lock our hearts and ourselves in and try to keep the world at bay. But then for the disciples:

Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."… 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. And then Jesus says, "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." In John’s Gospel there is no waiting for Pentecost – the gift of the Spirit comes on this day when the disciples finally see the risen Lord.

But, because he is not there, Thomas misses this first encounter. Plagued by guilt for having deserted Jesus and fearful of further persecution, filled with grief over Jesus’ death, Thomas has locked himself away from everyone. While the other disciples have gathered together in the upper room, Thomas has been somewhere on his own, despairing. He must have found a really safe place to hide, but in so doing, he has missed the first encounters with Jesus in the upper room.

Finally, Thomas joins the other disciples. Perhaps, one or more of them had gone after him to bring him back into the group. We don’t know for sure if that happened, but we do know he joins them now only to be told he has missed seeing Jesus, who has risen from the dead. As it has been for the other disciples, seeing Jesus again would be the cure for all that ails Thomas, it would wipe away everything he is suffering, but how can such a thing be true? With a mixture of hope and disbelief he blurts out:

"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, the disciples were gathered together again in the same house where they had last seen Jesus. Only this time, Thomas was with them. During the last encounter, the doors of the house were locked, but this time the doors were only shut. Perhaps this small detail offers some clue that, while the disciples still desired safety, their first encounter with the risen Lord had caused them to become men less defined by fear, less defined by a desire for self-survival.

Once again, Jesus came and stood in the midst of His disciples. He greeted them again, saying, “Peace be with you,” before addressing Thomas directly. Then He turned to Thomas and said, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”

The Greek word we translate as “doubt” is ἄπιστος (apistos), which means unfaithful, faithless, or unbelieving, without trust in God. Jesus is speaking of something deeper than Thomas simply doubting that the person of Jesus was no longer dead and had resurrected. Jesus is touching on Thomas’ belief or lack of belief in the God Who had sent Jesus into the world and Who was capable of resurrecting not only Jesus, but the entire creation.

With the deepest reverence and awe, Thomas responds, saying, “My Lord and my God!”

How do we fit into this picture? How do these readings apply to us?

We are the high priest, who attempts to keep himself safe from disapproval and danger, who monitors the crowd, keeps his finger on the pulse of the Jewish people, and makes decisions he feels will keep things calm and under control. He is a person with great responsibilities and a good deal of common sense born of years of experience. He is someone we would probably respect if we knew him.

We are Thomas – a person who cares deeply for Jesus, but really wants things spelled out clearly. Despite any indication we have given in the past that we are willing to give our all for Jesus, in our lives, when true danger arises, we, like Thomas, may make a run for it. Let’s get somewhere “safe”, have clarity and definition, and then we can decide what to do next. We are people who hear about resurrection of the body and wonder if that’s really possible. After all – we haven’t seen it – not yet.

Receive the Holy Spirit. We are also the Baptized, reborn into the Day of New Creation; the Hour; the Breath; the Spirit and the joy of being called into New Life. Still, like the disciples, it takes a bit of prodding and a lot of practice to leave the room and to walk as if this New Story and New Life really has meaning. “Peace be with you”. Jesus has conquered death, kicked in the doors of Hell and has opened the doors of Heaven.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

We are the Baptized, called to live in faith in the power of the Spirit, to kneel at the Name of Jesus, to say and to believe, “My Lord and my God!”

And Jesus said to Thomas, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, give us courage to leave our locked rooms and open our locked hearts. Give us grace to manifest the Holy Spirit that burns within us. Shine through us and be so in us that every soul we come in contact with may feel Your presence in our souls. This we ask for Your love and mercy’s sake. Amen.