Unbelievable! by Karen Shepler (with an assist by Patti Lusher)

         

Last week we celebrated Easter with flowers and Easter eggs and family gatherings and great joy because Jesus had risen from the dead.  Cheri talked about the women going to the grave and finding two men there instead of Jesus, how they asked the women why they were looking for the living among the dead.  The scripture says that they fell down when they saw the men in dazzling clothing.  Who wouldn’t?  Can you imagine?  They went there to clean Jesus’ body for burial, something that didn’t happen on the day he died.  They took oils and other herbs and spices to keep the smell down.  But when they got there, the tomb was open and there were these two glowing men instead saying that Jesus was gone, just as he said he would be.  It was an unbelievable moment! 

            It was so unbelievable, in fact that when the women went back to tell the disciples, they thought what they were saying was an idle tale.  Only Peter went to check the story out and the scripture says that after he stuck his head in the tomb and saw nothing there, he walked away puzzled, shaking his head.

            This whole raising of Jesus from the dead was as incredible when it happened, as it had been when Jesus told the disciples about it before he died.  They didn’t believe it then, and they still had a hard time after it happened.

            So today’s scripture from John has the disciples together on Easter Sunday afternoon in a sequestered room, because they were afraid of the Jews.  Who knows what they were doing.  They had been together for three years every day and every night, so maybe they just felt a need to be together.  Maybe they were sharing their pain, sadness and guilt about what had taken place over the last several days.  We don’t know, but we know that 10 of the disciples were there.    Thomas evidently didn’t get the memo about the meeting so when Jesus came through the door, he wasn’t there. 

            Here’s what the scripture says:  “Later on that day, the disciples had gathered together, but, fearful of the Jews, had locked all the doors in the house.  Jesus entered, stood among them, and said, “Peace to you.”  Then he showed them his hands and side.  The disciples, seeing the Master with their own eyes, were exuberant.  Jesus repeated his greeting:  “Peace to you.  Just as the Father sent me, I send you.”

             Let’s think about this.  So far in this Easter scenario, finding the grave empty and two dazzling men there instead shocked the women.  That whole thing was unimaginable to them.  The disciples didn’t believe their report of that event when they reported it.  Peter ran to the tomb and couldn’t believe what he saw either.  Put yourselves in the shoes of any of these players.  Would you believe it?  And now, the disciples are sitting in a room, minding their own business, when in walks Jesus, the one who had died three days earlier.  Notice that the scripture doesn’t say that the disciples believed it was him right away.  It says, “ Then he showed them his hands and side.  The disciples, seeing the Master with their own eyes, were exuberant.”  I get the impression that they didn’t know who it was for sure until they saw the wounds on Jesus’ body.  It says they were exuberant, after seeing the Master with their own eyes.  From that I get the idea that initially they didn’t recognize Jesus or maybe they just didn’t believe it was him.

            Have you had that experience?  You see someone somewhere totally out of context and you can’t believe it’s really them.  On my trip to Israel a few years ago, we were at the Masada, the place where a large group of Jewish Zealots held out for months while the Romans were trying to get to them to kill them all.  I decided to go down from the top on the gondola while others were still looking at the ruins.  When I got on the gondola, there was a man who looked exactly like a pastor friend of mine from this conference.  We both looked at each other a couple times and then I said, “Duane?” and he responded, “Karen?” and we realized that we were running into each other half way around the world.  Neither of us could believe that it was the other.  It didn’t make sense that we would run into each other on a gondola in Israel.  But there we were.

            I have a sense that it was much the same with the disciples.  First of all they are in a locked room.  No one was supposed to be able to find them or come in.  And all of a sudden there’s Jesus, who, by the way, came through the closed and locked door.  Second of all, Jesus was dead – or so they thought.  How could he appear to them?  Peterson says that the disciples were exuberant when they saw their Master with their own eyes.  I think it may have been more realistic for Peterson to use the words “scared to death.”  I think I would have been – how about you?  And thirdly, it wasn’t until Jesus told them to look at his hands and side that they realized who it was and believed it.

            Jesus then said to them, “Peace to you,” and he breathed the Holy Spirit on them telling them to forgive peoples’ sins.

            I always thought that Thomas got a bad rap in this scripture and in how we think of him.  He’s called “doubting Thomas” by most people, because of what happened in this scripture passage.  Thomas wasn’t there when Jesus originally appeared to the disciples.  He didn’t get to hear his voice or see his wounds.  The other disciples told him that they had seen Jesus, but Thomas didn’t believe them.  Let’s see…so far in this Easter story, we have the women at the tomb not believing that Jesus is gone.  We have the disciples not believing the women when they come back with the story of the empty tomb.  We have Peter going to the tomb and leaving puzzled and in disbelief.  So why is Thomas singled out as the doubter?  He just wants the same experience the others have had – confirmation that what they saw was real.

            So eight days later, Jesus comes back through the locked doors and says again, “Peace to you.”  Thomas is there this time and Jesus focuses his attention on Thomas, telling him to take his finger and examine Jesus’ hands, and to take his hand and stick it in his side. 

            And then Jesus says, “Don’t be unbelieving. Believe.”  When Thomas says, “My Master!  My God!” Jesus says, “So, you believe because you’ve seen with your own eyes.  Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing.”

            This whole story is unbelievable isn’t it?  It’s so unbelievable that we have accepted it on faith.  Like the disciples, we find it hard to believe that Jesus could have come back from death.  It is only because God loves us so much that it happened.  Jesus was sent to this earth so that we could see how good God is, so that we could see just how much God was willing to risk, just how much God loves us.  We weren’t there when Jesus died; unlike the disciples, we haven’t seen him in the flesh with his wounds.  And yet, as Cheri reminded us last week, we can see Jesus in other people, in things that happen.  We haven’t seen him in the flesh, we can only use our imagination to see what we read about, but we can believe.  And Jesus says that blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing.

        The year is 1941. Hitler’s dread legions are on the march. The German advance is heading, with astonishing speed, toward the city of Leningrad — today known by its historic name, St. Petersburg.

        Knowing how little protection there is between them and the German advance, the staff of the famous Hermitage Museum has been working around the clock to pack up their priceless paintings and sculptures for transport to a place of safety.

        On July 1st, the director of the museum stands weeping at the railway station as three trains, loaded with the treasures of the Hermitage, prepare to leave for the Russian heartland. Not even the conductors know the final, secret destination of those railway cars.

        The third train never leaves. Hitler’s forces arrive first, circling the helpless city. Two–and–a–half million people are trapped within, under appalling conditions of hunger and deprivation.

        Knowing how important diversion is for the citizenry, the museum staff keeps the palatial building open. Only minor works remain on display, but the building — itself a work of art — continues to draw crowds. Those museum-goers remember what once was, and they hope for its return.

        The day arrives when even the Hermitage itself is threatened. Falling bombs shatter the windows. Heavy snows drift in, soaking the once–elegant parquet floors. The museum staff enlists war–weary soldiers to shovel up the mixture of snow and glass, haul it out by the bucket load and cover the shattered windows with whatever they can find.

        How to thank the soldiers for what they have done? A longtime Hermitage guide by the name of Pavel Dubchevski has an idea. He offers the soldiers a highly unusual museum tour. He leads the hollow–eyed, starving men in their ragged uniforms through the cavernous halls of the museum. So many frames hang empty on the walls, but the guide pauses at each one, describing the painting that used to hang there. Years later, the soldiers would recall that Dubchevski’s descriptions were so vivid and powerful they could almost see the world–famous art treasures.

        Pavel Dubchevski, the Hermitage Museum guide, created a vision of hope for those who would otherwise be mired in despair.  They were blessed even in their not seeing the paintings.

            The story of Jesus raising from the dead and appearing to the 11 disciples is a story that is so unbelievable that it would be easy to dismiss – kind of like the women at the tomb, and like Peter and the others, kind of like Thomas did initially.  But the fact that we can read about it and in many ways experience it through the stories in the Scriptures gives us hope when otherwise we might fall into despair.

            Jesus is alive and living among us.  We can’t see him physically, so when we say that, we know that we are talking about something that is beyond belief to those who don’t know him.   And yet we do believe it and so we have hope, and we have the potential to bring hope to a world that is experiencing despair.  Like Dubchevski, we can paint a picture for those who need a Savior, who need someone who can lift them up and carry them through their dark days and their jubilant days. 

            Our Village statement says that “We are Jesus’ instruments of hope in our world. We are followers of Jesus and we can change the world!”  The unbelievable story of Jesus being raised from the dead and living among us can bring hope to the world and change it so that people live in peace and community.  Part of our work as followers is to spread that word.   How can we do that?  Who can you talk to about how Christ is affecting you in your life and work?  How can you live so that others will realize that there is something about you that is hopeful, that keeps you going when times are hard?  Think for a minute about that, and then turn to the person next to you and share how you will work to change the world, painting a picture for others of how Christ is living in you and in this world.