Jesus doesn't believe in walls

Acts 4:32-35

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

Psalm 133

Behold how good and pleasant it is when kindred dwell together in unity! It is like fine oil upon the head, flowing down upon the beard, upon the beard of Aaron, flowing down upon the collar of his robe. It is like the dew of Hermon flowing down upon the hills of Zion. For there the Lord has commanded the blessing: life forevermore.

1 John 1:1-2:2

We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life - this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to you, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us - we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

John 20:19-31

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.

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Every year we get the story of Thomas this second Sunday after Easter. It’s as if those who put together the lectionary wanted to give the same reassurance year after year: it’s okay that Easter doesn’t feel like Easter for everyone all at the same time. Some of us ‘get it’ right away with the flowers and the hymns and the return of Alleluia, and some of us stay away because it just isn’t in us to celebrate. Some of us even hear the good news of resurrection and prefer to lock ourselves away out of sight from the rest of the world, out of fear of those who see things differently, as the disciples did that very first night after the women brought them the news of the empty tomb. The first night! 

These disciples had walked around openly, proudly, with Jesus before his arrest and crucifixion, but now that he had been taken and beaten and made a public mockery, there was a difference in their walk. It had turned into a run, and then ran and hid. Now that the news had come that the body was missing, it was certainly just a matter of time before the authorities came for them, to punish them for stealing the body they hadn’t even stuck around to see buried in the first place. How did this happen? What did this mean? What sort of sense could they make of this news just days after they had eaten that final Passover supper and gone to the garden to pray and seen their beloved Teacher taken from them by force in the night? In that garden, remember, Jesus had told them to put away their swords, but what was to keep anyone else from putting away theirs? Then this news from the women, then Peter and the beloved disciple ran to check out the tomb and they also found it empty!

What a range of emotions must have been swirling in their hearts, what confusion in their community, when they locked themselves away that night. They had only just begun to grieve, to picture a return to their bleak future looking just like their bleak past...

There is a lovely painting I have seen in many homes and offices, which shows Jesus standing in a garden at a door, knocking. If you follow the outline of his form and the flowers growing up around, it makes the shape of a heart. Very comforting to many, but the trouble with that image is that nobody shows what’s on the other side of that door. Jesus just rolled away the stone to death, and the disciples have now effectively locked their doors against him. I had many a professor of Lutheran theology who reminded us that the human condition is on the other side of that door, in the painting of Jesus knocking. On the other side of that door we scurry around to add more furniture to the pile heaped up against the door. If that door hinges to open inward, we most certainly make certain that it is locked, barred, and perhaps even nicely hidden behind a painting or a big screen TV.

The trouble with Jesus, though, especially now that he has been resurrected, is that doors and walls don’t keep him out any more. The things we busy ourselves with, our own excuses that we don’t have time for prayer or Scripture, aren’t enough to keep out the resurrected Christ. Jesus doesn’t believe in walls, no matter how many we build, doesn’t pay attention to doors that stand between us, doesn’t allow even our weakest attempts at sharing him with others go without effect. 

The disciples who were met that first night were an incomplete crew, missing the one they called “the Twin,” who we have come to call ‘Doubting Thomas.’ Even though they went and told him of their experience, he didn’t buy it. Thomas had to see Jesus for himself, didn’t want any of his friends’ comfort or false hope trying to cheer him up when he was grieving the death of his Rabbi. Was he doubting the resurrection, or doubting the witness of the other disciples? Does it matter? In any case, he demanded firsthand experience of Jesus, and the next time they gathered, he got it.

Because Jesus works with us in our doubts, works with us in our trials, works with us and for us in every one of our struggles with faith and life. All of these things we claim keep us from him, the sins and faults, the failings and miseries, can not keep him from us. We have a great and terrible history, as a faith community across the millennia, of finding ways to keep one another out of fellowship, as a way of proving to ourselves that we’ve got it right and we have the answers and we’re going to heaven because we know and believe x, y, and z in the right order and in the original King James version. But that’s not how this faith thing works. If it was, then the resurrection was too small. 

The trouble with Jesus is, now he can walk through the walls of our hearts, in ways we can neither imagine nor foresee. He comes to us even outside of these walls, calls us to worship here as practice for our worship out there, feeds us here as a reminder that he feeds us there, forgives us here as we get to forgive and be forgiven out there.

We see a small glimpse of what this resurrection community looks like in the Acts reading this morning, where everyone had everything in common and took equal care one of another. Because we all together have what we all need. When we get our soup suppers ready, or our ham and scalloped potato dinners, there isn’t anyone gone hungry, because that is work reflecting the Kingdom of God given to us at this Table. When the kids feed us and feed each other, and we work with them to raise them in this experience of welcome and belonging, it is because God has welcomed us all and that welcome overflows even when we ourselves have little idea how it happens. When we pass the peace here in worship, it is because Jesus’ first words to his frightened disciples were ‘peace be with you,’ and we rely on that wholeness, that shalom peace, to live freely from the strength of the Gospel.

Thomas and the other disciples went from that room where Jesus met them, and Jesus sent the Spirit with them to the far reaches of the world. This Easter season, these 50 days of jubilee, we have Jesus with us, too: In our grief, in our joy, in our fear, in our doubts, in our struggles, in our victories, in our distraction, in our meditation, in our work, in our play.

Because Christ is risen! Alleluia! He is risen, indeed, Alleluia!