We will be
celebrating and giving special thought to the Resurrection of our Lord,
for 40 days, just as those first disciples experienced the appearances
of Jesus in different places and in different circumstances over that
same period of time. It gives us opportunity to explore and ponder in
depth the significance and benefits of our Lord’s Resurrection from the
dead.
Last week we beheld
in our Gospel the empty tomb and the very beginnings of faith in the
Resurrection – the Apostle John being the first to believe as he and
Peter viewed the grave cloths lying in the tomb and the napkin that had
been about Jesus head lying in a place by itself. There was Mary
Magdalene, whose soul had been swept clean of 7 demons, but was not yet
filled with the promised new resurrection life, remaining at the tomb of
our Lord.
St. Mary Magdalene,
remained at the tomb, after Peter and John returned home. She stood
weeping outside the tomb and was consoled by two angels in white who
spoke with her in her deep grief. She turns around and begins to speak
with one whom she thinks is the gardener, who then reveals himself to
her as the risen Jesus when he speaks her name – Mary!
That same day,
elsewhere, there were the two men on the Road to Emmaus whom the risen
Jesus came alongside to lead them out of their grief and to an
understanding of how the Law and the Prophets clearly show that the
Messiah must be crucified and rise again. Their hearts burned within
them as Jesus talked with them but only when he broke bread with them
did they know him – and he suddenly disappeared. When they
returned to Jerusalem, to tell of their encounter, they learned that the
Lord had appeared to Peter.
This morning’s
Gospel is the next recorded appearance of Jesus – all on that same first
day. We can imagine that all of these specific appearances and their
reportings, were the necessary preparations of the hearts of each of the
disciples before He could appear to all of them together. His very
appearances a wonderful sign of the Wisdom and the Love of God – God
knows each of our hearts and treats each of us as individuals – He
brings the knowledge of Himself to us as we can best bear it – and first
through the preparation of the witness of others.
Jesus appears, after
these preparations with individuals, to all of the disciples, except to
Thomas, who had to wait another agonizing week, for a special
appearance.
THE same day at
evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut,
where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and
stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he
had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the
disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.
The doors were shut
and Jesus came and stood in the midst of them. His body bearing the
marks of His crucifixion. It is that same body, yet somehow strangely
and wonderfully transformed – he can appear and disappear, be known or
remain unknown, the physical world is no impediment to his movement – He
is resurrected, not just resuscitated like Lazarus or the little girl or
the son of the widow of Nain.
Jesus says to them –
Peace be unto you. His first words to them are words of
reconciliation. The deep peace that we all desire and as Christians
know more and more – reconciliation, forgiveness, with God and man – a
reconciliation that the disciples knew in the presence of Jesus, they
now knew as a certainty from His mouth.
Peace be unto
you. And
when Jesus had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his
side. We can imagine that the disciples had some idea that Jesus
was offering himself as a sacrifice for sin - he had told them many
times, he had been called the Lamb of God by John the Baptist when first
introduced. We can imagine there was some question in their minds
following his brutal crucifixion about that offering. But now,
with his Resurrection appearance to them, the self offering of the Son
of God, the willing sacrifice of Himself on the Cross for the sins of
the world, the disciples are now assured, has been received by the
Father.
Then were the
disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.
They were glad when
they saw the Lord because He was their Master and their friend, but it
was a far deeper gladness. It is the gladness we know in our
conversions, at the moments of our acceptance of the mercy that the
Father would pour upon us when we come to Him with penitent hearts
trusting in His Son’s offering. It is the gladness we know at our
justification – our being seen as just through our trusting in Jesus
self offering – a moment we first know in our baptism and that we know
each time we return to Him in faith after we have strayed. When the
Father looks upon us, who look upon and trust in His Son, we are seen as
righteous and are being made righteous by grace.
Then said Jesus
to them again, Peace be unto you: As my Father hath sent me, even so
send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith
unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosesoever sins ye remit, they
are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are
retained.
As the Father looks
upon the Son in perfect love and sends Him to us, so does the Son look
upon us in perfect love and sends us to others in the power of that
Love. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto
them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. The very character of this Love is
forgiveness and self sacrifice - Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are
remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.
And why would we retain the sins of others when we ourselves have
received perfect forgiveness from our Lord? Why would we hold others
bound in sin when we have been loosed from the bonds of our own sins?
As St. Paul has said
elsewhere:
God… hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us
the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto
them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.…(2
Cor. 5:18-19)
As Christians we
have been assured by Christ’s resurrection that His offering on our
behalf has been accepted. Knowing that greatest gift, that new freedom
and being filled with that reconciling love, filled with Christ’s
Spirit, He asks us to go out and tell others, by word and more
importantly, by deed.
We are left with two questions to
consider this morning:
Is there someone you
have not forgiven that comes to mind this morning? pray for the
grace to forgive them. Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted
unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.
Is there someone you
know who is despairing because of something they have done and
they don’t know the forgiveness of God possible through the offering of
His Son? pray for grace to speak the word of reconciliation.
Jesus came and
stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them,
Peace be unto
you.
And when he had
so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side.
Amen.
