Blessed are those who have yet to see but still believe

By now there are many who will consider Easter to be a bygone holiday, awaiting the next long weekend which for so many in our country heralds the start of the camping season. But in fact, we have eight more weeks of the Easter Season to go. Many might have gone away from the Easter experience wondering where Jesus’ body went. The women who went to visit the tomb came back telling some foolish tale about there being no body in the tomb. There was an earthquake, some dead soldiers (until they summoned the courage to run away) and an angel telling them to tell the disciples to make the trek back to Galilee (some 68 miles, and the country is only 90 miles long!) because they would see Jesus there. That was Sunday morning but the day and the wonderfully strange things didn’t finish there.

Most of what was left of the 12 where together along with others in the room where they had celebrated the Last Supper. The windows were shuttered and the doors were locked and bolted. Most of the 12 thought they were next and all of Jesus’ followers knew that they may be next to the cross or some other equally gruesome fate.

Then, like on the mountain top, when Jesus came back to James, John and Peter and touched them, raised them up from the fear of death because they knew they had been in the presence of the Father and they had heard the Father speak. Jesus greeted them with a “Shalom”. He then invited them to come and touch him to prove that he was not a mass delusion. See and touch the nail prints. Seen and touch the spear’s wound. See that it is really and truly me.

When they understood, then he greeted them again with “Shalom” – not just to take away the fear and foreboding but to replace it with all the good things that are going to be needed and necessary to make the important mission of the Church happen. The disciples could have been waiting for something different. They could have been waiting for the rebuke for the lack of faith and the willingness to persevere under difficult circumstances on Friday. Yet what they received is the opposite: they got forgiveness and mercy. They are invited into reconciliation by Christ himself. It is important for all of us to know this because it is for us, both to know and to proclaim. There is a simple reality that we as a congregation, as a Church need to be aware: we can tell people that they can be made free and serve God or not. Freedom and abundant, eternal life come to us precisely because we continue to believe that Jesus is the Christ and that we are free and have life in and through him.

This brings us to Thomas (John 20.19-31). I have heard him called everything from a doubter to a realist. Wanting to have the same experience as everyone else is not a doubt, it is a desire. He wants what others have. There is no harm or shame in that. He wants to be like his brothers. What is important for them and for us, is the faith and the trust that needs to be there day in and day out whether we can see him or not. There is blessing in being patient and waiting for your moment with Jesus because it will come. The key for us is not allowing for the moment between this one and that one to distract from believing and participating in the life that is now, because of the cross, a reality. In fact there is blessing for the one who lives the life and awaits the moment to be face to face with the Master. “Blessed are those who have not seen yet still believe.”

In the meantime, we must be people of the Word so that we can be and project the trust, the hope and the life we have in Christ. We need to be people who continue to believe because that instills and builds up the Church community through our active creativity and lively imaginations. We need to hold out the bread of life to both feed the hungry and to continue the journey towards the day that we will be at that final Feast. And we need to do this with a deep and abiding passion for the kingdom of God. After all, the most important thing is to go on believing, participating and waiting because our time and our turn with Jesus will come.

Jason+