As we enter the story of resurrection, we’re going to pick up in the gospel according to John, chapter 20. We usually read this passage on two separate weeks, as separate stories – but today, I wanted us to hear both stories as one continuous narrative.
As we listen, I want you to listen for the moments when Jesus’ friends come to believe that he has been raised from the dead. What convinces them that this good news is true?
Scripture: John 20:1-29
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”
Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.
Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’s head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.
Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed, for they did not yet understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet.
They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher).
Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and she told them that he had said these things to her.
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, 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.”
The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
The beloved disciple (who weirdly isn’t named in this gospel) believes when he goes into the tomb and sees the linen wrappings that had been on Jesus’ body. He didn’t fully understand it yet, but he believed. We have no idea what Peter was thinking.
Mary Magdalene recognizes the risen Jesus when he says her name. Whether it was the fog of grief or Jesus’ ability to suddenly become unrecognizable, she saw him, but didn’t recognize him until he called her by name. And then he sent her to the disciples to be the very first to proclaim the resurrection. This is why she is often called the ‘apostle to the apostles.’
Ten out of the eleven remaining disciples encounter the resurrected Jesus when he suddenly appears in their locked room, like “hey guys, what’s up?” He shows them his hands and his side, and then, the text says, they believed.
(I am convinced, by the way, that he has to say ‘peace be with you’ twice because of all the screaming that happens after the first one – first startled screaming, and then joyful screaming.)
And then we get to Thomas. Thomas is the original “I’ll believe it when I see it” guy, and he wasn’t there the first time. So he has to wait a full week before Jesus reappears and he can not only see, but touch Jesus’ wounds.
This is where we get a little stuck. Wounds? What do you mean wounds?
Isn’t resurrection supposed to make everything perfect?
This moment is where we come full circle and Christmas and Easter come together.
In Jesus, God took on flesh and bone and moved into the neighborhood – and in doing so, God became vulnerable. He encountered all of the best and the worst of humanity in this life—our rejection, our fear, our affinity for violence and our desires for power. In Jesus, God faced the temptation to do the same—to embrace fame and fortune, power and grandiosity, if only he would give up his righteousness. Even though he remained sinless, those around him did not.
And in this moment, we see that he still bears the scars to prove it.
Thomas refuses to believe that Jesus is alive, despite continued assurances from Mary and the other disciples that they’ve seen him, talked with him. So when Jesus appears in their locked room a second time, he says 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!’”
It wasn’t the glory of heaven that helped Thomas see God in that moment. It wasn’t angels singing, or that warm, fuzzy feeling when you know you’ve done good work.
It was Jesus’ wounds. Even resurrection did not erase Jesus’ vulnerability, and that is an incredible gift.
Some of us carry physical scars; maybe from a surgery, maybe from an injury or an accident. I have a scar on my nose, right where my glasses sit, from when I had the chicken pox in kindergarten.
Most of us also carry invisible scars; moments of fear and shame, memories of all kinds of trauma, the stories we only tell to those select few we trust the most.
Some scars we purposefully show off: like that one from the time you did that really hilarious thing that started with “hey y’all, watch this!” The ones that prove we survived.
But some wounds, some scars, we cover up. We hide them so that we don’t have to be vulnerable. If no one knows, no one will ask us to tell the story. And if we don’t have to tell the story, we can leave those memories buried in the invisible bag of stuff we don’t talk about.
But physical wounds and emotional wounds both need some fresh air to heal. We don’t have to walk around shouting our trauma from the rooftops, but we do need someone we can be truly, deeply honest with – we all need people who can care for us when we are feeling hopeless or helpless, afraid or ashamed.
Y’all, here is the incredible gift of loving and praising and serving a God with scars: he’s not afraid of our wounds. The crucified and risen Jesus is not going to roll his eyes and tell you to rub some dirt on it or walk it off.
No matter what kind of scrapes, bruises, scars or pain you show up with, even if the story begins with some version of ‘hey y’all, watch this!’, Jesus will always be there to open his arms to you and say “You, too?”
And Christ’s embrace will always lead us to the true end of our story: the steadfast love of God, which conquers death itself.
This is precisely what Paul means when he says in his letter to the Romans that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
He writes in his letter to Philippi that “to live is Christ and to die is gain,” which is the ancient version of “come at me, bro, because absolutely nothing you do can change the end of my story.”
Because Jesus chose to share in our humanity, we get to share in his resurrection.
Beloved people of God, this is the joy of Easter: Christ is risen from the dead, and so are we. Thanks be to God!