Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed, Alleluia!]

Ah, yes, the passage about "doubting Thomas." How we love to pick on this poor man because of what he said, "Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe," and also for what Jesus said to him, "Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into my side; and do not unbelieving, but believing." However, this lesson is not merely about "doubting Thomas," but of all who are numbered among the believers (which includes Thomas).

And the lesson does not begin "when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week," which would be the week after the Resurrection, but with events that were celebrated two weeks ago (and one could say even further, as "In the beginning..."). It was two weeks ago that the excitement and "hustle and bustle" started to build up. Let us take a moment to recount...

We start with Palm Sunday. The Jews were preparing for the Feast of the Passover, the second highest holy day to the Sabbath, with shouts of joy and acclamation, which we echoed, as the conquering Hero rode into Jerusalem. "Hosanna! Hosanna to the Son of David! Hosanna to the King!" The crowds had gathered at the road and strewn palms and coats on the road; they made a veritable "red carpet" for their King. Had Jesus' cousin, John, been able to be there, he may have said again this day as he had said once before, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

Four days later was Maundy Thursday. It was the 14th day of the month Nisan on the Jewish calendar; the day, according to Passover law, that the Passover lamb was to be eaten. Accordingly, Jesus and His disciples were in the upper room, celebrating the Passover meal, and He instituted His most Holy Supper; "Take, eat, this is my body...take, drink, this is my blood." He was telling His disciples that He is the true Passover Lamb, a claim unlike any other!

The commotion was compounded the following day, Good Friday. The crowd gathered once again outside the house of Pilate demanding to have a crucifixion. It would be the very execution of the true Passover Lamb. When He breathed His last, the earth shook, the dead rose from their graves, the heavy curtain in the temple split in two, and darkness covered the earth before nightfall!

Two days later was the event to top it all: the Resurrection. There was sadness and excitement as the women and disciples find an empty grave and assume the worse. Following that, the "wow moment" when Jesus appeared to the women, who left afraid and astonished at the news to report to the disciples this amazing fact: Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed, Alleluia!]

One would almost expect singing and dancing in the streets at such wonderful news. This behavior is a hold-over in Middle Eastern culture to this day; this kind of good news would conceivably bring the kind of jubilation written of as Jesus rode into Jerusalem. So, where is the singing? Where is the dancing in the streets? Where are the shouts of "Alleluia, Alleluia" to complement the shouts of "Hosanna, Hosanna"? Where are the disciples and the crowds? Unexpectedly, a week later finds the disciples cowering in the upper room with the door locked, in fear!

The disciples and followers of Jesus are finding themselves in a new situation. For three years before, they had always been with their Master and Teacher. Now, they are being thrust into figuring out how to get by without Him. You see, their faith is new...so to speak. For those three years, they did not need to trust or believe in the same fashion as they did during the week after the Resurrection because during those three years they saw with their own eyes and heard with their own ears the very Word of God in the flesh. But now, they can no longer follow Him like they used to, watching and listening to Him...and they are afraid! Their fear and withdrawing in seclusion are the reactions of the sinful flesh, with which they were still struggling. The disciples demonstrate their lack of faith and trust in God's Word by secluding themselves and relying on their own judgment. Fear and distrust are what can happen when one relies on his or her own judgment...be it of the Jews (as was the case of the disciples) or the unknown.

Is this not unlike the newly baptized in our midst? Young Pauline and Kirsten have embarked on something new in their lives. Their faith, the fact that they now trust and believe in Someone unseen, is something new to them, definitely something different. With faith so young, as young as the disciples' so soon after the Resurrection, things can seem overbearing and difficult at times. They need, as the introit proclaimed, that pure spiritual milk upon which to feed. It is, perhaps, a most perilous time in the life of a Christian. Much like the infant and adolescent animals on the African veldt are easy prey for the lion, the Christian infant can be easy prey for Satan, whom we are told "prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." The struggle as sinner and saint at the same time can be most confusing in this time of a Christian's new life. They can fall very easily as they struggle to understand why it is they "do not do the good they want to do but keep on doing the evil they do not want to do."

But those of us who are older in our faith are not immune either. Though we have fed on that pure spiritual milk, and may have moved on to more solid food, we still struggle as sinners and saints at the same time. The young are not the only prey to the lions in Africa...so are the weak. Satan, the Lion, preys also on all who are weakened by sin. Just as the disciples fell victim to their sinful flesh, so can we as we live in a time of now saved, not yet realized, being baptized sinner-saints. Just as St. Paul, who at the time had matured in Christ, questioned why it is he did not do the good he wanted but the evil he did not want, we, too, can find ourselves asking the same question, just like the newly baptized!

Therefore, all the baptized struggle in their life of faith. There are times when our sinful flesh attacks and weakens our faith for BOTH the newly baptized and those who are even a little more mature in their baptisms. We all struggle with the Old Adam within and often, even always, succumb to our sinful desires. So, we have our Peter-like moments where we get so mad we want to cut someone's ear off (or, in our time, bite their head off). We have other Peter-like moments where we lie to save our own skins, even if it means denying others. We have moments like others who most certainly followed Jesus when we betray friendships and wish to shout, "Crucify! Crucify!" We have our Thomas-like moments where we state that "seeing is believing" (and we wouldn't believe otherwise).

But something else happened to the disciples. Even though they were behind locked doors, Jesus was there. Even though the disciples were cowering in fear, there was grace and forgiveness for them. He appeared to them, not as a ghostly apparition, but in a very real presence, in His own body, showing them the marks by which each of them—and every one of His followers—and every one of us—are healed, cleansed, restored, and forgiven: the blood of his scarred head and pierced hands and feet, and even more-so, the blood and water from his pierced side, from which flowed redemption. In the very same room where He instituted His most Holy Supper, He appeared to them in His bodily presence, said to them, "Peace be with you," and strengthened their faith. A week later, when "doubting Thomas" was with them, He does it all again.

This very same thing has been happening every week since then and continues to happen weekly (even daily) to this day. We, the body of believers, gather behind closed doors (we would hope not locked any more), faith weakened by the daily, even hourly and minute by minute, struggle with our sinful flesh, in the presence of our Master and Teacher, Jesus Christ. And, just as He appeared to His disciples those days in His bodily presence, He has done so every week to this day, and does so again today. He appeared to His disciples with grace and forgiveness; He appears here, also, with grace and forgiveness. He comes to us in His bodily presence, for our eating and drinking, to strengthen our weakened faith, to forgive us our sins, and prepare us for that time when we no longer need faith or hope, because He will come to us again to gather us to Himself and grant us eternal life.