Reflecting on John 20:19-31, Rev. 1:17-19

Mercy.  Can you feel it?  It’s getting ready to explode all around us.  This cold, long winter is finally giving way to spring.  Without seeing it, we believed that new life was secretly budding on trees that, just a short time ago, appeared forever barren.  Some of us have needed to touch the branches ourselves, to put our hands on the tiny buds, to hold the tiny crocus peeking out of the ground.  But even our winter-hard hearts know mercy when we see it.

Doubting Thomas

Resurrection is tricky business.  Our eyes tell us one thing―no; let’s not even mention the messages of death that want to hijack our joy.  They get enough of our spirit, right?  But still, we could believe the Easter Gospel so much more easily if we had been in that upper room, or at the empty tomb, or one of those who were healed by the shadow of Peter, the Forgiven One.

We trust the testimony of the eyewitnesses, of course.  But how much more blessed is our own experience of the Risen One!  We see him and know him whenever mercy, undeserved and so desperately desired, whispers our name.  So watch carefully and remember what you have seen, and what is happening, and what will happen afterwards.

Mercy abounds.

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

In what ways have you experienced mercy so great that you knew that Jesus was alive?

(Caravaggio painting c.1601)

Our story seems like nonsense, and a lot of people don’t believe us.  But the women who came to the tomb found it empty.  Peter and the disciple Jesus loved found it empty.  And since that day, we have experienced the Risen Lord too.  We didn’t see it ourselves, but we know the tomb is empty.

The Tomb is Empty

And so we will no longer seek the living among the dead.  We won’t go to the places of death that lure us.  We won’t smack our lips over the demise of those who have hurt us.  We won’t be quick to take affront, quick to pin the blame, quick to take what’s ours.

Our hearts are changed this time.  We will greet the outsider at the well.  We will dance at the coming-home parties of all lost sons and daughters. We will take off the death clothes of those whom Jesus has called back from the grave. We will declare a moratorium on all stone-throwing for the rest of our lives.

When Christ our life appears, we too will appear with him in glory.  But it won’t be the fullness of Easter until all tombs are empty.   So, come you flowers!  Come, you bird nests and robin’s eggs!  Come, you seeds beneath the winter snows!  Bring in Easter again, with all its truths and abundant promises.  And we’ll do our part to bring Easter too.  For Christ our Passover Lamb has been raised.

Therefore, let us keep the feast.

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

What “place of slavery” are your ready to leave for good?