Locked Doors, Fearful Hearts
John 20:19-31
by Jim Westmoreland
For just a few moments this morning I want you to close your eyes and imagine a scene of peace. It can be anything that you associate with a feeling of peace. As you focus on this scene, describe it to yourself as fully as you can, enter into it deeply enough to feel its glow. We may have pictured a scene from childhood, a special vacation spot, a place where you go to be alone and think and reflect.
Whatever the picture you painted and entered into, it was probably not the kind of scene drawn by today's gospel text.
The text speaks of locked doors, secret meetings and fear. These are not the things that make me think about peace, nor does the presence of one whose body is marked by the signs of torture and death.
As we gather for worship today, it is after the great celebration of Easter. What Easter means for us is something we continue to discover. That is why the church observes this time between Easter Sunday and Pentecost. It is our time to discover what Jesus' resurrection means to us and to the church.
This is the message. Our response to the resurrected Christ, is often like that of His closest followers. It is fear. Why? Because we fear the new life and demanding discipleship that He brings us in His resurrection. Yet, the good news is that He comes to us, He breaks down our locked doors and shows Himself to us, empowers us and sends us forth.(1)
Many believe that the house where this scene is depicted is the upper room of the same house where the disciples shared the Passover and the institution of the Lord's Supper with Jesus. It seems clear however that the evangelist wants us to see these two visits of Jesus to His disciples in the upper room as occasions of peace -- peace in the midst of turmoil, in the midst of fear, and peace in the midst of doubt.
False ideas about peace and joy abound in our society. These false ideas can distort our entire picture of what life is supposed to be about, of who Christ is and of who we are.
A woman by the name of Lucy Bregman relates the story of how she once went to a worship service where the entire congregation was told "If you don't have a smile on your face, you've got the wrong religion, you and shouldn't be here. Christianity is a religion of joy."
She fled that service in tears because she did not feel at that time like she could smile. She was having difficulties and was looking for comfort. Instead, she was told that she was not good enough for God because she was not smiling.
God never asks us to fake our experience. Our risen Lord never waits until we are already happy in order to come to us, and He never wears a pasted on smile.
Think of this for a moment, Christ could have made His wounds disappear after He was raised from the tomb, but chose not to. He bore the marks of His wounds into the presence of His disciples. In the same way Christ does not ask us to banish our wounds when we come into His presence, not even at Easter when we are supposed to be full of joy.
The risen Christ came to His disciples in the midst of their turmoil and fear. It was the evening of that first day. Mary Magdalene had seen the risen Christ in the garden by the tomb, and she went to tell the others that "He is risen!" But they gathered that night behind locked doors and they were afraid. Now, Jesus came to them in the midst of their doubt and their sense of having failed both Him and their own selves and said to them: "Peace be with you."(2) He repeated this phrase three times to them in this text, "Peace be with you."
William Willimon points out that it is no small matter that those who have closed the door and locked the locks are Jesus' own disciples. This is not a story about all the ways the world locks its doors against the claims of the Christian faith. This is a story about the way that those of us who are Christians lock our doors. We lock our doors and our openness to the needs of people around us out of fear of the world and what it might do to us. In trying to be safe we discover the irony is that the disciples have locked their doors to Jesus, and what He might do to us. The irony of the Gospel today is that the soldiers of Caesar were not trying to get to the disciples. Their friends and family were not attempting to get the disciples in order to mock them. Jesus was trying to get to the disciples in order to bless them! To give them peace! To forgive them and empower them!
Our securely locked doors are not a problem for Jesus. That is the good news of Easter. Just as death could not hold Him in the tomb, so our various locks cannot keep Him from getting to us.
He gets through the locked doors. He shows His wounds and scars from the cross to them. He says to those who may be fearful of the possibility of His retribution against them, "peace be with you." The risen Christ will not be locked by death in the tomb, nor will He be locked away from His people, the church.
I expect that all of our attempts to lock Jesus out and to secure ourselves against His incursions are unintended. We didn't know that we were locking Him out when we stayed away from church, when we avoided participating in Bible study, when we found other things to do rather than pray. But we were.
We didn't know that we were locking Him out when we kept our faith safely tucked away within ourselves, when our religion became something that we practice only in the safe confines behind the closed doors of the church, rather than out in the world where we work and spend so much of our lives. But we did.(3)
The peace that Jesus offers can be described as the confidence His followers are able to take from His resurrected appearance. His return on that first day of the week signaled the fact that His life and promises will endure. His "peace be with you" was more than a greeting to be followed by another good-bye. It was the declaration of a persistent fact. Because Jesus lives nothing can separate His followers from Him and from life in Him.
The disciples realized this fact and in realizing it received the peace that Jesus offered, the peace that only Jesus could offer, for without Him they would have been left to continue alone in the darkness and fear of their locked room.
The confidence that the disciples received when Jesus came and said to them "peace be with you" is demonstrated in the response of the disciples to His appearance. Peace showed itself in their rejoicing and in Thomas' confession of faith, "My Lord, and my God."
And peace showed itself, confidence showed itself, inner security showed itself, later, when the disciples left that room and went into the world to proclaim the love and forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ, the risen Lord.
But, notice that none of the external circumstances of the disciples changed when they received and accepted the peace that Christ offered them!
They believed in Him. They had confidence in Him. They knew that nothing could separate them from God's love after He appeared to them, but they still had to face the same situation they faced before He broke into the room they had locked because of their fear. They still had to face authorities. They still had to risk going out on the streets, they still had deal with the crowds who had mocked and crucified Jesus. They still had to face trials and tribulations, and so do we.
My sermon ends with a promise. Here is the good news. Just as the risen Christ was not stumped by the locked doors behind which the disciples cowered, I promise you that the risen Christ will not be deterred by any locks that you have put on your doors. When the resurrected Christ makes His power, His vision, and His faithfulness live in us, no longer will there be locked doors and fearful hearts! Our God is wonderfully resourceful, imaginative, persistent, and determined to have us. Even in our lostness, even in our betrayal, the first thing He does at Easter is to come out to get us.
I believe even now, even in this sermon, in this service, here at this church, as you go forth in your daily life, He is coming out to get you. There is no sure defense against Jesus. There is no way to secure yourself against His intrusions. He is coming.
Jesus Christ is risen! Alleluia! Jesus Christ is coming for you and to you, to overcome your fear and to give you His peace. Hallelujah! Amen.
Century Christian Church, April 15, 2007 - Sermon by Jim Westmoreland
www.centurychristian.org
1. William H. Willimon, "Lockout," Pulpit Digest, Vol. 35, No. 2, April - June, 2007, p. 17.
2. Rev. Richard J. Fairchild, Spirit Networks, 1999 - 2006
3. Willimon, p. 19.