This week’s lectionary texts: Acts 5:27-32, Psalm 18:14-29 or Psalm 150, Revelation 1:4-8, and John 20:19-31.
Easter Day has come and gone. We’ve gone to the church services, sung the happy hymns – perhaps the Hallelujah Chorus? – found the hidden eggs, eaten the chocolate bunnies. We’ve come through on the other side of Lent, experiencing anew the death and resurrection of Christ. We’ve heard the story of the stone rolled away, the empty tomb, the Jesus who once was dead and now is alive again.
But just because Easter Sunday is over doesn’t mean we have come to the end of the Easter season – not at all! Indeed, the Easter season lasts until Pentecost, May 23rd – we still have weeks of joyful celebration and remembrance ahead.
After the excitement of the “big day,” therefore, it can be helpful to spend some time reflecting on the character of the God we worship this Easter. This week’s lectionary texts help remind us of the glory and goodness of the God who creates and sustains us, the God who has dwelt among us and deeply loves us.
The psalmist in this week’s psalm – the final entry in the Book of Psalms – is so overcome with reverence and awe that all he can do is exhort his listeners to praise God. And not just praise God with their lips, but praise God with every instrument under the sun!
“Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty firmament!
Praise him for his mighty deeds,
praise him according to his surpassing greatness!
Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
Praise him with clashing cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!” (Psalm 150)
God has indeed performed mighty deeds – perhaps none so mighty as the one we remember this Easter, that of defeating death itself and returning to life, that we might also live abundantly and in service to others.
As John writes to the seven churches in Revelation, moreover, the God we worship is unfathomably immense. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” God says in Revelation – indeed, God is the one “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8). We can be comforted knowing that God has always been here and will always be here – we never have to worry about losing God’s love.
Yet it is not always easy to follow Jesus. Such a lifestyle can prove immensely unpopular. And deciding to become followers of Christ demands our whole selves – promising to honor God, to serve God’s people, and to recognize that, ultimately, we are not to do what society wants, but what God wants. As Peter and the apostles tell the council that has charged them with illegally teaching in the name of Jesus, Peter answers, “We must obey God rather than any human authority” (Acts 5:29). Peter knows that God has raised Jesus from the dead – “we are witnesses to these things,” he says, “and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him” (Acts 5:32). He cannot deny what he knows to be true: that God’s surpassing love has performed miracles, and that he can’t be silent when there are people who still need to hear that good news.
Nobody alive today was present at the crucifixion and resurrection – we are taking it, in essence, on faith. But even in John’s gospel we see that Jesus’ resurrection was not an easy story to swallow. The apostle Thomas, John tells us, “was not with [the other apostles] 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’” (John 20:24-25).
The next week, as it happens, Jesus again appears to the disciples, coming into their midst even through a locked door. After greeting his friends with an expression of peace, he comes to Thomas and says, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe” (John 20:27). Thomas seems overcome with emotion as he proclaims that Jesus is God, and Jesus replies, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (John 20:29).
This passage can be a difficult one for anyone who has ever struggled with doubt – and, I suspect, most Christians have dealt with doubt at one time or another. Jesus seems to be saying that Thomas should have believed what the disciples said in the first place, without needing physical proof. And there can certainly much to be said for having a simple faith in God, for believing without seeing, for taking a leap.
But at the same time, we must remember that Jesus does not ignore Thomas’s request for evidence. He comes straight to Thomas and offers him a sign – he does not punish Thomas for his uncertainty. Jesus wants Thomas to be able to trust in him, to believe that he is truly the risen God: but he also is willing to help Thomas make that leap of faith.
This Easter season, may we know that it is okay to not have all the answers, to want to have proof, to be unsure. And may we also know that perhaps the proof of the resurrection is all around us: in our loved ones, in the courage of those who stand up for peace and fight injustice, in the new life springing up all around us. And let us remember that this season is, above all, a season of joy – so let us take out our lutes and cymbals, our pianos and saxophones, our harmonicas and violins, and praise the risen Lord!
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