John 20:19-31 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
The Second Sunday of Easter Sunday, April 11, 2021 “Connected to Peace”
I know that I can’t speak for everyone, but I can speak for myself and share that there have been a few times over the past year when I have felt disconnected. I even remember commenting to others about it at the time. Our church family had not gotten smaller, and yet I had seen many people less frequently. From time to time there were phone calls and emails, but I wasn’t running into people at church during activities the way that we quite frequently used to. I wasn’t milling around with as many people after a church service just catching up about what was going on in their lives and in mine. And on a few occasions, I was compelled to be extra cautious about avoiding potential contact, so I didn’t really see anyone in-person except for my immediate family. For someone whose ministry and work involves dealing with people, it was a pretty significant change, and as I said, at times it left me feeling very disconnected. Maybe you haven’t felt the same way, but I suspect that many of you have. Yes, we have options to call people on the phone and to chat over video screens and to worship through live-streaming, but none of those options quite equal the connections that we can make when we see each other face-to-face. I’m not meaning to complain or to suggest that our approach has been inappropriate, and I am also not intending to scold anyone or make them feel worse about the decisions they are making or how they are feeling. I am pointing out that God has made us for connections. He has connected us to parents and spouses and families and friends and communities, and he blesses us in many ways through these connections. But there is one connection that clearly towers over all these others as far as its value and importance. That is our connection to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is the connection we will be focusing on primarily this Easter season as we listen to his words and consider his interactions with his disciples. Today we are considering how Jesus interacted with his disciples on the evening of the very first Easter Sunday as well as the evening one week later. We, like those disciples, are connected to peace. The disciples did not have peace at the start of our Gospel, our sermon text from John chapter 20. Their teacher, their rabbi of 3 years, had just died days earlier. Their entire worlds had been shattered. They hadn’t gotten the message when Jesus told them repeatedly that he was going to die and rise again. Instead, they were fixated on the fact that the Jewish leaders had put Jesus to death, and they were worried that the Jewish leaders might do the same thing to them. So they hid. They locked themselves in a room. They disconnected. And they had no peace. What they had was fear, uncertainty, sadness, pain, loss. All their hopes had been pinned to Jesus, and now he was dead. And the scary thing was that they could be next. But then peace came, because Jesus came. It was more than a greeting when Jesus said, “Peace be with you!” He brought peace. He gave it to the disciples. He showed them that he was alive. He had nail marks in his hands and a spear piercing in his side. He is the same one who had been dead, but now he is alive. And the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Re-connecting with Jesus meant connecting to peace. If Jesus was alive, then everything he had told them was true. If Jesus was alive, then their sins were forgiven. They had peace with God, and they had certainty, not about every aspect of their earthly lives, but about everything that really and truly mattered. And not only had Jesus proven it to his disciples by appearing to them and speaking with them, he proved it again for the disciple who had not been there. When Thomas doubted, Jesus returned and let Thomas feel his hands and side, to actually and physically grasp his living Lord. And today as we gather, Jesus connects with us. He connects us to peace. He allows us to consider what it would mean if he had not risen from the dead, but he reassures us that he is our living Lord. Go ahead and think about life without the peace that Jesus brings. Think about the fear of death that makes perfect sense if this life is all there is. Think about the terror of what lies on the other side of death if our consciences are right and we have sinned against our Creator. Think about the uncertainty of not knowing whether there is a plan or purpose or meaning to my life. And think about all the time and money and effort that we have wasted if