We Have Seen the Lord
April 27, 2003
John 20:19-31
2nd Sunday of
Easter
Galena-Warwick United Methodist Charge
Warwick & Galena, Maryland
Rev. Dr. Lawrence D. Jameson
larry@larryjameson.com
back to our church home page
Mary said,
“I have seen the Lord.”
Later on, the disciples said,
“We have seen the Lord!”
It was early evening, Easter Sunday.
Almost all of the 12 disciples had come together.
Judas Iscariot wasn’t there because he had taken his own life
a couple of days before.
Thomas wasn’t there. We don’t know why.
Maybe he just wanted to be alone.
That left ten:
Peter, Andrew, James, John,
Matthew, Philip, Bartholomew,
James the less, Judas the greater,
Simon the zealot.
They were in the upper room,
the place where, just three days before,
Jesus had hosted a Passover meal
which we now call the last supper.
The doors were locked
for good reason.
Jesus had been killed by the Jewish authorities.
The disciples were right to be concerned
for their own safety.
Suddenly, Jesus appeared,
and said, “Shalom alechem”, “peace be with you all.”
This was a common greeting for Jesus.
But today, it was uncommon.
Jesus had died. Now he was alive.
The Bible says that Jesus proved to the disciples
that it was him,
and not an imposter.
We have heard a lot about
body doubles in the news lately.
This was not a hoax. This was not a trick.
The Bible says, “Jesus showed them his hands and his side.
Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Notice they didn’t start rejoicing right away.
That makes sense.
It takes time to process information like that.
It took a while to prove to the disciples
that it was Jesus.
Q:
According to the Scripture
Jesus did not appear to anyone except his own disciples
during the 40 days of post-resurrection appearances.
Why?
A:
Let’s say that Jesus appeared to someone who was not
his disciple.
How would that person know it was really Jesus?
It had to be the disciples. They were the experts.
They knew:
his body language,
his voice,
his personality,
even how he smelled.
Only the disciples would be able to
accurately confirm that he was really alive.
That’s what the Scripture is talking about when it says,
“he showed them his hands and his side.
THEN the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.”
(John 20:20)
In verse 21 the Bible says
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
I love this verse. Let me tell you why.
It gives me tremendous confidence and comfort
when I find myself in an awkward place,
such as:
the hospital room of someone I never met before,
or
the living room of someone who has just
experienced a death in their family
and I never met that person before in my life.
People often say to me,
“How can you preach a funeral
for someone you never met?”
The answer is,
by my own power, I can’t.
But with Christ, all things are possible.
You see, when I go into a situation like that
I think about what Jesus said.
“Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
Just knowing that I am called by God
to listen and to care,
gives me tremendous peace, poise, and confidence.
This happens to me a lot.
I have a hunch
it happens to most of you every now and then.
A few weeks ago,
I was in a chaplain’s training meeting
at Union Hospital.
There was a woman there
who was talking about her anxiety and fear.
She didn’t like the possibility of being rejected.
She didn’t feel confident about visiting sick people.
She was really struggling.
The answer was simple.
Sure, there are skills involved in pastoral care.
She probably had a lot of those skills already.
What she lacked was
ownership of her appointment.
She needed to read John 20:21
“Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
We need lots more training in this church.
We need to offer classes to people
for all of the things we want them to do.
Sunday School teachers ought to get training every year.
Trustees ought to attend a seminar every year.
Greeters ought to get a class on greeting every year.
I mean that.
We all need continuing education.
All of our volunteer positions are important,
and we need to recognize volunteers
by giving them regular training.
The choir would benefit from taking a class on being a choir.
The Administrative Board members
would benefit from a class
on how to administrate the church.
A long time ago, I discovered this:
people who are trained
become confident and productive.
Christian education is important!
But here is something more important:
Jesus, resurrected for less than a day,
and the first words out of his mouth are:
“Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
I want you to notice something.
Both times in this verse, the word “you”
is plural.
Jesus was talking to the church, not to an individual disciple.
That’s exciting.
“We have seen the Lord.”
We are not in this ministry alone.
There isn’t any job in this church,
and there isn’t a Christian duty outside these walls
that doesn’t have a corporate dimension.
We have seen the Lord.
The Lord has commissioned “us”.
What we need in this church
is ownership of our appointment.
As a congregation,
we can say Lord we accept your special calling.
Lord you have breathed out on us,
and now by faith,
we breathe in.
If we were timid or hesitant before
that would be replaced
by confidence
vision and enthusiasm.
Let us pray.
Lord you already breathed on this church.
Let your poise, confidence, and clarity
transform us
from scattered individuals
into a group that will work with passion and conviction.
Let our testimony be:
we have seen the Lord. Amen.