Easter: No Fear

Divinity Library

Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries

Copyright © 2024 Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries, Vanderbilt University

John 20:24-29

Dan Crabtree wrote, “Its too dangerous, fully grown male African lions can weigh up to 500 pounds, can run up to 50 miles per hour, and can eat a small adult human in one sitting. And they're all over, they are on my street, they are in the mall, they are in my workplace, the church is lousy with lions, its probably better just to stay in and watch lion news coverage away from lions. No where is safe from the lions, there are lions lurking right outside my door, there are lions everywhere.”

Proverbs 22:13 imagines a person living afraid that says, “there is a lion outside! I shall be eaten in the streets!” and is so afraid to go out. the disciples locked in a room where they were paralyzed by fear. They allowed their fears to dictate their reality. They were living in fear, and they were living by fear. This kept them locked in their rooms afraid to go out. 

Fear is designed to keep us alive. When we sense danger, our brain triggers a response. It is not altogether wrong. Fear can be healthy. Fear can also be a sort of teacher, letting us know where our boundaries are, or that warning that allows us to be more wise in the world in our actions. To be completely fearless can actually be a very dangerous thing. Yet fear can sometimes hijack us, making us imagine the worse case scenario, or creating a tunnel vision. There is the fear of missing out, which has been motivating people as a marketing tool. There even is a new application that allows people to buy and sell, it a timed auction, leaving people to feel that if they don't make the purchase they will miss out, out of fear. 

Under intense fear, we may make bad decisions. We may avoid discomfort, which means we avoid taking up life's challenges or relationships. As Christians, fear can keep and hold us back from sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, from speaking up for the oppressed, from living out the truth in a hostile world. The disciples were in fear at Easter. But it was the fear that caused them to lock themselves away. The disciple had reason to fear. They had just seen Jesus, imprisoned, tortured, crucified and killed. They were known followers on Jesus and could be on the hit list next. Even this legitimate fear is not the way we as Christians are called to live our Christian lives. Jesus appears to his disciples and gives them his peace, which is the peace we are suppose to live into each and every day. I have given you a new way to live, not in fear.

Well, poor Thomas, he missed this meeting. I tell people not to miss church because see what happens when you miss church, you miss important things. Thomas missed Jesus coming into their midst, breathing on them the Holy Spirit and giving them his peace. Now when Thomas heard about what happened, he just couldn't believe it. Fear and Doubt. Thomas was responding to the witness of the other disciples, what the other disciples had seen, Thomas says, “refuses to believe that Jesus is risen unless he sees with his own eyes, he demands absolute personal verification by sight, direct access by touching and seeing. “Unless I see in his hands the prints of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails and place my hand in his side, I will not believe (20:25).” 

Now here I relate to Thomas. I don't believe, that this passage means that we accept things blindly, that we check our brains at the door and never question authority or opinions and interpretations. We been living for some time in a society that is beginning to lose our ability to understand the sciences. We are becoming allergic to the truth by verifiable evidence, testing and experimentation, logic and reasoned conclusions. We live in almost a hyper individualistic subjectivism where people think that if they believe something it is true simply because they believe it. As a character said on the Seinfeld episode, “remember if you believe the lie, than its not a lie”. 

No, science is a legitimate way to determine truth about the universe through verifiable facts and experimentation and measurements. The earth is billions of years old and it is roundish. (generally that statement is true). Note that Jesus doesn't ignore Thomas' request. He invites him to verify by placing his finger in the nail prints. There are other eyewitnesses also. We will see next week that Jesus continues to allow the disciples to experience his presence by eating a meal with them.

But this is the point. Truth can help us overcome fear. Truth can be the light switch that comes on and illuminates our path. This is true from a practical standpoint, that is if we think there is a monster under the bed, turning on the light can reveal the truth that it isn't there. Or truth can reveal the obstacles in the room so we don't injure ourselves. Truth is a kind of panacea for fear. Where fear says something is wrong, truth says, yes and here is something you can do about it. 

The disciples were locked in fear, they lived in a world where the possibilities were dim, but Jesus came and showed the truth of his resurrection, that he had been vindicated by God, that death and sin and evil were conquered and that death wasn't the last word. Rome had lost. The military industrial complex of the Roman empire that sought to keep people in prison and in fear, had lost its power. The disciples hadn't been living like Jesus. They had let fear turn their lives into something else. Jesus never lived in fear. Jesus was fearless in his love of others, in proclaiming the good news to the poor, to the prisoner, to the downtrodden, to the oppressed, to the Samaritans, to the gentiles, to the Jewish people of his day. 

Dennis, from Katy, Texas, needed some same day dry cleaning before she left on a trip.
He remembered a store with a huge sign, “One-Hour Dry Cleaners,” on the other side of town, so she drove there to drop off a suit. After filling out the tag, she told the clerk, “I need this in an hour.”
She said, “I can’t get this back to you until Thursday.”
“I thought you did dry cleaning in an hour.”
“No,” she replied, “that’s just the name of the store.”

Likewise, we who say we are Christians but fail to act on our beliefs, like the one whose name we bear create confusion and disillusionment, look at us funny. Are you Christians or not? I can't tell. Its hard sometimes for me to live my beliefs because fear keep us in locked rooms. Let the truth of Easter transform you this year, not to live in fear but in the Spirit of Christ, in the spirit of resurrection. 

Let us not let fear define us. This Easter, we need to allow the truth of Easter transform us into the followers of Jesus. 

God whose presence is an absence,
never like an object “there”
speak to me in sounds of silence,
in the voiceless void of prayer.

God whose truth beyond all showing
not like one and one are two,
teach us truth's not known by knowing
truth is something that we do

God whose being is an ocean
sea of love yet unexplored
keep my flailing faith in motion
as I paddle by the shore

God who keeps a proper distance,
God who runs ahead at pace,
leave us signs of your existence,
footprints we may track and trace

When in heaven we behold you,
with the angels face to face,
we will see that all we've been 
through was a trailer of your grace.