Gospel reading for today:
John 20: 19 – 31 Alleluia! Christ is RisenHe
is Risen indeed, Alleluia!
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples
were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came
and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with
you!’
After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The
disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. John 20: 19 - 20
Closed doors are becoming all
too familiar during this Coronavirus pandemic, aren’t they?
-
the doors of our
homes closed to friends and even any family we don’t live with.
-
the doors of
shops and businesses and cafes and restaurants all closed, while behind the
doors many owners are slowly going out of business.
-
the doors of our
care homes, closed to the relatives of our elderly and vulnerable loved ones.
-
the doors of our
hospital intensive care wards, closed even when the closest person to us is
dying.
It may feel as if life itself
has closed its door on us.
The account tells us that the
disciples had locked the door because of fear. We can probably identify with
that sense of fear. We are quite rightly afraid of getting Covid-19 and of
those we love getting it too, especially if they are in the vulnerable group.
There are many places in the
Bible where God says: ‘don’t be afraid’. But the Lord is not telling us off for
having fears. Fear is a very natural human emotion, which can be a great asset.
No, he’s saying ‘I know you are afraid. Take my hand; I’ll be with you through
it all’.
It’s like when a parent
teaches their child to be afraid of running into the road. That’s a proper
fear. So what do you do? You stand beside your child at the edge of the
pavement and take their hand in yours and say, ‘OK now, don’t be afraid, we’re
walking across together’.
There are so many fears that
we all struggle with at some time in our lives and some of these fears can be
crippling: fear of the future, fear of responsibility, fear of love and
relationships, fear of bad news, fear of losing someone we care about, fear of
growing old and dependant – but probably the biggest is our fear of death and
dying.
There’s a verse in the letter
to the Hebrews which talks about Jesus coming to destroy the power of death and
“free all those who all their
lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.” (Ch 3: 14 – 15) Maybe the
subject of death is becoming less of a taboo at the moment, giving us more of
an opportunity than we’ve ever had before to face our fears and talk about it,
pray about it.
On that first Sunday evening
the resurrected Jesus, the one who had walked through death and come out the
other side, said “Peace be with you”. And the disciples were overjoyed when
they saw him.
We can lock the door against
our fears and never really face them. But the Risen, living Jesus wants to come
through that locked door. He wants us to hear him say: ‘Peace be with you’. And
he will come, with all the love and compassion that took him to the Cross, and
say: ‘Peace be with you; take my hand and we will walk through this fear
together”.
