“Peace be with you!” I can imagine that when Jesus first appeared to the disciples and said “Peace be with you…” that the disciples might have said, “Is that all you got???” Peace be with you??? What kind of greeting is that after all that has happened? At least that’s what I would have said.
And yet… in its own way, it is the most perfect greeting. Jesus has literally been to hell and back since he has seen these guys… sometimes, I imagine him having a little fun at their expense when he just shows up like this. He certainly has earned the right to have a little fun….
But, his greeting is one that is filled with love and meaning. Jesus knows that the disciples have been afraid… and given what they watched happen to him, they have some good reasons to be afraid… except that now, in this minute of hearing Jesus wish them peace, there is nothing to be afraid of now. Everything they thought was true the day of his crucifixion, has been turned on its head. I would imagine it might actually be hard to know exactly what the truth is… But they were afraid, their doors were locked because of their fear… then Jesus shows up and greets them in such a way as to help them to overcome their fears…
Peace be with you… it seems like a fairly simple greeting, one that we probably take for granted… when we look at the gospel story from this morning, we see that while it may be simple it is packed with meaning…
Peace, at least as I see Jesus using it, is not a greeting that means everything is going to necessarily be OK, whatever that means. Peace doesn’t mean that we have nothing to worry about. Peace isn’t some magical spell that takes away the bad stuff and makes everything into butterflies and rainbows… There are lots of days when I desperately wish that were so, but if it were so, then we as people would lose our freedom to choose, wouldn’t we? Our freedom to choose good or evil, odd as it seems, is a gift of love from a creator who loves us enough to let us mess it up.
Peace is also a gift. In its own way, it is a gift of empowerment. When Jesus offers us his peace, he is offering us the strength to do the kingdom work we have been given to do. Here in this meeting with Thomas and the others, we know that they are afraid; they are so afraid that they have locked the doors, and I imagine that maybe they haven’t left the room all that often. I would like to think Thomas missed the first appearance of Jesus because he might have been out getting food and other supplies while everyone else stayed hidden. Let’s remember the other half of the greeting that Jesus gives them… “As the father has sent me, so I send you.” That part doesn’t sound so great at first, does it? The disciples just witnessed Jesus being tortured as a criminal of the state…. Who on earth would sign up for that duty?
Well, they did… and so did we. As the Father has sent Jesus into the world, so Jesus sent those first disciples, and has been sending disciples ever since, and that means you and me too. That same Spirit of Jesus that he breathed on to them that day is the same Spirit that inspires and moves us to be Jesus’ hands and feet in the world. He gives us his peace, that peace that certainly passes all understanding… peace that says that Jesus is with us no matter where we find ourselves; peace that asks us to unlock the doors of our rooms and our hearts to let others in even when we are afraid, because we too have been sent as Jesus was sent. Jesus knew the work he did was potentially dangerous; and yet he healed, he renewed relationships, he raised Lazarus from the dead, all because he was sent by God to bring a message of love and peace to a world that had become way too concerned about its fears. Sound familiar?
Jesus’ gift of peace is perhaps then a misnomer of sorts. Perhaps it makes more sense to us if we say it is instead a gift of strength and knowledge. One of the gifts that Thomas and the others received that day was the knowledge that even in the face of incredible evil, God is still God, and no matter what, love wins… The message of Easter for us is in part to unlock those doors, and to go forward despite our fears, knowing that God is with us, that Jesus will never leave us, that we have been strengthened by the very Spirit of God to be sent out as Jesus was to do the work that Jesus has started…
What doors are we locking to try and keep ourselves safe? Where might we be being sent? How might Jesus’ message of peace help us to be his disciples in the world today?