This passage from John 20 is repeated year after year on the Sunday following the Easter Festival. Finally, after reading this for the 20th time, I have to admit something to myself and to you. I stumble over the first sentence of this reading every single time. I get annoyed by John’s description that the disciples locked themselves into a room for fear of what? “For fear of the Jews,” he writes. I find that quite interesting because, according to my old Sunday school knowledge, Jesus’ disciples were what? Yes, they were Jews, probably all of them, even the Galileans from sixty miles up north of Jerusalem. It is as if you and I said that we are all locking ourselves into a room for fear of… Americans. That would be a little but weird, wouldn’t it? I know there are people out there who want us to be afraid of certain parts of our own population, but fear is usually not a good counselor. It leads to separation and irrational decisions and generally doesn’t lead to good things, period.
Regarding this particular text, there are many Bible scholars who have stumbled over this sentence and others in the gospel of John, just as I did. Considering that the book was finalized late in the first century, they concluded that traces of anti-Jewish sentiment crept into the writing. Some even suggested that the anti-Semitism which took root in the Christian communities in Europe over a span of a thousand years, had perfect breeding conditions here in the gospel of John. Do they have a point? And what does that tell us about the yeast of fear and how we can avoid feeding into it?
First of all, I wish that Jesus would have been more vocal in addressing the disciples fears and the fatal vagueness and generality of it. I think it’s a good thing to address fears, to talk about them, even if they are silly – and trust me, sometimes fears are silly! The more specific we are, the less vague we are, the better. So, who were Peter, James, John, Mary and the other disciples really afraid of? All Jews? Very unlikely! They had some very good Jewish friends still. Some mob out there to come after Jesus’ followers and clean ship? That’s possible. The chief priests and others wanting to make sure that remnants of the Jesus movement were crushed? Maybe. But why then doesn’t John name the source of their fear more specifically?
While we are still wondering about the real source of their fear, we have to admit to ourselves that we too can’t always pinpoint what in the world we are afraid of. Fear can be like a ghost, an invisible force that you can’t grasp or hold accountable. And while we are still wondering, the text in John 20 reveals that another Jew, a very dangerous person by many accounts, had found the disciples and penetrated their hideout. Who is he? He greets them with the customary Jewish greeting of the time, “Shalom! Peace be with you!” Turns out, it is Jesus and he doesn’t seem to have any time or concern for fear. He gives them a command that is directly opposite of their own worst instincts: “Go out there! Take the world! As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And as far as I can tell there is no more talk of fear in the entire dialogue, only talk of a common mission, forgiveness, peace, the Holy Spirit.
Dear congregation, I don’t want to downplay the fears that people have in our time, some of them very legitimate. Last week when we celebrated Easter here in our church, news had already leaked of a terrible massacre in Pakistan, aimed at Christian worshippers on their high holiday. Dozens of people were massacred and more injured. The suicide bombs were triggered in a park often frequented by children, making the crime even more despicable. When we put ourselves into the skins of our Christian brothers and sisters in places like Pakistan or Syria, we may read this Easter story with a better understanding of their vulnerabilities. We can easily see worshippers in those countries locking themselves up for fear… of Muslims.
But is it all Muslims? Again, let us not make the same mistake that John made, maybe quite innocently, by saying “the Jews” or “the Muslims” or “Christians” in general. Let us be more specific, because vagueness feeds into fear and being specific brings more reason into conversation. Let us say that many Christians in Pakistan and in other Christian minority countries are afraid, understandably afraid of radical Islamists, of the disciples of Isis, of people who have allied themselves essentially with a death squad. And our hopes and prayers are with them and I hope that God raises some angels within the global community to protect them from this terrible menace. Peace be with them! All the peace of Christ be with them!
And in our own country? We have even more reason to be very specific in our concerns. When we look around our own neighborhoods, we are likely to find people of all heritages and religions and we know that most of them, almost all of them, are peaceful, law abiding people.
At the same time we are called to focus on the opposite of fear, to be vocal proponents of peace and liberty, yes, that’s part of the good American Christian heritage. We believe in a God who sets people free! It is very interesting that the first privilege Jesus gives this frightened group of disciples is which one? To forgive! This he says to a group of people who had been harmed, who had suffered, had seen their leader crucified and were afraid of their own lives. And the first privilege Jesus gives to them is: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Do you notice something? They are not treated as victims. They are given the authority to forgive. They are truly empowered here. It reminds me a little bit of our Lancaster County Amish community who was confronted with a horrible school house shooting and the killing of innocent hildren by a mentally ill man several years ago. And how did they react? As advertised, the Amish stuck to the gospel, mourned, buried their own, and extended compassion and forgiveness to the family of the shooter. I don’t think we heard anything about fear from that corner of Pennsylvania. May God give us the strength and courage to not get suckered in by fear, but to live in the spirit of Jesus, the spirit that breaks through walls and says: “Shalom! Peace be with you! We have a world to conquer! As the Father has sent me so I send you!”
AMEN.