Today in the Spirit: Easter 2B
The seven Sundays after Easter Day (including Pentecost Sunday) is the space the church uses to walk the believing community through Jesus’ resurrection appearances as revealed in the NT or his important teaching delivered before his death about living life by his resurrection power. The bulk of this material is found in Luke and John, so the focal point of the Easter lectionary over all three years is on the latter chapters of these two Gospels. In Easter 2 every year, the Gospel reading is John 20:19-31, which relates the first post-resurrection meeting of Jesus with his disciples, followed by the second seven days later, including the well-known dialogue with Thomas.
The assigned OT reading in Year B is Isaiah 26:1-9,19. Here, we have a word of praise spoken by the prophet on behalf of the people of Israel in anticipation of the establishment of a new strong city. This is not the New Jerusalem of Revelation but the renewed Jerusalem, the church, whose gates will be open to a larger believing community under the strength of YHWH. A final verse later in the chapter added to the reading reports is a word from the mouth of the LORD concerning the resurrection of bodies in that community: Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! (19). The appointed Psalm 111 is a song of praise with wording provoking the church to consider the resurrection of Christ among the greatest of God’s works: Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and merciful (3–4).
Sponsored
Throughout Easter in Year B, the NT readings are from John the Evangelist’s first letter. Interestingly, we begin near the end with that assigned reading from 1 John 5:1-5. In the Easter season, references to our faith in Jesus Christ as one born of God and as the Son of God place in our minds his resurrection as evidence that he deserves these designations. The Acts selection for this Sunday, Acts 3:12a,13-15,17-26, which is an alternative for the OT reading, gives us the bulk of Peter’s second sermon addressed to those who witnessed the healing of the crippled man at the gate Beautiful (3:1–10). Peter places responsibility for the death of Jesus on his listeners and calls on them to repent of their sins in order to receive times of refreshing from the Lord, meaning the Holy Spirit that had been recently revealed at Pentecost.
In the Easter 2 collect, the term “Paschal mystery” refers to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which has “established,” at the coming of the Holy Spirit, “the new covenant of reconciliation” (recalling the language of the Jeremiah 31 reading on Lent 5B). It is important to see how the church links Christ’s resurrection with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to be celebrated on the final day of the Easter season, Pentecost Sunday.
The Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Awake and Sing for Joy! (Isaiah 26:1-9,19)
7 “The path of the righteous is level;
you make level the way of the righteous.
8 In the path of your judgments,
O Lord, we wait for you;
your name and remembrance
are the desire of our soul.
9 My soul yearns for you in the night;
my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
For when your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness” (7-9).
19 “Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.
You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a dew of light,
and the earth will give birth to the dead.” (19)
We heard a section of Is. 25 for our OT reading last week on Easter Day B. On Easter 2B, we continue into Isaiah 26 with another praise song that anticipates YHWH’s coming work for his people. Leaving out vv.10-18 as the lectionary instructs us to do creates a night and morning contrast in the final two verses of what we hear: My soul yearns for you in the night (9), followed by, You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! (19). This last verse gives us the voice of God himself (or maybe the prophet) calling for the dead to rise (a rarity in the OT).
In the Easter season, the church would have us immerse ourselves in the imagery that Christ’s resurrection is a passage from night into morning. A new day! A new way! The resurrected, glorified body of Jesus Christ is a vision of a new spiritual life that will naturally end by joining a renewed spirit with a new body at the fulfillment of all things. So, Paul, inspired in part by this same verse from Isaiah, speaks wakefulness into the hearts of the Ephesian Christians: “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (5:14).
We are not the unbelieving dwarves at the end of the Narnia Chronicles who stubbornly believe they are in a dirty stable when, in fact, they have passed into true Narnia. Our faith is light to see and rise. Today, in the Spirit, I receive the exhortation of the Scriptures to hear the wake-up call of Christ’s resurrection and open my eyes to see the morning light.
Repent, Therefore, and Turn Back (Acts 3:12a,13-15,17-26)
17 “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago (17–21).
Whether it is because this time he is addressing a different audience (mostly Jews from Jerusalem) or because he is speaking to many of the same people and wants to set a different tone, Peter’s second sermon in Jerusalem is far more confrontational than his first. The overarching argument of the first (Acts 2:14-39) is basically that the God of Israel has wonderfully raised Jesus Christ, so repent and be baptized (2:38), while that of the second (our reading) is more that your sin is responsible for killing the prophet whom God has raised up, so repent and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out (19).
Devotionally, we need to hear both types of messages: those that commend the new life in Jesus Christ by exalting him and those that do so by revealing our traitorous behavior leading to his death on the cross. Last year, we were assigned the highlights from Peter’s first sermon for Easter 2, and our mind was filled with the wonder of the resurrection; this year, we hear how we were complicit in causing the Father to sacrifice his Son. Are you willing to be in a church community that gives you a full diet of messages from the word of God, those that bring you down and lift you up, to increase your faith?
Today, Holy Spirit, lift me out of any complacency I may have regarding my sin and its consequences for continuing to bring down the Son of God. Even in this season of joy at Easter, bring me to repent and turn back, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord (20).
Studied by All Who Delight in Them (Psalm 111)
1 Praise the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,
in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
2 Great are the works of the Lord,
studied by all who delight in them.
3 Full of splendor and majesty is his work,
and his righteousness endures forever.
4 He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered;
the Lord is gracious and merciful.
5 He provides food for those who fear him;
he remembers his covenant forever.
6 He has shown his people the power of his works,
in giving them the inheritance of the nations. (1–6)
This is not really a psalm for personal devotion. The phrases in the company of the upright, in the congregation (1), and he has shown his people the power of his works (6) indicate that this is a congregational song. It is sung in an assembly, with the echo of many voices, not just our own, coming off the walls into our ears and settling in our hearts. You can hardly read these words in isolation and find much meaning.
In Easter, we say or sing this psalm and place the resurrection of Jesus as a great work of the one true LORD in fellowship, not in complete isolation. The remembrance of the empty tomb causes us to ponder, with the psalmist, the power of [all] his works. We look at the miracle of a man defying death and taking on a new, imperishable body as confirmation of every work of God, before and after, his presence and power abiding with us. We ponder the resurrection of Jesus and can easily say, “Yes, I know God is working valiantly in me—in all of us—in this way with me and that way with you and in another way with the one over there.”
Today, Holy Spirit, in the sound of your words echoing in the assembly hall of my church community, I join with all the people in acknowledging your great works—that of the empty tomb and all those after.
Our faith (1 John 5:1-5)
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
At first, that final question, Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?, appears to be rhetorical. Of course, based on everything the apostle John has written beforehand, it is self-evident: only the believer in Jesus Christ overcomes the world (remembering that for John, the world means not the earth, but the dominion of sin and Satan, which holds all people captive). But to whom is John writing this letter? Not, it seems, to firm believers, but to those who claim to have no sin (1:10), to those who love the world or anything in the world over God (2:15), and to those who are easily led astray (3:7).
In other words, he is writing to you and me. For us, that final question is not rhetorical and self-evident. We do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God as we should, and so we are still vulnerable to the power of the world. Our faith, which John claims in this text to be our victory over sin and Satan, is there, but it is still weak. We need the grace of God to steer us right when we walk in the wrong direction according to the faith and to hold us up when we are bowed under the weight of the powers of the world. So, reading on in 1 John 5, we find there is a God-given help in the form of the Holy Spirit, who is what he calls the testimony of the Son of God in our hearts: And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself (5:6–10).
Thanks be to God that we are not reliant on ourselves to maintain our faith and overcome the world. Today, we hold tightly to the hand of the Holy Spirit, who leads us with our little faith into victory after victory in the world.
Put Your Finger Here (John 20:19-31)
24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (24–29)
It could be jealousy doubt, or both driving Thomas to vow that he must touch Jesus’ wounded hands and side. He feels slighted by Jesus. Notice how, in the next meeting, Jesus demands that Thomas do precisely according to the words of his oath. Why does our Lord handle the situation that way? Is it to dress down Thomas’ pettiness? Is it to meet Thomas where he is with a special invitation to draw close?
When we, like Thomas, are closed off to God’s presence in our lives, we feel the need for special treatment. When we are most troubled in spirit, we need to engage the senses with the feel, smell, and sight of his wounded flesh so that we can learn to delight again. Jesus knows this—it’s why we have the sacraments to take us beyond just reading words in a book.
But how else can we be made to touch the wounds of Jesus two thousand years later? Is it not by “touching” our own damaged flesh? Is it not by putting our hands in and feeling the wounds we have inflicted on ourselves through sin and the scars others have inflicted on us? We cannot touch Jesus’ physical abrasions, but we can and must make contact with the wounds we have endured, especially those that have come on us in service to our Lord. That, along with the Holy Communion, is how we “touch” his wounds. All too often—to our great loss spiritually—we avoid, brush off, and bury our own hurts, depriving ourselves of the joy our Lord can give us in exchange for them. We honestly do not know from the text if Thomas ever reached out and touched Jesus’ flesh. We hear only his great confession: My Lord and my God!
Today, in the Spirit, we resolve to obey Jesus’ demand that we touch the Savior’s wounds marked on our own flesh, to admit that they are there, even that we feel slighted for having them, and to pray for healing in the company of others; that, with Thomas, we might find fullness of joy by his resurrection power being extended to us.
Today in the Spirit
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