How Do We Know that Resurrection is Real?

by the Rev. Dr. Paul S. Nancarrow

This sermon is based on John 20:19-31. An audio version of this sermon is available here.

How do we know that Resurrection is real? How can we be sure that the promise of new life written in scripture and embodied in Jesus is true and trustworthy, that it really exists, that it makes a real difference in our real world and our real lives? How do we know?

That is the question that dominates our Gospel reading today, this very-familiar story of Thomas the Apostle. When Thomas hears from the other disciples that they have seen the Lord, Thomas wants proof. He wants to see the Risen Jesus with his own eyes. He wants to make sure that, in his own mind and on his own terms, he can know that Resurrection is real. And in the Gospel reading, Thomas gets his proof, Thomas does experience the risen Jesus for himself, and is convinced that Resurrection is a reality. But if we look very closely at this story, I think the proof that Thomas receives, the knowledge that Thomas comes to, isn’t quite the knowledge we may think it is at first.

Here's how the story unfolds: It’s the evening of Easter Day. That morning, Mary Magdalene had found the tomb empty; and Peter and John had run to the tomb and found the linen burial cloths folded up and tucked away, as if by someone who didn’t need them anymore; and Mary said that she had seen Jesus and spoken to him, even though she had not recognized him until he’d called her by name, until there was a personal connection between them, but that he had told her not to touch him, not to cling to him, but to go and tell the others he was raised. And that had been all.

And now there they were, at the end of the day, not sure what was going on, hopeful, but confused, expectant, but still afraid enough to lock the door — there they were, stuck in a holding pattern between the fear of death and the hint of life — and suddenly Jesus was there among them, in the middle of their fear and confusion and hope and expectation, Jesus was among them. And he said to them “Peace be with you” — shalom, wholeness, well-being, harmony, life be with you — and the disciples knew it was Jesus and knew he was alive not just because of what he said, but because they could feel in themselves the truth of the Peace he spoke to them. It was because their own hearts and souls and spirits and minds responded with energy and courage and liveliness and joy and love when Jesus spoke Peace to them — it was because of what happened inside of them that they could tell the Jesus they saw in front of them was living and real and true. At the Last Supper, Jesus had said "My peace I give to you, my own peace I leave with you"; and now here he was speaking Peace to them, and they could recognize in their hearts the reality of the Source of that Peace. Jesus breathed on them and said "Receive the Holy Spirit," and they could feel their own spirits rising with new vitality and life. Jesus said “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them,” and they could feel in their own relationships a liberation from guilt and shame and hurt that gave each of them a new lease on life. They saw Jesus alive with them, and they knew the new life in Jesus was real because they could feel it in themselves.

And even Thomas, Thomas who had wanted visible, tangible, verifiable, objective proof, Thomas who wanted to see the wounds and touch the scars and know that it objectively was Jesus before he would believe.... When it came down to it, when Jesus again stood among them when the doors were closed, when Jesus said again “Peace be with you,” when Jesus invited Thomas specifically to see and touch and believe — when it came down to it, it was Thomas’s own inner response, it was Thomas’s own cry of the heart, “My Lord and my God!”, not so much the physical evidence before him as the responsive evidence within him, that let Thomas know that it was true and Resurrection was real. Even for Thomas, he knew Resurrection was real because he could feel it in himself.

And of course the good news for us is that that is how we know the Resurrection is real, too. It's not because we have incontrovertible historical evidence; it's not because we have a plausible biological or medical explanation for how Jesus' body could come back to life even after it was killed; it's not because we have a knock-down, fool-proof argument that can convince even the New Atheists that believers have been right all along. We know the Resurrection is real because we can experience the effects of new life in ourselves, because in our relationships and in our community and in our actions and in our aspirations we feel the power of a life that is greater than our own, a life that lifts us up and makes us more than we would be by ourselves, a life that was revealed in Jesus and that echoes and resonates and lives in us when we turn to Jesus.

We know that Resurrection is real because we experience it in Baptism. When we reaffirm our baptismal covenant, when we welcome someone new into that covenant, as we will welcome Tallis Daniel Reichert today — when we promise to continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, and to persevere in resisting evil, and to proclaim Good News by word and example, and to seek and serve Christ in all persons, and to strive for justice and peace among all people — when we promise these things we know they are bigger than we are, we know we can only do them “with God’s help.” And then, when we go forth into the world and do them, we know that God is with us, we know that the life of Christ is alive and living in us, we know that Resurrection is real because we can feel the power of new life empowering us to live as we could not live all on our own. We know that Resurrection is real because we feel it at work in Baptism.

We know that Resurrection is real because we experience it in Eucharist. When we pass the Peace as part of our liturgy, we have the opportunity to take on our own lips, to repeat in our own voices, the very same words the Risen Jesus said — Peace be with you — and when we say those words to each other, and reach out to each other, transcending all the differences of politics and opinion and class and race and gender and how we’ve been hurt and how we’ve hurt others — when we connect in that Peace we feel the Peace that comes to us from beyond ourselves, and we know the Giver of that Peace is alive and real and lives in us. When we set the bread and wine upon the altar, and offer ourselves, our souls and bodies, and pray that the Holy Spirit may descend upon us and upon these gifts, we can feel a communion that comes to us from beyond ourselves, and because we can feel it we know the Giver of that communion is alive and real and lives in us. We know that Resurrection is real because we feel it at work in Eucharist.

Our Gospel this morning sets before us the question: How do we know that Resurrection is real? And our worship this morning gives us the answer: We know that Resurrection is real because we feel it in ourselves, our response to the Risen Christ raising us up to new vitality and courage and hope and joy and love in communion with Christ. That is the Good News for us today — and may knowing that Good News sustain us every day. Amen.