"Of breath and peace"
By Rev. Dr. Jack R. Miller
John 20: 19-29 | "When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” But Thomas (who was called the Twin[a]), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” A week later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them, saying, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
 
Stories of Jesus's appearances after his crucifixion are very familiar to us. Early in church history, encounters of individuals and groups with the Risen Christ were recounted repeatedly, long before the first Gospel was written.
 
The story of Thomas, known as Didymus (the twin), begins as the terrified disciples gather on Easter night.  Thomas is missing.  Perhaps he is off gathering supplies. Even though the door is locked, the Risen Jesus appears in the room and greets the astonished disciples with the words “peace be with you.” Can you imagine what that must have been like?  Then Jesus does something strange.  He breathes on them and says, "Receive the Holy Spirit." John wants his readers to understand that just as God created man and woman by breathing life into them in Genesis 2: 7, the Risen Christ re-creates humankind by breathing new life into us through the presence of the Holy Spirit.
 
As John's story continues, Thomas returns, and the disciples excitedly share what they have seen and heard.  Jesus was alive!  Thomas does not respond with joy but skepticism.  He refuses to believe in the resurrection of Jesus until he can place his fingers in the wounds made by the nails of the cross, and until he can see where the Roman spear had stabbed Jesus in the side.   This is important to us because Thomas stood where we cannot stand, saw what we cannot see, touched the One we cannot touch, and ultimately confessed, “My Lord and my God.”   
 
A week later, Jesus appears to his disciples again, and Thomas is with them this time.  Jesus invites Thomas to examine the wounds in his hands and side and to no longer doubt but to believe.  In response, Thomas makes a profound profession of faith based on what he saw with his own eyes and touched with his own hands.  Jesus responds by acknowledging his faith and the greater faith of we who “believe without seeing."  He promises that the same peace and breath of Christ that brought his first disciples’ new life through the Spirit is available to you and me today, right now.
 
The peace that Christ breathes into us is not just a good feeling but a call to hard work. It asks that we honor one another as children of the same Creator; it demands that we seek to build bridges and find solutions rather than assigning blame or meting out punishment; and it desires that we cultivate just, ethical, and moral relationships with one another.
 
Thomas was seeking the certainty of physical evidence, but Jesus offered him more: the Easter promise, a reason to hope, and a foundation for faith.  For you and me, our faith in the Risen Christ fulfills that promise: that we are loved, that our lives matter, that we are becoming the people God created us to be. We will still have our Thomas moments, when we are unsure where or how to proceed, when we question our motives and those of others, when all seems lost and pointless.  Easter does not deny the effects of, nor does it erase, the wounds we suffer in life, but Easter moves us beyond the scars to the healing and wholeness of God's compassion.  We all have life-wounds to remind us that all pain and grief, all ridicule and suffering, are transformed into healing and peace in the love of God we experience from others, and what we extend to them in return.  Compassion, forgiveness, and justice can mend our broken spirits, heal the nail-marks we bear, and restore our faith.  In the light of Easter's hope and with the assurance of God's unlimited grace, even in our simplest acts of kindness and understanding, we find the realization of Easter's promise. 
 
The gift of faith is found in our hope that, through the peace Christ breathes into us, we can transform and remake, recreate, and refocus our lives in the love of God and the life of Christ. May this Easter Season, especially in these difficult times, illuminate our spirits with the light of hope.   
 
Amen?  Amen!