Easter 2 “Disheartened Disciples”
11 April 2010 John 20.19-31
Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Three years ago in my sermon on the
second Sunday of Easter, I suggested that this day on the church calendar should
be a special festival day here at
As I reflected on the gospel lesson for today, the word that kept coming to my mind was “discouragement.” That word literally means “disheartened”—one who is discouraged is one whose heart has given up, who has “lost heart.” “We lose heart,” one writer has suggested, “when we believe that no one cares for us, that no one is on our side . . . We lose heart when we feel like we are alone.” [Mark Harris in The Christian Century, September 26-October 3, 2001, p. 17].
And that pretty much describes the disciples in this morning’s lesson. We understand their feeling, because it sometimes describes us as well. Who here has never been discouraged—about work, about health, about family or other relationships, about money. “Discouragement,” “disheartenment,” is part of the human experience.
Sometimes that disheartenment comes
from disappointment. Something we hoped would happen doesn’t come to pass, and
in our disappointment we are disheartened. Remember
the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, speaking to one they thought
was a stranger, though it was really Jesus? “We had hoped he was the one who
would redeem
It must have been exciting to be
involved in the establishment of
But the good news of Easter is that disappointment has been overcome! Those disciples on the Emmaus road thought they had been left all alone—even as Jesus walked beside them! In their meal that evening, as he broke the bread, their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and their disappointment vanished. They were discouraged—but then they encountered the risen Christ.
Sometimes discouragement, disheartenment, comes from doubt. That’s the reality we often consider on this day, as we hear the story of “Doubting Thomas.” He is the one who could not believe the good news, even when he heard it. He was so discouraged that he left the others and went off by himself—as we often do when we think no one cares about us.
Have you heard the story of Tyki Nelworth? The 18-year-old
But Tyki
refused to be discouraged. He threw himself into his studies, believing that he
could make something of his life in spite of being abandoned by those who
should have loved him and cared for him. Last week he was notified that he has
been appointed to
The good news of Easter is that doubt has been overcome! Even Thomas, who found it so hard to believe, could not stand against the overwhelming victory of the risen Christ. All his doubts, all his discouragement and disheartenment, washed away when he, too, sees the risen Christ.
Sometimes discouragement comes from fear. When the future appears uncertain, we are often afraid—and disheartened, feeling left alone. The disciples were afraid on that first Easter day—afraid of many things, perhaps, but very much afraid of the Jewish authorities, John tells us. So afraid they locked their doors. After Jesus’ death, they despaired for their own lives. What was going to happen to them?
We have a friend—let’s call him “Jack.” His daughter and grandson have been living in a rental house that has been in foreclosure. They were fearful that they would have to move. Jack decided to bid on the house when it went on the auction block on the courthouse steps. The starting bid set by the bank was attainable for him, but just barely. He had never done anything like this before; he went to several auctions to see how it worked, and struck up a conversation with a fellow who buys foreclosed property for a living, and who was very much interested in this property as well. It was a good deal, he said, and would likely bring considerably more than the minimum bid. The man said he expected to be able to buy the house.
On auction day, there were a dozen or more people, all of whom seemed eager to bid. The auctioneer was delayed, the crowd waited around for quite some time. It began to hail. The weather drove everyone away except Jack and this other bidder, who seemed determined to stay and acquire the property. Jack made his bid—the bank’s minimum, plus a dollar and a quarter. His competitor touched his shoulder. “You just bought yourself a house,” he said. “And I’ll be able to tell my wife I did something good today.”
The good news of Easter is that fear has been overcome! The disciples, locked in a room but even more closely bound by their fears and their discouragement, suddenly realize that nothing stands in the way of Christ, that nothing binds the risen Lord, and that they therefore need not fear.
Disheartenment—because of disappointment, doubt and fear, or because of anything else—it cannot win, because Christ is risen. He is, Revelation tells us, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, and there is nothing that he does not overcome—and we, through him, also overcome.
There is a marvelous Easter hymn by Paul Gerhardt—not as well-known, perhaps, as some others, but one that speaks exactly to this point. It begins like this: “Awake, my heart, with gladness, see what the Lord has done.” Awake, my heart! When we are disheartened, when our hearts are mired in gloom, in fear and doubt, the risen Christ says to them, “Wake up!” Later the hymn adds these words:
This is a sight that gladdens—what peace it does impart!
Now nothing ever saddens the joy within my heart!
No gloom shall ever shake,
No foe shall ever take
The hope which God’s own Son in love for me has won!
People of God, people of
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Pastor Richard O. Johnson