Life In His Name - A Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter (April 7, 2024)

Scripture Readings: Acts 4:32–35 | ​Psalm 133 | 1 John 1:1–2:2 | John 20:19–31

​“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31).
 
Last Sunday, along with Christians all around the world, we celebrated the start of the season of Easter… fifty days celebrating the victory of Jesus Christ over the grave, and everything that tries to stand between the Living God and His beloved world.
 
And as the end of our Gospel reading this morning reminds us, the story of Easter is not just an old story from the past that we remember once a year… Easter’s about God’s New Beginning that has started right in the middle of our world’s old story… taking us by surprise, and drawing us in a whole new direction… leading us who believe into new life through faith in Jesus Christ the Risen Lord.
 
And this, St. John tells us is the whole reason why he wrote his Gospel account: so that we “may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing [we] may have life in his name.”
But that might leave us wondering: What does St. John mean when he says that through believing, we may have life in Jesus’ name? What kind of new life is St. John talking about, and wanting us to share in?  
 
Well first things first: of course St. John, like the other Gospel writers, tell us the story of Jesus Christ… and in particular, they tell us about His death at the cross, and His rising again from the dead. From the start, Jesus Himself and what He’s done for us all is the absolute core of the Christian faith. And it’s through faith in Jesus Himself, St. John tells us, that we now have access to the gift of life in a whole new way.
 
And of course, as the story of Jesus the Risen Lord is the story of God’s saving love overcoming evil, and even death itself, a big part of the new life that St. John has in mind is that believers will share in Christ’s victory over death too! Just as Jesus was raised from the dead, so too those of us who are now united to Him in faith will be raised up as well. The name Christians have for this promise of hope is the resurrection of the body.
 
But just like anything new, or mysterious, or different from our day to day experience, sometimes we can struggle to understand how the reality of resurrection fits into the bigger picture, both of our faith, and the shape of our daily existence.
 
The Anglican Bishop and scholar, NT. Wright has studied and written a lot about what the first Christians meant by this word resurrection, which over the centuries has often been mixed up a bit with other ideas about the fate of the faithful from outside the Church. In his book, Surprised By Hope, Wright puts it like this: resurrection “wasn’t a way of talking about ‘life after death’. It was a way of talking about a new bodily life after whatever state of existence one might enter immediately upon death. It was, in other words, life after ‘life after death’.”[1]
 
Life after life after death. I like that. The point he’s making is that the Christian Church does not simply proclaim the hope of leaving this physical world behind when we die… exchanging our bodies for the bliss of some disembodied heaven. No, the Church offers us the hope of being with God in heaven the moment we die… as we then await the fulfillment of God’s New Creation when Christ returns… and when we too will receive new, restored, and renewed resurrection bodies just like Jesus did on Easter Morning.
 
As it did over two thousand years ago, this message still messes up all our old categories about the world we know. So much about it is still a mystery, which we can explore but not yet fully understand. But one thing at least is clear from the teachings of the Apostles: whatever happened to Jesus Himself when He rose again from the dead is the fate of all of us who are united to Him in faith.
 
The resurrection of the body is a cornerstone of the Christian faith, and as Wright points out: “It is the element which gives shape and meaning to the rest of the story we tell about God’s ultimate purposes.”[2] And Wright is not wrong to put such a strong emphasis on the resurrection. The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians makes this even more striking claim: 1 Corinthians 15:13-20,

“If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
 
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.”
 
St. Paul goes on… and on and on in this Chapter about the reality of the resurrection… and we could easily do the same this morning. And I actually want to encourage us all to read through 1 Corinthians Chapter 15 this week, to hear St. Paul carefully help his listeners wrestle with the Good News of the resurrection of Jesus. But as important and vital as this hope of the resurrection is… it’s not the only thing that the Apostle’s meant when they thought of the new life that we receive through Christ Jesus the Risen Lord. That’s because the reality of the resurrection puts the rest of our lives here and now on a whole other track. It’s not just about what will happen at the end, it’s the grounds for an entirely new way to live every single day. And our Scripture passages this morning offer us a vision of some of the central parts of what this new life in the name of the Risen Jesus actually looks like in practice.
 
Our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 4, gives us a good glimpse of how the very first Christians lived their lives together shortly after that very first Easter: “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.” (Acts 4:32-35).
 
This picture of real people, with real problems, but with real confidence in the reality of the resurrection of Jesus gives us a crystal clear vision of God’s good intentions for humanity, and the shape of the new life in Christ: a new and caring community… where we truly love and serve one another.
 
No room for selfishness, or exploitation of others. No needs unmet by freely offered generosity. No fear of being alone, or forgotten… with everyone embodying the love of God all because of the Risen Lord.
 
This truly beautiful image is one that we Christians have struggled to put into practice ever since those early days… frequently failing to live up to this vision… forgetting or simply setting aside the radical self-giving love that the Living God has given us in Christ, as well as the calling to share this same self-giving love with one another.
 
But even as we struggle to do so, God is still at work in those who believe, creating a new community of care… of love that goes beyond just feelings and words, and takes root in action. This is the kind of life that the Good News of Jesus offers to us all … and invites us to work towards. This is the shape of the new life that is possible for those who believe in the Risen Lord: a community of active love.
 
But what’s to be done when we fall short of this ideal, as we so often do? How do we keep sharing in God’s new life when our old failures and faults come back to haunt us?
 
Turning to our second reading, from the first letter of St. John, we find that we are being called to take part in a community of love… that is committed to living in the light… fully exposed to the truth.
 
In this letter, St. John uses a lot of strong either/or images… clearly contrasting the basic alternatives for us to choose from. Feel the force of the message he lays out here:
 
“God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
 (1 John 1:5-7).
 
To share God’s new life in the light, it means leaving behind all our darkness… our sin… all the things we do that keep us from loving the Lord and our neighbours… with our hands, and our heads, and our hearts. In other words, we are called to be holy… sharing in the holiness of Living God… embodied in all the choices we make every day… and made possible by the sacrifice of our Saviour. St. John goes on, emphasizing that this high calling is not at all based on our own perfection, or sinlessness, our own ability to walk in the light… but in Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord… who came to save sinners like us! 1 John 1:8-2:2,
 
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
 
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Again, it all rests on Jesus Himself, and what He’s already done to save us sinners, and the whole world!
 
The new life Christ gives us is deeply committed to leaving our darkness behind, and learning to walk God’s ways. This life is also committed to the truth… to integrity, and honesty, even when this means owning up to our own failures, trusting that we truly can be forgiven… turning in faith to our Risen Lord, Jesus our Saviour who gave His life at the cross to save all us sinners, and who rose again to reconcile us in God’s love forever.
 
So to quickly recap: the life that we receive in Christ Jesus is an invitation to share in a caring community… that is committed to following God’s holy ways together… which also means being honest about our failures, so that we can find the freedom that comes with forgiveness.
 
And this takes us at last to our Gospel reading this morning, and the story of St. Thomas. Now before we go branding Thomas as “the Doubter”, it’s important to remember his place in the story so far: the other disciples had all experienced a visit from the Risen Jesus. They saw with their eyes and believed… but Thomas missed out, and can’t bring himself to. It’s all too good to be true.
 
And yet, despite his deep doubts, Thomas doesn’t just walk away. No, the next week he’s right there with the other disciples when Jesus again appears to them.
 
Now would Jesus have tracked Thomas down if he hadn’t stuck around? If he had just decided to skip town instead? Maybe. Maybe not. But as St. John tells the story, he wants us to see something really important at work in Thomas’ encounter with Jesus:
 
When we find ourselves struggling with our faith… then there’s no better place to go to experience the Risen Christ than to connect with other Christians… ones who are likely still trying to wrap their own heads around the reality of the resurrection… who don’t yet have all the answers, but who are still trying to be faithful to the Good News that Jesus is Risen. But our confidence and hope doesn’t rest on those around us, it rests on the Risen Jesus Himself who loves to show up in the gatherings… in the lives of His people, even when our eyes can’t see Him. He’s here!
 
The new life we receive through faith in Jesus Christ the Risen Lord is not just about what happens to our bodies in eternity. It’s also about God’s new life that’s beginning right now: as we becoming a community that loves one another, that walks together in Gods holy ways, helps each other stay true, and also find forgiveness when we fail. It’s a life that rests on Jesus Himself, and all that He has done already to save us. A life that we know will have no end, as we look ahead to sharing completely in Christ’s resurrection. Amen.
 
 


[1] Tom Wright, Surprised by Hope (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2007), 163.

[2] Tom Wright, Surprised by Hope (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2007), 160.