Pushing the "Pause Button" in the Middle of Easter Stories

Yesterday in morning worship, we shared about Jesus

appearing to Thomas, who did not yet believe he had risen. We reflected on the

way Thomas experienced his own “resurrection” of the mind, now able to see with

different eyes. Jesus did not do funerals. Jesus did resurrections. And he

continues to do them!

Sometimes there is more I wish we had time to share in a

sermon. So last night, at our last “Evening Prayer at the Piano” for the spring

season, I shared a few more thoughts about John 20, reading the remainder of

the chapter. I would like to share these thoughts with you.

In John chapters 20 and 21, several amazing resurrection

appearances are reported. It begins with disciples running to see the empty

tomb and Mary Magdalene weeping outside, mistaking Jesus for the gardener. Then

Jesus appears and breathes on them, inviting them to receive the Holy Spirit …

and Thomas wasn’t there. Then there was the story of Thomas, who did not

believe until he saw for himself, a story which ends with Jesus’s words “Have you believed because you have seen me?

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Then John pushed the pause button. Woah!

He paused before he tells of Jesus appearing by the

lakeside, telling the disciples where to find fish and inviting them to the

fire to eat breakfast. He paused before he reports on Jesus telling Peter three

times to “feed my sheep” after asking if he loved him, and before the book

closed with John’s confession that he is the beloved disciple he had been

referring to (and clearing up the rumor that he would not die).

He paused right between chapters 20 and 21, in the middle of

these amazing stories, to say this: “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.”

Why hit the pause button? Why insert commentary there?

Look at the setup. He hit the pause button right after John

told us what Jesus said to Thomas, “blessed

are those who have not seen and yet come to believe.” He is speaking of you and me, and he is speaking to

you and me. We are blessed because though we did not see the risen Christ

for ourselves, we believe. And through believing, we find life in his name. This

is the whole point of the resurrection!

Originally at Musings of a Musical Preacher Read the original ↗