Easter 2C – George Yandell
“Peace to you,” said Jesus to his disciples, huddled in the room in fear on Easter evening. ‘Salem’ is Peace in Aramaic, ‘Shalom’ in Hebrew. They feared those who’d collaborated with the Roman officials to have Jesus crucified, they feared living without Jesus. They were scared enough to lock the doors and hideout. Maybe rumors of the empty tomb had reached them- maybe they were just still too traumatized by Jesus’ crucifixion to venture out of a safe place. But Jesus came, stood among them, and said, Salem. And he said it again. “Peace to you.”
Interestingly, he and the disciples were gathered in Yaru-salem, the city whose name means “Foundation of God.” I think the disciples may have heard two complementary messages when Jesus spoke to them, and we might as well.
1) Jerusalem, the city of Zion, was the site of the crucifixion, and the resurrection. It became the foundation for their faith in the resurrected Jesus.
2) When Jesus spoke “Peace” to them, they also might have heard echoes of Salem, a name for God. I think they may have been quaking, seeing Jesus alive, and they may have realized that everything is different, the foundation of God has shifted, everything is new. All is right!! Jesus lives!
The peace Jesus spoke is the new foundation of the new city of God. Poor Thomas- he’d missed the appearing of Jesus, so no wonder he didn’t get it. How could he? He had to hear the word himself from Jesus, “Peace to you. Salem. Don’t be faithless—be faithful!!” And Thomas heard. And so do we. Peace, resurrection life, is a new foundation laid for God’s people. It is the only thing that distinguishes us from non-believers- we have faith, because we’ve felt the faith whose foundation is the peace of Jesus. This peace is not a simply blissful harmony. It’s not simply the ending of conflict. This peace is God’s gift to us.
God’s peace is a state of wholeness, given to individuals and to groups. It brings, in different times to different groups, health, prosperity, security, and spiritual completeness. But hear this, Christians, each time Jesus speaks it, he says “Peace to you, PLURAL. Peace to All Y’all.” The peace which Jesus gives must be shared to be lived. That’s why Thomas was so negative- he’d missed out on knowing the peace the other disciples shared. And when he received Salem from Jesus, he said to Jesus, “You’re the Lord of me, you’re the God of me.” He got it. The peace Jesus offered infused him.
Listen to what Peter spoke in the reading from Acts. He and the other disciples had been brought before the temple council in Jerusalem. Peter and his friends had been teaching boldly in the name of Jesus, their resurrected Messiah. Peter answered their charges, knowing he too could face the same death as Jesus: “We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit.” Whoa! Peter too had been transformed by the peace that the resurrected Jesus had offered when he appeared to Thomas and his friends. That peace gift from the Spirit of God made Peter bold and strong.
How many of you remember when the “new” BCP was installed in your parish pews in 1976? How many of the people in your parishes resisted passing the peace? I remember lots of grumbling, especially from men in the parish. They didn’t get it, and we often don’t get it either: “The Peace of the Lord be with you” is a resurrection greeting. It’s not just wishing people well, but it’s to recall for us that we are all gathered into Christ’s resurrection. We are one with him in resurrection life. We are the City of God now. We are the disciples in whom the peace of God lodges. I think we can take a message from Thomas and Peter today—seek the peace Jesus gives in every moment. Come together with your fellow believers; live the peace of Jesus. And when you don’t have faith, come together with us anyway. I think Jesus is telling us in this lesson, “If you don’t believe, act like you do, imitate those who have God’s peace, and you will receive it.”