JN 20: 19-31 

Jottings on John…2nd S. of Easter…Revised 2019 

How Jesus 'broke into' that room isn’t nearly as important as how you & I are broken out from behind any ‘locked doors’ we’re using as barricades right now. Barricades preventing God from being there for us, & our becoming the person God has always known we could become. Jesus, resurrected from, freed from behind that great rock door of Joseph’s tomb, is our freedom, too; from behind ‘locked doors’ entombing us. 

‘Breaking & entering’ is an everyday crime these days. Cracks-people break in to steal anything of value. Why not imagine God as the Great Cracks-Person. One who has only our well-being in mind! Breaking into Jesus’ tomb as He does; breaking Jesus out from death to new, raised life, in a new dimension we call ‘Resurrected’. YHWH-God in Jesus & by His Spirit then breaks into the room the disciples have shut themselves up in, & breaks them out from behind their doubts & fears. What is God doing today to free people like us from behind our barricades?

I.T. programmes we use are constantly offering us ‘up-dates’; ‘fixes’ for security issues to keep us a step ahead of those who would break into our world for dubious purposes. When God breaks into our world it is always to keep our spirits & our defences up-dated. Against anyone or anything threatening His intentions for us.

In breaking into Jesus’ tomb, YHWH God breaks into Death itself! Turns the tables on Death so its power to hold Jesus, or any of us, is destroyed. From now! If Jesus can be freed & raised to a quality of life called ‘Eternal’, & those first disciples with Him, so can we, today’s followers. God-qualities like Eternal Life are neither a history lesson, nor ‘Pie in the sky in the sweet by & by’! 

‘Eternal’ always embraces right now! Sure, we expect to be raised at that ‘Last Day’. But it would be foolish indeed to wait for ‘it’ till then when we can choose to be raised with Christ Today! The historical first Easter means we can experience our own Easter, our own living in the new Eternal dimension of life God makes possible today! 

Brian

Afterthought: ‘No-one’, says JN, could 'write down all the signs in this book'. Some-one else, though, does add another chapter later! Easter is an opportunity, for us all to be writing new chapters of ‘the old, old, story’ by becoming extensions of them as we tell our own story on. Live out our own experiences of being raised by Jesus’ Spirit.

PS: You might like to go online to + Michael Curry’s Easter address to Episcopalians for something really stirring!