Listen and Watch Sermon
Pastor Tom Johnson, April 19, 2020
It was just hours after the women told the disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead. The angel told them to go to Galilee and Jesus would meet them there. Jesus told them to go to Galilee and meet him there. They go back to the upper room where Jesus and his disciples celebrated their last supper—the night in which he was betrayed. This is the house where they “had met.” By all descriptions, this place was a first century Jerusalem two-flat. This upstairs residence is identified in Acts as John Mark’s mother Mary’s large home.
John tells us clearly that they had shut and locked the doors for fear of the Judean authority. And I can’t blame them. They had just seen their Lord arrested, beaten just short of his life, and then brutally and publicly executed. Maybe they were planning their journey to meet the resurrected Christ in Galilee the next day. However, there is no mention of that. What our Scripture does tell us is that the disciples hunker down. They shelter in place.
Some of the disciples will spend more than 40 days confined in this home. Seven of the disciples will go to Galilee and meet Jesus by the Sea of Galilee where Jesus first met his disciples. It was a kind of reboot of their ministry—for some like Peter, it was second chance.
Jesus will send them back to Jerusalem. And it is at the same two-flat that they will experience the outpouring the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. That is about 50 days of the upper room being home base—not just for the disciples but now for the infant Church in Jerusalem. It took 40 days for Jesus to meet the disciples in Galilee and commission them as to make disciples of all nations through Baptism and teaching. The length of days is the same for Noah and his family when they batten down the hatches in the Ark. The length of days is 40 of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. It was 40 years of wandering in the wilderness for the Israelites from the time they sheltered in their homes on Passover until the day they entered the Promised Land.
What I find so remarkable is that the disciples seem to have no idea what God is up to. All they do is shut, latch, and lock the doors—to batten down the hatches and hope that they can ride this terrible storm of persecution, arrest, and death. They locked for fear of the Judean authority. But they may have also done so in disobedience to the Lord’s command to go to Galilee. They may have stayed where they were out of unbelief.
I am struck by the dark irony of our text and our current situation. Here we are under the orders of civil authority to shelter in place—to hunker down—to batten down the hatches as individual households—but also the household of faith. The city, state, and federal government have prohibited public gatherings of the church. The Church has already been hunkering down in hiding. We have shut our doors to the world outside by traditionalism, judgmentalism, and tribalism. We have retreated into our ivory towers of theological pride. No one locked us in. We have locked the doors on the inside with our fears and doubts. We do not want to lose control of what happens on the inside. We are desperate to protect ourselves from the threats of the world on the outside. So many church members over the years have told me that while they would like to receive a visit and Communion in their homes, they do not want to be called shut ins or on the list of shut ins. Now we are all shut ins. Even pastors are a shut ins. This description of the disciples fearfully barricading themselves behind wood and iron doors is there to make us crack a smile. Is that really enough to keep the danger out? No. The punchline is that it will not keep God’s blessings out either.
Jesus shows up. This is earlier than he had said. He said that he would meet them in Galilee. Here is the risen Christ in his glorified body walking through walls and locked doors—or perhaps just showing up and materializing out of thin air. Jesus says, “shalom”—peace. He comes to inoculate their fear with his peace. He comes to infiltrate their doubts by strengthening their faith. He says that there will be the blessed ones who will believe even though they have not seen Jesus. They will trust God even though they have not a sensational encounter. Jesus is talking about you and me. We are so blessed because as God’s people we have the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen (Heb 11). We can laugh at ourselves—despite our own fears and doubts—because the stay at home order is something we have too long observed. But even more than that. Jesus has shown up in a surprising way into our homes and into our hearts these days. He comes with peace that transcends human understanding. By his Word and the fresh air of his Spirit he breathes new life into us.
When the Apostle Paul was in chains and under house arrest. He spoke of his captors coming to faith in Christ. He said, “The Word of God is not in chains” (2 Tim 2:9). In other words, the Gospel cannot be locked up. Even the gates of hell will not shut in the Holy Spirit and what he wants to do in us and through us. At the end of the book of Acts, Paul is under house arrest for two whole years. And yet, he “welcomes all who come to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance” (Acts 28:30,31).
This text is about Jesus’ ministry to shut-ins. The day will come when we can return to “normalcy.” But I don’t want that. I don’t believe that is what God wants. He wants us to have a new normal where the good news and transforming message of Jesus comes into our lives and goes out unhindered by us and the world. Dear shut-ins, Jesus is your surprise guest. He is our breath of fresh air in the Spirit. He is our home base, our shelter in our time of need, our refuge in days of trouble, the ark in the midst of the storm. He is the risen Christ, who by the power of the resurrection makes all things new.
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