See? Believe?
Commentary
The incarnation is the heart of Christianity. God's Word became a flesh and blood human, lived among us, and showed us God's nature (John 1:1-18). We Christians believe that the invisible became visible in Christ, and the transcendent became touchable in the Galilean preacher. Those are astonishing claims, and Christianity has not always been able to convince others of its view of Christ. The concept of the incarnation is radically different from all that we are inclined to think about the divine, and some are scandalized by it. Christians, too, have sometimes sought to make the incarnation more palatable. Some have said that Christ was not really human, but a pure spirit. Others have argued that by the time the divine became flesh there was little or nothing left of divinity.
The issue surfaces most clearly when we try to establish the relationship between seeing and believing. Can we see the divine in Christ, and does that conceive faith in us? The appearances of the risen Christ recorded in the New Testament seem to affirm that view. The earliest witnesses to the resurrection claim that they saw the risen Christ (see, for example, John 20:18). That is all well and good, but what about us? Do we see the risen Christ in the same sense that Mary and others claimed to have seen him? Does our faith depend on such physical apprehension of the living Christ? There are some who are hesitant to say they are Christians because they have not had such a visual experience. We preachers have sometimes made it all the more difficult. We may at times speak glibly of "seeing" Christ, and leave the thoughtful seekers in our congregation entirely befuddled.
This second Sunday of Easter is a good time to address this difficult question, even though we can make no claim to solving it. Each of the assigned lessons for this day at least touch on the matter of seeing and believing. However, they are far from unanimous in their representations of the relationship between perceiving and coming to faith.
Acts 4:32-35
This passage witnesses to a feature of the earliest church that some have found difficult to accept. Our views of communism and even of the communes of the 1960s make Luke's report of a kind of communal life in the early church disconcerting, at least for some. In the early chapters of Acts following the Pentecost experience, Luke relates the nature of the early church's life together. Their sharing of possessions is but one of the features of that church. Immediately following the passage, however, Luke reports an incident in which communal possession seems to have broken down (5:1-11). Perhaps the suggestion implicit in the whole of 4:32--5:11 is that such a communal life proved untenable given the nature of human sin. Immediately preceding the reading is a story of the church's conflict with the religious establishment in Jerusalem and the disciples' prayer for courage (4:1-31).
This brief passage presents a quick sketch of believers pooling their resources for the common good. The community possessed such a profound sense of unity that the sharing of their possessions seemed natural. In the Hellenistic world, deep friendship resulted in a similar kind of sharing. Moreover, the Dead Sea Scrolls describe a community comprised of subgroups each of which led a communal life. It appears that Luke thought the group of apostles administered the sharing of property. Most radical about this practice was that members sold their property and brought the proceeds to the apostles (v. 34b). From verse 35 we can conclude that there was a egalitarian distribution of the resources of the community.
The purpose of such a sharing and the result of it was to eliminate poverty and need within the circle of believers (v. 34). It was a response to the concern for the church to care for its needy members. In other words, this was the early church's way of providing a social welfare program for itself. The reading ends without including verses 36-37. In those verses Luke presents an example of this sort of communal sharing. Whether or not this is the same Barnabas who appears later in the Acts narrative is unclear (see, for example, 11:22-30).
Stuck right smack dab in the middle of this sketch of the sharing of possessions is a strange verse (33). Attention seems to switch away from the community practice to the testimony of the apostles. After having described that testimony, however, the discussion of sharing property resumes in verse 34. What are we to make of this intrusive statement about the power of the apostles' witness to Christ's resurrection and the grace that "was upon them all"?
The relevance of witness to the resurrection and evidence of abundant grace to communal life has puzzled many. However, if we take verse 33 at its word and in its context, the connection seems relatively clear. The sharing of common property was a means of the church's witnessing to Christ's resurrection and God's grace. Through this practice of a communal life, the apostles were declaring to the world that Christ was living in their midst and that they were exhibiting the unmerited love of God. In the other passage where Luke describes this communal life, 2:43-47, he also connects the practice with winning the "good will of all the people" as "the Lord added to their number those who were being saved" (2:47).
The early church made its faith tangible and visible by the way it lived and served. (See also, the healing in 3:1-26.) Faith is not simply some interior mood or feeling. It is also a style of living and caring for others. Acts leads us to believe then that "seeing" is connected with the birth of faith, for others see how the Christians live and conclude from that seeing the genuineness of the Christian faith. This seeing and believing is different from seeing the risen Christ and coming to belief. Nonetheless, it applies the connection between seeing and believing to the witness of the church. That is something we need always to keep in mind.
1 John 1:1--2:2
In this passage, seeing and believing are related in a broader way. What is seen and touched is the gospel message itself, as it was incarnate in Jesus. First John has clear connections with the Gospel of John, and this interest in seeing and believing is one of the themes the two documents have in common. We think that the Johannine Epistles (or at least 1 and 2 John) were offsprings of the fourth Gospel. They were likely written to the same community as was the Gospel, but at a later time. This reading includes the epistle's introduction (1:1-4), a discussion of the gift of life which Christians possess (1:5-7), and an exploration of the Christian life and sin (1:8 - 2:2).
The style of 1 John is like that of the Gospel of John in several ways. We get in trouble when we try to outline the progression of thought in this writing, much as we do when we try to do it on a section of the Gospel. Our passage is a good example of how the reading proceeds on the basis of word association more than logical. The assertion that God is light leads the author to say something about walking in light and walking in darkness (1:5-6). Then walking in the light suggests the cleansing from sin (1:7) and that takes us off on a discussion of sin and the Christian life (1:8--2:2). Readers are best off if they simply "go with the flow" in 1 John without trying to impose our logic on the document.
The introduction to 1 John is a rather confusing sentence (1:1-3). We must ask several questions about this intricately constructed first sentence. What is meant by "the beginning," in this case? What is that which the "we" have "heard," "seen," "touched," and to which they give witness? The most logical answer is that it is the "word of life." Yet this word of life is not an abstract intangible message. The implication is that the "word of life" is none other than the Word who gives life, Jesus Christ. The author is speaking for a community, which from the "beginning" of its life together has experienced the word of life in a tangible way. Does this mean that they were eye-witnesses to Jesus or that they experienced the living Christ in a tangible way within their community? The goal of this declaration is to create a "fellowship" with others who embrace the Christian message. That fellowship with one another entails a relationship with God and with Christ. The nurturing of this association with the readers of the document is the source of the author's "joy."
Verse 5 sounds like a summary of the message of the word of life: God is light. If that is the case, then those who embrace the message live in the light God sheds. To do otherwise is to continue an unenlightened lifestyle, which is the equivalent of sin. The light God offers is then a way of living, much as the Old Testament considered belief in God a way of life (for example, Psalm 56:13). Sharing the faith that God's light has been revealed creates community ("fellowship with one another," 1:7). Walking "in the light" has two related results. First, it yields this fellowship. Second, it provides a cleansing from sin through Christ's life and death.
Next we are taken into a discussion of sin. We cannot deny our sinfulness, for that denies God's perception of us. To have the "truth" within us probably means to have appropriated and internalized the revelation of God in Christ. That's "truth" with a capital T. Sin is inescapable, but God has provided us a means of release from sin. The statement about God in verse 9 draws on the Hebraic concept of Yahweh (for example, Psalms 111:7). The pair of adjectives, "faithful and just," means reliable and righteous. (In 2:1 the same word translated "just" here is rendered "righteous.") God "forgives" and "cleanses from all unrighteousness," which seem here to be parallels and hence synonyms. Verse 10 declares that sin is that which prevents us from embracing the message of the word of life or truth. This author often uses "liar" to characterize one who is unfaithful, does not love, or does not believe Jesus is the Christ. (See 2:4, 22; 4:20, and 5:10.) That makes the charge, that by denying sin we make God a liar, all the more powerful. God has declared we are sinful and promised to forgive sin. Should we deny this is true, we in effect say we cannot trust God's veracity.
The discussion of sin continues into chapter 2. Having already declared that Christ's blood cleanses us from sin (1:7), the author now mentions how that cleansing takes place. First, Christ is our advocate before God. Christ pleads on our behalf for God's forgiveness and mercy. "Advocate" translates the same word the Gospel uses to speak of the Holy Spirit (for example, John 14:15-17). Second, this author declares Jesus is an "atoning sacrifice for our sins" and those of the whole world. The word translated "atoning sacrifice" (ilasmox) is a much-debated word. It refers to that which "expiates" or "propitiates" for wrongdoing. It can also mean the place where this takes place (see also 4:10). While we cannot know exactly what the author intended to say with this word, we can conclude that the text uses a word from Jewish sacrificial worship as a metaphor for the way Christ's death frees us from sin.
This passage, long and rambling though it seems, is rich with meaning. Only one matter need concern us for now. Seeing and believing are closely linked in the introduction to 1 John (1:1-3). "The word of life" is visible, touchable, and audible. While it is not altogether certain, we might assume that the author's community is speaking here of the incarnation of the living Christ in the community of faith. The use of "word" and "life" both recall what the Gospel of John says of Christ (see, for example, 1:1-18 and 11:25). The point is that the substance of God's message of life and light is tangible so that faith might arise from witnessing it. In the case of 1 John, belief or faith is characterized in terms of its result, namely, fellowship.
John 20:19-31
We must fumble about to discern the role of seeing in the Acts and 1 John passages. However, it leaps out at us in this reading. John 20 includes three accounts of appearances of risen Christ. One is Mary's encounter with him in the garden (vv. 1-18). The other two are appearances to the disciples on two successive Sundays (that is, "the first day of the week," vv. 19 and 26). The word "disciple" in the Gospel of John does not designate only the "twelve" followers. (See 6:60-71 where the disciples are clearly distinguished from the "twelve.") Therefore, the group gathered in the room in verses 19 and 26 is comprised of followers of Jesus, and not necessarily just the twelve. There is every indication that the fourth evangelist regarded Mary Magdalene as a disciple. The Gospel reading includes the second (vv. 19-25) and third appearances (vv. 26-29) along with the first conclusion to the Gospel (vv. 30-31).
These disciples are huddled away in a locked room like a bunch of frightened children when the risen Christ looms up among them. He shows them his wounds from the crucifixion to convince them that he is the same person who had been put to death. This turns their fear into joy. Jesus offers them a message of several parts. First, he greets them with peace, reminding us that Christ said he gives us peace (14:27 and 16:33). In this Gospel peace means wholeness and relationship. Then Christ gives the little group a mission. He sends them into the world just as God had sent him (see 3:16 and 17:18). For their mission the disciples need both power and authority. So, Christ invites them to "receive the Holy Spirit," which guides and empowers them. With the Spirit comes authority to forgive and retain sins. In this brief encounter, the fearful disciples are transformed into a community of faith commissioned to continue the incarnation of God in the world (see 17:22).
Thomas has missed out on all of this and finds his colleagues' report incredible. He issues his challenge, which goes to the heart of seeing and believing: he will not believe unless he can see the risen Christ with his own eyes and touch his wounds with his own hands (vv. 24-25). And only one week later Christ accommodates his demand. Again, Jesus greets his followers with "peace" and then addresses Thomas. He invites Thomas to touch and see his wounds, just as Thomas had asked to do. With the invitation, the risen Christ commands the disciple, "Do not doubt but believe" (or more literally, "Do not become faithless but faithful" -- v. 27).
Thomas never accepts the invitation to touch Jesus, but he obeys his Lord's command. He believes. He answers Jesus with one of the most important confessions of faith in the entire New Testament: "My Lord and my God!" In these two titles, Thomas not only equates Christ with "God," but also declares him "Lord." In the latter, he denies that the Roman Caesar, who claims to be lord, is his authority. The confession provides closures for the Gospel narrative repeating the title God from 1:1.
Without preparation, however, Christ disturbs this happy ending. To be sure, he accepts Thomas' confession. However, then he says those provocative words of verse 29. Thomas has believed because he saw the risen Christ. Yet the "blessed" are those who believe without the benefit of seeing. Throughout the Gospel seeing has been closely linked with believing (for example, 6:40). Seeing Christ is seeing the father (14:9). Seeing the works Jesus does (that is, the "signs") provokes faith (2:11). And now, at the end of the Gospel proper (chapter 21 is probably an addendum), he drastically qualifies the valuing of seeing: The really blessed folk are not those who witness grand signs or appearances of the risen Christ. They are those who dare to believe without the benefit of seeing.
So, where are we? The readings all endorse a positive connection between seeing and believing. However, the seeing involved in the Acts passage and perhaps in 1 John is an ambiguous experience. It is perceiving something from which we conclude that we have witnessed the living Christ in our midst. We see and believe Christ is in our midst through the care and dedication of others (Acts) and in the presence and power of the message of "the word of life" (1 John). The "seeing" that is called for is deeper than a physical sensation transmitted to our brains. It is a seeing through to what lies behind; it is a penetrating sight. This seeing presupposes faith even while it reenforces faith.
However, those of us who have trouble even with this kind of seeing, those of us who are troubled by doubt about what it is we actually see, we are invited to believe anyway. Take the leap and believe in Christ's presence even when you cannot say that you have actually perceived his presence. That is, after all, what faith is all about. It is daring to believe beyond the evidence. It is a willingness to trust God's word, even when it is disputable whether or not it is actually God's word. Blessed are we when we believe without seeing.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Acts 4:32-35
This text for the Sunday after Easter really shakes us up, doesn't it? Here we have a picture of the beginning of the life of the Christian Church in Jerusalem, with numbers being added to it every day as a result of the bold preaching of the apostles Peter and John. Those two had been told by the Jewish elders and the Sadducees in the city to stop their preaching of the resurrection. But they had replied, "We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard" (v. 20). And so those who heard them had taken fire with the gospel and had been filled with the Holy Spirit and had begun to tell their neighbors the good news about Christ. But then what do we read in our text? "Those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common" (v. 32). In fact, if they owned lands or houses, they sold them and brought the proceeds to the apostles, "and distribution was made to each as any had need" (vv. 34-35).
In other words, this early Jerusalem church of our Lord Jesus Christ was some sort of commune, practicing what we would call an early form of communism. To be sure, they didn't all live together in one enclosure, so they were not a commune like the ones of which we hear today. But no one had any private property. Everyone owned everything in common. No one received the profit from his or her own labor or possession. Any profit or earnings were turned over to the apostles, as the leaders of the community, to be distributed equally among all. Communism! That's what they practiced, and that occasions in our minds nothing but dismay.
After all, we live in the United States of America, where regulated capitalism has brought us the highest standard of living in the world. We are motivated to work because we get to keep the reward from our labor -- exempting what the government takes out in taxes, of course. But if we get the training we need for a job, through education or experience, and if we then work hard and are good at what we do, we usually reap the benefits. And we don't have to share those benefits with those who haven't worked. Oh sure, we provide something for the poor through the welfare system, and most of us give rather generously to the needy and to worthy causes. But after taxes, we're free to spend or save, to give or withhold as we see fit. We like our economic system, and we're not about to exchange it for some sort of all-things-in-common.
Indeed, we have seen the fall of communism around the world. Russia's economic system collapsed because it was simply unworkable, and third world countries are scrambling to switch to our system, even if they still call themselves communists -- witness China. We therefore are disturbed when we read in our lesson from Acts that the early church had all things in common. We have always thought that the authoritative pattern for our Christian life as the church is to be found in the New Testament. Christians in the first century A.D. were the ones who knew Jesus, we think, or were followers of Jesus' own disciples, and so they above all others know how we should live our Christian lives. But this! -- this pattern from Acts! No, we do not want to emulate it.
Some pious souls would chastise us for that attitude, of course. They would accuse us of being materialistic, of loving our comfort too much, of making money our lord instead of Christ. We should be willing, they self-righteously tell us, to give up everything for the sake of the gospel and to follow Christ. And of course, in one sense they are right. We are too occupied with buying and selling, with comfort and goods, with possessions and property. And far too often it is the stock market or our bank account that dictates our actions rather than the commands of our Lord. There is nothing that makes us quite so uneasy as when the Bible or the preacher starts talking about money. As the old saying goes, in those cases, "The preacher has stopped preaching and gone to meddling." So let us not excuse ourselves too easily from the demands of this text for the morning.
What does Luke, the writer of Acts, say about that early Christian community? "There was not a needy person among them" (v. 14). That cuts right to the heart of the matter, doesn't it? For there are lots of needy persons among us. There are hundreds of children in our public schools who show up without having eaten breakfast. There are elderly, usually hidden from our sight, who have to choose between buying medicine or buying food, because they cannot afford both. There are the poor, the homeless, the mentally ill who wander our streets without healing or helping aid. We could multiply the list indefinitely. And perhaps the worst thing is that not many of such needy are occupying the pews of our churches. "Where are the poor?" asked the diary of one country priest. "Why are they not on the front row of your church?" Yes, our text convicts us, because there are lots of needy persons who have not even been invited among us.
Perhaps the central question we should ask of our text, however, is: "What motivated those early Christians in Jerusalem to provide for all who had need?" Amazingly enough, it was the resurrection. "With great power," reads our text, "the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus" (v. 33). And that testimony, that proclamation, led to the provision of all in want. Jesus Christ lived in the company of that early church -- Jesus Christ, with his new life for all, with his love for every child and adult and elderly soul. And that life and love filled the hearts of the Jerusalem Christians and overflowed in help and love and new life for all who had need.
Well, last Easter Sunday we celebrated that resurrection. Jesus Christ is risen from the grave and now lives as Lord in our midst. He is here, with his abundant new life and eternal love for all. And our text tells us that that life and love can flow out from our hearts too, to provide for all in their need. No. We do not have to live in a commune or be communists. But we are called to be Christians, and that means that we extend the risen Christ's wondrous new life to all who have want.
The issue surfaces most clearly when we try to establish the relationship between seeing and believing. Can we see the divine in Christ, and does that conceive faith in us? The appearances of the risen Christ recorded in the New Testament seem to affirm that view. The earliest witnesses to the resurrection claim that they saw the risen Christ (see, for example, John 20:18). That is all well and good, but what about us? Do we see the risen Christ in the same sense that Mary and others claimed to have seen him? Does our faith depend on such physical apprehension of the living Christ? There are some who are hesitant to say they are Christians because they have not had such a visual experience. We preachers have sometimes made it all the more difficult. We may at times speak glibly of "seeing" Christ, and leave the thoughtful seekers in our congregation entirely befuddled.
This second Sunday of Easter is a good time to address this difficult question, even though we can make no claim to solving it. Each of the assigned lessons for this day at least touch on the matter of seeing and believing. However, they are far from unanimous in their representations of the relationship between perceiving and coming to faith.
Acts 4:32-35
This passage witnesses to a feature of the earliest church that some have found difficult to accept. Our views of communism and even of the communes of the 1960s make Luke's report of a kind of communal life in the early church disconcerting, at least for some. In the early chapters of Acts following the Pentecost experience, Luke relates the nature of the early church's life together. Their sharing of possessions is but one of the features of that church. Immediately following the passage, however, Luke reports an incident in which communal possession seems to have broken down (5:1-11). Perhaps the suggestion implicit in the whole of 4:32--5:11 is that such a communal life proved untenable given the nature of human sin. Immediately preceding the reading is a story of the church's conflict with the religious establishment in Jerusalem and the disciples' prayer for courage (4:1-31).
This brief passage presents a quick sketch of believers pooling their resources for the common good. The community possessed such a profound sense of unity that the sharing of their possessions seemed natural. In the Hellenistic world, deep friendship resulted in a similar kind of sharing. Moreover, the Dead Sea Scrolls describe a community comprised of subgroups each of which led a communal life. It appears that Luke thought the group of apostles administered the sharing of property. Most radical about this practice was that members sold their property and brought the proceeds to the apostles (v. 34b). From verse 35 we can conclude that there was a egalitarian distribution of the resources of the community.
The purpose of such a sharing and the result of it was to eliminate poverty and need within the circle of believers (v. 34). It was a response to the concern for the church to care for its needy members. In other words, this was the early church's way of providing a social welfare program for itself. The reading ends without including verses 36-37. In those verses Luke presents an example of this sort of communal sharing. Whether or not this is the same Barnabas who appears later in the Acts narrative is unclear (see, for example, 11:22-30).
Stuck right smack dab in the middle of this sketch of the sharing of possessions is a strange verse (33). Attention seems to switch away from the community practice to the testimony of the apostles. After having described that testimony, however, the discussion of sharing property resumes in verse 34. What are we to make of this intrusive statement about the power of the apostles' witness to Christ's resurrection and the grace that "was upon them all"?
The relevance of witness to the resurrection and evidence of abundant grace to communal life has puzzled many. However, if we take verse 33 at its word and in its context, the connection seems relatively clear. The sharing of common property was a means of the church's witnessing to Christ's resurrection and God's grace. Through this practice of a communal life, the apostles were declaring to the world that Christ was living in their midst and that they were exhibiting the unmerited love of God. In the other passage where Luke describes this communal life, 2:43-47, he also connects the practice with winning the "good will of all the people" as "the Lord added to their number those who were being saved" (2:47).
The early church made its faith tangible and visible by the way it lived and served. (See also, the healing in 3:1-26.) Faith is not simply some interior mood or feeling. It is also a style of living and caring for others. Acts leads us to believe then that "seeing" is connected with the birth of faith, for others see how the Christians live and conclude from that seeing the genuineness of the Christian faith. This seeing and believing is different from seeing the risen Christ and coming to belief. Nonetheless, it applies the connection between seeing and believing to the witness of the church. That is something we need always to keep in mind.
1 John 1:1--2:2
In this passage, seeing and believing are related in a broader way. What is seen and touched is the gospel message itself, as it was incarnate in Jesus. First John has clear connections with the Gospel of John, and this interest in seeing and believing is one of the themes the two documents have in common. We think that the Johannine Epistles (or at least 1 and 2 John) were offsprings of the fourth Gospel. They were likely written to the same community as was the Gospel, but at a later time. This reading includes the epistle's introduction (1:1-4), a discussion of the gift of life which Christians possess (1:5-7), and an exploration of the Christian life and sin (1:8 - 2:2).
The style of 1 John is like that of the Gospel of John in several ways. We get in trouble when we try to outline the progression of thought in this writing, much as we do when we try to do it on a section of the Gospel. Our passage is a good example of how the reading proceeds on the basis of word association more than logical. The assertion that God is light leads the author to say something about walking in light and walking in darkness (1:5-6). Then walking in the light suggests the cleansing from sin (1:7) and that takes us off on a discussion of sin and the Christian life (1:8--2:2). Readers are best off if they simply "go with the flow" in 1 John without trying to impose our logic on the document.
The introduction to 1 John is a rather confusing sentence (1:1-3). We must ask several questions about this intricately constructed first sentence. What is meant by "the beginning," in this case? What is that which the "we" have "heard," "seen," "touched," and to which they give witness? The most logical answer is that it is the "word of life." Yet this word of life is not an abstract intangible message. The implication is that the "word of life" is none other than the Word who gives life, Jesus Christ. The author is speaking for a community, which from the "beginning" of its life together has experienced the word of life in a tangible way. Does this mean that they were eye-witnesses to Jesus or that they experienced the living Christ in a tangible way within their community? The goal of this declaration is to create a "fellowship" with others who embrace the Christian message. That fellowship with one another entails a relationship with God and with Christ. The nurturing of this association with the readers of the document is the source of the author's "joy."
Verse 5 sounds like a summary of the message of the word of life: God is light. If that is the case, then those who embrace the message live in the light God sheds. To do otherwise is to continue an unenlightened lifestyle, which is the equivalent of sin. The light God offers is then a way of living, much as the Old Testament considered belief in God a way of life (for example, Psalm 56:13). Sharing the faith that God's light has been revealed creates community ("fellowship with one another," 1:7). Walking "in the light" has two related results. First, it yields this fellowship. Second, it provides a cleansing from sin through Christ's life and death.
Next we are taken into a discussion of sin. We cannot deny our sinfulness, for that denies God's perception of us. To have the "truth" within us probably means to have appropriated and internalized the revelation of God in Christ. That's "truth" with a capital T. Sin is inescapable, but God has provided us a means of release from sin. The statement about God in verse 9 draws on the Hebraic concept of Yahweh (for example, Psalms 111:7). The pair of adjectives, "faithful and just," means reliable and righteous. (In 2:1 the same word translated "just" here is rendered "righteous.") God "forgives" and "cleanses from all unrighteousness," which seem here to be parallels and hence synonyms. Verse 10 declares that sin is that which prevents us from embracing the message of the word of life or truth. This author often uses "liar" to characterize one who is unfaithful, does not love, or does not believe Jesus is the Christ. (See 2:4, 22; 4:20, and 5:10.) That makes the charge, that by denying sin we make God a liar, all the more powerful. God has declared we are sinful and promised to forgive sin. Should we deny this is true, we in effect say we cannot trust God's veracity.
The discussion of sin continues into chapter 2. Having already declared that Christ's blood cleanses us from sin (1:7), the author now mentions how that cleansing takes place. First, Christ is our advocate before God. Christ pleads on our behalf for God's forgiveness and mercy. "Advocate" translates the same word the Gospel uses to speak of the Holy Spirit (for example, John 14:15-17). Second, this author declares Jesus is an "atoning sacrifice for our sins" and those of the whole world. The word translated "atoning sacrifice" (ilasmox) is a much-debated word. It refers to that which "expiates" or "propitiates" for wrongdoing. It can also mean the place where this takes place (see also 4:10). While we cannot know exactly what the author intended to say with this word, we can conclude that the text uses a word from Jewish sacrificial worship as a metaphor for the way Christ's death frees us from sin.
This passage, long and rambling though it seems, is rich with meaning. Only one matter need concern us for now. Seeing and believing are closely linked in the introduction to 1 John (1:1-3). "The word of life" is visible, touchable, and audible. While it is not altogether certain, we might assume that the author's community is speaking here of the incarnation of the living Christ in the community of faith. The use of "word" and "life" both recall what the Gospel of John says of Christ (see, for example, 1:1-18 and 11:25). The point is that the substance of God's message of life and light is tangible so that faith might arise from witnessing it. In the case of 1 John, belief or faith is characterized in terms of its result, namely, fellowship.
John 20:19-31
We must fumble about to discern the role of seeing in the Acts and 1 John passages. However, it leaps out at us in this reading. John 20 includes three accounts of appearances of risen Christ. One is Mary's encounter with him in the garden (vv. 1-18). The other two are appearances to the disciples on two successive Sundays (that is, "the first day of the week," vv. 19 and 26). The word "disciple" in the Gospel of John does not designate only the "twelve" followers. (See 6:60-71 where the disciples are clearly distinguished from the "twelve.") Therefore, the group gathered in the room in verses 19 and 26 is comprised of followers of Jesus, and not necessarily just the twelve. There is every indication that the fourth evangelist regarded Mary Magdalene as a disciple. The Gospel reading includes the second (vv. 19-25) and third appearances (vv. 26-29) along with the first conclusion to the Gospel (vv. 30-31).
These disciples are huddled away in a locked room like a bunch of frightened children when the risen Christ looms up among them. He shows them his wounds from the crucifixion to convince them that he is the same person who had been put to death. This turns their fear into joy. Jesus offers them a message of several parts. First, he greets them with peace, reminding us that Christ said he gives us peace (14:27 and 16:33). In this Gospel peace means wholeness and relationship. Then Christ gives the little group a mission. He sends them into the world just as God had sent him (see 3:16 and 17:18). For their mission the disciples need both power and authority. So, Christ invites them to "receive the Holy Spirit," which guides and empowers them. With the Spirit comes authority to forgive and retain sins. In this brief encounter, the fearful disciples are transformed into a community of faith commissioned to continue the incarnation of God in the world (see 17:22).
Thomas has missed out on all of this and finds his colleagues' report incredible. He issues his challenge, which goes to the heart of seeing and believing: he will not believe unless he can see the risen Christ with his own eyes and touch his wounds with his own hands (vv. 24-25). And only one week later Christ accommodates his demand. Again, Jesus greets his followers with "peace" and then addresses Thomas. He invites Thomas to touch and see his wounds, just as Thomas had asked to do. With the invitation, the risen Christ commands the disciple, "Do not doubt but believe" (or more literally, "Do not become faithless but faithful" -- v. 27).
Thomas never accepts the invitation to touch Jesus, but he obeys his Lord's command. He believes. He answers Jesus with one of the most important confessions of faith in the entire New Testament: "My Lord and my God!" In these two titles, Thomas not only equates Christ with "God," but also declares him "Lord." In the latter, he denies that the Roman Caesar, who claims to be lord, is his authority. The confession provides closures for the Gospel narrative repeating the title God from 1:1.
Without preparation, however, Christ disturbs this happy ending. To be sure, he accepts Thomas' confession. However, then he says those provocative words of verse 29. Thomas has believed because he saw the risen Christ. Yet the "blessed" are those who believe without the benefit of seeing. Throughout the Gospel seeing has been closely linked with believing (for example, 6:40). Seeing Christ is seeing the father (14:9). Seeing the works Jesus does (that is, the "signs") provokes faith (2:11). And now, at the end of the Gospel proper (chapter 21 is probably an addendum), he drastically qualifies the valuing of seeing: The really blessed folk are not those who witness grand signs or appearances of the risen Christ. They are those who dare to believe without the benefit of seeing.
So, where are we? The readings all endorse a positive connection between seeing and believing. However, the seeing involved in the Acts passage and perhaps in 1 John is an ambiguous experience. It is perceiving something from which we conclude that we have witnessed the living Christ in our midst. We see and believe Christ is in our midst through the care and dedication of others (Acts) and in the presence and power of the message of "the word of life" (1 John). The "seeing" that is called for is deeper than a physical sensation transmitted to our brains. It is a seeing through to what lies behind; it is a penetrating sight. This seeing presupposes faith even while it reenforces faith.
However, those of us who have trouble even with this kind of seeing, those of us who are troubled by doubt about what it is we actually see, we are invited to believe anyway. Take the leap and believe in Christ's presence even when you cannot say that you have actually perceived his presence. That is, after all, what faith is all about. It is daring to believe beyond the evidence. It is a willingness to trust God's word, even when it is disputable whether or not it is actually God's word. Blessed are we when we believe without seeing.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Acts 4:32-35
This text for the Sunday after Easter really shakes us up, doesn't it? Here we have a picture of the beginning of the life of the Christian Church in Jerusalem, with numbers being added to it every day as a result of the bold preaching of the apostles Peter and John. Those two had been told by the Jewish elders and the Sadducees in the city to stop their preaching of the resurrection. But they had replied, "We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard" (v. 20). And so those who heard them had taken fire with the gospel and had been filled with the Holy Spirit and had begun to tell their neighbors the good news about Christ. But then what do we read in our text? "Those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common" (v. 32). In fact, if they owned lands or houses, they sold them and brought the proceeds to the apostles, "and distribution was made to each as any had need" (vv. 34-35).
In other words, this early Jerusalem church of our Lord Jesus Christ was some sort of commune, practicing what we would call an early form of communism. To be sure, they didn't all live together in one enclosure, so they were not a commune like the ones of which we hear today. But no one had any private property. Everyone owned everything in common. No one received the profit from his or her own labor or possession. Any profit or earnings were turned over to the apostles, as the leaders of the community, to be distributed equally among all. Communism! That's what they practiced, and that occasions in our minds nothing but dismay.
After all, we live in the United States of America, where regulated capitalism has brought us the highest standard of living in the world. We are motivated to work because we get to keep the reward from our labor -- exempting what the government takes out in taxes, of course. But if we get the training we need for a job, through education or experience, and if we then work hard and are good at what we do, we usually reap the benefits. And we don't have to share those benefits with those who haven't worked. Oh sure, we provide something for the poor through the welfare system, and most of us give rather generously to the needy and to worthy causes. But after taxes, we're free to spend or save, to give or withhold as we see fit. We like our economic system, and we're not about to exchange it for some sort of all-things-in-common.
Indeed, we have seen the fall of communism around the world. Russia's economic system collapsed because it was simply unworkable, and third world countries are scrambling to switch to our system, even if they still call themselves communists -- witness China. We therefore are disturbed when we read in our lesson from Acts that the early church had all things in common. We have always thought that the authoritative pattern for our Christian life as the church is to be found in the New Testament. Christians in the first century A.D. were the ones who knew Jesus, we think, or were followers of Jesus' own disciples, and so they above all others know how we should live our Christian lives. But this! -- this pattern from Acts! No, we do not want to emulate it.
Some pious souls would chastise us for that attitude, of course. They would accuse us of being materialistic, of loving our comfort too much, of making money our lord instead of Christ. We should be willing, they self-righteously tell us, to give up everything for the sake of the gospel and to follow Christ. And of course, in one sense they are right. We are too occupied with buying and selling, with comfort and goods, with possessions and property. And far too often it is the stock market or our bank account that dictates our actions rather than the commands of our Lord. There is nothing that makes us quite so uneasy as when the Bible or the preacher starts talking about money. As the old saying goes, in those cases, "The preacher has stopped preaching and gone to meddling." So let us not excuse ourselves too easily from the demands of this text for the morning.
What does Luke, the writer of Acts, say about that early Christian community? "There was not a needy person among them" (v. 14). That cuts right to the heart of the matter, doesn't it? For there are lots of needy persons among us. There are hundreds of children in our public schools who show up without having eaten breakfast. There are elderly, usually hidden from our sight, who have to choose between buying medicine or buying food, because they cannot afford both. There are the poor, the homeless, the mentally ill who wander our streets without healing or helping aid. We could multiply the list indefinitely. And perhaps the worst thing is that not many of such needy are occupying the pews of our churches. "Where are the poor?" asked the diary of one country priest. "Why are they not on the front row of your church?" Yes, our text convicts us, because there are lots of needy persons who have not even been invited among us.
Perhaps the central question we should ask of our text, however, is: "What motivated those early Christians in Jerusalem to provide for all who had need?" Amazingly enough, it was the resurrection. "With great power," reads our text, "the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus" (v. 33). And that testimony, that proclamation, led to the provision of all in want. Jesus Christ lived in the company of that early church -- Jesus Christ, with his new life for all, with his love for every child and adult and elderly soul. And that life and love filled the hearts of the Jerusalem Christians and overflowed in help and love and new life for all who had need.
Well, last Easter Sunday we celebrated that resurrection. Jesus Christ is risen from the grave and now lives as Lord in our midst. He is here, with his abundant new life and eternal love for all. And our text tells us that that life and love can flow out from our hearts too, to provide for all in their need. No. We do not have to live in a commune or be communists. But we are called to be Christians, and that means that we extend the risen Christ's wondrous new life to all who have want.
