Sometimes God’s greatest gift to us is an inability. God gifts us with things we cannot do. We cannot change our histories. We cannot go back in time and fix what we think is broken. There are no do-overs. We cannot travel back in time and fix the mistakes we have made. We cannot undo the sins we have committed—we cannot make right those things that we made wrong—we can’t undo what we have done or redo what we should have done. Going back in time is theoretically impossible. More importantly, it is theologically impossible.
We don’t get to redo our past. But God gets to redeem it.
Though it may not feel like it, this is a gift. It is a gift we can see in light of Jesus’ resurrection and in hope of our own.
John 20:1-18
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to their homes.
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
When John records his Gospel, he gives us the facts around Christ’s resurrection, but he provides a little flourish. He doesn’t overexplain things like some preachers are wont to do but the way he presents the sequence of events is interesting.
Let’s chart these events out. Jesus is crucified on Friday and goes into the tomb for three days. Most of Friday, all of Saturday, and part of Sunday morning. Not three 24-hour periods but portions of three days. (There are those who suggest that Jesus was actually crucified on Wednesday which allows for three full 24-hour periods in the tomb. I’m not convinced.)
Jesus is raised on Sunday and the women visit the tomb on that morning. John points out that it is Mary Magdalene who visits the tomb and as she arrives she discovers that the large stone covering the tomb entrance has been rolled away. She is the first to see the resurrected Jesus though she is initially confused about who he is and mistakes him for the gardener. (Anyone else imagine in your mind an old man with a big floppy hat, gloves, and hedge clippers in his hand? Just me? OK.)
Then it says in vv. 19:
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week…Jesus came and stood among them and said “Peace be with you”.
All of the disciples were there except Thomas. We don’t know what he was doing nor why he missed that gathering but his absence sets the stage for the drama that happens the following week. His story is critical for us. We’ll come back to Thomas but for now we need to keep looking at the sequence of events.
Jesus appears to the disciples on the evening of the day that he was raised from the dead. Sunday on our calendars. The first day of the week according to the Gospel writers. Note, this is not the Sabbath, not yet anyway. The Sabbath is the 7th day of the week, Saturday. God rests on the 7th day. Jesus is raised on the 1st day of the week. Since the resurrection occurred on Sunday, the Christian movement began to worship on Sunday treating that day as the Christian Sabbath. St. Jerome put it this way:
If pagans call the Lord’s Day the ‘day of the sun’, we willingly agree, for today the light of the world is raised, today is revealed the sun of justice with healing in his rays.
It did not take long for Christians to worship on Sunday even though it was a regular work day for the world around them.
Again, Jesus appears to the disciples on the evening of the day that he was raised from the dead. It is at least a week before Thomas meets Jesus. And during the meantime Thomas must think his friends were going crazy. But then, we read in vv. 26, these words, provided below from a few different translations.
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. – NRSV
Just over a week later, the disciples were indoors again and Thomas was with them. – J.B. Phillips
Eight days later, his disciples were again in the room. – the Message
After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. – NASB
In the Greek it says:
kai oktō hēmera meta autos mathētēs eimi esō palin, · ho kai Thōmas meta autos
Although you don’t speak Greek you undoubtedly noticed that word, “okto”, or 8th day. So, if we read John literally, Jesus appeared to Thomas not a week later but a week and a day later. Is that really what John is saying?
John could have said, “Monday a week later”, or one week and one day later, or something else like that. But he uses that language of 8 days, or the 8th Day.
In the Judaism of the time, the 8th Day symbolized a special inbreaking of God’s work in the world. You may remember that Jewish boys were circumcised on the 8th Day, symbolizing the mark of God’s covenant. It was apocalyptic language used to described God’s creative work—in the case of Jesus’ resurrection, we may call it recreative work. The 8th Day was God’s mark on time.
John uses this language because when Jesus appears to Thomas, remarkable things happen, in a week filled already filled with the most remarkable of things. These are miniature apocalypses—revelations of God’s inbreaking work.
Apocalypse #1 Doubting Thomas is made confident that Jesus is risen from the dead. Jesus reveals himself to Thomas, shows him his scars. Thomas believes. Maybe he touches the wounds, maybe he doesn’t. Either way, Thomas is convinced because Jesus reveals himself to the doubter.
Apocalypse #2 Thomas declares that Jesus is his “Lord and his God”. That’s a really big claim and it is the first time Jesus is described that way. Thomas may not know it, but he is revealing Christ’s divinity in this moment where he calls Jesus God. In this moment, Thomas reveals the divinity of Jesus.
Apocalypse #3 Jesus pronounces a blessing over us. The philosopher Charles Taylor has said that “we are all Thomas now.” Us 21st Century folk are so much like Thomas. We are swimming in a cultural moment where every faith claim is contested. Traditional Christianity’s truth claims are suspect, even to those of us who grew up with them. We live in a world where incredulity is the norm. Doubt is as natural as breathing. Thomas’s disbelief is not that hard for most of us to identify with. This is not because we are natural skeptics but because we live in an environment of skepticism.
So, it is all the more apocalyptic what Jesus says to Thomas after he proclaims him his “Lord” and his “God.” In vv. 29 Jesus says,
Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.
Thomas’s experience sets Jesus up to speak through the centuries to us. Blessed are you when you do not see but yet believe. Blessed are those of us who believe in the resurrection of Jesus because of witnesses, because of what we have been given, because of what can’t be explained away, including the lives of those witnesses. Jesus reveals our blessedness, those of us who have not seen but have still believed—Apocalypse #3.
“8 days later”, “on the 8th day” is the language of apocalypse—revelation.
Let’s wrap this up by thinking out loud about the 8th Day again.
The number eight was, for ancient Christianity, the
symbol of the Resurrection, for it was on the day
after the Sabbath, and so the eighth day, that Christ
rose from the tomb. Furthermore, the seven days of
the week are the image of the time of this world, and
the eighth day of life everlasting. Sunday is the liturgical
commemoration of the eighth day, at the same
time a memorial of the Resurrection and a prophecy
of the world to come…
J. Danielou, The Bible and the Liturgy
The 8th day describes the life everlasting. It describes God’s time. That time in which God dwells with us because Jesus has entered time and transformed it.
This, then, is the way in which we interpret the
Eighth Day…namely that when the time that is measured
in weeks comes to an end, an Eighth Day will
come into being…It will remain one day continually,
never to be divided by the darkness of night. Another
sun will bring it into being, radiating the true
light; embracing all things in its luminous power, it
will produce light continually and will make those
who share in that light into other suns.
St. Gregory of Nyssa, Commentary on the Sixth Psalm
Jesus’s appearance to Thomas is an apocalypse for him and for us.
The language of the 8th Day, John’s little apocalyptic hint, reminds us that with the resurrection of Jesus, our experience of time has changed. Something new has happened. Something apocalyptic. The future, God’s good future, has entered the present. Through touching Jesus’ wounds and proclaiming him our “Lord and our God” we are participating in God’s future . . . eternal life is happening now.
This means, we lean into the future by participating fully in the present. We do all of that good creative and joyful work now that we are tempted to put off into the future. Why? Because God’s good future has arrived. God’s Kingdom has arrived.
Because God’s future has arrived in our present—we can forgive our past. We can let go of the things that we have done, allowing God to redeem them, rather than us relive them. Remember, going back in time is not only a bad idea, it is theologically impossible.
Because God’s future has arrived in our present—we can forgive others their past. We can let go of the things that they have done (and probably will do again) because just like us, we know that God is going to redeem them. And, because of God’s time, this 8th Day, we can be patient because we know that we have all the time in the world.
Because God’s future has arrived in our present—we can build. We can build ministry, endeavors for the common good, in places that are considered God-forsaken. Because, on the 8th Day, the day of resurrection, we can live eternity in time.
Because God’s future has arrived in our present—we can plot goodness. We can scheme grace. We can look for opportunities to conspire against our neighbors with the love of God.
Because God’s future has arrived in our present—we mark every week by gathering to worship, receive, relate, and participate in the divine conspiracy.
One last story. You may remember in the book of Numbers, that Moses sent 12 spies into the promised land. Ten of the spies returned talking about the riches of the land but also of the giants. We should just give up and not go in. They are too big, too powerful.
But two of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, pointed to the giant grapes that they brought back from the land and said, God is with us, we should go in. The bunch of grapes that they brought back was so big it took multiple people to carry it on a long pole. What were they doing? They were bringing the future—life in the promised land—into the present. The giant grapes were an image of God’s future (the promised land) brought into their present.
When we receive the fruit of those vines, in the cup of communion, God is—once again—bringing the future into our present. God’s future has arrived in our present as we drink the cup of salvation. ⊕
From the second week of Eastertide 2019.
TANGENCE 