he Rev. Dr. Joseph Lund
St. Margaret's Episcopal Church & School
Last Sunday there was a convergence, a coming together at one time, of the whole Christian world to celebrate the seminal event in the life of Christianity. Easter! Now you already knew that we celebrated Easter, but did you also know that Christians of the Orthodox Community rarely celebrate Easter on the same date with us? A dispute over the creation of the modern Western calendar to account for the extra 1/4 day it takes our planet to make its annual journey around the sun is the cause of this disparity. That subject could be a sermon in itself.
But we rejoice in this unity – even if rarely. And nowhere do they rejoice more than in Jerusalem. On Easter all Christian denominations converge in Jerusalem. And the most important place for this convergence is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (or as the Orthodox Communion calls it, The Church of the Resurrection.) This church is the result of a building program going back to Constantine, when he ordered a church to be built upon the site. Constantine was convinced that is was not only the site of Jesus’ crucifixion but also his grave and resurrection. Please allow me to share a little history.
Constantine’s influence was in the 4th century. What made him, or more precisely his mother Helena, know that this was the site of Jesus’ Passion and Resurrection? Writers in the years after Jesus’ resurrection noted that Christians revered this site, which was actually an abandoned quarry just outside the walls of the then Jerusalem. It has always been believed that Golgotha was at the top of the quarry and Joseph of Aramathea’s tomb was cut into the rock near the bottom of the quarry.
Early in the 2nd century, Roman authorities wanting, in part, to stamp out the Christian movement filled in the quarry with dirt and built a temple to Venus on it. The walls of Jerusalem were enlarged to enclose the site. That temple was still there when Constantine ordered it dug up and the dirt removed. That work exposed the quarry cliff face and the rolling stone tomb believed to be the one in which Jesus was placed. There was even some confirming graffiti. So by disguising the site with a pagan temple the Romans actually preserved it for the future.
Many of you have traveled to the Holy Land. The first thing you might notice about the Holy Sepulcher is that is certainly does not look like a quarry. And further, the tomb of Christ is in this small, ornate building under a great dome. That doesn’t sounds like what I described. But if you are invited by the Armenians, one of the several Christian groups laying claim to the church and sharing a portion of it, to venture through a door about 3 stories below the main floor, you would find yourself –and the church- suspended in the middle of a large quarry. Two stories above the main floor, under one of the altars, you can put your hand through a whole in the wall and touch the face of the quarry that was Golgotha.
Now about the small building, called an aedicule, where it is alleged that the tomb of Christ is found. It was the practice in the early days to carve away the rock around the tomb carved into the face of a stone cliff until there was a small building. The face of this small building would often be carved in bas relief or painted. This was done to distinguish it from other tombs and to memorialize it. What is in the Holy Sepulcher is the small cave-like structure with two small rooms. There is the outer preparation chamber and the inner chamber where the body would finally be laid. Some tombs like this would be used over and over again. The bones would be removed to a common ossuary like the ones in the news currently prompting wild claims about Jesus and his family. From the beginning of Constantine’s church this small tomb was covered with an outer building to preserve it. This tomb is under the central dome of the church and the site of much reverence.
It was at this tomb I found myself one Orthodox Easter some years ago. We had celebrated Easter in our home parish and then traveled with a group to Jerusalem to experience Holy Week and Easter all over again with our Orthodox brothers and sisters. Many of us, including me, had been to Jerusalem before and visited this sight. But this was the first time we were there on Easter Day – even if it was Orthodox Easter. So the emotional level was quite high.
It was quite crowded in the church. Thousands of pilgrims had come from Greece, Russia, and nearby Middle Eastern countries -- everywhere Orthodox Christians lived. You especially noticed the hundreds of small women in black from Greece. They were there to make a once in a lifetime pilgrimage.
So after the services that took place in the church on that Easter morning, I and my fellow travelers lined up in front of the door of the tomb that was guarded by a large man wearing a fez and holding on to a large staff with a metal tip. He used that metal tip to pound on the stone floor to get attention. There was a stone ramp leading up to the door - no longer a rolling stone but a heavy wooden door, part of the outer building. We were close to the front and waited patiently for the door to open and let in a few people in at a time.
The door creaked open and all of a sudden hundreds of these women in black rushed forward using powerful elbows to get in front. This went on for some time and no matter how hard we tried, we kept losing ground in the so-called line. And then it happened, the guard stepped in front of the door, struck the floor with his staff and announced it was now closing time. The door shut and I stood there with my mouth opened in disbelief.
I was very disappointed for this part of the visit was central to the whole trip. The last person, a caretaker of sorts, came out of the tomb and saw the state I was in and said. "There is nothing there. It is empty!" I didn’t think this was the angel who spoke to the women who went to Jesus’ tomb thousands of years ago.
Mary Magdalene went to this same tomb to prepare Jesus’ body but found the stone had been rolled away and there was no body there. She thought it had been stolen by robbers and so she began to weep. Wasn’t it bad enough that they subjected Jesus to such terrors and pain and now they have taken the body to who knows where and were probably defacing it? During this despair she hears the risen Jesus say her name, "Mary." And suddenly she knows that he is alive.
Excited, thrilled and bursting with this good news she rushes to the disciples and told them what had happened. They did not believe her. A woman’s word was not listened to and not a good source of testimony in Biblical times. Of course Jesus turned this notion upside down with his acceptance of women in is immediate circle. But no matter, the heartbroken and scared disciples did not believe her. They locked their doors again, afraid that they might now be accused of stealing Jesus’ body and be imprisoned or even executed.
It was in this locked, bunker-like room that Jesus made his appearance and greets them, "Peace be with you!" Then they rejoiced. All of the disciples witnessed this appearance except one, Thomas. When he shows up and they share their experience of the risen Jesus, "We have seen the Lord!" Thomas responds with a flat, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hand, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hands in his side I will not believe." Obviously Thomas thinks this can never happen. Jesus is dead.
Because Thomas feels left out of the original excitement and cannot believe what his friends have told him, he has become known as the patron saint of all who are the last to know. His name is synonymous with skepticism. But we have something to say on behalf of Thomas and doubt.
Thomas wasn’t always a doubter. Earlier, Thomas told Jesus that he would give his life for him. It was Thomas who asked for clarification so that he might know the way in which Jesus was going. Jesus responds, "I am the way, and the truth and the life."
Honest doubt is not all bad. For a faith to mature it must be examined. Hans Kung, a theologian I read, goes so far as to write: "We must at some time doubt seriously, absolutely seriously, to the point of despair." An authentic believer is not afraid of questioning. Honest faith seeks mature answers and honest Christians who have doubted can make fine witnesses for the faith. It is said: "the believer who has never doubted will hardly convert a doubter."
But Thomas did not remain a cynic. He asked for proof, and when he received it his doubts yielded to conviction. He fell before Jesus and exclaimed, "My Lord and my God!" Thomas did not let his honest doubt prevent faith moving him to conviction. He and the disciples were moved from hiding in that Upper Room to spreading the Gospel all over the world. They risked what kept them in that locked room: persecution, torture, even death, to tell others of the good news of Jesus.
All of us doubt at one time or another. Some of us doubt every week, but the story of Thomas teaches us that we can still be faithful to God even in moments of honest doubt. While Thomas was waiting for proof, he didn’t go off on his own. Instead he stayed in the circle of the disciples until the risen Jesus appeared and erased his doubts. The other disciples let Thomas express his doubts without judgment. Faith can only be shared if doubters are allowed to express their doubts, so that faith can be planted.
Thomas stayed within the circle of the disciples and acted as a person of faith, until faith returned. Anyone can be faithful, when life is easy. It takes real faith to be faithful when life is tough.
Thomas’ may have been the last disciple to know but today his story is one of inspiration. According to our Christian tradition, Thomas (or St. Thomas as we know him now) took the faith to present day India where he is revered as a church founder and martyr. To this day the Mar Thoma Church of India claims Thomas as their founder.
There is nothing wrong with honest doubt, as long as it is a questioning doubt that seeks answers. There is nothing wrong with honest doubt that ultimately sees the truth, acts upon it and then makes a claim like Thomas, "My Lord and My God." How much better it is to know Jesus than to be stuck as a cynic who misses the simple joys of life.
Jesus knew that those who followed in time, that is, you and me, would not be there at this seminal moment in our relationship with Him. So Jesus prayed for faith in us who would find faith in the absence of signs and miracles: "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." We here in this place believe because we have heard from the witnesses to these things and have seen the faith growing all around us.
As the person at the tomb of Jesus said to me, "There is nothing there!" Of course not. The tomb is empty precisely because Jesus is alive. Jesus is alive and the empty tomb points to the truth that by His death He has overcome death and the grave for us. I believed the person at the tomb that it was empty, as Mary believed that Jesus was alive, and as Thomas believed that Jesus was with him always. Mary and the disciples could not keep that fact to themselves no matter the risk. Now it is up to us to spread the news. Who will you tell next?
To uphold and inspire us in this task we do encounter, through the Spirit, the risen Jesus from time to time in our lives. And we encounter Jesus in the Eucharist when we come to the altar of God. As you take that bread into your hands remember what Thomas said, on his knees, "My Lord and My God." For it is nothing less. A M E N
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