Given at Church of the Redeemer, Cairo, IL, Saturday, on April 14th, 2007; and at St. Stephen’s Church, Harrisburg, IL, on Sunday, April 15th, 2007
“Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples…..”1
Did those words stand out to you: “many other miraculous signs”?
They point back to the most miraculous sign of all: Jesus’ resurrection. They also point back to the other miraculous things that Jesus did, signs that John recorded earlier in his Gospel account.
In this part of John’s Gospel, we seem to be bringing together many threads that have played themselves out over the previous twenty chapters. So let’s look at some of them, as they are referred to in today’s appearance accounts: first to the disciples in Easter Sunday evening, and then to Thomas, a week later….
Among the threads we discover are these:
- “Take heart, I have overcome the world”:2 Here we see Jesus overcoming the world…how so?: look at today’s account:
Jesus walks through a closed and locked door….the implication is that the physical limitations and boundaries will no longer be able to contain Him.
Jesus shows the disciples His hands and His side….the power of the nails and the spear to destroy are of no effect any longer. - “Your grief will turn to joy”:3 Today’s account records the disciples’ joy after Jesus showed them His hands and His side.
- “When he, the Spirit of Truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.”:4 Jesus’ bestowal of the Holy Spirit fulfills His promise. The gift of the Holy Spirit means:
New life in God: just as the spirit of God moved over the waters at the beginning of creation, the movement of the Holy Spirit as it is given means the beginning of new life in God through Jesus Christ. Believing is the way we enter into this new life (a consistent point of John’s Gospel account).
The end of fear: Notice that the disciples were gathered together behind closed doors “because of fear of the Jews” (verse 19). But, after Jesus breathes on them and says, “receive the Holy Spirit”, there is no more mention of fear.
The Holy Spirit will assist the disciples in spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ: “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven, if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” What might this mean? One commentator5 suggests the answer is to be found in John 16: 8 – 9: “when he (the Spirit of Truth) comes, he will convict the world of guilt, in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment…” For John’s writing, the definition of sin is to be “unbelieving”, just the situation Jesus encouraged Thomas not to fall into.
But all these signs point forward: they point to you and to me….Sometimes, I wish John had left a blank in his writing at this point….I wish he’d left a blank so that I could fill in my name: It’d read like this: “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you, Gene, might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you, Gene, might have life in His name.”
Now, of course, the idea isn’t just to be able to put my name in that space, but that each of you would put your name in that imaginary space, as well.
That’s why the Lord came in the first place, to show God’s love (see John 3: 16) in order that all might have life in the name of Jesus Christ.
One final note: In John 1:50, we read Jesus’ words to Nathaniel, “you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than these.” And so it came to be: Jesus demonstrated by the miraculous signs that accompanied His ministry that “God was with Him”6
The most miraculous sign of all is Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, the sign that capped all the other signs He did. And those signs still continue, for people have been putting their names in the ranks of the believers, believing in Jesus Christ and in His resurrection ever since. Thanks be to God!
1 John 20:30
2 John 16:33
3 John 16:20
4 John 16:13
5 Gail R. O’Day, in The New Interpreter’s Bible article “The Gospel of John: Introduction, Commentary and Reflections”
6 John 3:2
