With the Doors Locked

​2nd Sunday of Easter – C                                                                    LSB #’s 470:1, 4-7; 468, 917
Text – John 20:19
 
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came & stood among them & said, “Peace be with you!” 
 
WITH THE DOORS LOCKED 
 
Doors  are a means by which  human beings  attempt to exert control  over the chaos of life.   Doors are meant to keep out  mosquitos,  wild animals,  the cold winter wind.   Doors are meant to keep in  pets & small children  while keeping out  people with evil intentions.   Doors are necessary in this life  because sin has corrupted  what God created in perfection. 
On earth,  different families have different traditions regarding who closes or who opens a door.  When is the door closed  & when is it opened?   Who locks the doors at night?  At what time are the doors locked?   In places like Eritrea, Sudan & Ethiopia,  a closed door is a sign of poverty, shame & death.  If the owner is home,  the door will be open otherwise. 
In Jewish society also, the door is kept open.  So in our text when we read that the door is locked,  it’s a sign  that something is wrong,  something is less  than whole.  Jesus comes to restore the wholeness  as He says, “Shalom!”   It’s common to translate that into English as, “Peace be with you.”    Yet,  the Hebrew word shalom means  so much more than that. 
The apostle John may have believed that Jesus rose from the dead,  & Mary may have seen Jesus & reported His resurrection to the disciples,  but they weren’t taking any chances.  They still feared for their lives & had locked themselves in.  Their last week  had been an all too vivid experience of how things can easily go  from bad  to worse. 
Lurking in their hearts are troubling questions about cause & effect,  about destiny,  about life  & about death.  Jesus had told them He is the way & the truth & the life,   & then He was crucified, died & was buried.   Now,  He’s alive again,  but He’s already told them that He’ll be returning to His father in heaven.  Jesus is the One  who’s been healing people of their diseases, even raising  them from the dead.   When He leaves, “What becomes of us?” thought His disciples.   The same question haunts our lives as well, “What becomes of you?   What becomes of me?”   All of our lives,  those questions provide the framework  for everything we do. 
When a child is born, “What will become of them  if we do this,  or do that?”    The question motivates decisions on what & when to feed them,  where & when to put them to sleep.  As they grow, “What will become of them?” guides where & when we send them to school. 
As they graduate, “What will become of me?” provides the framework for decisions on a future career.  As we go through life – whom to marry, what to buy or sell, where to live,  where & when to seek medical treatment,  those questions are grounded in “What becomes of us?” 
As the end of life approaches,  decisions for ourselves & for those who depend upon us, are driven by the looming questions, “What becomes of me?   What becomes of you?”     Jesus came  to restore the wholeness,  & He says, “Shalom!”   Our Gospel reading translates that, “Peace be with you.”    Yet,  the Hebrew word shalom means  so much more than that. 
We commonly think of peace as an absence of war  or conflict of any sort.   Our life experiences teach us that an absence of conflict  is pretty much  as good  as it gets.   If no one is fighting,  don’t rock the boat.  We’re good! 
When Jesus was born,  in a stable,  to a family of peasants,  He was coming from an entirely  superior set  of life experiences.  Jesus came  from heaven,  & from there  He brings to us the word shalom.   Shalom  is what life will be like in paradise,  & it will be that way for all eternity.   There,  doors will never be locked,  if there even are doors. 
In the 10th chapter of John, Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you,  he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief & a robber.  But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.”  (John 10:1-2 ESV)   In this life,  doors are necessary  because of sin’s corruption of all that God created.   Doors  help us determine if someone is a thief & a robber,  instead of a shepherd  of the sheep.   
Ultimately though,  the God who created us  is our protector  & provider.   Jesus tells us that He is  the good shepherd,  & His resurrection from the dead proves that not even death  can limit Him.  In light of Jesus’ resurrection,  our fear of death is clearly the work of the thief & robber – Satan himself.  His goal is to steal our shalom & lock our doors. 
Jesus came to restore the shalom of His experience which is heavenly, perfect  & eternal.  In Exodus, Moses teaches people what to do when suffering a loss of things.  When that loss or injury occurs, the owner is considered to be lacking or incomplete.  The one responsible was to make things right.  Shalom means that things are made complete again. 
In Genesis, when Joseph’s brothers come asking for food, he asks them how they & their father are doing.  They answer that their father is in good health.  Joseph’s questions & his brother’s answers use the word shalom to describe what English translates as good health.  And bad health is a result of sin,  which Jesus did not experience in heaven. 
Heaven is a place of far more than simply good health.  It is an eternity of perfect health.  When Jesus says shalom, His words bring it into reality.  He often tells His followers to stop being afraid, but He doesn’t say that  only as wishful thinking.  He tells us not to fear  because He is bringing shalom, the restoration of His holy & perfect creation. 
Having shalom means we also have patience to wait for that day when our bodies are raised to a perfect health that none of us have ever known.  Having shalom means being content, or at peace, with what God chooses to give us in this life.  God’s word creates what it says,  but He does not jam that down our throats.  Yahweh does allow us to reject His words, to reject His creation,  to reject His shalom.  As saints & yet sinners,  all of us struggle with believing His words, His promises & His eternal reality.  Because of that,  we need God’s words, promises & reality every day.  Like Thomas, our hopes are crushed by the sinful reality in which we also live,  but that reality  is a temporary one,  & as yet,  you & I have experienced no other. 
Thomas had locked the door to his heart, but Jesus appeared to him anyway.   That appearance unlocked the door once again to Thomas’ heart  & he believed.  He was spiritually awakened from the dead.  That is the Holy Spirit’s mission every day,  to awaken all of us from the dead,  & we need it.  Faith is not something that we gain once & never lose. 
Faith is more like a container of water in the desert.  Evaporation constantly removes the water & thus it needs to be refilled every day.   Our faith, our shalom,  needs to be refilled every day, & that’s why God calls us to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.  At the very least, we need to be in God’s house every 7th day in order to receive Yahweh’s shalom. 
There are many causes of fear in the chaos of this sinful world.  It saddens Jesus to see us being afraid,  but He sees & experiences the final resurrection far more clearly than do   you & I.  As we lean upon Jesus in faith, there are no  circumstances in this life  that can tear us out of His hand.  Thomas refused to believe that Jesus was risen,  & Jesus came to claim him. 
Jesus is still today  coming to claim you,  & me  & everyone He created.  When we receive His shalom, His peace,  then we are restored, renewed & empowered to be light in the darkness of our sinful world.  Our peace will shine  as we lean upon Christ,  because God’s perfect love always drives out fear.  Amen.   
 
I am content!   My Jesus is my head;  His member I shall be.  He bowed His head when on the cross  He died with cries of agony.   Now death is brought into subjection  for me by Jesus’ resurrection.    I am content!   At length I shall be free,  awakened from the dead,  arising glorious  evermore to be  with You,  my living head.   The chains that hold my body,  sever;  then shall my soul rejoice forever.  I am content!  I am content!  Amen.  LSB 468:2, 4.