the    sides

This is part of our e-journey through the gospel of John. This week’s from John 20.

Monday mornings are a fight for productivity. The goal for Monday’s is simply this - get SOMETHING done productive. ANYTHING. A devo, some emails, some reading, a meeting - whatever…just get something done PRODUCTIVE. The major obstacle to this goal are interruptions. Meetings, phone calls, emails, and unexpected drop-ins all seem to conspire to make sure that this goal is not meant.

At least, I used to think that way.

I’m pretty sure the disciples had that same mentality on the Monday after Jesus’ death. After the traumatic weekend, anything that could bring normalcy was sought. The goal had to be to get SOMETHING, ANYTHING productive done. ANYTHING to distract us from the pain and agony of the last 48 hours. James, John, Peter and Andrew are planning to go back to the family business- fishing. Thomas returns to his life before the “Jesus Experiment.” Mary Magdalene just wants to make sure Jesus’ body is properly preserved.

That’s when the mother of all unexpected drop-ins occurs. There’s nothing that messes up the day more than to have the one goal of preparing a body for the grave only to find that the person you’re trying to bury isn’t dead anymore.

Mary runs and tells the disciples which starts a series of unexpected appearances.

The disciples lock themselves in a room to make sense of it all and to escape the coming wrath of the religious leaders. Should we believe Mary? Do you honestly think He could raise from the dead? What if it is true? Will he be angry at us for abandoning him? We’ve got to have a plan, a strategy…..

Then Jesus walks through the door…literally…locked and all. And he says - Relax. I preached forgiveness. I’m practicing forgiveness. Here I am, see, touch and believe.

Only one minor problem - Thomas wasn’t there. The Skeptic apparently decided he had enough of the hormones and drama.

Can you hear Thomas speaking? “Hey, we tried, we thought he was the one but let’s not get all emotional. He was a great man, great teacher but guys - read the writing on the wall. It’s over. It’s done. Resurrected? I can’t in good conscious go there with you guys. And because I’m the only realist in this bunch, allow me to love you enough to be honest with you. JESUS IS NOT ALIVE! Unless I see him and touch him myself, I will NOT allow this dream to continue. Let’s just go on with our lives. It’s the best thing we can do. Don’t make this worse than what it already is.”

When Thomas and the disciples finally sit down to meet and talk about it….I’m guessing that Thomas had to be more than slightly annoyed. You gotta figure that he and Peter were going at each other.

Peter: “I’ve seen him!!”

Thomas: “I’m sure you believe that you’ve seen him, we all miss him, Peter.”

Peter: “No, I’ve seen him, $%#% it!!!” (I figure if he cussed when denying Jesus, he probably cussed while affirming him as well.)

Then Jesus does the walking through the door while it’s still locked trick again. “Thomas, bro…you guys have a lot of work ahead of you. Come here and touch me and let’s get this over with so we can move on.”

The unexpected appearance is no longer a distraction, it’s the reason for existing.