Fairhaven Sermon 4-12-2026

Summary

In this week’s service, Rev. Peg Bowman explores the challenge of believing in the resurrection, noting that because it falls so far outside of normal human experience, many struggle to embrace it. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 15, she emphasizes that the resurrection of Jesus is the indispensable foundation of the Christian faith; without it, faith becomes futile. Rev. Bowman also examines the Book of Acts, illustrating the parallels between the Jewish and Christian Pentecosts and providing a critical historical correction regarding the crucifixion, clarifying that the blame for Jesus' death lies with the Roman authorities and specific temple leadership rather than the Jewish people as a whole.

The sermon further delves into the story of "Doubting Thomas" to highlight the journey from uncertainty to a confident, lived faith. By reflecting on Thomas's need for physical proof and the subsequent blessing given to those who believe without seeing, Rev. Bowman connects the biblical narrative to the modern importance of truth, warning that "fake news" and dishonesty undermine the trust required to receive the gift of eternal life. Ultimately, she calls the congregation to move from an inward focus of doubt to an outward focus of mission, encouraging them to be lights of hope and life in the darkness.

Transcript

Welcome to the second week of Easter. For the next few weeks until Pentecost, we are going to be spending time talking about the resurrected Jesus and giving some thought to life after death. And this week, our scripture readings focus on some of the different ways that people experienced Jesus' resurrection, and also on how people struggled to believe it, because life after death is not something we run up against every day. So, you and I, to the best of my knowledge, have never seen anybody die and come back. And for this reason, there are a lot of people, both in and out of the church, who don't really quite believe this resurrection story, or that resurrection might apply to us. People say things like, "Well, Jesus was a great teacher," or, "Jesus was a man of great compassion," and these things are true. But where it comes to being crucified and then resurrected three days later, a lot of people just can't quite go there. Resurrection is way outside of our experience, and it's hard to get our minds and our hearts around.

So one of the things that encourages me is what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15. The Apostle Paul says, Jesus died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, and he was buried, and he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and he appeared to Cephas, that is Peter, and then to the Twelve. And Paul continues, "...for if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins." If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have died. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all are made alive.

So Paul is saying, if Jesus was not raised from the dead, we're wasting our time here. Might as well go home, mow the lawn, enjoy a beautiful Sunday morning, right? But the fact is that Jesus is alive. This is the core foundation of our Christian faith. Without much, we really don't have much of a faith at all. So for the next few weeks, we'll be hearing from people in the New Testament, people who were eyewitnesses to Jesus' resurrection, who by their witness gave our faith a solid foundation.

And I find it comforting that on the first Easter morning, even the disciples weren't sure what was going on. Mary Magdalene thought Jesus was the gardener. The disciples on the Sea of Galilee didn't recognize Jesus on the beach, and nobody recognized Jesus on the road to Emmaus. So Jesus is risen, but somehow the risen Jesus is not the same. He's different now. It makes sense that a resurrected body would not be the same thing as a mortal body. A resurrected body might look a little different. It might be able to do things we can't normally do. The important thing today is to believe that the resurrection is not only possible, but that it has indeed happened, and it will continue to happen for all of us who trust Jesus. This is our hope, and hope does not fail.

So, let's take a look at today's scripture, starting with the reading from Acts. Now, this reading that we just heard actually takes place on the day of Pentecost, and for that reason, part of me kind of wishes that we were going to be reading this a few weeks from now on Pentecost. We will come back to this chapter in a few weeks, but in the verses we're reading today, Peter is speaking to the crowds in Jerusalem on the day of the Jewish Pentecost. This will become the Christian Pentecost as well, but that's not where Peter is in these particular verses. So, the Christian Pentecost didn't exist had it just happened, but they didn't know that yet. Peter is in Jerusalem for the Jewish feast of the Pentecost, a holiday that celebrates the giving of the Torah, the law of Moses, 50 days after Passover.

So there is a parallel between the two faiths. In the Jewish faith, there's the Passover, when the blood of the Lamb was placed over the doors of the Jewish homes in Egypt, and the blood of the Lamb was placed over the doors of the Jewish homes in Egypt. And then 50 days later, after the Exodus, the Jewish Pentecost celebrates the giving of the Ten Commandments. For Christians, we have Good Friday, on which we remember the Lamb of God crucified for us. And then 50 days later, Christian Pentecost celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit, which makes it possible for the law of God to be written on our hearts.

You see the parallel. So, in this reading from Acts, Peter is speaking on the day of Jewish Pentecost, and he is speaking to his fellow Jews who have come to Jerusalem from all over the world to celebrate the holiday. There are Jewish visitors in town, from all over the place, from the Roman Empire, from Africa, from Egypt, from the Middle East, from Mesopotamia. And all of a sudden, all these people are hearing the disciples praising God in their own languages, and they want to know what's going on. So Peter explains to them, from one Jewish believer to other Jewish believers, he says, "You have heard about Jesus," which they had, because Jesus was very popular and very well known in those days, even in places that were far from Jerusalem. And Peter said, "You know about his deeds of power. You were witnesses to his miracles. You heard him preach. You heard him teach. Jesus was handed over to the authorities by God's plan and foreknowledge, and you crucified him by the hands of those outside the law."

Now, what Peter is saying is that the Jewish temple authorities manipulated non-Jewish people, that is the Romans, into handing down a death sentence on Jesus. In those days, capital punishment in Israel had to be by stoning. That was the law. Crucifixion was something only Romans could do, and Jewish authorities wanted to see Jesus crucified.

Now, I need to do a really strong side note for a moment here, because these words of Peter's, where he says, you crucified him, have been misused, misinterpreted, and twisted down through the centuries in ways that are extremely anti-Semitic. Scholars have blamed the Jews for Jesus' death, and they use this verse in Acts as proof. So let me debunk this. First off, Peter is Jewish, and the people that Peter is speaking to are Jewish. Everyone in this conversation is a loyal and devout Jew. This is a conversation between people who are all citizens of one country or of one faith, and it was not meant to be heard by non-Jews.

Secondly, we have no proof that the average Jewish person was complicit in Jesus' death. Jesus was tortured and turned over to the Romans by the temple leadership, which had some problems with Jesus. The temple in those days had its own police force and its own guards. These are the people who arrested Jesus with help from Judas Iscariot. They wanted to see Jesus dead on a cross, but since that was illegal, they took Jesus to Pilate. Pilate, meanwhile, knew that Jesus was innocent, and he said so. But Pilate caved in to the shouts of the temple leadership who whipped up a crowd against Jesus. So Pilate gave them what they wanted and crucified Jesus, and he posted the sentence over Jesus' head, which is the Roman tradition. He said, They post what the guy was guilty of over top of their head. And his sentence read, The King of the Jews, which was an extremely anti-Semitic statement. And the Jews knew this, and they objected. And they said to Pilate, and they asked him to change it, to say, this man said he's the king of the Jews, but Pilate said, what I have written, I have written, and refused to change it.

Which shows us what Pilate thought of the Jewish authorities. So, back to Peter's speech on Pentecost. What Peter is saying is that all of these things happened according to God's plan, which doesn't let anybody off the hook, Jews or Gentiles, But it does let us know that everything happened as planned. King David himself predicted and described crucifixion in Psalm 22, at least 500 years before crucifixion was invented. and because So the cross was always there in the ancient prophecies, and so was the resurrection. David writes in the psalm that we read today, Psalm 16, "'My heart is glad and my soul rejoices. My body also rests secure, for you did not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the pit.'"

David is not talking about himself because David died and was buried, and his tomb still "I'm exists in Jerusalem to this day. David, being a prophet as well as a king, was talking about the Messiah. So Peter said all the things I just said here. Peter said all these things to the crowd in Jerusalem on that Pentecost day. And as a result, over 3,000 people became believers in Jesus in just one day.

And we're going to talk more about that on Pentecost Sunday. Our other reading for today is the well-known story of so-called doubting Thomas. To set the setting, this is the first day of the week after the crucifixion. This is Sunday evening. And earlier that day, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary had told the disciples, We have seen the Lord. But the disciples haven't seen Jesus yet, and they don't know quite what to make of what the women have told them. So they've gathered together in a house with the doors locked because they're afraid. We have seen the Lord. Basically afraid that the people who crucified Jesus might have a few more crosses available for them.

So they're in as much doubt as Thomas. And suddenly, Jesus is with them in the house. How did he get in? I mean, did he beam in like on Star Trek? We don't know. Apparently, resurrected bodies can do some things that regular bodies can't do, which is something to look forward to. But Jesus' first words to the disciples were, peace be with you. Not because Jesus is expecting to hear and also with you, but Jesus said this because the disciples were troubled by Jesus' appearance. Each one of them was probably thinking back to the last time they saw Jesus. Peace.

On that fateful night when Jesus was arrested, some of the disciples were in the garden and ran away. Some of them followed Jesus to his trial, and then realizing Jesus was going to die, went somewhere else. The best that we can tell from Scripture, the only disciple of the Twelve who stayed with Jesus all the way to the end was John. And the women, Mary, Jesus' mother, Mary's sister, and Mary Magdalene. It was the women, along with Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, who placed Jesus in the grave. So where were the disciples? else. it makes sense that Jesus' first words to them are, peace be with you.

It's a way of saying, hey, in case you doubt it, I still love you. The Hebrew word for peace, shalom, sounds a lot like the Hebrew word for paid in full, which would be another way to hear what Jesus said. The peace of God is offered freely, but it is also costly. And Jesus' words mean more than forgiveness. They are an invitation to start again.

So after Jesus greets them, he shows them all his wounds and his hands and his feet and his side with a spear. And it's proof that this really is Jesus and that resurrection really is possible. Jesus is still very much human, but he is no longer dead. and the same tortured body that went into the tomb is the same body the disciples are looking at right now. This really is Jesus. He really is alive, and Jesus forgives them and welcomes them, and that's all they need to know.

But one man's missing, Thomas. Thomas was one of the Twelve. He was very close to Jesus. And when he's told that Jesus is alive, he says, no way. Unless I see the scars and place my hand in his side, I will not believe. And this is a very reasonable reaction from someone who loved Jesus deeply. Thomas knows that everyone wants to see Jesus alive and that grief can do funny things. Thomas is committed to the truth, and God bless him for that.

So a week later, the disciples are all together again in the same house with the doors locked again, but this time Thomas is with them. And again, Jesus pops in, and we don't know how he got in, and Jesus does not say anything negative to Thomas, but he does seem to know what Thomas has said. So Jesus says to him, "See my hands, see my feet."

And if you would hit that slide. There you go. Back on, please. Here we go. I love this painting. This just kind of sums things up. It's done by the Italian Renaissance painter Caravaggio. It's called The Incredulity of St. Thomas. And you can see Jesus on the left. actually with his left hand guiding Thomas' hand into the spear hole in his side. You see, actually putting his hand there. There you go. Jesus wants Thomas to know the truth. And now Thomas knows because he has actually touched the truth.

And Jesus speaks blessing on all of us who don't have the opportunity to touch, but still believe. There you go. Thanks. By the way, this is why I believe that fake news is such a bad thing. Fake news is nothing new. Fake news has been around as long as the human race has been around. But this is why fake news is such a damnable thing. Because anything that is not truth stands against everything Jesus stood for. Fake news chips away at people's ability to trust. And faith and trust are needed in order to see Jesus for who he is and to receive the gift of eternal life.

At the end of these conversations, Jesus says to his disciples, "'As the Father sent me, so I send you.'" Jesus' resurrection moves us from being focused on our own little group to being outward focused, like Peter was on the day of Pentecost. Jesus moves us from wrestling with doubt to confident faith. And real faith is not so much believing in miracles. Hebrews 11 says, Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. We know what we know because Jesus knows. We believe in resurrection because Jesus lives. And now we are called to light a candle in the darkness and to sing songs of hope and of life in the valley of the shadow of death. Amen.