A Short Sermon for Quasimodogeniti

Hallelujah, Christ is risen!

This Sunday is the second Sunday of Easter. The season of celebration, the season of the Resurrection. Traditionally, it is called “Quasimodogeniti,” because of the old Latin antiphon for today: Quasi modo geniti infantes, Halleluja, rationabile, sine dolo lac concupiscite. This is from 1 Peter 2:2; it is the first half of the verse that tells us “as newborn babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation[.]”

Even in the Church’s celebration of today is the command to grow unto salvation. The Easter season is a time that our joy rings out, and we think of our present and coming resurrection along with Christ. This Sunday in particular has been a time to think on our new birth in Baptism. We are made new along with Christ! Because He lives, we live! Hallelujah!

The Gospel for today is the same in the traditional, one-year lectionary as in the Revised Common Lectionary: John 20:19-31.

¹⁹ When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. ²⁰ And when he had said this, he showed unto them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord. ²¹ Jesus therefore said to them again, Peace be unto you: as the Father hath sent me, even so send I you. ²² And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit: ²³ whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. ²⁴ But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵ The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. ²⁶ And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. ²⁷ Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and see my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. ²⁸ Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. ²⁹ Jesus saith unto him, Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. ³⁰ Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book: ³¹ but these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in his name.

There’s a familiar story here: good old “doubting Thomas.” A lot of things can be said about Thomas, and we can learn a lot from him. We can learn the value of faith without proof, if we’re careful to understand the difference and we don’t pretend that it makes faith irrational. We can learn about confessing Christ as God – Thomas’ “My Lord and my God” is a clear confession of the identity of Jesus as one with the Father, given the first-century context and nature of how he says it in the original. We can learn about how Jesus comes to us in our weakness, and condescends to help our unbelief. We can even ask the question if Thomas got a share in the Holy Spirit, since he wasn’t there when Jesus breathed on the other disciples in verse 22-23.

In fact, those first few verses, up to and including 22 and 23 are full of interesting things: John’s account of the Holy Spirit coming, the greeting “Peace be with you,” the fact that the other disciples got the proof of hands and side, and the power to forgive and retain sins – and that’s a whole lot in itself.

However, what struck me most this week was the last two verses. John gives us a glimpse into his writing process, and tells us what’s up. Jesus did many more things than we hear about. The Gospels aren’t biographies: they’ve got a purpose. John even comes out and tells us what that purpose is: that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and in believing, have life in His name.

To believe that Jesus is the Christ. Is John just trying to convince us? Is this Gospel an exercise in persuasive writing? Hardly. The fact is, we use the word “believe” for some things that aren’t belief. 

“What’s the weather like?” “Well, I believe it will rain this evening.” No, no I don’t. I am of that opinion, or maybe, I have reason to think it will rain, because there are clouds on the horizon, or I can tell by the breeze, or I heard the weatherman say so. I don’t believe it, though, not the way the Scriptures talk about belief. 

Belief isn’t some middle thing between knowledge and opinion – that’s kind of how we treat it these days, ever since Immanuel Kant defined it that way. If belief is just a slightly more certain opinion, a slightly less certain knowledge, then it’s just what I choose based on persuasion. If that’s the case, then picking a religion is just about which one I find convincing.

That’s not the belief of Scripture – that’s not the belief that comes from the Gospel. The faith that comes from the Gospel is a response. It’s a recognition that God is speaking to us, and that this is our answer. This is why John wrote, this is why we read the Gospel, this is why we proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ – because it is a message that demands an answer.

This Gospel tells us of Jesus Christ, and it demands from us a response. It requires that we answer the question that the very existence of Jesus and His Resurrection pose to us. Faith comes from the power of God in the Gospel, the Gospel which is the power of God unto salvation. What we believe, our faith, that’s a gift, given to us by God, which comes about through hearing and receiving His Word. 

No one is ever convinced to become a Christian – we encounter the living God in the proclamation of His Word. He stands before us and demands an answer – He offers us an answer to our problem. He stands before us, saying “you, a sinner, stand condemned, yet I have died for you, and you are raised with me.” Salvation is of God alone. He asks the question, and provides the answer.

This is why it is written: that we may believe. That we may have life. God’s “Yes” to us in Christ is the answer to the very question that He poses to us. And this “Yes” transforms us – we are reborn and made new. We are newly created in Christ, we have been raised with Him, and that reality is now. 

We are now resurrected with Christ, and He is present with us, in bread and wine, and in the power of God in our lives. In that very Word that transforms us. In that Word that makes new our lives, our relationships, our desires. God’s Word proclaimed doesn’t just tell us a story of what happened – it makes it real, here and now, it does what it says. It creates faith.

He is risen – and we are raised with Him. Glory be to Him.