Second Sunday of Easter

Three times in our text (John 20:19-31) Jesus says “peace be with you.” While we might read this as a habitual greeting in the same way we use “how are you,” without often meaning that we want to know exactly how a person is feeling physically, we can also read this greeting as the literal intention of Jesus. What if, spoken or not, every time Jesus was present with his disciples, his first and main priority was to bring peace? What if the same is true now? What if, without the hope and intention for peace, God cannot be present with us? What if seeking, striving for and maintaining deep and abiding peace invokes the very presence of God at the heart of our communities?

As we face hard challenges, deaths of family or friends, tragedies and misfortunes which seem unfair and a world in which sinners seem to prevail, it is often very hard to believe that Christ is alive.

But what if, when we are beset with sorrow and worry, we slowed ourselves down and took a deep breathe, breathing in the peace of God? Often as we face hard things, we can’t hear the voice of Christ saying our name, and yet, if we will listen in faith, it will come to us, just as it did to Mary as she wept beside the empty tomb.