Preaching Goes Viral

John 20:19-31

Analogies to Mythic Narratives

I find it curious that in both of the Sunday encounters we read in this passage of John 20, both times the disciples are hiding out in a locked room.  On the first week we are even overtly told they locked the doors out of fear.  For some weird reason, the outer world did not transform in an instant just because Jesus had been raised from the dead.  There were still things to fear.  The Jesus who told the disciples six chapters earlier “Let not your hearts be troubled” encounters still-troubled hearts in this chapter, Easter’s reality or no. We are troubled too.  We are locked up in our houses out of fear of a virus we cannot see but that stalks us.  So maybe there is Good News in this story that Jesus pops into locked rooms of fear.  That he presents evidence—somehow, some way—of the Life he has to give.  That he gives us a servant like John to tell us the story that we may believe.  And this year perhaps that is enough.  “My Lord and my God!”  Yes, Lord God, stay close.

2022-12-16

Scott Hoezee

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