John 20:19-31       “Panic Room”

     Well-known and very well respected advice columnist Ann Landers before her death in 2002 once was asked what the most common problem was that people wrote about.  Without hesitation she said “Fear.”  Appearing in many forms, it’s amazing what fear will do to us.  Louis Pasteur is reported to have had such an irrational fear of dirt and infection that he refused to shake hands.  President and Mrs. Benjamin Harrison were so intimidated by the newfangled electricity installed in the White House they were afraid to touch the switches.  If there weren’t any servants around to turn off the lights when the Harrisons went to bed, they slept with them on.  It’s said that the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin so feared for his safety that his residence in Moscow contained eight bedrooms.  Each night Stalin chose a bedroom at random to sleep in to ensure that no one knew exactly where he was located. 

     Being afraid.  It’s the number one catalyst in the choices we make and it’s the number one thing that causes many of us to make wrong choices.  How many times do we make wrong choices because we’re afraid of what our friends will think, or we’re afraid of being laughed at, or we’re afraid of failing, or we’re afraid of being hurt?  As we see in this morning’s Gospel reading, even the disciples of Jesus gave into fear. 

     In 2002 a movie came out starring Jodie Foster called “Panic Room.”  Foster plays a recently divorced woman who finds an apartment in New York City for her and her daughter.  It’s their opportunity to start over.  But their happiness turns to terror when three burglars, who are seeking millions of dollars hidden there by the former owner, break into their home the night they move in.  To escape, the woman and her daughter retreat to the home’s one unique feature – a self-contained concrete room – the panic room.  The panic room features a four-inch-thick steel door and an impressive security system.  Their intention is to remain hunkered down in safety until the burglars go away. 

     That’s pretty much what the disciples did after Jesus’ crucifixion.  Fearing the same people who had arrested, convicted and crucified their Master, the disciples retreated to their own panic room, to the safety of a home where they could close and lock the door.  They probably figured they’d hunker down for a while, wait out the danger, and then when the uproar over Jesus had passed they’d slip out of Jerusalem and back to their old lives.  They probably figured that once the crisis was over they could go back to the way things used to be.

     There the disciples were behind locked doors in fear, when Christ suddenly came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”  The risen Christ appeared to these frightened disciples and calmed their fearful hearts.  Peace.  Don’t be afraid.  And showing them his hands and side, Jesus wanted them to know that it really was him.  John tells us that “the disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.” 

     You’ve got to wonder, if Jesus hadn’t done that, if Jesus hadn’t appeared, if he hadn’t reassured them of his presence, would they have amounted to anything at all?  The disciples were down, disillusioned, doubting.  Even though some of them had already encountered Christ risen from the dead, they were still stunned by the events of the preceding days.  The last thing they expected was that this would be a day that would bring greatness out of each of them. 

      Christ said a second time, “Peace be with you!”  Then he added these important words, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”  And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit . . .” 

     Why did they need the Holy Spirit?  Because Jesus knew there’d soon come a time when he would no longer be with them physically.  He knew that the days were coming when the disciples would face unbelievable hardships and persecution.  He knew they’d be facing tremendous battles in life that would test the metal of their character.  There’d be days and weeks and months and years when Jesus wouldn’t be able to reassure his disciples by showing them his hands and side.  And so they would need to depend on Christ’s Spirit at work in the world, because without such assistance they wouldn’t make it. 

     And that’s true for us as well.  We believe in Christ.  Each year, just as we did last week, we have this grand celebration of Christ’s resurrection, and yet we live such timid, tentative lives.  We need to continually pray that Christ’s Spirit will be as real to us as it was to the disciples. 

     And it was real to them.  Why, just look what happened to them.  The disciples went from being fearful to being some of the most daring people who have ever walked this earth.  Ridicule couldn’t deter them.  Neither could torture or the threat of death.  Nothing could stop them.  Their terror turned to trusting, their fear was replaced by faith.  They left the panic room to plant the Gospel in every corner of our world.  All because they knew that Christ rose from the dead.

     Think what you and I could do if we truly believed that Christ has risen from the dead and allowed the Spirit to empower us.  Think about the difference we could make in this world, how we could become more loving, more daring, more dramatic in how we carry the cross of Christ.

     So many of us spend literally years of our lives worrying about finances, worrying about our health, worrying about our loved ones, worrying what people think of us, worrying about whether they think of us at all.  But if we trust our lives to God, if we truly believe that Christ really did rise from the grave, if we truly believe that our lives are in God’s hands and that God loves us more than we love our own children, then there’s no limit to what God is able to do for us and through us.

     Bette Midler sang a little tune years ago called “The Rose” that struck a chord with many sensitive hearts.  The words went like this: 

“It’s the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance.

It’s the dream afraid of waking that never takes a chance.

It’s the one who won’t be taken who cannot seem to give.

And the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live.”

     It’s imperative that we ask ourselves this morning if that’s where we’re at right now.  Are you “the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live?”  Are you hiding in your own spiritual panic room?  I’m here to tell you this morning that Christ can come into any room if you’ll let him.  Christ can give you his peace.  He can breathe into you his spirit.  Don’t let any more of life pass you by.  Christ is alive!  There’s nothing in heaven or on earth that we need to fear.

                                                AMEN