Sermon at Centenary UMC on August 22, 2010
Jisun Kwak

THE FEAR FACTOR
John 20:19-31

Today we will be talking about The Fear.

One of the most popular programs on television is a show on which contestants do really disgusting things in order to face their deepest fears.

It’s called simply, “The Fear Factor.” I don’t understand why people subject themselves to on Fear Factor. It’s funny, though, how people do not share the same fears.

Lydia, my daughter, loved snake when she was little unlike her mother. Somehow the snake fascinated her and she could even touch them. But then she would run screaming for a moth that flying a mile away from her. Different strokes for different folks, as we sometimes say.

I guess we are all afraid of something.

The disciples of Jesus knew about fear.

It was Easter Sunday night and there they were, cowering behind locked doors. We have to wonder why. The writer of the Gospel says it was out of fear of the Jews. But there’s nothing in the record to indicate that after Jesus’ crucifixion the Jewish authorities had any intention of doing harm to his followers.

Maybe it was the Romans they really feared. But that’s doubtful as well. The Roman authorities gave every indication that they could have cared less about these disciples. They seemed reluctant to prosecute Jesus; why go after his followers?

So why the locked doors?
One author suggests that it was Jesus himself that the disciples were afraid of. “Just hours before His death,” says this author, “they had all professed that they would never leave Him, even be willing to be killed along with Him. If Jesus were now alive, what would He say to them? What would He do to them?

Would He say, ‘So, you were going to stand by your Man, huh?’ ‘Going to fight for me, eh?’ ‘Where were you, James and John? You always wanted to be one on my right hand and the other on my left.

Where were you when I was being beaten, when I was stumbling my way up Golgotha, when I was strung up to die?’

He could have told Peter, ‘I heard your denials, and I heard that rooster crow.’

They might have thought that Jesus was going to find them and take out his anger on them just like He chased the moneychangers out of the Temple. So they hid behind locked doors, not out of fear of the Jews, but out of fear of Jesus.” (1)

Maybe that was it.

Certainly, it would not be the first time the disciples were afraid of their Lord. There was something about him that was as intimidating as it was endearing. No one could do the things that he had done without having his friends be in awe. And now, to crown it all, he had overcome the final enemy–death. Who wouldn’t have been uncomfortable in his presence? What do you say, when you are a mere mortal, to the Son of God?

So they cowered and they waited, for what? They did not know.

How do you deal with reports that your closest friend has been raised from the dead? How do you process that? He hadn’t just been in a coma. He hadn’t just swooned. On Friday he was dead. On Saturday he was dead. Then comes Sunday and all of a sudden he’s alive. How do you cope with that?

This is the most dramatic moment in all of human history—and they’ve locked themselves up. This is why the stories of Christ ring so true. Nobody would have made this stuff up. His disciples were acting like girlie-men—to use the governor of California’s favorite expression. The most exciting week in all human experience and all they want to do is escape, hide, fade into the woodwork.

What were they afraid of? What are you and I afraid of?

Oh, we’re afraid, all right. The disciples were not the only ones who cowered behind locked doors. Psychologists tell us that we are also afraid. And sometimes those who are loudest in denying that they are afraid are the most fearful of all. I’m not going to ask you to raise your hand, but is there anyone in this room who is afraid of the future: future for yourself or your children?

Anyone afraid of failing health, afraid of ending up helpless in a nursing home?
Anyone afraid of death?

Anyone here afraid for your children, wondering how you could possibly go on if something happened to someone you love?

Anyone here fearful of losing a spouse?

We’re afraid.

Afraid of a changing society, afraid of a faltering economic climate,
afraid of terrorism, afraid of driving on the highway, afraid of changes in our appearance. Afraid of disappointing our parents, afraid over a troubled marriage. Afraid of failure, afraid of what people think of us.
Afraid that they don’t really think of us at all. Afraid of appearing like a fool.

What are we afraid of? What aren’t we afraid of?

Ironically we may be at the same time, the most secure generation that has ever lived, and the most fearful generation that has ever lived.
And so we live behind locked doors.
Afraid of commitment.
Afraid of joy.
Afraid to be all we can be.
Afraid to open ourselves to the power and the possibility of Christ’s love.

Why are we so afraid?

Here’s an interesting theory.
Psychiatrist and economist Juliet Schor has spent some time studying the advertising industry and its attempt to reach younger audiences with its message of “Buy, buy, buy!” Schor reports that children as young as eighteen months can identify McDonald’s Golden Arches, Disney’s Mickey Mouse, and the Nike swoosh symbol with ease. More and more, advertisers are aiming adult marketing at children, because studies show that children often influence billions of dollars worth of adult purchases.

In Schor’s surveys, she discovered that the more a child is exposed to advertising and materialism–the more anxious and depressed he or she is.
These kids have poor self-esteem, says Schor, because the messages they receive from the consumer culture tell them that they are not good enough, or they will never be happy enough, unless they look a certain way or buy certain products. Kids are learning at ever younger ages that happiness comes in a box, a bottle, a toy, or a piece of clothing. (2)

Do you get that? The whole emphasis of the advertising culture is to make us uncertain about ourselves so that we will go out and get what’s wrong with us fixed by buying certain products. They play on our fears, our uncertainties, our insecurities.

Living behind locked doors.
All of us have been there. And suddenly, from out of nowhere, Christ appears among us. The doors cannot keep him out. Nor can a lack of doors. It may happen in a worship service. The words of a hymn, or a lesson from scripture, or something that is said from the pulpit. It might happen somewhere far from church. Like on the way to Emmaus.

There are many people who run from Christ. Who head for the mountains or the lakes or simply stay in bed on the Lord’s day. They think they’re safe, away from his presence. Then they turn on the television or open a book or stare at a sunrise, or they are in conversation with a friend, and suddenly Christ says a word to them. And something begins to stir within them. Christ passes through locked doors, and he comes to each of us and he offers us . . . peace.

That is what he offered to those first disciples locked away in that room following his resurrection. Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
I wonder if they realized what a gift he was giving them?

Usually we think of peace as the absence of something. If I asked you to define peace, many of you would say it is the absence of war, it is the absence of conflict. Someone else might say, it is the absence of fear. But in Christ’s dictionary, peace is not the absence of some THING, but the presence of SOMEBODY.

Peace is the presence of Christ in a broken world.

It is the assurance that he has overcome the world, and that because he has overcome, so can we overcome as well.

On that first Easter Sunday evening, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear . . . Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

That’s what peace is. It’s knowing that in this world of uncertainty and strife Christ is alive. This is how the fear factor is removed from our lives. The writer of John’s Gospel says that Jesus “showed them his hands and side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.” Suddenly they were no longer afraid. They knew he was alive. They knew that through his strength, not theirs alone, they could endure any trial, overcome any foe. This is how Christ helps us deal with our fears. Christ broke through the locked doors and made himself known when we were in fear.
Christ walked and conversed with us and made himself known when our eyes were filled with uncertainty.

He gave us himself. That is where our hope lies as well.
Our greatest problem is not our fear, but our lack of faith.

If Christ resides within, we can handle anything that comes without.
Do you know why it’s dark at night?
I have heard this answer from a little girl, named, Mary:
It’s dark because, “that’s when God puts the world into his pocket!” (3)

We don’t have to be afraid.
God has the world in his pocket.
Christ is alive.

He shows us his hand and his wounded side and he says, “Peace be with you.”

Have you discovered that peace, or do you still live with the “fear factor?”

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1. This unattributed quote was found at http://desperatepreacher.org/texts/john20_19.htm
2. “Junk Culture” by Andrea Sachs, Time, October 2004, Bonus Section.
3. Bill Bouknight, “Just a Thought,” 2/10/04, Preaching Now, Vol. 3, No. 7 February 17, 2004.