John 20:19-31 page 1

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What do we do with losers? If you're Paula Radcliffe, carrying the hopes of a nation in the 2004 Olympic marathon and then failing to finish, you get destroyed by the media and by public opinion. If you're David Beckham, not having a good match, the same newspapers that built you up as the best thing since sliced bread will be eating you for breakfast. If your football team is relegated, the attendances next season will usually go down as many supporters desert the cause.

Or maybe a household appliance is no longer functioning. You'll get rid of it. You might manage to part-exchange it for a new one. You could take it to a council recycling centre. Or, if you're like some of the local apes, you'll just abandon it somewhere in public for it to rot.

Like the Queen song 'We are the champions' says, 'No time for losers'.

Locked in a house on the evening of Jesus' resurrection, the disciples are still, strangely, losers. Jesus may be alive and some of them know it, but they have turned the key in the lock due to fear of 'the Jews' (that is, not the whole Jewish race of which they were all a part but of the religious leaders.

To such a bunch of losers, Jesus appears. Unlike our society, he doesn't write them off or dispose of their services. The risen Jesus brings new life for losers.

Are we losers? Too often in the life of faith we are. We bemoan our failures but never seem to change. What would Jesus say to us? I believe he'd say very similar things to those he shared with his first disciples on that original Easter Day.

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Copyright © David D Faulkner, 2006 except where other sources are attributed or noted as inspiration.