On a Higher Law
April 27, 2025
Traceymay Kalvaitis

John 20:19-31
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Acts 5: 27-29
When [the authorities] had brought [the apostles], they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.”
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Today’s sermon is titled On a Higher Law. My children’s Easter baskets have been properly pillaged by now. All the best candy is long gone. This year I made Easter baskets out of brown paper bags, cut down and reassembled into smaller bags about the size of my two hands cupped together. I filled them with old hay from the mulch on the garden beds and tucked a small chocolate bunny in each one along with an assortment of filled eggs, lollipops, and jellybeans. This morning I returned the hay back to the garden beds, disposed of the leftover candy wrappings, and put the brown paper Easter baskets in the recycle bin. I composted the wilting purple tulips from the centerpiece on the dining room table.
The trappings of Easter have served their purpose and the holiday of Easter has passed, but in Easter we find the beginning of something and it is still unfolding. Many of my colleagues in ministry take off the Sunday after Easter (and the Sunday after Christmas) but these are some of my most favorite times of the year because something very significant has happened and it is only in the wake of the event that we can truly begin to consider the effects of what has just transpired.
This Sunday is regarded as the second Sunday in the season of Eastertide. For six more weeks we will move through Eastertide, and we will be guided by readings from the Gospels of John and Luke, and we will also have readings from the book of Acts that chronicle what was happening in the weeks, months and years following the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus’s arrest, torture and execution is undoubtedly the most remembered single act of political violence against an individual in the history of humankind. Jesus’s preaching and healing were such a threat to the power structure of empire and temple because he was engaging the hearts and minds of the Jewish people and confirming their hopes that he was the long-awaited Messiah. The people were familiar with the messianic predictions from the prophets, especially the prophet Isaiah who wrote about a “suffering servant” “wounded for our transgressions…bruised for our iniquities.” (Isaiah 53:5).
We read in our scriptures for today that on Sunday evening, the same day that the tomb had been found empty, after Mary Magdalene had come with the news that she had seen Jesus and that he had spoken with her, Jesus appeared to the other disciples, quietly, through locked doors. He comes bearing his wounds, with a message of peace to his disciples, a message of peace even for those who abandoned him in his hour of need, even for the one who three times denied their friendship. Jesus must have seemed the very embodiment of the suffering servant Isaiah described, with wounds bearing the evidence of how those in power sought to silence him, and sought to disable him. And yet he is standing there among them. We can imagine that perhaps for the very first time the disciples may have been able to begin to assimilate that their beloved teacher is the long-awaited Messiah. They began to believe because they could see with their own eyes, but not everyone was there. Thomas was not with them, so eight days later, when they were all together, again behind locked doors, Jesus appears among them and he offers his wounds as evidence of the violence he endured; he offers his wounds as evidence of his identity.
Jesus, whom we can now refer to as the Christ, has a gift for his disciples. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit, imparted by breath (read into this gift the power of words, of song, of prayer…the power of life itself). The significance of this gift of the Holy Spirit can not be overstated. I believe it was this gift of the Spirit that empowered them to become apostles (the word apostle signifies one who is sent out to accomplish a specific task). I believe it was the gift of the Spirit that gave the apostles their courage to risk their lives and follow Christ’s command to share what they had witnessed, and I believe it was this gift of the Spirit that must have made the teachings come alive for all who would hear them. It was certainly the gift of the Spirit that would allow the apostles to begin to heal all manner of illnesses.
It is here, Friends, that the cycle begins to repeat itself. The apostles are so amazed, they are so full of the Spirit, they begin to teach and preach in the temple and all around Jerusalem. They learn they have the power to heal and people flocked to them. Acts 5:16 says, “There came a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bring the sick and they were healed, every one.” This next part of the story was not included in our reading for today, so I will paraphrase it for you. The apostles were arrested and thrown into prison. The next morning, when the guards went to fetch them to appear before the authorities, their cells were locked and empty. The guards found the apostles in the temple, teaching and preaching. They were seized once again and brought before the authorities, who said, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching; you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” The authorities called for them to be put to death immediately. It was one man, Gamaliel, who spoke up for them, urging mercy. We read that the apostles were “flogged and released.”
This is the inflection point, Friends. This is where the apostles, already warned, jailed, punished and warned again, make the commitment to “obey God rather than any human authority.” They, like Jesus, were willing to risk their lives rather than be silent. In the very next chapter of Acts, one of the apostles, Stephen, is the first to be put to death. Many other deaths will follow in a failed effort to quell the momentum of the movement that came to be known as The Way.
We have seen down through human history that when people in power begin to misuse whatever system of justice they have at hand to target groups of people they deem as undesirable, the outcome is catastrophic. Think Roman Emperor Nero and the Christian persecutions. Think Andrew Jackson and the Trail of Tears. Think Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust.
Theologian and Friend, Matthew Myer Bolton, in his commentary on our passage from Acts, stated in his podcast this past week, “When the powers that be are corrupt, that corruption often takes the form of an abusive power manifest in the justice system, turning it and twisting it into a system of injustice.”**
The apostles were certainly victims of injustice. They did not have the protections of Roman citizenship. Roman citizens could not be punished without a trial, they could not be crucified or fed to wild beasts, and they were entitled to legal representation. The apostles knew there was a higher law; they said, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” The apostles knew there was a higher law and we know it, too. It can be incredibly dangerous for any individual to lay claim to knowledge of a higher law than human authority, but a community of people that can engage in a collective process of discernment has, in the past, called for a higher law to be the guiding force in our culture. Think founding fathers and the U.S. Constitution. Think American churches calling for the abolition of slavery.
Friends, to call for a higher law that supersedes human authority, it takes a discerning community, guided by the Spirit, united by common values and a commitment to justice for all people. If it benefits a few and not all, it is not higher law; it is not of God. The church has historically been a discerning community that has, time and again, raised a collective voice for human rights. We are in a time of Constitutional crisis in our country and we as the church have an obligation, in my opinion, to do the work, both collectively and individually, to determine where our allegiance lies. The apostles said, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” As we bear witness to the abandonment of due process that is at the very heart of our constitutional republic, we must acknowledge that a breach of justice for one group of people is a breach of justice for us all. The apostles knew it; we know it, too.
In closing, I invite us to lean in to the strength of our church community and other community organizations that are working for the good of all people, without prejudice. I invite us to engage in prayerful discernment about what we are called to do, individually and collectively, at this particular moment in time. May the higher law of love guide us, through the Holy Spirit, as we hold high the light of Christ in our world. So be it. Amen.
*https://biblehub.com/timeline/acts/1.htm
**https://www.saltproject.org/podcast-strange-new-world/2025/4/22/seeing-and-believing-politics-the-bible-and-what-comes-next
***https://rsc.byu.edu/new-testament-history-culture-society/roman-law-relating-new-testament
Benediction
I leave you with these words from the book of Ephesians, chapter 2:

“May God grant you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in deep knowledge. May the eyes of your mind be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of his calling.”