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Meeting Jesus on Zoom


‘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.’ (John 20.19-31 (https://www.biblegateway.com NRSVA)
This is my second reflection about today’s Gospel reading but I wanted to write something about meeting Jesus on Zoom. Zoom’s been very useful during the lockdown, but it’s also got a bad press. Various mischief makers have gatecrashed meetings on Zoom, either to eavesdrop or make inappropriate comments.
That’s why worshippers needed permission to join our on-line service this week. If they managed to press all the right buttons, and entered all the right codes, they should've found themselves looking at a screen not unlike the cartoon picture below of the eleven apostles trying to meet on Zoom with the risen Jesus.
Anyone who couldn't see the service on the screen would've been in good company. In the cartoon Jesus has done something wrong. Either he hasn’t enabled Zoom to take over his webcam or his risen presence isn’t something which can be picked up online. Thomas immediately doubts that he’s really there. Jesus says, ‘Hey!’ but Thomas says that ‘unless he turns on his camera I will not believe it.’
Looking at all the trouble going on in our world today, not least with the Coronavirus and its many far reaching repercussions, it would be easy to believe that Jesus isn’t here with us. But he is. His wounds are the promise that he shares in our suffering. And he’s with us here now in our meeting on Zoom. This is a new and different kind of Holy Communion, a new definition of virtual reality. The Lord is here. He is with us indeed.
Illustration © https://timwakeling.co.uk/

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