Sermon April 11, 2021

 

April 11, 2021             John 20: 18-31                        Rev. Peter Hofstra

            “I am not going to believe he’s alive unless I can put my fingers through the nail holes in his hand and put my hand in the wound in his side.”  These are the words of Thomas, disciple of Jesus, recipient of the multiple prophecies that Jesus made concerning his own death and resurrection, receiver of the remarkable eyewitness account of Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles, witness to the testimony of the gathered disciples who were there on Easter evening when Jesus popped up among them, and the one who refused to believe because he was not there to see it for himself. 

            But it is not nearly enough to see Jesus.  In these demands, Thomas will be satisfied with nothing less than undoing the horrible things done to his Savior. 

            Because he does not accept Jesus is alive.  He wants to move past the insanity of these people that he has been around for the last three years.  His mind is incapable of accepting the testimony that Jesus, who they watched die in the most horrible way, was back from the dead.  He wanted that Jesus did not die, because he did not believe that Jesus could come back.  And he makes these horrifically specific statements to justify his new normal.

            I read those details as the ones that were emblazoned in his memory.  I want to put my fingers in the nail holes.  He’s really saying “Did you not see what they did to put Jesus on that cross?”  He wants to put his hand in the wound in Jesus side.  He is really saying, “Didn’t you see them stab him with the spear?  That’s why they did not break his legs when they took him off the cross.  He was ALREADY dead.  And now these people are saying Jesus is alive again.

            But then Jesus appears, ready to acquiesce to the demands Thomas has made and all he can say is “My Lord and My God.”

            History calls him Doubting Thomas.  The Bible calls him Thomas the Twin.  Now, we have no evidence of who this twin was.  Imagine if his twin was another disciple who was present the first time Jesus appeared to them?  Imagine how insistent, how strident Thomas would have gotten if his own twin got up in his face about the return of Jesus?

            The story of Thomas is a Sunday School favorite.  It is a cultural cliché that still has meaning into today’s world when so many Biblical references have fallen by the wayside of ignorance of what our Scripture teaches us.  After two thousand years, we take it for granted that Jesus is Risen.  But take some time to stand in Thomas’ shoes (or sandals), put yourself there, take him seriously, and his doubts are very real and can speak to us powerfully today.

            One of the amazing things about the characters in the Bible is that, like Thomas, they are not perfect-except for Jesus.  They may have faith lives that are absolutely huge, but there always seems to be a character flaw that brings them down-except for Jesus.  Consider Moses, led the people of Israel throughout the Exodus.  He was denied entrance into the Promised Land because of a moment of personal weakness.  Instead of telling a rock to bring forth water like God told him to do, he let his anger get the better of him and he struck it instead. 

            Consider King David.  He’s the one everyone expected Jesus to become as the Messiah.  But he was also a letch, an adulterer, and a cold-blooded murderer of one of his own top soldiers.  Not everyone is so big and over the top and these Old Testament figures.

            Consider Peter, the leader of the disciples, the one who betrayed Jesus three times.  Consider Paul, who stood there approving the whole endeavor during the first Christian martyrdom.  Consider Thomas, who could not believe that Jesus returned to life until after he’d seen Jesus with his own eyes.

            These people in the bible are such powerful witnesses to all of us precisely because they are humans like us, flawed and broken and sinful and in desperate need of the love of Christ.  These two times that Jesus suddenly appears in the midst of his disciples, I think he should have gone “BOO” but rather, he says “Peace be with you.”  These moments could be the best jump scares in the entire Scripture. 

            The power of the teachings of Jesus is that they play off the needs, they answer the needs, they provide hope in the face of the needs of sinful people, just like us.  Who wasn’t here last Sunday?  What if we said Jesus was here, in the flesh, standing among us.  Took a step down out of heaven because that is what Jesus can do.  Could any of us really believe that?  That is the closest I can come up with to approximate Thomas’ doubt.

            Thomas was absolutely convinced that there was nothing on heaven and earth that could prove to him that Jesus was back from the dead.  Until he actually saw Jesus back from the dead.  But it was not about his doubt.  I think it was from the deepest recesses of his soul, his pain and anguish over the loss of the most powerful, life changing, peaceable, amazing figure he’d ever had the chance to meet.  I think that man was broken because of what happened to Jesus.  And nobody but Jesus could fix him.

            Notice what Jesus said to Thomas after he appeared to him.  “You believe because you have seen.  How about all those other people who believe who have never seen?”  Take a moment, look around the sanctuary.  Consider family and friends who are in the church.  Think back over the history of people who have passed through these doors, been touched by this community of faith.  I reveal my age when I say look in the mirror.  The expression today is to look at yourself in the camera in your phone that is flipped to take a selfie. Jesus is talking about us.

            Jesus’ death and resurrection, God’s Plan fulfilled on Easter, the free gift of forgiveness that leads to our salvation, that is all the Capital J Jesus stuff that is the benefit of our faith.  We might call it the little j stuff to consider how the love of Jesus, which undergirds and inspires all that He has done for us, how that love can answer even our deepest doubts, how that love can overcome even the deepest pain in our lives, how that love can bring hope in even the most impossible of circumstances. 

            All that is great, but how can we truly be sure?  Yes, Jesus showed up to Thomas and it was radically excellent.  Yes, we are blessed because we have not seen Jesus like the doubter saw Jesus, but how can we really be sure?  Thomas saw Jesus.  I read the words on the page and as the preacher I am repeating them, a lot.  How can I be sure?

            Verses 22 and 23 are the ones I never remember being shared from this passage.  It is the sharing of the Holy Spirit.  Usually, we save that one for around six weeks from now.  We call it Pentecost and all wear red.  But consider what Jesus did to his disciples in that moment.  It was not enough that he appeared to them after his death.  That was necessary, but here he is sealing the deal.  Back in John 14, Jesus tells them about the Spirit, the one who is coming in His place.  Jesus is going back to heaven, but the disciples, the believers, all of us, we will never be without the presence of God. 

            How powerful is the presence of the Spirit?  It passes along the judgeship for sins to those of us who have it.  We literally have the power of Jesus within us. Jesus tells us throughout this gospel that God the Father has given Him the power to be the judge of the world.  That’s God’s power given to Jesus.  That’s the power Jesus is now giving to us.  We have the Spirit, we have God’s power in us as the guarantor of all the promises of grace, hope, love, and salvation that we have been given by our Messiah.

            That’s the bridge from Thomas, who saw and believed, to us, who believe but have not seen.  In fact, we are so special we have our own beatitude, Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe. 

            Thomas is any one of us, every one of us when we doubt, when we are deeply hurt, when it feels like we have no more hope.  His weakness is our weakness, his doubt is our doubt, his pain is our pain.  So it is with each imperfect child of God that we come across in the Bible.  Their lives are real, like our lives are real.  There is sin and brokenness and hopelessness there as there is in us. 

            It is the reality of that broken humanity that is a most powerful witness to the power that heals our brokenness with love.  Jesus ready to embrace Thomas, to let him put his fingers in the nail holes, to let him put his hand in the wound in his side, that is Jesus walking step by step, speaking word by word, healing piece by piece that which was broken in his doubting disciple.  As real as that broken, doubting man was, so real is the power of Jesus to bring healing, hope, and new life in God’s love.

            That’s why the story of Thomas is told in John’s gospel.  So that we who read it, who identify with his doubt, with his denial, with his deep seated pain in losing his Lord, can also identify with the doubt overcome, the hope renewed, the love re-instilled by Jesus’ returning presence, a presence that is sealed into our hearts and our minds by the very presence of God as Holy Spirit in our lives. 

            Thus our doubt, our denial, our pain, all as real today as it was in the time of Thomas, they too shall be overcome by our Lord Jesus Christ.  We know the Promise of Easter.  It is sealed unto our hearts by the Holy Spirit.  All hail the power of Jesus’ name.  Amen.