After Jesus was raised from the
dead, he remained on the earth for forty days before going up to heaven. In this sermon series, “The After Party”,
we’re looking at what the Bible tells us about those forty days. Last week, we looked at Jesus appearing to
Cleopas and his friend on the road to Emmaus.
Today, we look at Jesus appearing to the disciples.
When we hear that word “disciples”, we tend to think of
the twelve, down to eleven now with Judas gone, and in fact down to ten in this
instance because, as we find out later, Thomas was not with them. But in fact, that term “the disciples” is not
necessarily limited. There are times
when the gospels specifically refer to the twelve, but “the disciples” can mean
more than that. So we really don’t know
how many people Jesus appeared to here.
It was the first day of the week. What we’d call now the first Easter Sunday,
which means it was the same day he appeared to Cleopas and his friend on the
road to Emmaus. That appearance
apparently came first, because we’re told it’s evening when Jesus appears here.
When we read this story, Thomas is always made out to be
kind of the bad guy. After all, we call
him “Doubting Thomas”. He’s the one who
said, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the
nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” It’s not that we think of him as evil or
anything like that, but we kind of imply that Thomas must not have had much
faith, certainly not as much as the other disciples did.
But look at
what John says happened. Jesus appeared
to the disciples and said “Peace be with you.”
After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. It was only after that, that we’re told the
disciples were overjoyed at the sight of Jesus.
In other
words, the other disciples got what Thomas wanted. They got to see for themselves, and it was
not until then that they believed. So
here we are, so hard on poor old Thomas, when all he wanted was what the other
disciples already got and apparently needed before they could believe. If it had been one of the other disciples who
was absent, we might well talk about a “Doubting Philip” or a “Doubting
Andrew”.
We don’t know
why Thomas was not there when Jesus appeared.
I wonder if it was coincidence or if Jesus did it that way
deliberately. Jesus did use it to make a
point, after all. Jesus said to Thomas,
“Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not
seen and yet have believed.”
Where do you
see yourself in this story? Where do I
see myself? Do you and I require
proof? Or are we able to believe without
seeing?
There are lots
of articles and books that you can find that set out to either prove or
disprove the gospels. We link to some of
them on our facebook page once in a while.
They can be interesting to read.
But ultimately, there’s no way we can prove, beyond any doubt, that
Jesus was the Son of God and that he was raised from the dead. We can find evidence to support it, but all
the evidence we produce can be explained away somehow if that’s what someone
wants to do.
As always, it
comes down to faith. But you know, faith
does not mean the absence of doubt. As
the theologian Paul Tillich once said, “Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; it is an
element of faith.” What faith really means is believing
in spite of our doubts.
Quite often,
where you and I are is where the man was who spoke to Jesus in Mark Chapter
Nine. Remember that story? A man brings his son to Jesus for
healing. He says to Jesus, “if you can
do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
Jesus says to the man, “‘If you can’?
Everything is possible for one who believes.” And the man responds, “I do believe; help me
overcome my unbelief!”
“I do believe;
help me overcome my unbelief.” A lot of
times that where you and I are as Christians.
We believe and we doubt at the same time. But you know, I don’t know if there have been
very many Christians who have not had doubts at some point. Mother Teresa, Martin Luther, John Wesley,
John Calvin, Pope Francis—they all had to deal with doubts at various points in
their lives. The chances are, you and I
either have or will have to deal with it, too.
And we may have to deal with it more than once.
And I think
God understands that. After all, we’re
asked to believe a lot. We’re asked to
believe that a child was born to a virgin.
We’re asked to believe that child was the divine Son of God. We’re asked to believe that child grew into a
man who could work miracles. We’re asked
to believe that man could raise people from the dead. We’re asked to believe that he, himself, was
raised from the dead. We’re asked to
believe that his death can lead to the forgiveness of all of our sins if we
only believe in him. That’s a lot to
believe.
And that’s not
all. We’re also asked to believe that
God is still active in the world. We’re
asked to believe that God not only will hear our prayers, but God will listen
to our prayers and God will help us.
We’re asked to believe that God loves us and God has good plans for our
lives and God will guide us to live in accordance with those plans.
There’s an
awful lot that we’re asked to believe if we’re Christians. And again, we cannot prove any of it. We can provide evidence, but that’s all. Ultimately, we have to take it on faith.
And that’s
hard. Because a lot of times we don’t
see God at work. A lot of times, we
don’t feel worthy of God’s love. A lot
of times, we don’t feel God’s love and God’s guidance in our lives. A lot of times, it feels like God is not
paying the least bit of attention to our prayers. And we really cannot see any reason why God
should.
But I want you
to notice something about Jesus’ statement.
Let me read it again. Jesus says
to Thomas, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who
have not seen and yet have believed.”
It is an
awesome thing when we can believe without seeing. But there’s something Jesus did not say. Jesus did not say that people who cannot
believe without seeing are condemned.
Jesus did not condemn Thomas. He
did not send Thomas away. He did not
tell Thomas he was not good enough to be a disciple any more. There is no indication that Jesus loved
Thomas any less or that he considered him any less worthy of being a disciple.
I wonder if
maybe one reason Jesus was not harder on Thomas is that Jesus remembered his
time on the cross. Maybe Jesus
remembered the time when even he struggled with his faith. Maybe he remembered when he was on the cross
and asked, “God, why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus
continued to love Thomas, and Thomas continued to love and serve Jesus. In fact, Thomas is considered a saint. And you know, maybe he’s the sort of saint
you and I need sometimes. A saint who
struggled with his faith. A saint who
wanted to believe, but who still wanted to see for himself. A saint who was able to serve God and love
God even if he wished he could have proof.
A saint who understood how we struggle with our faith sometimes, because
he struggled with it, too.
Jesus said,
“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” But there’s a blessing for the Thomases of
the world, too. There’s a blessing for
those of us who sometimes have trouble believing when we have not seen. There’s a blessing for those of us who feel
both faith and doubt and at the same time and sometimes struggle with which one
is going to come out on top. The
blessing is that God will keep working with us, just like Jesus kept working
with Thomas. The blessing is that God
will keep encouraging us, just like Jesus encouraged Thomas. The blessing is that, as long as we don’t
give up on God, God will show us what we need to see, just like Jesus showed
Thomas what he needed to see. And God
will say to us, just as Jesus said to Thomas, “Stop doubting and believe.”
God
understands our struggle. But God will
never give up on us. As long as we don’t
give up on God, God will keep working with us.
And with God’s grace, we can do what Jesus said to Thomas. We can stop doubting, and believe. And then we can respond to Jesus the way
Thomas did. You and I can say to Jesus,
“My Lord and my God!”
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