Most of
us have had someone close to us pass away. It’s just the way life
works. For some of us it happened quite
a while ago, for some of us it happened recently. Some of us have had it
happen numerous times.
It hurts. It hurts a
lot. And it hurts even more when it’s fresh. Not that it ever goes
away--if it’s someone you’re really close to, you never forget it. But
when it’s just happened, it really hurts.
Sometimes it’s all you can think about.
No matter how hard you try to think about something else, it’s always on
your mind.
So now, imagine that, shortly after
you’ve lost someone, some of your friends come up to you and say, “Hey, guess
what? We just saw your loved one.
He’s alive! He’s doing
great! Never looked better!”
How would you react to that?
Probably not very well. I know I would
not. It would seem like some sort of a cruel joke. It’d seem like they were making fun of me, and
on a subject that I did not consider funny at all. And if they could
convince me they were serious, that they really believed they were telling the
truth, then I’d probably think they’d gone nuts.
I mean, how could you not? If you saw your loved one die, if
you saw your loved one placed in the tomb, if you saw the tomb sealed up, and
then someone seriously tried to tell you they’d seen your loved one and he was
alive, what else could you think?
Tonight we heard the story of Jesus appearing, first to the rest
of the disciples, and then to Thomas. We heard about the disciples
telling Thomas they’d seen Jesus, and Thomas refusing to believe until he’d
seen for himself. And then, of course, Jesus appears to Thomas, Thomas
does see for himself, and Thomas believes.
And Jesus says, ““Because you have seen me, you have believed;
blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” And because
of that, of course, Thomas has forever been known as “the doubter”. The phrase “doubting Thomas” is part of the
English language.
This is one of three times, other than just in lists of the
disciples, that we hear anything about Thomas. The other two times are
also in the gospel of John. One of them
is in chapter eleven, in the context of the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from
the dead. Jesus is going back to Judea, where they know he will be in
danger, and Thomas says to the other disciples, “Let
us also go, that we may die with him.” The other is in the context of
Jesus’ farewell address, the speech he makes to the disciples just before his
arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus tells the disciples that they
know the way to the place where he is going, and Thomas says, “Lord, we don’t
know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” And of course,
Jesus answers “I am the way.”
Neither of those sound like a man who does not
have faith. In the first of them, Thomas is willing to go to what he
thinks is his death in order to stay with Jesus. That’s a pretty strong
faith, if you ask me. And in the second
one, Thomas wants to know where Jesus is going, so he can know how to follow
him. To me, that shows a pretty strong faith, too.
But then, we come to this episode. And
people are convinced that Thomas’ reputation as a doubter is justified.
After all, he refused to take the other disciples’ word for it that Jesus was
alive. He would not believe until he saw for himself.
But let’s look at the story a little more
closely. The disciples know that the tomb is empty. They’re gathered together, other than Thomas,
behind locked doors out of fear. Jesus appears to them and says “Peace be
with you.” He shows them his hands and
his side. Then--only then--are we told
that the disciples were overjoyed. In other words, it was only after
Jesus showed the disciples his hands and his side that the disciples believed.
Now, that’s not a knock on the other
disciples. Again, this is a pretty unbelievable thing that’s going on
here. But it’s still a fact that the other disciples did not just take
somebody’s word for Jesus being alive. They did not even take Mary Magdalene’s
word for the tomb being empty. They had
to run out and see for themselves. They had to see it all for themselves.
They had to see Jesus appear in front of them, they had to see his hands and
his side, all of it.
The disciples go and tell Thomas, of course, and
Thomas does not believe them. And the way it’s written, it sounds like
the disciples are kind of disappointed in Thomas. And maybe they were--no
one likes to have someone not believe what they say, especially when that someone
is a friend of theirs. But again, this is a pretty unbelievable thing
that happened. And what Thomas said he
wanted to see was nothing more than what the other disciples had seen.
Thomas is called the doubter, but if the disciples were going to call Thomas a doubter
then they would have had to call all themselves were doubters, too. None of them could just accept that Jesus was
alive on faith. They all had to see for themselves.
Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen
and yet have believed”. And yet, Jesus did not condemn the disciples for
needing to see to believe. Jesus did not withhold his blessings from the
disciples. He appeared to them a few
more times before ascending to heaven. He sent the Holy Spirit to them,
just as he had promised. And these
disciples, all of whom failed to believe without seeing, went on to start
spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. They started something that
continues two thousand years later.
And the disciples did that despite how flawed
they were. They did that despite how many times they did not understand
what Jesus told them. They did that despite the fact that, sometimes,
they had doubts. They did it because,
through it all, they continued to love God. And because they loved God,
they did their best to serve God and be faithful to God. They did their best to show love to others
and to make disciples, just as Jesus had told them to. And they were
confident that, if they did their best, God would bless what they were doing,
and God would make things happen the way they were supposed to happen.
You and I are not able to see, the way the
disciples were. We try to “not see and yet believe.” And most of us succeed, to one degree or
another. But still, a lot of us have doubts sometimes, too. It’s not that we don’t believe,
exactly. It’s just that, well, it’s a lot to take in. It’s a lot to accept. And so sometimes, we wonder. Can it
really be true? Did Jesus really do all
those things we read about in the Bible?
Did Jesus really rise from the dead? Is Jesus really alive
now? Is there really a Holy Spirit that
will come and help us through our lives on earth?
Maybe some people watching this don’t ask those
questions. Maybe your faith is strong enough that you never have those
doubts. If so, that’s awesome.
Seriously, it is. That’s an
incredible amount of faith, and you’re to be congratulated for that.
But a lot of us do ask those questions. A
lot of us do have those doubts. A lot of
us are in the position, as I said a few weeks ago, of the man who said to
Jesus, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.”
So what I want to tell you is that if you do have
those doubts sometimes, it’s okay. Really, it is. As we’ve seen, the disciples had doubts. Mother Teresa wrote that she had
doubts. Many of the greatest, most famous followers of Jesus there have
ever been have doubts. So if you have
them sometimes, it’s okay.
It’s okay, as long as you don’t let those doubts
stop you. It’s okay, as long as you do what the disciples did. And that is to continue to love God despite
our doubts. To serve God despite our flaws and imperfections. To be faithful to God despite the fact that
we often don’t understand. It’s okay to have doubts, as long as we
continue to do our best to love others and to go and make disciples the way
Jesus told us to. Because we can be confident, just as the disciples
were, that if we do our best, God will bless our efforts and make things happen
the way they’re supposed to happen.
God
understands our doubts. God will not condemn us for them, any more than
Jesus condemned the disciples. God will not withhold His blessings from
us. As long as we stay faithful despite
our doubts, as long as we keep doing our best to serve God, God will bless our efforts.
God will use them for God’s honor and God’s glory. And you and I will take our place among the
Christians who have helped to spread Jesus’ message for two thousand years.
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