Thomas

Text: John 20:1-29

Pastor Phil Hughes, American Fork Presbyterian Church, Utah

March 31, 2024   Resurrection Sunday

The gospels do not make arguments for Jesus’ resurrection. They tell the story of Jesus life, death and coming alive very honestly. They give a realistic depiction of the disciples, admitting their foibles and doubts.  The gospels don’t provide much evidence. They just proclaim their conviction that this is true – the grave was empty and Jesus rose from the dead.

Nobody was more surprised by Jesus’ resurrection than his own disciples and nobody is a better testimony for Jesus’ resurrection than his own disciples which has now, two thousand years later, grown into the church.  No, “for the disciples, the presence of Jesus was not something that they badly wished for; it was an event that scared them half out of their wits.”[1]

There were two big realities the disciples faced on that wild and strange morning when Mary Magdalene said she had seen the Lord.  One was fear.  The other was doubt. The resurrection of Jesus didn’t just instill undaunted courage and amazing clarity into the disciples.  It didn’t give them all the answers to life’s questions, or even the questions of that day.  They really didn’t know what to do.  They were more unsure than anything. They were scared.

John tells us how Jesus addresses both the disciples’ fear and their doubt in two different appearances to his disciples.

On the evening of that first strange morning the disciples lock themselves in a room together out of fear.  They are afraid because the very one they have staked their lives upon was arrested and killed and buried.  What is to stop the Romans and the religious leaders for coming after them?

But Jesus came and stood among them.  Through the locked doors, Jesus appears. We aren’t told any more than that.  And when he comes to those disciples his first words are, “Peace be with you!” He doesn’t chastise the disciples for running from him when he was arrested.  He doesn’t get on them for being fearful and being locked up in a room.  He doesn’t come into the room and scare them by saying, “Boo!”  Jesus doesn’t even put the attention on himself by saying something like, “I am here!”  No, he gives a gift to them – his peace.  “Peace be with you.” Jesus gives them his peace. He says this twice.

I like the fact that Jesus goes looking for the disciples and I think it means that Jesus comes looking for us.  And if Jesus walks into our locked rooms, and into the places we hide with our fears, where won’t he show up?  Where are you fearful today?  Jesus says, “Peace be with you.”

Jesus shows those disciples who are so afraid his hands and his side. These were the same hands and side that were nailed and pierced.  Perhaps he knows they need to see and touch him.  They need something to let them know this is not just a vision or apparition or some spiritual dream.  It is him. Luke tells us in his account that Jesus asks for some food and eats it to show the disciples he is not a ghost.

It is the wounds that he shows them.  When Christ is resurrected he doesn’t put the nail prints behind him.  They were not erased in his rising. Apparently, resurrection doesn’t cover up the scars, it conquers and transforms them into symbols of victory.  Jesus doesn’t deny pain but acknowledges it.  I don’t know that Jesus will erase our woundedness, but in our resurrection he will ultimately heal it.

The disciples experienced fear, but the second thing the disciples experienced was doubt.  Especially Thomas.

We’re told that Thomas was not with the disciples when Jesus first appeared in that locked up room.  Why wasn’t Thomas with them?  Had he given up?  Did he so strongly feel the let down and defeat of Jesus’ death that he just figured he had to get on with his life and find something else? Was he angry? Confused?

The disciples have told Thomas that they have seen the Lord.  Thomas is skeptical.  More than skeptical, disbelieving. Now, if you think this sermon is going to say Thomas was wrong and we shouldn’t be like this, well it isn’t going to happen.  We can be skeptical and disbelieving.  If you really think about Jesus dying and coming back to life, and you haven’t wondered about it or found it hard to swallow or wrestled with it, I am not sure you really know what Paul calls “knowing the power of Christ’s resurrection.”[2]

This doesn’t happen.  Dead people do not come back to life.  Crucified.  Buried in a tomb that was sealed for three days. Skepticism and fear and doubt are what we should expect.

Thomas wants to see and touch the nail marks in Jesus’ hands.  Thomas wants to put his hand in Jesus’ side.  Otherwise, he won’t believe.

Matthew tells us that actually all the disciples had some Thomas in them.  At the end of Matthew’s gospel we get the Great Commission.  The risen Lord appears to his disciples and tells them to go into all the world, make disciples of all nations and baptize them.  But before this it says that when the eleven disciples saw Jesus “they worshiped him, but some doubted.”[3]

It happens.  It’s natural.  I think I would find the Gospels harder to believe if Jesus appears and everyone has it all figured out and lives happily ever after. To believe a dead man is not dead anymore doesn’t come easy.

A week later Thomas is with the group and they are in the same house and again the doors are locked.  Again Jesus comes and stands among them and again says, “Peace be with you.”

He turns to Thomas.  He doesn’t chew him out.  Jesus doesn’t say, “I heard you doubted me” and express his disappointment.  He merely invites Thomas to do exactly what Thomas wanted to do: touch and see. “You wanted to touch and see Thomas?  Well, here I am.”

Alistair McGrath is a Christian theologian who at one time was a staunch atheist.  In his book called, Doubting, he says that doubt is an invitation to grow in faith and understanding, rather than something we need to panic about or get preoccupied with. Doubt is probably a permanent feature of the Christian life.  It’s like a spiritual growing pain.[4]

We all wrestle with doubts at some point.  Sometimes we question the goodness of God when we see so much bad and suffering.  We doubt the presence of God when he seems absent or we feel alone.  We doubt the love of God when we experience loss or hard things. But as we question, search and seek, doubt can move to faith and belief.  We can grow through our doubts. God can meet us in our questioning.

So many of the most important things in life cannot be proven with absolute certainty.  You can’t prove love or joy. You can’t prove democracy to be the best governmental system. You can’t prove many religious beliefs. But we can look for evidence and come to find that there are good reasons to believe in certain things. There are parts of life where we live by faith.

To believe in Jesus as the risen Lord is a step of faith.  But to believe he isn’t the risen Lord is equally a step of faith.  The question becomes which conviction has the better reasons. Is the better conviction to believe he is alive?  Or is the better conviction to say he is dead, long gone, and this whole Christianity thing is a historic sham.

Thomas has gotten a bad rap over the years for his doubting. It’s because of him we might say to someone, “Oh, you’re a doubting Thomas.”  But maybe John includes him in the gospel because John welcomes doubters.  And he is telling them to look seriously at Jesus.

Thomas’ desire for proof that he can see and touch is what we ourselves crave. “did this really happen?” Let’s thank Thomas for having raised the question: did Jesus really rise in the body and in history?  Or is this just some ecstatic vision or a really, really deep hope?  Let’s thank Thomas for maybe asking what is on all of our minds,

“Thomas’s desire is every honest person’s desire, and so we are grateful that John gave Doubting Thomas this space and that the Risen Lord gave him this satisfaction.”  I love the fact that “the Risen Lord and John took seriously the longing of human beings for the real, the bodily and the factual?  Isn’t this exactly what the sciences…most want and credit?” Thomas is every generation’s modern person.  He is a sincere inquirer, and honest seeker.  This story is giving people like Thomas some respect.[5] It’s OK to say, “This is really hard for me.”

Like Thomas let’s ask questions and want proof.  We may not have all the proof we want or think we need, but so many things that fill our daily lives are things we go on by faith, not having perfect proof. But where there are good reasons to believe, we need to trust what we do have.  And so Jesus does give him the strong word to stop doubting and believe.

Thomas sees the Lord.  And he says, “My Lord and my God.” By the way, Thomas is the first person in the entire gospel of John to call Jesus God.

Thomas was kind of an all or nothing guy.  He really doubted.  But when he came to belief he surrendered himself fully in obedience and worship.  “My Lord and my God!”

Who is Jesus to you?  Your Lord?  Your God?

You know, it’s interesting that John never really says whether Thomas actually touched him or not. After all the talk about not believing until he gets to touch, we are kind of left in suspense about whether that happened for Thomas.  It might have been once he just saw Jesus standing there, and Jesus invited him to touch him, Thomas didn’t need to anymore. It was so overwhelming and convicting that he merely proclaimed his worship and devotion to Jesus.

It would be a deep privilege and experience to be one of the disciples in that room when Jesus came. It would be hard not to believe after seeing the hands and his side, and to touch him. But that didn’t happen for us, nor did it happen for those who have believed in Christ over the centuries.

Jesus knew this.  And I suspect he knows the challenge, and for some more than others, the difficulty of believing. I had a man in my church one time who was faithful, good, and worshiped Jesus, but this resurrection thing was really hard for him. And when his wife died he had such a hard time believing she was alive with Jesus.  He even told the story of resurrection to the children in our church every year.  He was a doctor and he really wrestled with the resurrection.  We talked about it and I told him that his wrestling was his faith. It was like somedays he could see it and other times he just couldn’t.  But he never stopped holding on.

Jesus says to Thomas, “Hey man, you got to see. What a deal. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Blessed are all those who live by faith.

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord because they have read and heard the words of the apostles as they come to us in the Gospels, and have believed their witness.

Blessed are those who have maybe doubted, asked questions, sought answers, tossed it around, shook their heads, and come to believe.  And maybe not without great struggle.

Blessed are those who put their lives in Jesus’ hands and follow him as Lord and God.

That’s you and me Jesus is talking about.  Jesus calls us blessed!

Blessed are you.  Blessed are you.  Blessed are you.

God isn’t looking for perfection.  He isn’t looking for those who have straight A’s in the morality category, or who have never failed a test, or who don’t have a past, or who don’t have any weaknesses, or those who have all the answers. No, God is looking for repentance and willingness to change.  He is looking for faithfulness.  He is looking for those who make themselves available to be used by him.  He is looking for honest seeker and those who will cast themselves on him. He is looking for those who believe, even when that belief comes a little hard.

Sometimes it’s not seeing is believing.  Sometimes it is believing so that we can see.

Friends, on this day of Resurrection I proclaim to you that Jesus is risen from the dead.  In all your doubts and convictions, in all your wrestling and your assurance, may you be blessed and may his peace be with us all.

Prayer: Loving and gracious God, even with our doubts, struggles, and wondering you come to us.  But help us grow a little more in conviction, in faith, and in assurance.  Thank you for the way the gospel writers gave us these accounts of Jesus rising from the dead, their honesty and transparency. May we all worship Jesus as our Lord and God, lay our lives down before him, and let his life fill us. Today we praise you and give glory to your name.  Amen.

[1] Will Willimon, Why Jesus? P.133

[2] Philippians 3:10

[3] Matthew 28:17

[4] P.14

[5] P.1185