4/23/2016

I’ll be out of town this weekend, but if I were in town, I would be preaching from John 20:19–31, a passage about “Doubting Thomas.” Since I won’t be here, I thought I’d share a few thoughts.  

At one time I had 3 clocks in my house that all stopped at 9:00. It was the same time, but they didn’t stop at the same time . . . if they had, I probably would have MOVED OUT! No clue why, and I never changed them, just in case it was some sort of sign (it was not). But it was such a weird coincidence, I left them. 

If nothing else, I knew they were right twice a day. 

But it's interesting isn’t it, when you look at a clock,  and see it’s 9:00, then 12 hours later, it’s 9:00 again. A lot can happen in those 12 hours! Sitting down at 9:00 pm, after living through 12 hours — good or  bad — you look back on that earlier 9:00 am with a completely different perspective. 

That’s sort of what I believe is happening in John 20. I believe — like a clock — John is pointing us back to an earlier time, to the beginning of his gospel.

What did John say at the beginning of his gospel? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God.” It takes 20 chapters, but finally someone finally gets it! 

And it’s “Doubting Thomas.” He’s the very first person in all the gospel who looks at Jesus and says, “My Lord and my God.”

But Thomas takes a while to get to that point. 

On the evening of Easter Sunday, Jesus appeared to his disciples, but Thomas was missing. When Thomas did get there, he saw the others excited, bubbling over with the good news . . . but he wasn’t going to be taken in. 

“No,” he said, “I have to have evidence — hard evidence. I won’t believe it unless I see the nail prints in his hands, and put my hand in his wounded side.” 

I’m sure Peter didn’t take that calmly! Can you imagine the arguments — the BATTLES they had? But Thomas, in the face of the other 10, held firm, saying, “Unless I see, I won’t believe.” 

But think about it: Thomas had traveled with Jesus, heard him teach, eaten with him, slept alongside him with the other disciples — for three years. Thomas knew this was a very human person. Thomas may have been hiding behind locked doors when Jesus was crucified, but he knew the very human Jesus was crucified, dead and buried. He knew that.

And, like I said Sunday morning, dead people stay dead. At least up to that point they had! 

And yet, a week later, here was Jesus, alive and standing there before him. He had the nail scars in his hands; he had a wound in his side big enough for you to put your hand through. 

There can be no mistaking it — this was Jesus. 

This was the same Jesus who healed the blind, lame, and deaf. This was the same Jesus who walked on water, who fed 5,000 with 2 sardines and 5 hush puppies, who commanded the storm to be still. This was the same Jesus who taught us to love one another and gave us the Beatitudes. This was the same Jesus who was betrayed, beaten and who died on a cross —

 BUT! As Jesus stood there, having walked through a locked door, holding out nail-scarred hands, Thomas now realized something new about him: this is also the same Jesus no grave could hold!

John writes: Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’  

And Thomas’ response? “My Lord and my God.” 

Which takes us back to chapter 1, where John wrote, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.” 

Whether it’s Thomas in a locked room 2000 years ago, or us in our Christ Church sanctuary in 2025, when we are confronted with the risen Jesus, we must make some sort of response. Like Thomas, we have to ask ourselves: What sort of person are we dealing with here? We hear these stories week after week, year after year, and it is easy to take them for granted. 

But you can never be neutral about Jesus. 

And we have to ask ourselves what difference does this make in our lives? We have to choose whether we believe these stories with the basic mental assent of “yeah, this happened,” or whether we believe with an active, continuous and vital trust in this resurrected Jesus, who is “my Lord and my God.”

And that belief will change the world. 

The Lord is risen! He is risen, indeed! 

Blessings,
Pastor Terry