4/7/24 Sermon

John 20:19-31

It was still the first day of the week. That evening, while the disciples were behind closed doors because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.”  After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. When the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with joy.  Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.”  Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you don’t forgive them, they aren’t forgiven.”

Thomas, the one called Didymus, one of the Twelve, wasn’t with the disciples when Jesus came.  The other disciples told him, “We’ve seen the Lord!”

But he replied, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger in the wounds left by the nails, and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe.”

After eight days his disciples were again in a house and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus entered and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here. Look at my hands. Put your hand into my side. No more disbelief. Believe!”

Thomas responded to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus replied, “Do you believe because you see me? Happy are those who don’t see and yet believe.”

 Then Jesus did many other miraculous signs in his disciples’ presence, signs that aren’t recorded in this scroll. But these things are written so that you will believe that Jesus is the Christ, God’s Son, and that believing, you will have life in his name.

WORD OF LORD

Alex Gamme is from the Netherlands so you aren’t going to understand a word he says

Alex in Antarctica 3 month trek to south pole

Burying things as he goes along.

Day 86 of him walking 10 hrs a day. Totally worn out. Lost a bunch of weight and he comes across the last pack and he says that he’s quite hungry but he tells his camera he has some hope.

This is day 86 on my full return South Pole Expedition 2011/2012. I’m quite hungry and about to pick up my last cache by my second pulk which I left on the way in. As a part of my motivational plan I have on purpose not made notes on what goodies I have left behind in the cache.. and on this last one, I didn’t expect very much..

Alex said that this was the happiest moment of his entire life.  He’d never been this happy.

I wonder if this isn’t how Thomas felt.  You know, all week while I’ve been thinking about this text, different things about it bothered me and different ideas about how to approach it kept popping into my head.  At one point I even made this ridiculous list of things that I don’t believe that covered everything from when my sister told me eating watermelon seeds would make a watermelon baby grow in my stomach, which I used to believe, to Elvis still being alive, which I never believed.  And of course, I thought about Thomas who we call doubting Thomas.  And I asked myself what I thought the relationship between doubt and belief was.  Or if not believing something was the same as doubting it.

And I’ll be honest I struggled with that question for quite awhile and I don’t think that doubt and disbelief are the same things.  It’s like this:  I know there are people in my life who love me.  I know it.  I believe it wholeheartedly.  But some days I doubt it.  Some days I don’t trust it.  I don’t know why.  Some days even though I believe that they love me, I still doubt it.  Maybe it’s just a part of human nature.

And what’s interesting to me is as I was struggling with this passage and what to say about it I found something else that I don’t believe anymore.  I don’t believe Thomas doubted.  We’ve been told he doubted.  But that isn’t what the text says.  I went back to the Greek on this passage as I’m sure most of you do when you have a question about scripture.  And without going into a  huge lesson on the Greek, it says that Thomas was in disbelief.   Not doubt.   He couldn’t believe it.  He couldn’t believe that Jesus had risen again.

There’s this moment in the video I just showed.  I don’t know if you caught it.  Alex finds these Cheese doodles and he throws the bag and he’s yelling his head off.  But then he stops.  And he looks around and at the camera.  And then he asks, “Is this real?”  So he goes back and picks up the bag and starts screaming again.  He can’t believe it.  He can’t believe that there’s cheese doodles in this bag.  He had to go pick up the bag and look at it one more time just to make sure.  It isn’t that he doubted the cheese doodles; he was just in utter disbelief that they were actually there.

I’ll give you another example. Once I took Olivia and Beverly out to lunch. After the meal on a cold day, Olivia needed to go to the bathroom. So, Bev took her there and I went to warm up the car.  I went and unlocked the car and right as I was pulling the keys out of the lock they slipped from my hand, bounced once on the sewer grate that just happened to be directly below me and then went a few feet down the drain making an audible plop.  And I stood there staring for at least a minute with my mouth wide open in utter disbelief.  I saw it happen.  I knew it happened.  But I couldn’t believe it happened.  My mind couldn’t get around the fact that my keys just fell down the drain. I even said out loud, “I don’t believe it.” I even checked my pocket again to make sure that MY keys weren’t in there and that those were really my keys down in the sewer.  I saw it happen!  I knew those were my keys down there and I just couldn’t believe it. Thankfully, the fire department got them out for me.  I couldn’t believe it happened and That’s just dropping my keys down the drain.  Imagine if your friend came back from the dead.

I wonder if that isn’t the same thing with Thomas.  Thomas didn’t doubt Jesus.  I mean, at one point Jesus tells the disciples that he has to go to Jerusalem and that he’s going to be killed and Thomas says, “Let’s go and die with him.”  I mean out of everyone, Thomas might have been the most convicted in Jesus and doubted him the least.  He gave Jesus his whole heart and soul and everything he had. He was ready to go to the cross with him and give up his life. You don’t hear any of the other disciples saying that.  And what’s funny is that Thomas does something else that the others don’t do.  Where is he when Jesus comes around the first time? He’s out in the streets.  Thomas didn’t doubt Jesus at all.

While the others are locking themselves in a room, Thomas is walking around.  While the others are afraid of being arrested, Thomas is walking the streets doing things. And I think that says something about the level of Trust Thomas has in Jesus.  First, Thomas is willing to go die with Jesus and then secondly while everyone else is hiding for their lives, Thomas is out in the streets working. He was that convicted.  His faith was that strong.

But he misses Jesus coming back.  And so when Thomas returns and his friends tell him what happened, He says “Unless I can see him and touch him, I don’t believe it. I am in disbelief.” And that’s a lot different than doubting to me, for some reason.  And to be honest, from my perspective that’s kind of a fair thing to say.  I mean, come on.  You’re telling me that if you watched someone die and helped bury them and then your friends said that he stopped by while they were have lunch a few days later, that you wouldn’t have some questions?  I mean, even if you really believed what they were telling you, wouldn’t you kind of just need to see it? Even if you didn’t doubt a single word they were telling you, wouldn’t you be in disbelief?

So, maybe that’s true with Thomas too.  Maybe he didn’t doubt a single word he was being told about Jesus being back, but he just couldn’t believe it.  And when Jesus comes in and puts his hands on Thomas’s hands and looks him in the eyes?  Well, I bet it was a cheese doodles in Antarctica type of moment.

And then Jesus says Don’t be in disbelief, but I’m here.  Believe it.  And then Jesus, I think addresses us.  He tells us that we’re blessed because we believe without even seeing.  And John finishes this chapter by telling us that’s the whole point.  That we’re supposed to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and that through our belief we might have life through him.

But, I mean imagine hearing the Gospel for the first time.  Imagine trying to hear this story having never heard it before. About this man who was in the beginning with God and then he came to earth and walked among us, teaching us to love, and healing people, and the people he was with weren’t powerful or influential people but they were every day people and in some cases even worse, they were the outcasts. But he healed them and performed miracles and He stuck up for them. And We’re told these outrages claims about him that don’t necessarily make sense - That he was the WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE.  So, some people got so angry with him that they killed him.  But not even that stopped him and he rose from the dead.  Imagine hearing all of this for the first time.  The wonder and surprise and the awe you would feel.  Especially if you knew it was true.  You’d sit there in utter disbelief.  When I stop and really think about it now, having grown up being a Christian in the church, it’s still just this unbelievable story.  The whole thing is a miracle.  It’s like finding cheese doodles in Antarctica.  But there Jesus is, saying no, really. Believe it. 

And so what if instead of thinking that Thomas is some hard-nosed skeptic who’s example we aren’t supposed to follow… What if he’s more like Alex Gamme, who incidentally when I reached out to him to use this video, I think he was in disbelief again that he was going to be part of a sermon. Because all he asked was that I send him a picture of it happening. He needs to see it to believe it. Talk about a skeptic…   But what if Thomas is like Alex?  Except instead of Cheese Doodles, Thomas is in utter disbelief and amazement of what God is doing through Christ.  What if he’s actually the example we’re supposed follow?

Thomas.  Who was willing to follow Jesus even to the Cross.  Thomas.  Who while everyone was hiding and afraid, was out in the world working still.  Thomas.  Who never doubted but was in disbelief of what God could do.  What if we could approach the gospel story again the way that Alex Gamme approaches Cheese doodles in Antartica?  What if we could see it again for how unbelievable and amazing it really is?  What if our faith could get reignited with the same passion and excitement without having to see or touch the risen Lord?

Amen.