John.20.19-31; Second
Sunday of Easter, April 28, 2019;
Life in Christ
Lutheran Church, Grand Marais, MN
On the evening of that day, the
first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear
of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with
you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the
disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be
with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had
said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If
you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness
from anyone, it is withheld.” Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin,
was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have
seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the
nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into
his side, I will never believe.” Eight days later, his disciples were inside
again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and
stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put
your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my
side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my
God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed
are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the
presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are
written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and
that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:19-31, ESV)
(Thanks to Dr. Norman Nagel)
Grace and peace to
you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
You know “doubting” Thomas
gets a bad rap. How would you like to
have the kind of nickname that lasts for centuries after your death? Of course, we know how he gets it. We hear the story every year the Sunday right
after Easter. “Unless I see the nail
prints… and actually put my finger in them… I certainly will not believe.” That’s Doubting Thomas, making his annual
appearance.
Really, it seems that Thomas
is the kind of guy who always sees the worst of a situation. He’s the glass-is-half-empty type of
guy. If the disciples were planning a
church picnic Thomas is the one who be saying, “I’ll probably rain the whole
day.” He probably does it, for the same
reasons you and I might do it. If we set
our expectations low, we are less often disappointed. If we set our sights low, we can be
pleasantly surprised when things turn out better than we expected. The easier our standards are to achieve the
more success we can claim to have. If we
don’t expect much from our community, we won’t have to deal with the let down
of missing the mark.
There’s a little of
Thomas’ attitude at work here too. We
could invite lots of people to worship with us today (there are plenty of
people sitting at home this morning right here in Grand Marais), but we might
not because we’re afraid of what it says if they don’t show up. We might even be afraid that they won’t like
what we believe, teach and confess; or they won’t like what we sing; or the way
we sing it; or what we say about God; or the way we say it. We set our sights very low when we think that
what the bible teaches is too difficult for people to understand and we must
water it down to get people in the door.
It’s a lot easier to say to ourselves, “I’d invite them but they won’t
come anyway.”
You know, we don’t
really know very much about Thomas. He
only speaks four times in the whole bible.
The first time he does is when Jesus hears about the death of Lazarus
and speaks about going back to Judea where
people wanted to kill him. “Well,”
answered Thomas, “we may as well go and get it over with… I guess we’ll all
just go with you so we can all die too.”
There Thomas is again setting his sights low, preparing for the
worst. I don’t think he really wants to
die, it’s just that he’s worried about what’s going to happen, so he speaks the
worst, hoping that the worst won’t happen.
Now it just so happened that the pessimism of Thomas is completely
unjustified. It wasn’t long before the
disciples witnessed Jesus bringing life back to Lazarus’ dead, decaying body. Jesus told his disciples that they’d see
great things (John 1:50) if they followed Him.
Thomas was expecting the worst; the cup was half-empty. But Jesus filled it up with life.
While most of us
probably more closely associate with Thomas and his aiming low strategy, it’s
no better to only to look at the world with rosy glasses. It is just as much of a problem pretend that
the world is all goodness and light. The
world is not all filled with goodness and light, bad things happen every day,
even to Christians. You don’t have to go
very far to see it either, switch on the radio and listen to the news. Terrible things happen every day. It’s a terrible thing that there is more real
persecutions of Christians now than ever before. It’s a terrible thing that divorce has become
an everyday reality and even expected behavior even for God’s people. It’s just as easy to hide behind a positive
attitude as a negative one. We deceive
ourselves when we think that people are basically good and will do the right
thing if they given the chance. That just
doesn’t play itself out as being true in the real world. You know what it is like to be used as a rung
in someone’s ladder to corporate success.
And even your friends will let you down, by turning their back on you
when it is their own self-interest. You
know that the sales clerk will hide the truth from you rather than risk the sale,
especially when her commission is in play.
Walking around pretending everything is great all the time isn’t any
better than thinking like Thomas and always looking on the dark side.
Thomas doesn’t mean to
be disbelieving, he’s just setting his sights low, so he won’t be disappointed.
So, when Peter and the gang tell Thomas,
“We’ve seen the Lord!” even their joy can’t overtake Thomas’ fear. He doesn’t just doubt that Jesus is alive; he
won’t dare believe it to be true. So, he
set his expectations to where he thinks they belonged. “Unless
I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of
the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” He would be happy to see Jesus alive; he just
can’t bear the let down if He isn’t.
Jesus knows Thomas and
his half-full complex. When He appears,
again in the midst of the disciples and
Thomas he speaks directly to Thomas and his unbelief. “See my
hands, bring you finger over here and touch me, put your hand right here in my
side. Stop your unbelief…” Jesus is
telling Thomas, “It is true, I am alive!”
Jesus knows exactly what Thomas
needs. He reaches out to Thomas with the
nail scared hands that suffered for the unbelief of the whole world. Jesus knows what Thomas needs. He gives him what he can see and touch, a
living body. The unbelief that Thomas
held evaporated. Did he reach out and
put his finger in Jesus side? I don’t
know, but I think his faith didn’t demand it anymore. Jesus, who was dead, is alive. He believes it. He makes the strongest statement of faith in St. John’s
You know it sounds a
lot like another time Jesus reached out and pulled someone out of his
doubt. Even Jesus needed downtime, and
with the great crowds that followed him everywhere who could blame him. After he did the miracle of feeding the 5,000
Jesus sent his disciples ahead of him across the Sea of Galilee
in a boat, telling them he’d join them later.
He went up on a mountain by himself to pray and rest. The disciples cast off, but they weren’t gone
long and as the water cooled down and the wind came up they began to think they
weren’t going to make it to the other side.
When they had gotten to the middle of the lake, they really got
spooked. Out walking on the water, right
in a place where no person could possibly be was a man walking on the
water. Of course, they were
frightened. But It was Jesus and he
called out to them not to be afraid. Peter
piped up, “Jesus if that is really you let me walk out to you on the
water.” “Come.” Jesus said with his
hands outstretched. Peter took a few
steps out there on the water, and just as he thought he was doing ok, just as
he took his eyes of Jesus, just as unbelief overtook him, down into the water
he dropped. But Jesus was right there to
take hold of him, and pick him up out of his unbelief and put him in the boat.
What a friend we have
in Jesus. For many people it’s a
favorite hymn. Jesus is a true friend
because he meets us where we are. Just
like He did for Thomas. Just like he did
for Peter. He didn’t zap them dead for
unbelief, he reached out to him with the hands that would bear the nails for
their sin. Jesus dragged them through
their unbelief right to himself. What a
friend they had. What a fried we
have!
Thomas was blessed to
see Jesus physical body right there. Is
Jesus going to appear right here standing showing us the nail prints and his
side? Well, probably not. But he does do that in a way. What is it that Jesus calls those who have
faith in Him, gathered around His word and Sacraments? We are the body of Christ. Jesus knows exactly what we need, and he
comes to us through people. Every day he
reaches out to you with the hands and feet of the people all around you. That’s what Friendship Sunday is all about,
too. To help us remember that we are to
bring Jesus to this community.
The message we must
bring is nothing less than what God did to come near to people who need
him. Those holes in Jesus hands are
proof of it. God isn’t a God far away,
He’s very close at hand. Jesus is God’s
Word made flesh a living breathing, bleeding dying, rising and living again
Savior for you and me. When Thomas
focused on his friend Jesus, his doubts ran way. When Peter looked away, he sank like a stone.
Our faith is centered
in Jesus. With our eyes focused on him
we don’t have to speak the worst and hope for better. We already have life and victory. We are connected to Jesus’ victory over
death. We are connected to Jesus’
life. That’s God’s promise given to you in
Baptism. As surely as Jesus rose from
the dead, you will have that same victory over death. That’s the certainty Thomas saw in Jesus’
wounds. It’s the certainty we have when
we gather around Jesus’ the altar to hear again about his self-sacrifice for
us; as we gather to receive the meal of his holy body and blood. As we do, he gives us the forgiveness of sins
that we need, even forgiveness for not believing.
Now, it’s easy to fall
into the old pattern of unbelief, hedging our bets, speaking the worst to avoid
disappointment. After all, we have lots
to be disappointed about. Life is like
that. Lot ’s
of people around here are still grieving the loss of the school. Our kids grow up, move go away to school and
don’t come back. Burt has changed and it’s
going to keep changing. But Jesus gives
us exactly what we need. He reaches out
to us, what a friend we have. Jesus is exactly what all the people of Grand
Marais need. In fact, that’s exactly why
Life in Christ Lutheran Church is here.
Invite a friend to Jesus. Amen.
“Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!”
The peace that passes
all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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