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SERMON
Beyond A Shadow of A Doubt
John
20:19-31
Pastor
What a witness! It
was the first day of the week—the day that Jesus rose from the dead—the first
Easter. But the light was fading; it was no longer morning. Earlier that day,
Mary Magdalene had gone to pay her respects at Jesus’ tomb, but had found the
tomb empty. She had assumed that grave robbers had taken Jesus’ body, but met
the risen Lord instead.
Mary did what Jesus had told her to do. She went
and told the disciples that she had seen Jesus, that he had spoken to her and
that he was alive.
What did the disciples do after they received
Mary’s fantastic news? They huddled together in a room, behind a locked door
(20:19). This either makes a great deal of sense or no sense at all, depending
on how we look at it.
It makes a great deal of sense that they would
be huddled behind locked doors in fear of their own people because it their own
religious leaders who had rallied the crowd to call for Jesus’ crucifixion. And
Jesus’ disciples must have assumed that those same leaders would try to track
down Jesus’ disciples to wipe them out and finish the job. So it makes sense
that the disciples should be afraid.
But it makes no sense that the disciples would
be huddled behind locked doors with hearts full of fear… if Jesus was alive.
After all, if Jesus was alive, wouldn’t he protect his disciples?
Yet, they were hiding there in fear when Jesus
walked through the locked door and said, “Peace be to you” (20:19). He went on
to say, “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (20:21). And then he
gave them their marching orders.
But one of the disciples was missing—Thomas!
Sometime later, the disciples found Thomas and told him (as Mary had told them)
that they had seen the Lord. Thomas, however, was understandably as skeptical
as they had been. He said, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and
put my hand into his side, I will not believe” (20:25).
This is pretty clear, isn’t it? Thomas didn’t
believe the other’s story…and he told them what it would take to get him to
believe. He would have to see the nail prints in Jesus’ hands and touch the
wound in Jesus’ side caused by the Roman spear.
OK, God! The ball’s in your court! Are you going
to give Thomas what he needs? Or are you going to zap him because of his doubt?
As it turned out, God gave Thomas what he
needed. That happened a week later. Jesus came to the disciples again through
the same locked door. When Jesus came to the disciples this second time, Thomas
was with them. Jesus first addressed all the disciples, “Peace be to you”
(20:27). Then he turned to Thomas and said, “Reach here your finger, and see my
hands. Reach here your hand, and put it into my side. Don’t be unbelieving, but
believing” (20:27). Did we notice that Jesus gave Thomas exactly what Thomas
said he would require? Thomas had said that he wouldn’t believe unless he could
see the nail prints in Jesus’ hands and put his hand in the wound in Jesus’
side. Jesus showed him his hands and side, and invited Thomas to touch his
wounds.
Thomas didn’t touch anything. He simply said,
“My Lord and my God” (20:28).
Jesus then said something I really like to hear.
In fact, this is one of people’s all-time favorite verses in the whole Bible.
Jesus told Thomas, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are
those who have not seen, and have believed” (20:29).
I love that verse, because I’m one of the ones
who hasn’t seen the risen Christ with my own eyes, but I have believed. So
Jesus was saying, “Blessed are you, Robyn.” I like that. It makes me feel expected…anticipated…welcome.
I hope it makes you feel good too, because you
haven’t seen the risen Christ with your own eyes either, but you have believed…or
are working on your skepticism and seeking God’s presence. “Blessed are you,
Bill!” and “Blessed are you, Christy!” and “Blessed are you, Ken!”… “Blessed
are each one of you, one and all.”
Yet, I know more. You might be thinking, “Pastor,
if you knew my heart, you wouldn’t say that. There are so many times I’m not
sure what I believe.” You might be thinking, “Sometimes I believe and sometimes…well,
sometimes I just don’t.”
Welcome to the human race! We all struggle with
belief and doubt, doubt and belief. Isn’t it fantastic that the disciples
included the account of Thomas? Not only welcome to the human race, but welcome
to the spiritual community called the church. Yes, we believe, and we question.
Sometimes, like Thomas, we doubt.
But I like what Tennyson had to say in his poem,
“In Memoriam.” He wrote:
“There lives more
faith in honest doubt, Believe
me, than in half the creeds.”
There’s a lot of truth in that short line. I have
met one or two people who claim never to doubt God, and I wonder if they have
been too fearful to ask the big questions. I wonder if they have been told that
their doubt is a sin or if they were part of a church where their questions were
not only unwelcome, but perceived as a threat to the community. Don’t get me
wrong. I know there are those rare individuals—wonderful, faithful people—who
never doubt. But I also know that the vast majority of people who honestly
wrestle with the weight of their doubt come out stronger by way of their
wrestling with God.
There’s a story in the New Testament where a
distraught father brings his son to Jesus for healing. Jesus said, “If you can
believe, all things are possible....” The
father replied—and this is the part I want you to hear—the father replied, “I
believe. Help my unbelief.” We can find the story in Mark’s gospel in the ninth
chapter, twenty-fourth verse.
The part of that story that I want you to hear in
your souls is the father’s words to Jesus, “I believe. Help my unbelief.” Maybe
we should memorize that short prayer. It would come in handy, wouldn’t it? When
we find our faith faltering, when we need God but can’t sense a divine
presence, when our prayers only seem to be bouncing back from a cosmic ceiling?
“I believe. Help my unbelief.” That’s an honest prayer, and I believe God always
honors honest prayer.
I have a friend who was raised, as he likes to
phrase it, “without the benefit of religious instruction.” He envies me for my
faith. He wishes he had faith. I tell him that faith is there for the taking,
but he can’t quite give himself the freedom to do that. But I have hope for
him. When someone envies another’s faith and wishes he had faith, he is
standing so very near to the
Let me close by saying that I appreciate your
faith. I appreciate the faith of the people gathered here this morning. I find
my faith strengthened as I rub shoulders with you. I pray that you will find
your faith strengthened as you rub shoulders with me.
Take a moment and look around at the other
people gathered here. They are part of your blessing—the blessing that Jesus
promised to those who believe. Get to know them. Become friends with them.
Spend time with them. Share your God stories. Tell them the truth about your spiritual
journey. Listen to theirs. Let them help you to believe. Honest
doubt is an integral part of authentic Christian faith. In an age of dizzying
change and awesome uncertainty, the sellers of closed systems with
cut-and-dried answers are getting rich. We need not, we cannot afford to, envy
them. Doubts are simply questions to which we do not yet have satisfying
answers.