Doubting Thomas or Resurrection Witness

“Doubting Thomas or Resurrection Witness?”  Easter Sunday

Message @ Jericho Ridge– Sun, April 4, 2021 (Series: Disillusioned) 

Hello, friends.  Happy Easter.  My name is Brad. I’m part of the teaching and leadership team here at Jericho Ridge. 

Today we are going to talk about a guy who because of his involvement in the first Easter story, got stuck with an unfortunate nick name. So I want to ask you: Did you ever have a nickname? Maybe one that you got in childhood or one that came out of a big event in your life?  They are not always kind and not always true, but nicknames have a way of sticking, especially if they are embarrassing. 

I remember in my Elementary school, it caught on to give each other nick names where we took the first letter of your first name and the first letter of your last name and we swapped them out. So, for example, if you name was Parminder Heer, your nick name at my elementary school would have been Harmimder Peer. Pretty unoriginal, right?  But some nicknames stuck.  For example, if you take the first latter of my first name, Brad, and swap it out with the first letter of my last name, Sumner.  You get Sadley Bumner.  That one was just funny enough to stick around for awhile. Thanks, guys!  

But nicknames are not just a recent thing.  Biblical characters get them as well.  And that’s the part of the Easter story we are going to look at today as we wrap up our series “Disillusioned: What To Do When You Doubt”.  We’ve been looking at the stories and experiences of people who are unsure. Who are seeking and struggling but who want to know more about Jesus, maybe that’s you – if so, know that you are welcome here.  And we want to give you some handholds for what to do in the middle of a place like a Christian community where it can seem, on the surface anyhow, that people are so darn confident about things.

But let’s remember that even the original disciples were not that confident about what to do after the resurrection.  Take for example, the account in the gospel of John – one of the early accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus - about the first Easter.  If you have a Bible or in the Jericho Ridge app on your device, turn with me to John 20 where we see how the first followers of Jesus reacted to the resurrection.  They hear the news that Jesus has raised from the dead and they respond, not with soaring faith, but they lock themselves into a room because they are afraid.  Let’s pick up the story of that First Easter Sunday evening in John 20:19. I’ll be reading from the new Living translation. 

That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. 20 As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! 21 Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” 22 Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Jesus invites those who have followed Him most closely for the past 3 years to step out of a place of fear, out of a place of incredulity or disbelief and into a place of peace, joy and confidence.  This is begins to be possible because of the presence of the risen Christ and the power of God the Holy Spirit living in them and with them.  This is an amazing Easter gathering! 

But there’s one teensy, itsy bitsy problem… Thomas Didymus, or Thomas the twin, one of the 12 disciples – isn’t there with the group that first Easter Sunday!  He doesn’t get his chance to see the risen Christ.  And because of this, he is about to get a nickname that sticks with him for centuries.  People still use it today to refer to him. They call him Doubting Thomas. 

But this nickname is actually pretty unfair based on what we know of Thomas from the writer of the gospel of John.  Let’s rewind the clock a bit and get to know this guy.  Outside of a list of disciples, we first meet Thomas in a scene in John 11.  By this point, Jesus has had repeated run-ins with the theological and political leadership of his day, such that he is persona non grata (not welcomed) in the region of Jerusalem. 

Jesus and His followers have mounted a retreat back across the Jordan River so that the can escape this persecution.  But there’s one challenge: that is, one of Jesus’ very close friends, a man named Lazarus, is deathly ill.  He is close to death, and like a good friend, Jesus really wants to go and see him. 

The other disciples counsel Jesus that this would be unwise, that his life would be in danger from those plotting to kill him, and they are right.  There is very real and present danger to Jesus and to them.  BUT Thomas speaks up and says in John 11:16 “Let’s go, too, and die with Jesus”.  Thomas is willing to head (sung) “right into the danger zone”. 

So I think we should put to bed the notion that this guy is a coward.  He is not a fickle wimpy snowflake of a disciple as is sometimes implied.  For the sake of love and friendship, Thomas was willing to risk his own life to stand by Jesus in that moment.   So if I was to give him a nickname in that moment, it would be Thomas the Brave.  Because he shows devotion and courage where others lack it. 

Fast forward a few more chapters to John 14 where Jesus is at the Last Supper. He is sharing with his disciples the hard truth that he is going to have to pass through death in order to defeat death.  Jesus knows that when he emerges victorious from the empty tomb on Easter Sunday, His victory over the powers of darkness will open up a way for you and for me to be reconciled and united with God.  So Jesus begins to teach his disciples about what it means to trust in God, to experience the hope of eternal life that starts now and goes on forever with God. 

To be fair, it’s all a bit esoteric and confusing but none of the disciples in that moment wants to confess their ignorance of what Jesus is talking about.  They nob and smile like people sometimes do in church.  Jesus is on about ‘going to prepare a way for them… And that God has a house in which there are rooms for them.  And that they know how to get to this place.  But here again were hear the voice of Thomas.  He is the one who asks good questions, who speaks up and says in John 14:6 “No, we don’t know, Lord… We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”   

I love the frank honesty of Thomas.  He flat out says “Jesus, I don’t get it!”  I have no idea what you are talking about!  To which Jesus responds, not with a rebuke, but with a powerful statement of identity in John 14:6 Thomas, “I AM the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me”.  

A careful and observant Jew listening to this would have heard that I AM statement as a reference to Yahweh, the God of Israel.  Jesus, in this moment and by His actions, identifies Himself as God and says to Thomas  – because you have seen me, you have seen the very face of God.” 

Jesus is God with skin on. And Thomas is the only one of the disciples who is honest enough to put his doubts and questions and ignorance on full display and say “I don’t get it, Jesus!”.  If I had to give Thomas a nickname in this moment, it would be Thomas the Honest.  He asks good questions where others hide under the veneer of pretending to understand what Jesus is saying.  Thomas comes right out with his doubts.  Poet Malcome Guite says of Thomas that he is “the courageous master of the Awkward.”

And as a reward for his vulnerability, Jesus makes a powerful invitation that is still on the table for you and I today: Come and see.  Walk the pathway of life with Me. Learn of me. I am the way-maker. I AM the truth-speaker.  I AM the one who shows you what God is like.  And friend, I want to make sure you have a clear invitation to explore and experience that this Easter.  If you have never placed your feet onto the path of walking deeper into learning who Jesus is and what He means, I want to invite you to start today. 

The way you do this is by believing in your heart that “Jesus is who He says He is” and confessing with your mouth, telling someone else and God “I believe, help my areas of unbelief”.  You’ll also want to stick around because starting next weekend, we’ll be walking through the Gospel of Matthew answering the powerful question “who is Jesus and what does it mean for you and me?”  You’ll be hearing stories of transformation and hope from people who call Jericho Ridge home and so you won’t want to miss this series. 

So back to Thomas.  After those two encounters, hopefully you begin to see why I think it’s unfair that the nickname that sticks with poor Thomas is Doubting Thomas and not Brave Thomas or Honest Thomas!  But let’s look together at the text.  You’ll recall that the disciples (all but Thomas) on the first Easter Sunday evening had Jesus stood amongst them and shows them the sounds hi his hands and his side.  And then… nothing.  A full week goes by.  Let’s look at John 20:24-29, I’ll be reading from the NLT.

24 One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. 25 They told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.” 26 

Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” 28 “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed. 29 Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”

I don’t know about you, but I have sympathy for Thomas’ desire to seek additional proof.  He isn’t asking for anything special or unique – he just wants the opportunity for what the other disciples already had.  A week prior they get a chance to see with their own eyes.  And I’m not sure what they did or did not do that first week after the first Easter, but 8 days later we find that they are still huddled behind locked doors on that upper room.  They have seen that Jesus is alive. They don’t lack proof, but they lack courage. Thomas, on the other hand, doesn’t lack courage, he lacks proof. 

Thomas isn’t asking for special treatment, he simply wants the others have already had. He wants his own encounter with Jesus.  And in a moment of immense mercy, Jesus meets Thomas there.  Jesus comes to the disciples in that upper room and he invites Thomas not just to see, but to put his fingers into the nail wounds in Jesus hands, and places his hand into the wound in His side.  We don’t know if Thomas actually took Jesus up on that offer – 17^th century Italian painter Caravaggio imagines Thomas sticking his finger right up in there while Peter looks on.  We don’t know if he needed that level of proof - maybe seeing Jesus is enough for Thomas. What we know is that Thomas cries out “My Lord and my God!” 

What a powerful statement Thomas makes.  My Lord… in other words, Jesus, I see you as my leader.  The one who has control over my life.  And my God. In other words… “Jesus, I see and acknowledge you as Divine.  The God who has come to set the captives free.  I see you, Jesus, as the One who has come to defeat death and the grave.”  Thomas calls it like he sees it, once he sees it. 

So where are the poems and songs about Thomas’s great declaration of resurrection truth?  Where are the songs about his declaration of Jesus’ resurrection identity?  Where is the nickname “Prophetic Thomas the One who bears witness to the reality of the resurrection?”  Thomas is the one who actually sees what is really going on.  

And I love Jesus’ response to Thomas. “You believe because you have seen me, blessed are those who believer without seeing me.”  Because some of us are conditioned to see doubt as negative, we read Jesus’ words to Thomas as a rebuke.  But they actually read as neutral.  Jesus is simply stating a fact… Thomas saw and Thomas believed. 

But here’s the most incredible part of the story to me.  That last phrase is not for Thomas and it’s not for those already in the room where it happened… It is aimed straight at you and me. 

You see, if seeing is believing, then only those who got a chance to place their physical hands into the physical nail marks have any shot at this thing we call faith.  But Jesus makes the explicit point to extend something powerful to those like you and me, who will never have the chance that Thomas had to see him. 

But Jesus does not say to us: ‘too bad, so sad’… Quite the opposite. Jesus speaks a word of blessing over those of us who have not had the opportunity to see his resurrected body with our own eyes or hear his voice with our own ears. 

Writing to people who had also never had the privilege of meeting Jesus first hand, the Apostle Peter writes in I Peter 1:8,21 “You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy… Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory.”

Friend, when some of you think about the resurrection, you wonder to yourself “how could this be true?” And I want to assure you that Jesus is not frightened by your skepticism.  Jesus is as comfortable with your incredulity as He is with Thomas’.  Jesus will meet you in that place.

I love how Canadian song writer and author Steve Bell talks about his faith journey.  When he looks at Thomas, he sees not a doubter, but a kindred spirit.  Bell writes “In our understandable doubts, you don’t hear Jesus’ rebuke, you hear his blessing.” 

Blessing is speaking goodness, faith, life and promise into the life of another.  When we do this as parents, it’s not because our kids have already achieved goodness (that’s award or reward), it is because we desire good things to come to fruition in the lives of those we love.  

The same is true with God.  When Jesus speaks a blessing over you and says “blessed are you who believe without seeing me.” Jesus is pronouncing His word of blessing over your life and the seeds of faith planted there as they germinate and grow.  Bell again “Jesus has blessed you, with your tiniest seed of faith, in the state you find yourself right now, not because it has grown, but so that it may grow.” 

So friends, this Easter, if you’d permit me, I would love to speak a word of blessing over you:

May you be blessed with the courage to speak out your questions and say “I do not know the way!”  Jesus will meet you there. 

May you be known as the master of the awkward question as you speak the words others dare not say. The Spirit will guide you into truth. 

May you have the sense to put your finger on the nub of things, knowing that we can not love something only with our minds with we must also love it with our hearts and whole selves.   

May you know the blessing of seeing, and believing but may you also know the blessing of believing without seeing.  Faith meets us there. 

May you know the blessing of incredulity and the challenge of understandable doubts,

And in these places and spaces of doubt and questions, may you know the blessing of the One who loves you and who gave up His life that you might know love.”

Amen.   I invite you to join me in responding to God in worship in song. 

Benediction:

Our benediction today is from John van der Laar entitled: Witnesses

How do we find the faith to believe the story of Easter, Jesus?

How do we grasp its truth? We can only accept it; refusing to reduce it to scientific debate or historical literalism kneeling with humility and awe beside the blood-stained cross and the empty grave;

For then, we are your witnesses. How do we understand the mystery of your death and life, Jesus? How do we explain it? We can only live it; allowing it to permeate every grain of this sand that forms us, every thought, every priority, every act and every interaction; For then we are your witnesses, and you deserve nothing less from us. Amen.”

Thanks for being with us.  We’ll see you online next weekend, April 11 as we launch into a brand new teaching series in the Gospel of Matthew where we explore more about who is Jesus and what he means to us in our lives today.  Happy Easter!