April 12, 2015 at Advent Lutheran Church in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. 2nd. Sunday
of Easter. John 20:19-31. Doubting Thomas. Believing Thomas.
Question: As you already know, I absolutely love synchronicity…the way things
seem to interact and relate to one another in such sometimes surprising and
interesting ways!
Kahlil Gibran, best known for his wonderful book, The Prophet, is the author of
our Thought of the Day:
“Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.”
Even the irony of Thomas’ name was not lost on me when I read this Gospel after
finding Kahlil Gibran’s quote where John references Thomas as the one who was
called “The Twin.”
That statement could be both the title and the explanation of this Gospel lesson
about that infamous and I think inappropriately vilified “Doubting Thomas.”
Thomas was just being reasonable. On Easter Saturday I took my usual walk
through the cemetery and near the Rintelman grave was a freshly dug and as of
yet unfilled grave.
The sight of it reminded me of a Latvian Pastor friend of mine who like me was
able to find ways to get into trouble with his sermons. On one particular Easter
Sunday he wanted the congregation to appreciate how shocking it must have
been for the women who found the empty tomb.
Remember, the tomb was actually what we call a grave. A rectangular hole dug in
the ground, fitted with a concrete liner and eventually lowering the casket into
that liner of box.
That particular Holy Week a member of the congregation had died and was
buried on Good Friday. The pastor asked the congregation to imagine what the
family of the deceased member would have felt had they gone to the cemetery
and found their loved one’s grave empty. Totally empty and no idea why.
Well, this did not go over very well with the conservative Eastern European
Latvians many of whom were shocked and offended by any such suggestion and
most especially while the death of the member in question was so very fresh in
the minds and grief of those who knew and loved him.
This well could have been one of my friend’s best sermons, for he raised up in
them the emotions that most certainly would have been in the minds and hearts
of those early followers of Jesus.
It is most important to remember that the women who found the empty grave of
Jesus had no preparation for such a discovery. There was no story available to
them to prepare them for what must have been an incredibly shocking
experience!
No wonder, as the oldest Gospel mark records and we read on Easter morning
here at Advent:
“So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized
them, and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid.”
If anyone had suggested that there is a simple answer to all of this, mainly that
Jesus was resurrected by God and is still alive…that person would be thought to
be delusional at best, and probably also criminally so considering the grief of the
family who just found out that the body of their loved one has been stolen for
some ghoulish reason.
I cannot overemphasize the importance of context here. The women simply had
no reference point other than the obvious, what kind of mad man would steal the
body of a dead person?
And so you see, Thomas was merely being reasonable as well he should have
been since he had not yet encountered the living Jesus himself. To believe such a
preposterous tale, that a dead person was seen walking around would have been
foolish or naïve at best and outright ridiculous to any reasonable person.
So far from lacking faith, Thomas was simply being reasonable and wanting to see
for himself if these astonishing claims were true. I prefer to understand it as a
message that transcends physical facts. That is utterly clear in the sentence;
“Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said,
‘Peace be with you.’”
Bodies do not walk through wooden doors, so the first lesson is that this was no
ordinary appearance of someone who died and simply came back to life. At least
not with a physical body, which is the only kind of body we humans have.
And secondly, the Jewish religion had no provision for a spiritual body as such
because their doctrinal belief was that the soul and body were one. Not
separable. This is the same reason why they could not accept the core teaching
of Jesus when he said we should not fear those who kill just the body, but those
who kill the soul! That made no sense in the Jewish belief context.
Jesus’ biggest religious sin was to claim that he and the Father are one…an
impossible idea to the Jews and clearly blasphemy of the worst kind!
Another important thing to realize about this passage that it is no mere record of
an event is the words that Jesus speaks to Thomas;
“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.’”
Seeing and touching are not the same, but Jesus equates them for a reason. The
reason is that this event transcends our usual language categories and
experiential understanding because nothing like this had ever happened before!
Another important thing to note is that Thomas does not actually touch Jesus,
and yet comes to believe. That’s Thomas’ role in this story. The ability to believe
without touching and without proof, because faith is clearly different than proof!
That’s why it is called faith and not something else! My very favorite definition of
faith is found Hebrews 11:1;
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not
seen.”
Which is really just another way of saying what Jesus says to Thomas at the end of
their exchange;
“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
Often in my conversations with colleagues and people who are more traditional in
their understanding of Scripture I am asked;
“But why then were these stories written down if they really didn’t happen?”
And my answer is that I did not say they didn’t happen, I say there is no way to
know what actually happened because the meaning of the message is not
dependant on the details. This is clear to me from what the author of the Gospel
writes at the very end of today’s lesson;
“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not
written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that
Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his
name.”
Interesting that John does not use the expected language, at least by
fundamentalist understanding of the text that believing in Jesus will guarantee
you salvation or heaven – but rather life in his name! That means right NOW, not
someday in heaven! I find that significant and thankfully not at all as restrictive
and confining as the common and exclusive statement of faith that claims to be
the one and only way to experience God.
No, for me this Jesus who rose on Easter morning is most certainly alive today
and continues to be found in every act of kindness, understanding, forgiveness,
and grace! Amen.