BELIEVING IS SEEING - March 30, 2008
John 20:19-31
We have two stories this morning in the scripture, the story that is most familiar is the one about Thomas, Doubting Thomas as most of us would know him. But the story about Doubting Thomas comes after Jesus appears to the Disciples shortly after Easter morning. So let's start with Jesus appearance, and then talk about Thomas.
1. Jesus' appearance to the disciples
The first story is about Jesus. Jesus is alive. Jesus brings peace. Jesus gives breath, which is life.
This story begins with the disciples hiding out, probably in the same upper room where they ate the Passover meal with Jesus just a few days earlier.
A hide out is a place away from everyone, a place set apart, separated from other people, from the shops, from the busy streets, even from their families. The disciples were hiding out, that is, everybody except Thomas. Most commentators think that they were huddled in fear, hiding from both the Roman soldiers and the Jewish leaders -- we can imagine they also thought they were safe from prying eyes from people who had seen them with Jesus, and who might turn them in. We can also imagine their conversation:
"I saw Jesus on the cross. But what about the tomb that was empty? What does that mean? Can we really believe the reports that Jesus has been seen? What are we going to do now? Do we dare to go home? Do we just go back to fishing? Will we be safe? What about all the things Jesus taught us? Who will be our teacher now?"
And suddenly, their reality breaks apart, because there was Jesus, right in the room with them. And Jesus does two things:
Jesus speaks and says "Peace"
Jesus breathes on them.
Jesus brings peace. From the fear of the soldiers and Jewish authorities, from the fear of being turned in, peace from the inner turmoil and sorrow and grief after the events of Good Friday, Jesus brings a peace that is shalom, that is like aloha.
A
L
O
HA -- breath
Which brings us to Jesus breathing on the disciples. That seems strange to us, but it proved that Jesus was alive -- you cannot have breath unless you are alive.
Equally as important, it was the breath of God -- the breath of the Holy Spirit breathing life back into the disciples just like Ezekiel and the valley of dry bones. The disciples literally came back to life. They were inspired -- as breath inspiration and expiration, inhalation and exhalation.
The disciples could leave their hide out and share breath with people again, the breath of the Holy Spirit and the resurrected Christ that really did bring new life to them.
2. Thomas
But what about Thomas: Thomas whose strength was his enthusiasm for Jesus' earthly ministry, Thomas who was almost recklessly zealous about Jesus. Thomas, whose name means "twin."
Did you ever want a twin? I used to think it would be great to be a twin. There are sets of brothers in the twelve disciples -- Simon Peter & Andrew, and James and John. Jesus is said to have a brother named James -- but the only twin I know about in the New Testament is Thomas, and there is nothing said about his twin. Was he a fraternal twin, and his twin was a sister? Like many twins before modern medicine, did one of the die either at birth or as a baby? We will never know, but what we do know is that Thomas was a twin.
Today, I want to suggest that Thomas, with all his doubts, is our twin. Thomas wanted to hang on to the way things had been. Perhaps he had no fear, and was out and about, continuing with whatever he did before Jesus died. He was not only the doubter, but the determined one who was not ready to give up, or to change. He wanted proof before he was going to change anything.
But what happened to Thomas? When he saw Jesus, who invited Thomas to touch him, he no longer needed that touch. He let go of his preconceptions, his resistance dissolved, and he blurts out words that are the climax of the entire Gospel of John: "My Lord and My God!"
It was Dietrich Bonhoeffer who said, "human beings sin most gravely at the point of their strengths." He thought that we expect to sin at our weaknesses, and we probably are more aware of our weaknesses, and pray to strengthen them. It is our strengths where we may fail to express them for the good of humankind, or being unaware we might go forward using them for destructive purposes.
One example is the closing of psychiatric hospitals and care homes in the 80's. Some of them really were in deplorable shape, and well meaning, intelligent people went to great lengths to have them closed with the idea that people could be cared for in the loving, nurturing environment of their homes, or that private facilities could take care of them. However, no provisions were made for private facilities, and families, no matter how willing or able, simply could not care for people who were mentally ill.
It was a strength to see the deplorable conditions of the psychiatric hospitals, and it was a strength to have the political will to publicize the conditions and do something about them, but it has not served humankind well because it was the beginning of so many mentally ill people living on the streets.
Like Thomas, we must be careful not to sin at our strengths.
The late Bishop Paul Martin tells this story of his first appointment to a local church when he was a young man and a new pastor. After the first church service, all the members of the congregation greeted him except one man, who stood apart, watching. Finally, Martin went to him and asked what he did at the church. The man replied, "I look for the preacher's weaknesses." But then the man added, "I'm good at it! But when I find them, that's when I get beneath, and lift him up."
Sometimes we must believe before we see.
Eddie Fox was General Secretary of World Methodist Evangelism in 1995 when the Berlin Wall fell and communism ended in Easter Europe. He went to a small Methodist Church in Prague, Czech Republic and saw a sign put up immediately after the wall fell. The sign read, "The Lamb Won!"
With Thomas, the Lamb won. He was able to see Jesus, who brought peace, and who breathed on them, and declare "My Lord and My God." Thomas is our twin, so with Thomas, we can let the Lamb win in our lives. We can believe because we see and declare "My Lord and My God."
Amen
Pastor Fran
