8 April 2018
Text: John
20:19-31
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
“Do
not disbelieve, but believe,” says our risen Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn’t order us to believe based on blind
faith, but He does require faith – faith in something that we experience in
person, even as He says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have
believed.”
In
the case of doubting Thomas, our crucified and risen Lord was so merciful as to
allow Thomas to touch the wounds made by the nails and the spear at His
crucifixion, because, for whatever reason, Thomas was hung up on this point:
that Jesus had risen from the dead. Our
Lord gave Thomas’s faith something to cling to.
And
Thomas responds: “My Lord and my God!”
As
for us, we are given the Scriptures, for as the Evangelist explains: “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.”
“Do
not disbelieve, but believe.”
Often
the difference between disbelief and belief is a thin line. Consider St. Thomas: a disciple of Jesus for
three years, who would become an apostle, carrying the Gospel as far as India,
and, it seems, dying as a martyr, making the good confession of the faith of Jesus
Christ. Thomas witnessed the great
miracles of our Lord: turning water into wine, feeding the five thousand,
curing lepers, the deaf, the blind, casting out demons, and even raising the
dead. But for some reason, the idea that
His Lord Jesus Christ, whom he saw crucified, was raised from the dead, just
did not seem credible – even when the other disciples claimed that they had
seen Him.
Maybe
this was part of Thomas’s stumbling-block: being excluded from that first appearance.
For
whatever reason, it seems remarkable that Thomas would be so filled with disbelief,
and passionately so, stubbornly saying: “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.”
Often
the difference between belief and disbelief has less to do with evidence, and
more to do with emotion.
Similarly,
there are two kinds of atheists: those who do not believe in God, and those who
do. Honest atheists, for whatever reason,
truly do not believe in God. They
generally don’t believe in the supernatural.
They are typically materialists, and in a sense, like St. Thomas, requiring
a level of physical evidence that they are yet to see. But there is another kind of atheist, one who
is actually angry at God, or one who thinks God is horrible, or one who doesn’t
want God to impose rules on his lifestyle.
Of
course, this latter form of atheist is a walking contradiction. What he knows and what he “believes” are out
of sync. Often this is an atheist that
is governed by emotion, not reason. His
disbelief is caused by resentment rather than reasonable doubt.
Similarly,
Thomas’s doubt was unreasonable. Perhaps
he was hurt that the Lord had excluded him on that first appearance. Maybe the disciples came across as condescending
when they said, “We have seen the Lord” to Thomas, who did not see Him.
At
any rate, the Lord, in His mercy, provided Thomas with the gift of faith. He allowed Thomas to see and to touch. And He bade Thomas, “Do not disbelieve, but
believe.”
“My
Lord and my God!” says believing Thomas!
“My
Lord and my God!” says the Christian confronted with the paradox of his own
existence, when faced with the dilemma of creation out of nothing, when he
comes to grips with the reality that not everything that is real can be put into
a test tube and analyzed: things like love, things like personality, things like
the blessing of “those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Dear
brothers and sisters, the story of Thomas and his week of doubt is of great
comfort to us. Our weak flesh often
doubts. We may doubt the existence of
God. We may wonder if Jesus is the Son of
God. We may question the incarnation or
the resurrection. We may be skeptical of
the atonement. We may simply lack the
faith that our Lord’s death on the cross forgives my sins, or saves me from
sin, death, and the devil. Our doubts
may not be addressed to Jesus at all, but rather towards ourselves.
But
let us remember Thomas, whose account has been placed before us by the Holy
Spirit. St Thomas walked with Jesus, saw
miracles with his own eyes, and would himself be one of the Lord’s greatest
evangelists. Yet even Thomas struggled
with doubt. And what restored him, dear
friends, was not his “own reason or strength,” but the Holy Spirit who “called [him]
by the Gospel, enlightened [him] with His gifts” and “sanctified and kept [him]
in the one true faith.”
And,
dear brothers and sisters, “in the same way, He calls, gathers, enlightens, and
sanctifies” you, “with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.” This is how it is that the Lord Jesus, in His
very flesh and blood, can simply tell Thomas: “Do not disbelieve, but believe.”
For
we have “these [things that] are written so that you may believe that Jesus is
the Christ.” We also have His very flesh
and blood in physical form, in the bread that we eat, in the wine that we
drink, that are His true body and blood: the very same body touched by Thomas,
and the very same blood that Thomas saw shed upon the cross from the very
wounds that he handled.
“Do
not disbelieve, but believe.”
Jesus
rose from the grave, and He has won the victory for us. Jesus continues to come to us in Word and
Sacrament, so that we too might see and hear and take and eat – and believe. Jesus continues to convert the unbeliever into
the believer, even as He strengthens our faith – especially given that by our
own “reason or strength” we cannot believe in Jesus or come to Him.
But,
dear brothers and sisters, by His own reason and by His own strength, Jesus
believes in us and He comes to us. He
loves us; He dies for us; He atones for us; He forgives us; He instills faith
in us, and He gives us eternal life. By
the Holy Spirit, He changes our unbelief into belief.
And
we respond in joyful wonder and in exuberant belief: “My Lord and my God!”
“Do
not disbelieve, but believe.” Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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