Risk
John
20: 19-31 (NRSV)
When
it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the
house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came
and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed
them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the
Lord. Jesus said to
them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he
breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of
any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’
But
Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them
when Jesus came. So
the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them,
‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark
of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’
A
week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them.
Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace
be with you.’ 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.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you
believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet
have come to believe.’
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 through
believing you may have life in his name.
This is going to be a Sunday
where my message to you is going to come in part through music. The Spirit is
working through me in that way.
This is also one of my
favorite Sundays of the year to preach on, because of this Gospel lesson from
John, about our good friend Thomas. A lot of you have heard me say this before,
and you’ll surely hear me say it again in the future, but I’m very sympathetic
to our friend Thomas, and I’m very defensive of him. Because of his actions in
just this one story, he’s been branded with a nickname for all of time. A
terrible nickname. So rarely when you hear people refer to Thomas do you ever
hear him being called just by his name, Thomas. You never even hear him being
referred to by his actual nickname, the one the Bible says everyone called him,
“The Twin”, or “Didamus”. No. For all of time he has been “Doubting Thomas”.
Let me just say for the record, first of all, that I think it’s really unfair,
when we are a people of forgiveness, that we have slapped this nickname on poor
Thomas just because of something he said one time.
I’ve also always wondered if
every time we call our friend “doubting Thomas”, what we’re really saying is
that we’ve failed to understand why the Gospel author, John, penned these words
in the first place. As he says himself in his conclusion to this story, “these are written so that you may come to
believe
that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through
believing you may have life in his name.”
We’re hearing this story
about Jesus, Thomas, and the other remaining ten disciples not so that we can
pass judgment on Thomas or anyone else, but so that we can believe. And really,
John is providing us with this and all of his Gospel stories so that he can
give us the same thing that Thomas wanted from Jesus: evidence.
Evidence. Proof. If we’re
going to call our friend here “doubting Thomas”, then let’s own that there’s a
doubting Thomas in each and every one of us, because we all look for evidence,
from God especially. It’s just human nature. We’re curious. We’re inquisitive.
We’re skeptical. Sometimes, we’re even a little cynical. We just don’t like
accepting things on face value. And God doesn’t judge us for that.
Any time you’ve ever said,
or even thought, God, just give me a sign,
you’ve identified with your inner doubting Thomas. Anytime you’ve ever read our
sacred text and wondered some of the things everyone does—could God really
create a whole universe in a week? Would two of every animal really fit on one
ark? Could a virgin really conceive and give birth? Could a man perform
miracles? Can a man come back to life from the grave?—you’ve identified with
your inner doubting Thomas.
And most of us would agree,
it’s easiest for us to doubt God, to doubt even what we’ve always believed, to
start shedding our faith, when we’re going through a hard time. It can be easiest
for us to pointedly ask, Is there even a
God at all? When we’re suffering. If this has ever happened to you, then
you can really identify with your inner doubting Thomas.
Jesus’ disciples had just
experienced the most traumatic few days of their lives. Their leader and dear
companion, Jesus, the man they gave up everything to follow, was betrayed by
another of their closest companions, tried, tortured, publicly humiliated, and
executed. They were so traumatized that they wouldn’t even take the chance of
leaving their doors unlocked. They just sat, hid, and waited in fear.
You need to know that in
order to understand how gritty this story really is. We need to really appreciate
just how much the other ten disciples had to overcome to believe Jesus was
really standing in their presence—Jesus himself, not a ghost, not an image, not
a hallucination, Jesus, in the same
wounded flesh that was buried.
Thomas had the same burden
of shock, fear, trauma, and sadness to overcome. What’s more is he had to do it
on his own, because he wasn’t with the other ten when Jesus first appeared to
them. Can you really blame Thomas for doubting what the other disciples told
him, for doubting that a dead man came back to life and showed up at their
house? That’s absurd. That defies all logic. That’s unexplainable by anything
we mere mortals know. They may as well have been telling Thomas that they saw a
unicorn trotting down the street.
The thing is, fast forward
to today, and this can be exactly what it’s like to tell someone who doesn’t
believe in God why you do. Our world is full of doubting Thomases. And for
understandable, human reasons. In a world so messed up as ours, a world so full
of pain, a world so divided by greed and hate, why should anyone believe in
something so fantastically great as God? In a world where we can’t believe a
person’s telling the truth about their own name unless they show ID, we’re
programmed at the deepest level to say, Show
me some proof or I’m showing you the door.
God doesn’t judge us for
this. God understands what we’re up against. God knows all about the fallen
world we live in. And, if we’re patient enough, God will often give our inner
doubting Thomas exactly the kind of proof our hearts desire. I commend our brother
Thomas for knowing himself well enough to know what he needed to see, hear, and
touch in order to believe. In the words of Jesus himself, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and
the door will be opened for you.[i]
If you know your own heart well enough, then you, like our brother Thomas,
can use that wisdom to connect with the heart of God. You can ask God for what
you need, and he will provide it.
God doesn’t judge us for our
doubts. But he challenges us when we doubt. Jesus says to Thomas, Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet
have come to believe. We all have doubt. It’s downright easy for us to
doubt. It’s a human default setting. Why? Because it protects us. When you
refuse to reach your verdict until you’ve been provided with sufficient
evidence beyond any reasonable doubt, you protect yourself and others. You’re
protected from making hasty decisions. You’re protected, at least in theory,
from doing something you’ll regret later. You protect yourself from someone
trying to deceive you.
That’s totally reasonable.
But our God is a God that defies reason. In order to really have a deep,
meaningful relationship with our Lord, then we need to get beyond our doubting
Thomas, and follow the example of our brother Peter, the moment he decided to
get out of the boat and walk on the water to Jesus. We need to sacrifice some
of our comforts and safety and take a risk.
Now, as to why I’ve been
holding a guitar this whole time—as you know by now, my primary language for
talking to God is music. All kinds of music, but especially music that I can
play myself. And I’m a big fan of some of our contemporary Christian artists.
So, if you listen to that kind of music, like I do, then you may have heard of
a group called Hillsong United. And if you’ve heard anything they’ve released
in the last year or so, then you’ve heard this incredibly beautiful,
provocative, challenging song of theirs called “Oceans”.
“Oceans” draws from the
story I just alluded to, the Gospel story of Peter getting out of the boat and
walking on the water to Jesus. I gave you the lyrics to this whole song—for the
sake of time, I’m not going to play you all of it, but I wanted you to have
these incredible words to look at whenever you need them.
This song, “Oceans”, has
become my spirit song in the last few months. My song for my walk with God. My
song of prayer. And when I want to pray and can’t find the words, I often think
of this song. And in particular, I think of this song’s incredibly emotional
bridge. In times of joy, when I thank God, in times of uncertainty, when I ask
for help, and most of all, when my doubting Thomas is creeping up within me,
and I need to remind myself that God calls us to risk our safety and comfort
and be courageous, I think of this bridge. And I sing this bridge. And this
bridge becomes my challenge, and my prayer. And I sing it as many times as I
need to to remember who and whose I am.
When I’m scared about my
future. When I get hung up on a problem I know is temporary. When I get daunted
by everything on my plate right now and start to wonder if I can really handle
it all. When I start to wonder when this loving God of ours will just show me a sign, I remember I already
have plenty. I have plenty of evidence to believe that our God is alive and
with us all. I have a roof over my head, I have a family to love, I have my
daily bread, I have a Gospel to preach, a ministry to practice, and a song to
faithfully sing.
Let these words sink in. And
you have the lyrics, so don’t be shy about singing along if you feel so moved:
Spirit
lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior.[ii]
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior.[ii]
The amazing thing about the risks we take for God is that we don’t need to
worry about anything—we don’t need our doubts to protect us, because God always
will, no matter what. This is the God who adopted us all as his own beloved
children. This is the God who gave up his Son so that we could have life.
Whether this is a doubting Thomas day, or a Peter day, or somewhere in between,
find comfort in knowing that even if you start to sink in the water, God will
always catch you. Or, as Hillsong United puts it, as they finish this song—
I will
call upon Your name
Keep my eyes above the waves
My soul will rest in Your embrace
I am Yours and You are mine.
Keep my eyes above the waves
My soul will rest in Your embrace
I am Yours and You are mine.
Amen.
[i] Matthew 7:7
[ii] “Oceans (where feet may fail)” was written by Joel
Houston, Matt Crocker, and Salomon Lighthelm. It was performed by the group
Hillsong United. You can hear the whole song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy9nwe9_xzw
.
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