+ Easter 2 – April 19th, 2020 +
Series A: Acts 5:29-42; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31
Beautiful Savior Lutheran
Milton, WA
Grace, Mercy, and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
In the Church of the Holy Nativity in Bethlehem there’s a mosaic of Doubting Thomas with our Lord’s words spoken to him in John 20
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
At first that might seem odd. Why would Thomas and an Easter story make its way to the Church of the Nativity?
But if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Visitors come to the place of Jesus birth not seeing the things Jesus did for us 2000 years ago, and yet believing in him, in his birth, life, death, and resurrection for us.
This Sunday we find ourselves in a similar situation as Thomas did. Not seeing, and yet believing. Living in Jesus’ words, especially at a time when to our eyes, everything around us looks contrary to his word.
That’s why I’m thankful for Thomas, doubts and all.
Thomas wasn’t with his fellow disciples when Jesus appeared to them that first Easter evening.
“We have seen the Lord!” They told him.
And Thomas replied, “Unless I see in His hand the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hands into His side, I will not believe.”
Thomas demands visible, tangible proof. An empiricist to the bone, long before the state of Motto of Missouri – the show me state – came into being.
But rather than blaming Thomas for this, or wagging our fingers in shame at him, we can be thankful for Thomas, and even more thankful of how our Lord deals with Thomas in his doubts.
As the church father St. Gregory once said, “More does the doubt of Thomas help us to believe, than the faith of the disciples who believed.” I thank God that Thomas doubted, for when he later “touched the wounds in the flesh of his master, he healed in us the wounds of our unbelief.”
What was Thomas’s hang-up? He wanted something “real,” something you can see or, in this case, touch. Like that hole left by a crucifixion nail in Jesus’ hands. Like that wound in his side from the spear.
Thomas had seen the blood drip from Jesus’ dying body; he had seen the steel penetrate that body; he had seen the wood smeared crimson; he had seen the stone rolled in front of the tomb. He had seen it all. And for Thomas, seeing is believing.
Yet another reason I’m thankful for Thomas. For we are Thomas. For us, seeing is believing too. We see what a virus can do to our world, nation, state, communities, and daily lives, to our gathering together as God’s people, and it’s hard to believe we’ll get through it. We see how people treat one another – virus or no virus – with little thought for others, and it’s hard to believe there’s any good anywhere in anyone. We see how our own sin and selfishness has been exposed this last month, and it’s hard to believe when we all we see around us is sin and suffering, disease and death.
And yet, our Lord promises. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
You see, believing is not the same as seeing. In fact, more often faith is believing the exact opposite of what we see, for that is how God reveals Himself to us.
Consider our Lord Jesus. He looks like a man, lives like a man, dies like a man. And yet faith says, “Jesus, my Lord and my God.”
Consider our own daily callings: you work long hours, put up with rude customers, deal with unruly students, you do the ho-hum work of the daily grind. Yet faith says, “My labor is holy, divine work, for I am God’s tool that He uses to take care of others.”
Consider our lives right now in this pandemic. People we know and love, and people we don’t know, are struggling or sick, some are dying. We wonder how long, O Lord? And yet faith says, I am baptized into Christ and by his wounds I am healed now and forever, no matter what the world looks like.
Yes, Believing is not the same as seeing. To believe is to confess that God is where God seems not to be, to confess that God is good when God seems to be bad, to confess that God is hidden and working in our weakness for us and for others, to confess that even though all I see is suffering and death and sin, yet I am blessed in Jesus’ dying and rising.
That’s why faith is a gift. Because we can’t do it.
But notice how Jesus deals with Thomas’ doubts, and ours.
Jesus doesn’t reject him, or send him off, scolding him. Jesus doesn’t appear and slap him for his doubt. No. Instead, he holds out His scarred hand for Thomas to see. “Reach here your finger,” He says, “and see my hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into my side; and be not unbelieving, but believing.”
Thomas sees with the eyes of faith who Jesus really is. “My Lord and my God.”
This is how our Lord deals with us too. Jesus doesn’t leave Thomas in his doubts. Neither will he leave you. Jesus takes your doubts and your fears and your shame and your bitterness and He makes them His own. And He takes His faith and His hope and His life and His joy and His glory and He makes them your own. He doesn’t always remove our outward troubles; but he does give us something better: his peace in his dying and rising for you.
Jesus’ peace in knowing that no matter how great our sin, Christ’s love for you is always greater.
Jesus’ peace in knowing that no matter how unfaithful we have been, Christ our Lord is always faithful to you and for you.
Jesus’ peace in knowing that although we often live with doubts and fears, blessed are you who have not seen, and yet believe.
Jesus’ peace in knowing that you are blessed today and always in his dying and rising for you.
In the Name of + Jesus. Amen.
The peace of God which surpasses…
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