Grace United Methodist Church
pastorwillrice@gmail.com
John 20:19-31
In today’s Media crazed world, it is pretty hard to run away from a bad reputation. If you mess up, and the media gets a hold of it, it doesn’t matter what you did before or what you do after, you are stuck with that reputation. Let me mention a few names: Paul Reubens a.k.a. Pee-Wee Herman, O.J. Simpson, Barry Bonds, Judas Iscariot or the subject of today’s reading, poor doubting Thomas.
Thomas’ reputation is so fixed it is in the dictionary:
t
ng) n.- One who is habitually doubtful.[1]I think something terribly unfortunate has happened here and it goes beyond the sullying of Thomas’ reputation. I think we have taken the cliché of a doubting Thomas, our cultural understanding of Thomas and used it as a lens to interpret this passage.
We hear the words of this passage, and whether we are lifelong Christians or just part of general society, we think, “oh, this is the doubting Thomas passage.” That happened just the other day. Pastor John and I were talking about what I might preach on this week. He said, “what about John
I guess I don’t really need to preach on this. Doubting Thomas has an implied negativity about it. I mean, who wants to be a doubting Thomas? You might want to be a skeptic, but a doubting Thomas? Who wants to be labeled as habitually doubtful? With our dictionary definition in hand, this passage clearly tells us to not be Thomas. Do not be habitually doubtful. Believe without seeing. Amen?
You know, wait a minute. It is not hanging on my wall, but somewhere in my office, under some book or something is a piece of paper that says I completed a Master of Divinity at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Based on that, I am thinking that maybe I shouldn’t base my entire sermon on something from the American Heritage Dictionary. I want to, for a moment, put aside that lens of “doubting Thomas” that we tend to read this passage through and let the text speak for itself.
19On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews,
In contrast to our “doubting Thomas” the brave, believing disciples are locked up in a house shaking in their boots.
19On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”
We kind of skip over the part about them being locked in a house because they were afraid, because we are caught up in the fact that Jesus somehow walked right through the locked doors. Jesus has performed countless miracles and been resurrected from the dead and we are wowed because he just walked through some doors. Anyway, until Jesus shows up our disciples are locked up, in a house, because they are afraid.
Now with our handy dictionary definition in hand, we assume, that unlike Thomas, they must have a reason to still be afraid! They must have a reason not to believe yet. They are not doubting Thomases, they are faithful disciples. Perhaps no one has told them that Jesus is alive! Looking back in chapter 20, Mary Magdalene had gone to the tomb, only to find the stone rolled away, she ran off and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved… When they got there:
He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
Interesting, “he saw and believed!” “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Alright, well Simon Peter and the other disciple know and one believed, but perhaps they forgot. Or maybe, they forgot to tell anyone! What about Mary Magdalene, she went back to the tomb and ran into someone she thought was the gardener:
15Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." 16Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
So Mary Magdalene knew, and Jesus told her to tell everyone, but maybe she forgot to tell. Let’s look at the verse right before where we started today.
18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
Which leads us right back to where we started, the very next verse:
19On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
They believed, not because one of the other disciples believed, not because Mary Magdalene told them. They believed because they saw.
Now let’s look at our doubting Thomas for a moment.
24Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”
Thomas does make a pretty shocking demand. He actually wants to touch Jesus wounds from the cross, but in context, he is not asking for much more than the other disciples got. He wants to see for himself.
Thomas gets what he asks for.
26A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”
The contrast between Thomas and the Disciples is getting fuzzy. Notice that the doors are still locked. They are still holed up in the house, protecting themselves from something.
27Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
I started this sermon with the idea that our cultural concept of a doubting Thomas that was originally gleaned from this passage has been turned around and now interprets this passage. I think that it is important to bring that up again here. Most Sundays in Church, we read from the New Revised Standard translation of the Bible. It is the one we keep up front here. This verse reads like this:
27Then 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.’
Do not doubt but believe. The New Revised Standard Version was published in 1989. Before that we simply had the Revised Standard translation, which read:
27Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing."
What is says there, in Greek is simply “do not be lacking in faith, but full of faith.” I like that better, because it takes our preconceived understanding of this doubting Thomas out of the picture. Thomas is not habitually doubtful. He is, just like the other disciples, just like us, moving from a place where he lacks faith to a place where he has faith. Thomas is no different from anyone else in this narrative, or anyone else in this room. Thomas is in the midst of transformation.
Tranformation – that is what it is all about. If we don’t see our selves, our church, our world in the midst of transformation, we are totally missing the point. We are all being transformed. None of us are done. If you think you are done with your journey of belief, you are missing out. If you think that God is through with you, you are missing out. If you think you are good enough, you are missing out. God loves you just the way you are, but wants even more for you.
One disciple believed when he saw the empty tomb. Mary Magdalene believed when Jesus spoke her name. Most of the disciples believed when they saw Jesus, but still had the doors locked the next time he showed up. Thomas believed when Jesus and said, “do not be lacking in faith, but full of faith.” And I guarantee you, in the trying times that these disciples had ahead, there were moments full of faith and moments full of doubt.
Some of us believe because our parents believed. Perhaps they passed that belief unto us and nurtured us in it until we were able to own if for ourselves. Some of us have an “experience” of Christ in our lives that moves us to belief. Some of us seek proof, we look to logic and evidence to help us believe, until that faith becomes part of who we are and we no longer need any proof. Some of us move from belief to doubt and back again, perhaps finding our faith a difference way each time.
I can think of many examples of people who inherited belief from their parents, at some point felt that belief was gone, looked for proof to find it again, found it, fell away again, and then came back to it through an experience.
It doesn’t matter really, because just like in John’s gospel, the risen Christ met each and every one of them in their doubt, where they were. How we come to believe is not nearly as important as what we believe and what is even more important is what happens to us when we believe. Poor Thomas who has become synonymous with habitually doubtful is the one who got it exactly right. 3 years of seminary and I can’t say the truth about Jesus much better than old Tom:
28Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Thomas knew he was standing in the presence of the risen Lord, he was in the presence of God! Our doubting Thomas has just made one of the most profound statements in the New Testament.
28Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
You see it’s not how you come to believe, it is what you believe.
Some scholars believe that the Gospel of John actually ended at the end of Chapter 20. Chapter 21 could have still been written by the same author, but it is more of an epilogue. This would mean that the true ending of the Gospel is this:
30Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31But these are written that you may[a] believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
The whole point of the Gospel, the good news, all of this, is that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is the anointed one, the Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Now, in one way or another, we are all working on what that means and more importantly what that means for our lives and how we will choose to live them. But, the whole point is that we might believe, however it may be that we come to believe, and through believing, we may be transformed, that we may be made and remade as new persons, that we may have abundant life in the name of Christ.
That is what it is all about. That is why we come here. That is why we sing, read scripture, do Bible study, so that we might come to know Jesus Christ, might come to believe and might come to be transformed in his name.
Amen.
[1]The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
