Christ is risen!
We
call him “Doubting Thomas.” I don’t know why he has forever been
branded with that nickname while the other disciples remained unlabeled. Certainly there’s no question that he
doubted, even refused to believe the testimony of his brother disciples; but, after
all, Peter denied Jesus but we don’t call him “Denying Peter.” Judas betrayed our Lord but we rarely call
him, “Betraying Judas.” But poor Thomas
is still lying in his grave, awaiting the resurrection with the label “Doubting
Thomas.”
But maybe he deserves
it, maybe the moniker “Doubting Thomas” is even charitable. After Jesus had appeared to the other ten
disciples in that locked room, Thomas didn’t respond to their testimony by
saying, “Now I highly doubt that. That
seems to be a bit preposterous,” leaving room for a glimmer of hope. No, he boldly proclaims, “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.” “I will never believe,”
Thomas says. He really couldn’t put it in
stronger language than that. “I will
never believe unless I see the physical evidence, tangible proof. I demand to see the wounds of the cross, and
what’s more I want to stick my fingers into them.”
So, what was Thomas’
problem? It was Thomas who had
previously said, when Jesus was about to go back to back to the dangerous place
of Bethany to raise Lazarus, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” Thomas saw the nails driven through Jesus’
hands and feet, He saw the body of His Lord hanging on the tree, he beheld the
cross stained with the blood of Jesus, he heard the testimony of the women,
probably even saw the empty tomb. He
heard from Jesus Himself that it was absolutely necessary that the Son of Man
be handed over into the hands of sinful men but on the third day rise. So what was Thomas’ problem? His problem is that he’s exactly like us.
He’s known as
Doubting Thomas; but perhaps we should call him Unbelieving Thomas. But either way, for his doubting, for his
unbelieving, for his hard-headedness, for his dyed-in-the-wool skepticism, we
ought to give God eternal thanks because in Thomas we see ourselves. In Thomas we see our error of insisting that
our own experiences are what matter when measuring God’s love. In Thomas we see how our Lord deals with our
sinful unbelief, our insisting on seeing a tangible sign to prove God’s mercy
instead of trusting in the comforting Word of the Lord. In Thomas we see our faith that, at times, is
a bruised reed and fainting wick. For
Doubting Thomas and for us seeing is believing.
We trust our eyes instead of our ears.
Like Thomas we count these things to be real: a body giving
up the spirit, a dead Jesus on the cross, a freshly enclosed tomb. We count as real our stresses in life, our
frustrations at work, our dwindling bank accounts, our own hurts, sufferings,
and pains. These are the things we see
and the temptation is to think that God’s holding out on us, doesn’t really
love us, or He isn’t really a God of mercy.
For this we should repent. Repent
for coming up with our own litmus test to measure if God really loves you. Repent for our self-centeredness. Repent for not trusting what God has spoken
to us when He promises that He loves us even unto death – trusting our eyes and
ignoring what we hear from our Lord.
With our Lord, believing isn’t
seeing. We live by faith, not by sight –
hearing the Words of Jesus and trusting in His Word of promise, not testing
them against what we see and experience.
Faith is believing exactly the opposite of what we see.
That’s why we ought to give thanks for
Thomas – he’s exactly like us – trusting his eyes, his experience, his senses
over – and - above the testimony of Jesus that He would rise again after three
days.
Yet when Christ appears in that locked
room the second time, He goes to Thomas and doesn’t chastise him for his doubt,
Jesus doesn’t take him by the shirt and give him an angry shake for his
skepticism, He doesn’t slap Thomas on the face for his unbelief. The Lord simply reveals to Thomas His
nail-pierced hands, shows him the handiwork left by the spear-wielding
soldier. Jesus goes to Thomas and the
first words out of His mouth are words of absolution. “‘Peace
be with you.’ Then 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 disbelieve, but believe.’”
And Thomas, moving his fingers over the
Lord’s redeeming scars, believes. He
sees with the eyes of faith who Jesus really is. His disbelief turns to faith. His tongue which once spewed forth doubt in
His Lord’s promise of death and resurrection now makes the great confession of
John’s Gospel, “My Lord and my God.”
This is the way of the Lord, the way of
grace and mercy. He doesn’t leave Thomas
crawling about blindly in his unbelief, but reaches out with those scarred
hands and pulls Him in close to see Him by faith. And so it is for you.
He takes your doubts and your fears and your
shame and your bitterness and Jesus 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 remove your outward troubles; He
gives you something better: peace. His
peace. The peace that flows from His
cross and empty tomb to you. He may
leave in place your stresses, your frustrations, your diseases, your pains,
your hurts, but He won’t leave your heart empty of His peace. For that’s what He’s all about: giving to you
the peace that surpasses all understanding, the kind of peace that knows that
no matter how unfaithful you’ve been, God will never be unfaithful to you. The kind of peace that knows that no matter how
great your sin, Christ’s love and forgiveness is always greater. The kind of peace that knows that no matter
how bad this world may get at times, any suffering here isn’t worthy to be
compared with the glory that will be revealed on the Last Day. That’s the kind of peace Christ gives: peace
of heart when surrounded by ten thousand enemies.
As real as your doubts, hurts, frustrations,
and fears seem to be, faith looks to Christ, beholds His wounds and says, “But
the love, mercy, and peace of God is more real.
The blood that was shed on the cross for me is the greater reality. The resurrection of Jesus for me is as
tangible as it gets as His raised body and blood are placed on my tongue. Those nail - pierced hands and punctured side
of my Lord is for me so that His peace is given to me. No matter what.”
In Thomas we see ourselves. We see our own unbelief, our own skepticism,
our own putting the Lord to the test.
But in Thomas we see a doubter turned believer through the death and
resurrection of Jesus. We see a man
blinded by His own unbelief to a man gifted with the faith to see Jesus as His
Lord and God. So it is for you. Christ comes to you, not willing to take you
by the shirt and shake you in anger, but to come into your midst and speaks a
word of forgiveness and peace. And He
has, in your baptisms and through the words of the absolution. He brings you peace through the proclamation
of the Gospel and through His body and blood given and shed for you. All gifts which flow from the cross. So that the label that is placed on you isn’t
doubter or unbeliever, but baptized, forgiven, and redeemed child of God. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all
understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.
