Every year, the week after Easter, many churches like ours (which use the Revised Common Lectionary) traditionally read this one story from John's Gospel about Jesus' friend, Thomas. And year after year seminarians, retired pastors, and associate pastors stand up to talk about their belief and unbelief. But the real story isn't about us at all. Its about Jesus breaking into our our stories.
Jesus broke into Thomas' life in an amazing. Maybe this story is so familiar that you don't pay attention to it. I find it hard not to relate to him more and more over time. Its too easy to accuse Thomas of doing something wrong by admitting his doubts. We could beat him up, but real faith involves doubts and outright disbelief in the face of fear and uncertainty. Real faith involves trust in God who we haven't seen but who calls all who believed and haven't seen blessed.
The thing about this story that gets my attention is the emotion that's wrapped up tight with the faith. There's fear, joy, doubt, and hope in this one story.
Fear is real in this story; just like it is our lives.
Jesus' closet friends had seen him dead and buried on Friday. On Sunday morning they'd heard reports from some of the women who'd followed Jesus that he was risen. Peter and another went to check out the tomb and they believed when they stepped in and saw the grave clothes just lying there without a body.
Still, even after these two had seen the empty tomb and after the other 8 heard the Good News, they were so afraid that they locked themselves in when they met together. They feared that the same people, the leaders of their own people, who had killed Jesus, might somehow step in and discover them meeting together and want to kill them too. Even after the 10 met Jesus face to face and heard his greeting of peace they still had the door barred when they met together.
Fear is basic to every human being. It's one of our involuntary reactions to life. We hear a the deep bark of a dog behind us and we fear. We see someone driving fast right towards us and we jump back in fear. Fear isn't a choice; it's an emotion. Fear isn't rational or irrational; but I know one thing for sure; I could sense it walking one night last week. We heard a large dog bark deep. The girls jumped close to me, the dog's ears perked up and he turned back. I stopped in mid step to see what was coming at us. Fear is real.
I sense fear in all kinds of places. There's fear in my daughter who woke up in the night on Thursday as I was writing and called out daddy. She just wanted to be held. There's fear in our nation about economics and war and promises in this year of election. Some might argue that much of what we fear is irrational. But I know that there's fear in all of us whether its irrational or not. Its involuntary; but what we do needs to be product both of our fears and our best judgment.
At our most basic, as creatures, we fear. At our most basic respond to fear either by fighting or in fleeing whatever we're afraid off. Jesus understood this. God knows that he is dealing with people who can be overwhelmed by emotion. He didn't beat down his friends because of their fear. Instead Jesus came to them offering peace and the Holy Spirit in the middle of their fears. Jesus came and as they were fearful they rejoiced. God surprised us in Jesus not by taking away fear and doubt but by meeting us as we are with our fear and doubt.
Maybe, you'll say that your not afraid or that you have no doubts. I don't believe it. People of real faith wrestle with dark nights when the don't know God. Maybe you say that your not afraid of anything. In one of my favorite scenes in Empire Strikes Back a young pilot named Luke Skywalker is talking to an old master, Yoda. The young pilot tells the old master, “I'm not afraid.” And the old master replies, “You will be, You will be.”
Joy is real in this story and in our lives.
Joy in this story came in meeting Jesus. Joy comes from seeing God at work. It comes from meeting him whenever and wherever he chooses to reveal himself.
Ten of Jesus' friends had seen Jesus killed. They had seen Jesus wounded and then they saw him alive. They knew it was him; they knew it was their teacher that they followed for 3 years because they'd seen him and heard him. They rejoiced to be with him. It was a great reunion. Only problem is that Thomas wasn't there to see him
Doubt is real in this story just like it is our lives.
The ten who rejoiced when they met Jesus told Thomas that he was alive.
Their friend responded,
"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."
When they met together again Thomas was there. The door was locked once again; fear is real and it paralyzes. Jesus is just as real as the fear and the doubt. The Good News comes to us not in our own heads or hearts. It comes to us in the flesh and blood person who died and who rose and who came to find his friends and to speak a word of peace to them.
It's too easy to beat up on Thomas and doubters. But I believe Thomas was using the brain that God gave him to make choices and to sort through what he'd seen for himself and what he'd heard from his friends. Garrison Keillor wrote.
Skepticism is a stimulant, not to be repressed. It is an antidote to smugness and the great glow of satisfaction one gains from being right. You know the self-righteous -- I've been one myself -- the little extra topspin they put on the truth, their ostentatious modesty, the pleasure they take in being beautifully modulated and cool and correct when others are falling apart. Jesus was rougher on those people than He was on the adulterers and prostitutes.
Jesus came looking for Thomas. He came ready to find him and to meet him with a smile and a word of hope.
Hope is real in this story just as it is in our lives.
Hope doesn't always make sense. Its crazy, some say, to trust in a God we can't see. But if you've met Jesus you'd know that this isn't crazy at all. Its hope that gives us perspective in this world to know that God has more in store for us than just what we've seen. Being a believer is all about seeing the unseen; meeting the undead Jesus and walking with him through whatever might come your way.
Peter wrote about suffering as a reality in the life of believers; but he also wrote about the hope of an inheritance that waits for us in heaven. He said it's imperishable, that it won't spoil or fade away. Jesus comes for us whether we believe or not calling us to be his disciples.
