Thomas
(Adapted from Curt Cloninger’s Witnesses)
(Consider getting taped music of men singing)
Fellas, what are we doing here? What are we doing here guys, sitting around in the dark singing worn-out songs? It’s over with, guys…it’s over. What are you guys looking at me like that for? C’mon Andrew, just cut it, man, I’m sick of it, Andrew, cut it…He’s dead, you got that, dead! Cut it, just cut it. He’s dead.
And it doesn’t matter now what he said, all right? I don’t care if he said he was gonna drink wine with us; I don’t care if he said he’d eat a steak dinner with us, it’s not happening. You got that Andrew? He’s dead. Dead. It doesn’t matter now. Guys, we can sit around in this room, we can wait; we can sing songs; we can wait ‘til this wine turns to vinegar, man, it ain’t happening. You can’t drink wine with a dead man. It‘s not happening; he’s not coming back…guys, why don’t we just admit it. Why don’t we drink the wine, at least get some kind of use out of it, cause he’s not coming back.
DRINKS WINE
He’s not coming (BREAKS DOWN EMOTIONALLY)…back.
I wish to God he was, Andrew; wish he was here. But this isn’t some sort of fairy tale, man, where the good guy wins in the end. This is real life, man; the good guy is dead. Even if it was possible, guys, he wouldn’t have anything to do with us. We couldn’t even stay around to watch him die, man. Wherever he is, he’s written us off, man, you can bet on that. It’s over, guys, it’s over. Why don’t we just go home, huh? Think we’ve had enough trouble to last a lifetime. I don’t think I can take any more trouble, huh?
Yeah, Andrew, I remember when he said that. “Let the day’s own trouble be enough for the day.” Remember that Peter? Remember it like it was yesterday man? Remember, we’d been walking all day, and you kept griping about what we’d have for dinner? He’s laughing at you like he always did. Wouldn’t ever tell you; kept saying, “it’s a surprise.” Finally you got so mad man, you got right in his face, “come on Jesus, what we having for dinner, Jesus?”
I’m not kidding, man!
He’d laugh. You got so mad you turned around and stomped off. Remember? He came up behind you and tackled you; you guys are wrestling around on the ground, and then he starts tickling you, and you started laughing, and after awhile, when you quit laughing, you just said, “well, okay, so what we having for breakfast tomorrow. He didn’t miss a beat.
“Ah, Peter, why don’t you just let the day’s own trouble be enough for the…” (CRYING, SOBBING ALMOST UNCONTROLLABY) “day’s own trouble is more than enough for the day.’
I don’t understand why he had to die. He didn’t do anything. “It’s not fair…you hear me, God? It’s not fair!” Forget it.
Look guys, I’m sorry I got mad at you, ok? I’m sorry, Andrew. I just don’t’ know what to do. He was the only guy who ever picked me for anything. I really miss him today. I wish he’d come back and make me laugh.
Look, I’m going to go for a walk, okay? Don’t’ follow me, Peter, I’m going to be okay, I just need to get out for a little walk, okay? I’m sorry I got mad at you guys…
SERMON
THOMAS
John 20:19-29
April 20, 2003
What a turn of events the followers of Jesus had experienced. In a period of just a few short days, they had ridden the “high” of marching with Jesus into Jerusalem to the cheers and hosannas of an adoring crowd of well-wishers. They had undoubtedly felt like kings as they accompanied Jesus on the way; why, after three years of ups and downs, of difficulties and miracles, of hunger and weariness but of celebration and profound teaching, this was the coronation of the king. And boy, it was about time, some of them no doubt thought! Jesus had been saying some strange things about death and defeat, and even something about rising again, but it hadn’t made sense; they now thought that He was about to begin His rightful reign, and they were sitting in the catbird seats! All of the naysaying religious leaders would be put in their places; the infernal rule of Rome would be brought to an end; their ship had come in! What we call “Palm Sunday” was just the beginning, they must have thought, the parade to usher in the kingdom on earth.
But it had ended just a few days after it had begun, ended with them scattered after Jesus had been summarily crucified as a common thief between two ne’er-do-wells. This week that had begun with such anticipation and victory had ended in astonishing defeat; Jesus had ignominiously been executed, and they were beat. But not only this, they were now bewildered by reports that the body of Jesus was no longer in the tomb where it had been buried! Peter and John had seen it with their own eyes: the stone that had been blocking the tomb was rolled away, and no body was to be found. John was talking about Jesus rising from the grave; Peter wasn’t certain what to believe; they were all cowering in fear that the Jews who had executed Jesus would be looking for them. They feared experiencing the same fate, and so, in a clandestine way, they huddled together to figure out just what to do next. Ten disciples are there; Judas is long gone, and Thomas is nowhere to be seen, likely overcome by frustration and discouragement.
Thomas was a “gloomy Gus” of sorts, as we see from the other two instances in which we find him speaking as is recorded in Scripture. On one occasion, as Jesus is about to go to Jerusalem, faithful-but-pessimistic Thomas says, “well, fellas, let’s go to Jerusalem with Him so we can die with Him!” The other time we hear Thomas speak is when Jesus speaks of going away to prepare a place for His followers, and finally, exasperated, Thomas asks, “Lord, we don’t have any idea where it is you’re talking about going, so how in the world can we find you? How will we know the way?” Thomas was willing to follow Jesus, even to the death, but he seems to be a bit of a pessimist at heart.
Thomas, thus, is not there when Jesus appears in the room to the disciples. Notice their progression: it is one which takes them from fear (the Bible says that they were in fear of the Jews, as we said) to freak out. Imagine what it must have been like to be locked up in a closed room, huddled together, and then suddenly to see Jesus appear in the room, not having opened the door and walked in in the conventional manner! No, it isn’t recorded in the text, but I don’t know about you, I guarantee I’d have freaked out! Beyond that, each of these men had turned tail and run when Jesus was apprehended; Peter had denied Him not once, but three times. But Jesus appears and His first word is, “peace!” Since I’m not God, my first word wouldn’t have been “peace”, but my first word would have been “cowards!” But Jesus says, “peace!” and then shows them His hands and His side, and these beleaguered followers go from fear to freak out to faith in a matter of moments! And their response to the resurrection is one of rejoicing, and then Jesus issues to them a commission: “as My Father sent Me, so I am sending you!”
But Thomas has missed all of this in his despondency, and I can only imagine that one of the ten who were there had blurted out, “we’ve got to get the word to Thomas!” We read of their witness to Thomas—and of his response—in verses 24-25.
Notice the disciples’ declaration – “We’ve seen the Lord!” Wait a minute…you’ve seen the Lord? These things just don’t happen; Jesus is dead. Death is final. Death, until Jesus came on the scene, had an unblemished record. Then Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter and Lazarus and maybe others, and death had met its match…but both Lazarus and Jairus’ daughter only won a brief reprieve; they too died again in good time. What would prompt the disciples to make such a stunning assertion? Wishful thinking? Intentional deception? Some bad weed? But this is precisely their assertion to the incredulous Thomas.
Now see Thomas’ unbelief – “Until I see it, I won’t believe it.” Seeing is believing; anything short of that just won’t do for Thomas.
Pity poor Thomas! Forever, there is an adjective that has been affixed to the front end of his moniker: “doubting”! We use it as a figure of speech: “don’t be such a ‘doubting Thomas’!” But let’s just get real gut-level honest this morning: I think that doubt is a common human experience; I think it is common, at one time or another, to all of us. Sometimes I think that Christians can be some of the most dishonest people going. Sometimes I think some of us feel as though we have to act like we never have experienced the first doubt, or that we have got everything all figured out, for the most part, and that if we aren’t just dead-level certain about everything, we are somehow failing God. Yes, we are people of faith; we know that without faith, it is impossible to please God!
Frankly, doubt isn’t necessarily a bad thing at all; in fact, I’m not sure it’d be a good thing if we never doubted. I wonder if we really can grasp what faith is all about if we never experience doubt. Now, I don’t want to live in a state of continual doubt; I don’t want to make myself at home there, growing increasingly skeptical and cynical as I live my life. Doubt is no place to live, but it is a place that most all of us have visited, and many of us still do from time to time! And you know what? It’s okay to admit that! Those who wrestle with doubt emerge from the experience, often, strengthened by virtue of their doubting.
But you know what? Thomas wasn’t really even a doubter, if we read Scripture carefully. He was an unbeliever. He didn’t say, “well, maybe fellas, you make a pretty convincing case, but I just don’t know; I doubt it!” No, he said, “unless I see the imprint of the nails, and can put my fingers into them, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe!”
The heart of our story takes place some eight days later, using the inclusive counting method of the day; it was likely the following Sunday when the disciples again assembled together. What has drawn Thomas to this meeting? Is it the witness of these other disciples, men who have seen Jesus, men who were cowering in fear earlier but who now are changed? Is it curiosity to find out if just maybe they aren’t nutso? Is it his camaraderie with these men, men with whom he has walked for three years? We aren’t certain, but something has drawn Thomas back to the group. At the same time, he is clearly not experiencing the faith that the others are. But again, let’s not be so tough on Thomas; had the others not seen the Lord, would some of them be unbelieving as well? Would we speaking of “Doubting Peter” or “Unbelieving John. None of the other disciples believed until they saw Jesus either!
But once again, as they meet behind closed doors, Jesus enters the room, and again His first word is “peace”. That is the norm; that is His first word to His followers: peace! Jesus’ death provided the way for us to have peace with God; ruling our hearts as His people ought to be the peace of God; guiding our relationships with each other must be our shared experience of His peace. And it is His Word to us: peace! We wonder now what must be going through Thomas’ mind, he who resolutely refuses to believe that Jesus is resurrected. We don’t have to wonder what is going through Jesus’ mind, for He takes the initiative—as always! Notice
Jesus’ invitation – “Reach, touch, believe.” Examine the proof for yourself, Thomas! Jesus doesn’t shrink from providing proof. While faith is integral to our belief, ours is not an anti-intellectual faith, one which refuses to offer proof or insists that people believe what rationally cannot be true.
I continue to refer to my online conversations with 4 atheists, and one of the things that is interesting to me is that they seem to want to suggest that belief in God is irrational; it consists of blind faith in something which is unreasonable, indeed, contrary to reason. I have no interest in believing that which is unreasonable, and if I found faith in Christ to be unreasonable, I would not believe it. I remember a conversation I had once with a fellow Christian, a fellow seminary student, who said something like, “My faith in Christ is so strong now that, even if conclusive proof were found to refute the resurrection of Christ, I’d believe it anyway.” He meant it as a strong affirmation of faith; I regarded it as well-meaning but off-base. Jesus doesn’t ask us to believe in the unbelievable, the irrational, the impossible; rather, He readily gives to unbelieving Thomas the proof that he requests! While it is certainly true that our faith in God involves a belief in that which cannot be seen with our eyes, it is nonetheless not irrational to believe.
Russian cosmonauts, in service to the atheist Soviet Union, went into space some years ago and, after having a look around, said, “we didn’t see God; therefore, He must not exist.” Perhaps they weren’t looking closely enough! Indulge me for a moment as we consider how we might answer those who insist upon “proof” prior to believing that God exists; I am indebted to Alan Smith for the inspiration for my following thoughts.
Suppose we were to come upon a campsite and we found there the typical elements of such a site. We find a tent set up, a tablecloth spread upon a picnic table, perhaps a fire glowing in the fire pit, an automobile parked, swimsuits spread around to dry, a cooler full of Pepsi—all of these, but no people. What would you conclude? Well, there’d be two broad conclusions that one could reach, assumedly: one, that people had been there, that all of this had been placed where it was because there were campers who weren’t currently present. Two, you could conclude that all of these different elements had gotten there quite by accident, that perhaps a storm or a violent tornado was responsible for these various items being placed as they were. The question: which is the more reasonable explanation? I need not insult your intelligence!
And yet we find ourselves inhabiting a universe almost infinitely more intricate and vast than a simple campsite. What is the most rational explanation for our existence, that everything in the universe not only got arranged in the order that it is by accident, but also that it exists at all? Or is it more rational to believe that there is a pre-existent Being Who brought everything that exists into being and placed it as it is in the cosmos? It would seem to me that God has given us proof. This is what we call the argument from natural theology.
Further, imagine this scenario. We take a look more closely at the automobile. We immediately see the fenders and the doors and the tires and the hood and the windows and the trim and the like. But inspecting more closely, we see that it is quite intricate; as we pop the hood and look underneath, we see all sorts of mechanical stuff that, all taken together, comprises the engine. All of that stuff has to be working just so in order for the car to run efficiently. Were we to just willy-nilly select a piece at random, and remove it, we would likely find that the car either would not perform very well, or not at all! This represents what we call the “teleological argument” for God’s existence, the fact that we find such intricate design in our universe—design far more intricate than that of any car in existence. Again, the atheist asks us to believe that there is no guiding reason behind such design as exists, but that random chance guides our continued existence. Perhaps—but is that the most rational explanation we can come up with for the design that we find? This hardly seems to be the case. Proof? In the minds of some, God has given us little; I look at creation and I see a-plenty!
Jesus offers to the unbelieving Thomas the proof of the nails and the riven side. Could this be faked? Could it be some elaborate hoax? If Saddam Hussein has several body-doubles, could this by Jesus’ double? Perhaps…but the evidence is compelling enough for unbelieving Thomas, who is transformed by it from a skeptic to a man who makes an astonishing claim. Notice
Thomas’ response – “My Lord and my God!” This was nothing other than a confession of his belief in the deity of Christ. JW’s will argue this away by suggesting that Thomas’ expression is the equivalent of someone saying, “oh, my god!” No; while we have largely forgotten the blasphemous nature of using God’s name so lightly, there is no chance that Thomas would have, and Jesus, instead of rebuking him, acknowledges his faith. Jesus welcomes the declaration! Thomas’ declaration is an act of worship, one of the most clear in Scripture, as he ascribes to Jesus the title of “God”.
Jesus’ pronouncement – “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.” This is where faith comes in. He is issuing a call to us, a call to those who, unlike Thomas, are not able to personally see His hands and side. We are blessed when, though not seeing with our eyes, we accept by faith with our hearts the truth that Jesus is a risen and living Savior, One Who authenticated those things He said.
And notice the impact of the resurrection on the disciples: follow along as I read what took place only a few weeks later. I read from Acts 3:1-10; listen as I read from the New Living Translation:
1Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o’clock prayer service. 2As they approached the Temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in. Each day he was put beside the Temple gate, the one called the Beautiful Gate, so he could beg from the people going into the Temple. 3When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money.
4Peter and John looked at him intently, and Peter said, "Look at us!" 5The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting a gift. 6But Peter said, "I don’t have any money for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!"
7Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man’s feet and anklebones were healed and strengthened. 8He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them.
9All the people saw him walking and heard him praising God. 10When they realized he was the lame beggar they had seen so often at the Beautiful Gate, they were absolutely astounded!
Now notice the response of the religion boys in Acts 4:1-20:
1While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the leading priests, the captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees came over to them. 2They were very disturbed that Peter and John were claiming, on the authority of Jesus, that there is a resurrection of the dead. 3They arrested them and, since it was already evening, jailed them until morning. 4But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so that the number of believers totaled about five thousand men, not counting women and children.
5The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem. 6Annas the high priest was there, along with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other relatives of the high priest. 7They brought in the two disciples and demanded, "By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?"
8Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "Leaders and elders of our nation, 9are we being questioned because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? 10Let me clearly state to you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed in the name and power of Jesus Christ from Nazareth, the man you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead. 11For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says,
`The stone that you builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.’
12There is salvation in no one else! There is no other name in all of heaven for people to call on to save them."
13The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men who had had no special training. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. 14But since the man who had been healed was standing right there among them, the council had nothing to say. 15So they sent Peter and John out of the council chamber[3] and conferred among themselves.
16"What should we do with these men?" they asked each other. "We can’t deny they have done a miraculous sign, and everybody in Jerusalem knows about it. 17But perhaps we can stop them from spreading their propaganda. We’ll warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus’ name again." 18So they called the apostles back in and told them never again to speak or teach about Jesus.
19But Peter and John replied, "Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? 20We cannot stop telling about the wonderful things we have seen and heard."
These men are transformed from cowering cowards into bold witnesses for Jesus. Again we are faced with a choice: could a lie have made them so bold? Would it have caused them to give their very lives, as most all of them did, without recanting? No one knowingly gives his life for something which he believes is not true. And the answer is clear: they could not stop telling about the wonderful things they had seen and heard! It changed Thomas’ life; it changed Peter and John’s lives—and it’ll change yours. “It” is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If it didn’t take place, then ignore Jesus and quit wasting any more time here—but if it did, follow Him!
“Doubting Thomas” is simply an illustration of the natural course of a man who has no hope, and if the resurrection is a hoax, listen to Paul’s words from I Corinthians 15: “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain… and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins… If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
“But now Christ has been raised from the dead…” Amen! He is alive!
