I'm working on getting the audio up. In the meantime, here's the manuscript from Sunday.
For quite some time, the Sunday after Easter, known by various titles, the Octave of Easter and Low Sunday, has been a puzzling Sunday for many pastors and churches. Whether that should be the case or not is debatable, but it is a reality. For many Christians, there is a sense in which Easter is a spiritual high, a climax, that often ends with a crash. We’ve all seen sports teams go out and win a big game over a top competitor, only to lose to a virtual nobody the very next game. Also, so much work goes into the Easter/Lenten season that many churches are physically and spiritually spent once it is over. Then, there is the very saddening fact that the Sunday after Easter is statistically the lowest attended day of worship in American churches. Basically, we go to church on Easter Sunday and hear of the wondrous news of the resurrection, and we respond with tiredness and by neglecting worship the next opportunity that we have. However, the truth of the matter is that the reality that we celebrated last Sunday on Easter, the empty tomb, is just as much of a reality today as it was a week ago. It’s no less worth celebrating today than it was last Sunday. In fact, we could make the argument that it’s even more worthy of our praise today than last week because not only are we further removed from the cross, but we are also even closer to the time of Christ’s second coming.
So, with that in mind, we’re going to continue the unfolding of the events of that resurrection day with our text today that we just read. We left off last Sunday with Mary Magdalene going to the disciples and telling them that Jesus had risen from the dead. What’s odd, as we move from that text to our text for today, is that in the first verse of our text, the very next verse following Mary telling Jesus’ followers about his resurrection, we’re told that they were sitting in a house with the doors locked. I think, in our minds, we would them all to be running around in the streets spreading the good news. Now, it’s worth noting that it was more than just Jesus’ disciples gathered together there. We know that Judas wasn’t there because he had hung himself on a tree. We know from the second part of our text that Thomas wasn’t there for some reason. So, that makes at most ten disciples or apostles. Also gathered with them are other followers; Jesus’ mother Mary, Jesus’ brothers, and others as well. And they’re all sitting in a house with the doors locked because they’re afraid of the Jewish authorities. Word had probably made it to the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin that Jesus’ body wasn’t in the tomb anymore. The Jewish leaders have had enough of this group and they want to deal with this nuisance once and for all. Many of them probably thought that the apostles were the ones responsible for Jesus’ body not being in the tomb. It isn’t very difficult to imagine that social and political conditions weren’t exactly favorable for the followers of Jesus. It’s understandable why they’re hiding in one place instead of being out on the streets spreading the news that Mary had told them that morning.
You know, I think that we can relate a bit to these followers of Jesus in this sense, “fear of consequences can sometimes overcome what we hear about Jesus.” Stick with me here, I’m not saying that it should, but it happens. Fear of being socially cast aside or banished can make us shy away from speaking about Christ. Fear of persecution and consequences can cause us to be silent in situations where we know that we ought to speak up. However, that’s where the rest of our text tells us how we are to respond to that fear. We’re told that Jesus comes into the room somehow, showing those in the room the scars in his hands and on his side so that they know that he isn’t a ghost or an angel but an actual person. But if you look at verses 20 and 21, you’ll see that much of what is recorded there is added by John. What Jesus actually says goes like this, “Peace be with you…Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” Now, a few things are worth noting here. First, the words “peace be with you” are a standard Jewish greeting. Jesus is wishing God’s shalom upon his followers, his family, and his friends. Secondly, notice that this greeting is repeated. We know from reading and studying Scripture as we have that anytime something is repeated that it means that what is about to be said is deserving of special attention. There was no underlining or bold font function for the biblical authors. The way that we know something is important is by this double wording. So, and this leads us to the third thing that I want us to see in this greeting, Jesus is saying that what is important is that his followers go out into the world. This is John’s version of the Great Commission, which is typical given John’s usual brevity when it comes to his writing style. The very first time that Jesus saw the majority of his disciples after his resurrection, he told them that they needed to go out and spread the news of his resurrection; they needed to spread the gospel.
I can just imagine Jesus coming into this house, this room, and seeing all of his followers gathered together with the doors locked and looking at Mary Magdalene, “Didn’t you tell them what I told you to tell them.” Mary responding, “Yes Lord, I told them.” Jesus, then turning his attention to them and saying in a frustrated manner, “Well then what are y’all still doing here?” However, instead of condemning them, he encourages them. He tells them to “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” Jesus encourages them by telling them (and us) that he’s going to give them his Holy Spirit. He reminds them of one of the things that he told to them in the Upper Room (16:2), that when he ascended to his Father, that they would receive the Holy Spirit. Well, we know that that day was fast approaching, the Day of Pentecost. The same Holy Spirit that worked through Jesus and sustained him during his earthly ministry was to be theirs and ours as well. Jesus also, speaking specifically about and to the apostles, establishes the concept of apostolic authority. Under the power of the Spirit, the apostles would have authority to declare God’s condemnation of sin and His offer of forgiveness.
Then, we come to the record of Thomas’ first encounter with the resurrected Christ. You can imagine that growing up as an inquisitive, pessimistic, and constantly questioning little boy with the given name of Thomas, that I was regularly called Doubting Thomas. Now, my response has often been in defense of the biblical Thomas. I mean, it’s not like any of the other followers of Christ were any more obedient prior to their actually seeing Jesus after his resurrection. After all, we already noted that Thomas wasn’t present during Jesus’ first appearance before his disciples. “So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” Now, we have to admit that the “word” never just sort of stings when we see it here. However, Thomas is really only wanting what the other disciples have already seen. They have seen the marks on Jesus’ body that Thomas says he needs to see. We were specifically told that in the first part of our text. They’ve heard Jesus speak directly to them, whereas Thomas hasn’t yet. Thomas does go the extra mile (in the wrong direction) here and say that not only does he want to see the marks, but to touch them as well. However, we can’t completely dismiss the fact that Thomas is human. There’s got to be a sense in which he feels slighted a bit that Jesus would appear to all the other disciples, his family, Mary, and other followers, but not him. I’m not excusing it; I’m simply trying to help us create the type of mindset that Thomas might have had in that moment. Or, we could just simply say that Thomas didn’t believe because he didn’t have full confidence that Jesus was the Messiah. Maybe he thought that all of the other disciples and followers of Jesus had mentally and emotionally snapped and that they had lost it. Either way, Thomas has drawn his line in the sand so-to-speak about his belief in the resurrected Christ.
So time goes on; eight days to be exact. Which, if you’re counting, would correlate with the following Sunday, today, and the disciples were together again and Thomas was with them this time. As a side note, I can’t imagine what some of the conversations would have been like between Thomas and the other disciples during that week. All of them probably kept talking about Christ’s resurrection (rightly so) and Thomas pipes in every time, “Nope! Won’t believe it till I see it.” Anyways, the door is locked again just as it was the first time the week prior. Jesus once again, appears to his disciples despite the locked door and gives to them the same typical Jewish greeting of “Peace be with you.” Again, he’s not coming with condemnation, but with the hope that his disciples are enjoying God’s shalom, God’s peace and rest.
However, Jesus’ attention turns immediately to Thomas. “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.” Notice that he doesn’t even give Thomas the chance to ask about it before telling him to come and see and feel the marks of the crucifixion. Now, it is possible that Jesus had appeared to the other disciples again already and that they had spoken about Thomas’ disbelief. It’s also possible that Jesus simply knew Thomas’ heart and knew his doubt and his disbelief. It really doesn’t matter one way or the other. Now, it’s worth noticing that nowhere in John’s recording of these events that Thomas actually takes Jesus up on his offer. We’re never told that Thomas felt the marks left by the nails, the spear, or the whips. “Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” Apparently, he didn’t have to feel the marks to believe, which makes Thomas a liar as well. Thomas knew without a doubt what he needed in order to believe, until he came in contact with Jesus. Thomas’ insistence that he wouldn’t believe until he felt Jesus’ marks was gone when Jesus spoke to him. I love it when I hear about people setting their criteria for believing in God, only to have all of their criteria melt away when they are confronted by the very real and powerful presence of God.
Now, as it relates to our text for today, again we would expect some words of condemnation or rebuke on the part of Jesus. I know that if we were in Jesus’ shoes we would have some words for Thomas. I would imagine that the other disciples probably had some words with Thomas. “So Thomas, what happened to that whole not believing until you feel Jesus’ scars thing? Way to stand your ground Thomas.” However, instead of us finding some statement along those lines, we find these words of Jesus, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” While we could certainly read into Jesus’ words to Thomas a sense that believing in the resurrection is great, but belief without having to actually see Jesus would have been better, I think that there is something more to it. Of this verse, John Calvin writes, “Christ blames nothing in Thomas, but that he was so slow to believe, that he needed to be violently drawn to faith by the experience of the senses; which is altogether at variance with the nature of faith.” Calvin then goes on to talk about the fact that our faith ought not be based on our experiences or our observations, but on the Spirit’s work in us and our responding to the calling that God places upon our hearts.
Calvin’s words about faith are why I think that a connection can be made between these words of Jesus and the final two verses of our text. Typically (and probably in your Bibles) there’s a division in the final three verses. However, I’m not so sure that we are to take these few verses as entirely separate thoughts. After all, John is very prone to jump back and forth between narrating events as they happened and his own authorial comments. If we look at all of these verses together we read, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” Now, obviously the first verse is pertaining to the events that took place between Jesus and his disciples there in that room. However, when we look at them as a thematic whole, we see them as more than just an encouragement to believe. They are more than an encouragement to believe without physical evidence. These words are both a call to have faith in Jesus as the Son of God, and also a promise that faith in Christ leads to everlasting life.
Do you know why we can have eternal life with Christ? It’s because of what we celebrated last Sunday. It’s because Jesus Christ has died, paying the price that was owed for our sins, but also because he rose from the dead, conquering the enemy of death. Jesus Christ is life. Do you know how we know about Jesus? Well, obviously, the primary answer is Scripture. We don’t have anyone walking around the world today who was an eyewitness to anything that Jesus did during his earthly ministry. We have God’s word as our witness about Jesus. And while there may be differences in chronology and interpretation between different accounts in Scripture, we know that what is in Scripture is sufficient for us to have this saving faith. As the Westminster Assembly set out to construct the Confession of Faith in the mid 1600’s, the very first chapter that they constructed was one on the nature of Scripture. It was vital that they have a clear definition of Scripture because it influences the way in which we see all the other matters of God. Yes, we see God through nature, through family, and a host of other means. However, nothing can come close to revealing God to us like His Word. These other means of coming to know God also can’t provide us with the knowledge that is contained in God’s word. And one of the main things that we know from Scripture is that the tomb was empty.
We see the way in which the philosophy of the church shifts with the coming of Christ. We see the way that the resurrection affects every action, every teaching, and even the direction of the church. Shouldn’t the same be said for us? Shouldn’t the good news of Christ’s resurrection shape everything about our church, about our lives? I know that we’ve been all over the place today, but I’ll close with this thought: have you spent this past week living like the tomb is still empty? Has the wondrous news of Christ’s resurrection so permeated your heart that you can’t keep it in? If you have then that’s great. If you haven’t then what are you waiting for? Are you still sitting locked in that room? Friends, we are sitting on news that is too good not to share. The tomb is empty, and it has been empty since that time and will remain empty forevermore. Let’s start living like it. Let’s starting living like it’s Easter Sunday every day.
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