Untitled Sermon (2)

April 11, 2021

In our Gospel story today we read what is really the only story in the Bible that focuses on the disciple Thomas, and in it we also are witnesses to Thomas’ descent into Biblical infamy as “Doubting Thomas.” In fact, if I were to subtitle this introduction to my sermon this morning, I would call it “The Most Unfortunate Nickname.” Let’s take a quick look at how this all happens. In the beginning of the story we hear of a miraculous encounter—the risen Jesus surprises the disciples who are in hiding, and he shows them his wounds, and he proves to them that he is alive before breathing the Holy Spirit upon them. Unfortunately, their pal Thomas must’ve have gone into town for some goat’s milk or something, because he apparently missed the whole scene. Upon arriving back at the house where the disciples were hiding, the other disciples tell Thomas that they had seen the risen Christ, and he responds with, essentially, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Now, let’s take a step back and think about this situation for a second. Remember the disciples were probably young men between the ages of 16 and 25. Think about the young men you know in this age group. I haven’t done any kind of official study on this, but one thing I am sure hasn’t changed about boys between the ages of 16 and 25 over the past 2000 years is their propensity for practical jokes. Think about it. So Thomas arrives and they are all probably ecstatic, claiming they had seen Jesus risen from the grave, and that he showed them the holes in his hands, and that he breathed on them and gave them something called the Holy Spirit, and then he said they could forgive sins… but then “aw, shucks! You just missed him!” If you were Thomas, would you believe them? He’s probably thinking “this is the best they could come up with?” Still, all Thomas asks as proof is the very proof they say Jesus had shown to them—to see and touch his wounds.

Then Jesus returns to the house, and he immediately goes to Thomas, shows him his wounds from the cross, and says, “do not doubt, but believe.”

And from those five words, Thomas was forever immortalized as “Doubting Thomas.” Doubting Thomas, whose name has been used as a curse in worship services, bible studies, youth groups, and Sunday school classes ever since. And not only is he “Doubting Thomas,” but the title has been passed onto so countless Christians who wonder, question, or express any kind of disbelief. Some variation of the phrase, “don’t be a Doubting Thomas” has silenced generations of questioning Christians.

And I don’t think it’s fair. I don’t think Thomas deserves this title, and I’ll tell you why: because Jesus didn’t give it to him. Jesus didn’t meet Thomas’ request for proof with guilt or shame, but instead he offered it openly; after all, hadn’t he already done this for the other disciples? And when Jesus says, “do not doubt, but believe,” it is traditionally read as a rebuke, but I see an encouragement. When I was in high school I had a springtime job as a referee for children’s soccer games—the 3-5 year old division. Most of my job was encouraging the kids on the soccer field to, you know, play soccer. And one of the most common things I heard shouted from the parents on the sidelines to their kids on the field was, “don’t just stand there, run!” These parents weren’t reprimanding their children, but they were reminding of them of why they are here and encouraging them toward the goal of the game. This is how I hear: “Don’t doubt; believe!” I don’t read Jesus reprimanding his disciple, but encouraging him to take the next step in his faith.

I think this distinction is crucial, because this scriptural interaction between Jesus and Thomas has shaped the way Christianity and the Church have responded to doubt and questions significantly, especially in the modern era. The traditional implementation of this story, one which responds to questions and doubts with shame and guilt, is crushing young people in the Christian Church. I know this isn’t exclusive to young people, but I am the Children and Youth Minister so I’m allowed to focus on them. It is crushing them. And it happens implicitly and explicitly. It happens like the numerous pastors who have touted their seminary degrees over my head when I asked a question about something that didn’t add up in their sermon. It also happens in the unspoken church culture that has us pretend we have it all figured out. We don’t, right? How can we? Each and every one of us has sung a line in a hymn that made us cringe, or read part of creed that leaves us with a little “hm?”, or plowed straight through a Bible passage that made no sense and never looked back. Yet for some reason, we feel like we have to pretend. Like we have to have all the answers, or demonstrate our sure-mindedness.

This places an immense amount of pressure on our young people. The feeling like they have to have it all figured out, or maybe something about their faith isn’t real. And, when they inevitably don’t have it all figured out—when they have questions like, “should God really need sacrifices?” or, “why would Jesus need to go into hell?”—when they have these kind of questions but they are honest like we taught them to be, then they often just leave, because that feels like the more genuine response. And while church demographics almost universally continue to get older, the dominant narrative is that today’s young people are decreasing in faith, but I see it as they are increasing in honesty.

From here, I want to turn to the next thing Jesus says in our gospel story, probably the most famous line from it: After Thomas sees Jesus’ wounds and declares him Lord, Jesus says to him, “have you believed because you have seen? Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have come to believe.”

Again, its easy to read this line as a knock against Thomas; like it implies that Thomas is not blessed because he only believed after he saw Jesus’ wounds. But then, isn’t that what the rest of the disciples did? So, since we have already established that Jesus’ goal here isn’t to rebuke or shame Thomas, then what is going on in this line?

To answer this, first we need to know two important things about the Gospel of John:

First, the Gospel of John was written the latest of all the Gospels in the Bible. Most scholars place its authorship around 95-105 AD—at least 60 years, after Jesus ascended from the earth into heaven. Second, while the Gospel of John in our modern bibles has 21 chapters, the 21st chapter is widely agreed to have been added to the book later as an addition or appendix. This means this story, which comes at the end of chapter 20, is the last story in this gospel. So, why? Why is this story here?

Chapter twenty ends with a couple of verses which are often skipped over entirely, let alone found in a sermon, but they are absolutely crucial here. Verses 30 and 31, the verses which originally ended the gospel, say this:

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

John is writing right to his audience here. These things are written so that you may come to believe. This gives us a whole new way to look at what it means when Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have come to believe.” This whole story about Thomas is strategically placed here at the end of the book so John could say this line to his readers. If the Gospel of John was a television show, the director John would have Jesus speak this line straight to the camera. This is the moment he breaks the fourth wall. This is when we learn its not actually about Thomas at all, its all about the audience. And in this case, we are in the audience too.

“Blessed are those who have not seen, yet come to believe.” Even though they were 60 years removed from Jesus’ life on earth, 2,000 for us, the message John leaves us with is that the days of seeing Christ are not over—and I don’t mean literally seeing; they know that era is behind them. But John is saying even if we can’t physically see him, we can still experience Christ. For John, he says you can see Christ in this book that I wrote for you. Jesus said we see him when we feed the hungry, clothe the poor, and visit the imprisoned. And the Word of God in Christ continues to move all around us in our world today. If anything, the crime of Thomas in this story is being too attached to the “old way” of seeing Jesus being the “only way.”

I don’t know if you can tell this because of the layers of camera lenses and computer screens between us this morning, but this is something I am deeply passionate about. When I was working on my bachelor’s degree in Christian Ministries at Warner Pacific University I took a semester-long course which had the singular goal of helping every student discern and create a vocational credo for ourselves—a short statement of 40 words or less that summarizes the unique calling and purpose for which we were created. Discovering my vocational credo has impacted me deeply, and I wanted to share it with you as I finish up this morning: I was created to discover and share new ways to perceive the divine, so those who feel trapped or rejected by religion can experience relationship with God.

“I was created to discover and share new ways to perceive the divine.” I know this is true for me because I believe the Spirit of Christ still constantly appears in new and unexpected ways, and I do not believe that we have totally figured him out yet. As a church that faithfully seeks to know God better, we have to open up our eyes and, even moreso, our hearts to experience Jesus in new ways. And, its worth mentioning that one of the gifts of every new generation is that they come with new perspectives and fresh eyes that see the divine in places no one else had even expected. This calling to see Christ in new ways is our (notably ironic) lesson from the story of “Doubting Thomas,” because to do this, we’ll have to ask questions; we’ll have to doubt the lines that draw the box around our understanding of God; and we’ll have to trust and believe that Jesus is still seen in our world today.

Amen.