Things Not Seen – April 23, 2023
Isaiah 35:1-10, John 20, 19-29
April 23, 2023
Today we have the story of Thomas. Now, I wasn’t sure I was going to have us look at this story this year. But, as often happens with scripture, the more I looked at this story, the more I felt the Spirit “nudging me,” and making me think more about it. As I’ve said before, that’s often how the Spirit “works with us” as we read the Word! He “nudges” us.
So, here we go again with the story of Thomas. And at first glance, you might simplify this by saying that the main point of this story is that “seeing is believing.” You know that phrase. “Seeing is believing.” It’s been the marching song of skeptics down through the ages. And I wouldn’t be surprised it originated right here in this story!
Well, having said that, if you’ve heard me long enough, you know how I feel about Thomas. I think he’s gotten a bad rap over the years! I don’t think Thomas was any more of a skeptic than any of the others. He just happened to be the one who wasn’t there when Jesus appeared that first time. His was a locational problem, not a faith problem! Thomas simply wasn’t there! And if it had been one of the others, we might have been calling people “Doubting Andrews” or “Doubting Matthews” for the last two thousand years!
As we think about this story, what I want you to try to remember is that this was such a fantastic claim the disciples made, saying Jesus was alive! And that’s why Thomas reacted so strongly to it! And he did! And by the way, can you imagine what this would have been like if it was Peter? Peter has been called the “impetuous one.” Peter was the rough-hewn fisherman who often leaped before he looked, and spoke before he thought, and didn’t pull any punches. (We might even be so bold as to say that he “swore like a sailor.” But don’t hold me to that!)
This was a fantastic claim! And I don’t mean “fantastic” in the sense of “great” – which it was! The Lord is risen! I mean “fantastic” in the sense of implausible, far-fetched, and unbelievable. We don’t want to forget what the other disciples told him, and how unbelievable it was that Jesus was alive! I’ve always thought that Thomas’s reaction would easily have been our reaction too! We too would have said, maybe even with cynicism, “I won’t believe unless I touch his wounds!” “Seeing is believing!”
So Jesus appears again, and he confronts Thomas with his own words. He offers him his exact belief conditions. And that was a miracle, too! Because Jesus wasn’t there to hear Thomas’s exact believing conditions. But he said them, almost verbatim, “Touch my hands, Thomas.” “Touch my side!” What a powerful story this is!
But it didn’t end there! Right away, Jesus jumps on that idea that “seeing is believing,” and he challenges those men – and us – to think about having faith even without seeing! “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.” That is such an important statement! Because after all, if you think about it, there would be way many more people down through the ages who would not see the living, risen Christ than those who actually did! And that includes us, of course.
So, as I thought about this story, another verse kept coming to mind. (The Spirit does that, too, by the way!) I kept coming back to the words of Hebrews 11, where Paul says that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) And that’s where I got the title for this sermon. “Things not seen.”
Consider that as you think about how utterly fantastic this was that Jesus was alive! As you’ve heard me say before, we always know more than the people in these stories knew. That’s true. But we’ve often lost the impact, the emotion, of hearing and seeing these things for the first time! Because we’ve read these stories for years as “stories.” And like this one, we’ve lost the impact of the impossible, implausible nature of this event. We’ve lost the shock of Thomas as he heard the claims of these other 10 disciples, saying that they had seen the risen Jesus! We can find ourselves saying very easily, “The Lord is Risen.” And it doesn’t seem as fantastic and implausible to us. Does it?
But it should! Because it was! We need to remember that! And we need to remember that we are like Thomas. None of us were there that first time! And the news of the Resurrection should seem fantastic and implausible. Because it is! Yet, it is at the heart of our faith. And by its nature, it is indeed the “conviction of things not seen.” And I’m so glad that we have record of and accounts of those who did see and have attested to the risen Christ! Because, it is that important! As Paul told the Hebrews – which I reminded you of last week, “If Christ is not raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain!”
The Apostles would continue to tell about their experience with the living Christ throughout their ministries. In his first letter, John wrote of their experience of seeing and knowing the risen Christ. He wrote about him as being “that which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, which we have touched with our hands!” “We’re not making this stuff up!”
And by the way, remember what I’ve said about Thomas, that he was not the only skeptic in the group? Well, he was also not the only one who Jesus showed his hands and his side to! That’s the first thing Jesus did for the other ten when he appeared that first time – without Thomas! He appeared, and greeted them.
“And then” John tells us, “When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.” John says, “Then they were glad that it was the Lord.” Then they knew it was true – when they saw his hands and side! They needed that same confirmation that it was indeed him!
So, it turns out that we’re like Thomas because they were all like Thomas! They all had their doubts. They all had their faults. They all had their cynicism. And they all had their own initial, strong reactions to the news of the Resurrection – being the first ones in history to hear about it. And now they have become our witnesses to it!
As you think about that, think about their lives. Remember that they were all martyred for their faith – well, almost all of them. John lived on. But they were martyred for their faith in the risen Christ. Make no mistake! They didn’t just go around telling the world about Jesus’ teachings. They told the world about his resurrection!
It’s funny, because some have suggested over the years that the disciples stole the body of Jesus and claimed that he arose. Matthew’s Gospel even tells us that. It’s the very reason the Jewish leaders asked the Romans to seal the grave! They were afraid the disciples would steal the body and make that claim! And that’s the story they gave when it happened – to try to cover it up!
But of course they didn’t steal the body! These men knew what Paul wrote, that “if Christ is not raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain.” And they went to their deaths standing on the claim that he was raised! So think about that! If he wasn’t raised, if it was a hoax, if they stole the body and they knew it was a hoax, would they die for it? That would be fantastic – that is, unbelievable, too!
But they did die for their faith – faith in the resurrected Jesus! And we have their witness! And that puts us in the position of millions of believers over the years. We are “blessed because we have not seen, and yet believe.” We live in that faith that is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
So, as we move forward in this season of Easter, may that blessing, that assurance, and that conviction be all of ours!
Prayer
Eternal God, we stand in awe of your amazing plan for our salvation. We praise you for sending your son to show us your love, and to show your power over sin and death. Help us to know that because he lives, we can live also, and that nothing can ever separate us from your love, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.