“Courageous Thomas”

John 20:19-31

April 19, 2009

 

Dave Russell, First Baptist Church of Ames, Iowa USA

 

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I was going to begin by saying “For those of you who were here last Sunday…” but I realized that would be kind of pointless.  Oh, a few of you were out of town to be with family last week, but basically nobody goes to church today who wouldn’t be in church on Easter.  This is called Low Sunday in some traditions because while there is a huge attendance on Easter, there is a relatively small attendance today in many churches.

 

So I will begin by simply saying that early on Sunday morning, Mary had shown up and told Peter and John the news that Jesus’ tomb was empty.  John and Peter ran to the tomb and found it as Mary had said.  They went back home but Mary lingered at the tomb, and there she saw Jesus.  He was alive!  She ran back to share the wonderful, unbelievable news with the disciples.  She told them, “I have seen the Lord!”

 

But when we next see them, in our scripture for this morning, they are not exactly celebrating.  Mary’s news that Jesus was alive seemed to have no impact.

 

Why didn’t they go looking for Jesus?[1]  Why was it that an apparent grave robbery had people running to the scene but an apparent resurrection seemed to have no effect?  If you told a person, “I just saw your long-lost child at Target,” they would get over there as fast as they could, whether they believed you or not.  So, what is up with the disciples?

 

Perhaps, they simply considered Mary’s words to be the rantings of a hysterical woman.  Grief can do things to you.  Mary had been through a lot.  They all had.  Maybe they kind of rolled their eyes and didn’t believe her.  This is what is often assumed.

 

But perhaps they did believe her.  She no doubt reported Jesus’ words that he would ascend to his Father, and maybe they took it to mean that he was ascending immediately and that he was no longer around, and that a search for him would be pointless.  But that seems extremely unlikely.  Even if they thought there was a small chance that Mary’s words could be true, you would think that they would split up and search the city up and down to try and find Jesus.

 

Why didn’t they go looking for him?  John tells us that on the evening of that first Easter Sunday, the disciples were behind a locked door.  The door was locked because they were afraid.  They stayed put because of fear.

 

John reports that they were afraid of the Jews.  This is an unfortunate expression that the gospel writers sometimes use.  What do you mean, afraid of “the Jews?”  Other than some Roman soldiers and officials, a few Samaritans and assorted stray foreigners, everybody was a Jew.  They were Jews, for goodness sakes.  That would be like saying that we were hiding for fear of the Americans.  I mean, couldn’t John have been a bit more specific?

 

The phrase “the Jews” is often taken to mean “the religious authorities,” and other than the Romans, who were the ultimate power, the religious and secular authorities were one and the same.  Were they hiding out of fear of these Jewish authorities?

 

Craig Barnes argues that this doesn’t seem a very credible fear.  There was no evidence that anyone was planning to hunt down Jesus’ followers.  And earlier that same day, any fears of arrest the disciples may have had didn’t prevent at least a couple of them from running straight toward Jesus’ tomb.  If there were a location where they would run the risk of encountering Roman soldiers or Jewish leaders, the tomb was certainly it.  But they went anyway.  Fear didn’t stop them when they thought a grave robbery had happened.  So why did fear lock them up in a room when there was rumor of resurrection?

 

Maybe there was concern that they would run into authorities.  They would certainly not want to see Jewish officials or Roman soldiers.  But here is another possibility: what if they were afraid of running into Jesus himself?

 

The last time Peter had spoken to Jesus, his words were full of bluster.  “Lord, I will never deny you!”  But some hours later a rooster crowed in the distance, and Peter had denied Jesus three times.  And it wasn’t just Peter.  After Peter had said, “I will never deny you,” we read that “all of the other disciples said the same.”  But they all had fled in fear.

 

They had bailed on Jesus in his time of need.  They had watched the crucifixion from a distance, and to a person they knew they were somehow complicit in what happened.

 

They felt guilt, they felt shame, they felt grief, they felt awful.  But now comes word that Jesus is alive.  They weren’t sure about this, weren’t sure that it could be true.  They had reason to doubt that it could be true - like a lifetime of experience telling them such things did not happen.  But they were absolutely thrilled at the prospect.  Giddy and scared, both at the same time.  Giddy at the prospect that Jesus really was alive.  And afraid that Jesus might have something to say to friends who had abandoned him in his hour of need.

 

Jesus just might have something to say to followers who betrayed him through their actions as surely as Judas had betrayed him through his.  Maybe they were afraid of Jesus as much as they were afraid of anything else.

 

And so, that Easter day that began with an empty tomb ends with locked doors and great fear.

 

The doors were locked, they were gathered together in fear, and then, Jesus was among them.  As somebody put it, Jesus came though the door, and I do mean through the door!  If a sealed tomb would not hold him, then a measly deadbolt would not keep him out. 

 

Locks are about safety.  And they can have two purposes.  They can provide safety by keeping danger outside.  But they can also provide safety by keeping those who may be at risk inside. 

 

We all have locks on the doors of our houses.  We may have a deadbolt lock and maybe a chain on top of that, just for good measure.  We have locks on our windows as well.  Maybe we have security systems.  Maybe we put stickers on our doors warning that the premises are protected by electronic security.  All of this is to keep the world out.  But we all know that it is also possible to lock ourselves in.

 

We have lots of ways to lock ourselves in.  We refuse to go out because we’re too ashamed, we are too sad, we are too self-conscious, we are too weak, we are too tired, we are too afraid we will run into somebody and frankly we can’t stand the thought.  Sometimes we just don’t feel the energy to engage life.  We can lock ourselves in as much as we lock others out.

 

If the first Easter began with the sadness of death, it ended with the sadness of shame.  The disciples were ashamed of what their cowardice revealed about who they were.  So they locked the door, telling themselves they were keeping the Jews out when maybe they were keeping themselves in.  But then Jesus did what he always does for those locked up with shame and fear and pain: he comes in anyway.  He enters the room, he enters our heart, he breaks the shame.

 

If the disciples feared rebuke, Jesus quickly dispelled their fear.  His words were not words of anger or disappointment, but words of love.  “Peace be with you,” he said.  “Shalom.”  “It’s all right.”  He showed them his hands and side, and the disciples were overjoyed.

 

Jesus does not say a word about their betrayals and denials.  He doesn’t make a dig about their cowardice.  What he does is give them the Holy Spirit.   In Acts chapter 2, we have the account of Pentecost.  It is wild and dramatic, with wind and fire and unknown tongues and people from every nation.  But this is basically John’s version of Pentecost, and it is quite low key.  Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  And then he gives them a mission – a mission of forgiveness.

 

By telling them they had a mission to announce the forgiveness of sins, Jesus was telling them to unlock that door and get going, to no longer hide behind locked doors.

 

One of the better-known images of Scripture comes from that line in Revelation when Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.”  You’ve probably seen the Warner Sallman painting with Jesus standing there, knocking.  I looked up that painting and it is interesting that there is no doorknob on the outside.  It is up to the person on the inside to open the door.   But the Good News is that even if you are too afraid or too ashamed or too sad or too numb to unlock the door, that won’t stop Jesus.  He will just show up, saying “Peace be with you.”

 

That Sunday evening, the disciples gathered in fear behind locked doors.  They did not believe Mary’s words.  Or worse, they believed her words but still cowered in fear.

 

This was the experience of the disciples that Easter Sunday.  Well, that was the experience of most of the disciples.  The inner group of Jesus’ followers were all gathered together, all except for one.  Everyone was there but Thomas.

 

We really shouldn’t be surprised.  Thomas had shown an independent spirit all along.  He kind of marched to his won drummer. 

 

When Jesus said to the disciples, “You know the way to the place that I am going,” the disciples stood there kind of scratching their heads.  It was Thomas with enough guts to say, “Hey, we don’t know where you are going.  We don’t have a clue what you are talking about.  How can we possibly know the way?”

 

Another time, when Jesus says he is going back to Judea, back to where his enemies were, Thomas was the one who finally said, “Well, let’s all go so we can die with him.”  Maybe it was dark humor and maybe it was faith that would stand up to whatever happened, but Thomas was not one to simply follow the crowd. 

 

And what do we make of Thomas not being there that Sunday evening?  The disciples all hid behind locked doors out of fear.  Well, not Thomas.  He has gone down in history as “Doubting Thomas,” but nobody ever mentions that he alone of the disciples refused to hide out at a secret undisclosed location.  (We can call it an undisclosed location because John does not disclose it to us.)  So why not call him Courageous Thomas?

 

Thomas was not present that night.  But later, his friends told him what had happened.  “You should have been there last night!  Jesus just suddenly was in the room – it was really him, he’s really alive!”

 

“Yeah, right,” Thomas says.  And it is hard to blame him.  The others did not seem to believe Mary.  What was different about Thomas?  Even the fact that a group of people claimed to have seen Jesus did not make their argument that much stronger.  If ten friends tell me they have all seen a UFO, I’m not sure that will convince me.  If I’m out of town one Sunday and when I come back several members tell me that Mindy flew across the sanctuary last Sunday, I’m still going to have a hard time believing them.  When his friends told Thomas that Jesus, whom he knew to be dead, was now alive and showed up in person last night, it was not something he could easily believe.

 

But a week later, the disciples are gathered together again, and Thomas is with them.  And again Jesus appears.  He shows him his hands and side.  He answers Thomas’ questions.  And Thomas responds in faith, making the highest statement of faith found in all of scripture: “My Lord and my God.”

 

I actually like Thomas a lot.  Here are some of the things I like about him:

 

He says what he thinks.  I like it that you don’t have to wonder where he stands.

 

He doesn’t just take other’s word for it – he won’t be easily convinced.  I like it that he is someone who weighs the evidence and who decides for himself.

 

Thomas doesn’t just follow the crowd.  He is willing to stick his neck out.  I like it that he has an inner sense of direction.

 

At the same time, he is a part of the community.  Even though he did not believe, he is still there with the others that next week.  I like it that he knows that belonging is as important as believing.

 

He is willing to be honest.  We could use more of that.  I like it that his words have integrity.

 

Thomas is willing to be contrarian.  We need folks who ask questions, who upset the status quo.  I like it that Thomas was that kind of guy.

 

Thomas is an individual – he is a unique person.  One might even argue that Thomas has a very Baptist approach to life and faith.

 

And then I like that when Thomas is committed, he is deeply committed.  He didn’t jump on board immediately, but when he does, he makes the declaration, “My Lord and my God.”

 

You can call him Doubting Thomas, or if you want you can call him Courageous Thomas.  But I think that in some ways, he sets a positive example for us.   

   

There were disciples hiding in fear behind locked doors.  And there is Thomas, refusing to believe unless he can see for himself.  And it occurs to me that Jesus gave them all what they needed.  He appeared to the disciples not judging, but bringing peace, calming fears, and calling to mission.  And he appeared to Thomas, showing his wounds, allowing him to believe for himself.

 

Doubt is not the opposite of faith.  Apathy is the opposite of faith.  There is actually more faith in honest doubt than there is in unexamined assent to a creed.  There is more faith in struggling with God than there is in following the crowd without giving it a second thought.  And through our questioning and struggle, we can come to a deeper faith, to a more mature faith – like our friend Thomas.  Amen. 

 

 

 

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