SPEAKER_01: Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Seeing is believing.
SPEAKER_01: This aphorism comes to mind when we look at our reading for today of John's Gospel, especially in regard to the Apostle Thomas.
SPEAKER_01: There's so much in these few verses that deserve our attention.
SPEAKER_01: And I encourage you to contemplate every word.
SPEAKER_01: But we'll look at a few portions here to bring out the wonder and mystery in these two encounters between the risen Lord and his followers.
SPEAKER_01: The events of our gospel reading begins on the evening of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Let me repeat that.
SPEAKER_01: This is the evening of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Now, there had been a stunning triumphal entry, just seven days previous, when the crowds in Jerusalem proclaimed that Jesus was the Messiah, the promised son of David who was to restore the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Then the apostles were riding high.
SPEAKER_01: But only one week later, they were stricken and bewildered, huddling in secret, hoping to evade the scrutiny of the Jewish authorities.
SPEAKER_01: We see much confusion among the remaining disciples, stunned by the events of the previous few days.
SPEAKER_01: One of their own group of followers was dead by his own hand, while the leader had been arrested, tried, convicted by an angry mob, despite the lack of evidence, after which our Savior was abused, mocked, and finally crucified.
SPEAKER_01: In the minds of the disciples, Jesus had appeared to be the Son of God, the one who spilled a raging seal with a word, who stopped murderous crowds with a steamy gaze, who turned nature on its head by turning water into wine, loaves, and fishes into a feast, death into life.
SPEAKER_01: With sudden violence, that vision had seemingly been crushed.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't understand what it happened.
SPEAKER_01: But then, after three days, the tomb suddenly lay empty.
SPEAKER_01: Peter and John had witnessed that fact.
SPEAKER_01: And even after the disciples had heard a report from Mary Magdalene that Jesus had been seen alive, they still weren't convinced.
SPEAKER_01: They were still in hiding, fearing possible arrest by the Jewish leaders, locked into an upper room.
SPEAKER_01: They sought safety there.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus suddenly appears in their midst despite those locked doors, and he's burying the marks of his sacrificial death.
SPEAKER_01: He greets them with calming words.
SPEAKER_01: Peace be with you.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's a tacit declaration of forgiveness for those who had abandoned him in his time of need.
SPEAKER_01: It was an extension of his words from the cross, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you.
SPEAKER_01: As the Father has sent me, even so I am sent you.
SPEAKER_01: And when he had said this, he grieved on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them.
SPEAKER_01: If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.
SPEAKER_01: Now this is a commission to them to spread the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: It's not giving them any sort of divinely issued authority here.
SPEAKER_01: See, the results listed here by Jesus, they are forgiven and it is withheld.
SPEAKER_01: They're both passive in nature.
SPEAKER_01: We, humanity, has nothing to do with either outcome.
SPEAKER_01: Just like in baptism, it is entirely God who acts to forgive or retain any sin.
SPEAKER_01: See, we must temper these words in the light of what Jesus had to say about the perfect prayer that he gave us in Matthew 6, where he says this for if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
SPEAKER_01: But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses.
SPEAKER_01: See, our calling as Christians is to be a blessing, to be salt and life by bearing the message of God's grace and reconciliation.
SPEAKER_01: First to one another, and also to a lost world.
SPEAKER_01: And so we come to Thomas, forever known as doubting Thomas, who was confronted by the fact of the resurrection in a powerful way.
SPEAKER_01: John writes, now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came.
SPEAKER_01: So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He said to them, unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I think Thomas gets a bit of a bad rap.
SPEAKER_01: We don't learn too much about Thomas in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: He only shows up in the first three Gospels on lists of the twelve apostles.
SPEAKER_01: But here in John's Gospel, we get a glimpse or two of his character.
SPEAKER_01: In John 11, when Jesus tells the apostles that their friend Lazarus has died, and that Jesus wanted to go back with him to the region of Jerusalem, it says, then Thomas, called Didymus, said to the rest of the disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.
SPEAKER_01: Here we see a realist, one who remembered that Jesus was in danger at Jerusalem, and that it might be dangerous for his companions as well.
SPEAKER_01: But even so, he's ready to accompany Jesus whatever the command.
SPEAKER_01: In John 14, after the Passover meal, it reads, Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you are going.
SPEAKER_01: So how can we know the way?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus responds by saying, I am the way and the truth and the life.
SPEAKER_01: No one comes to the Father except through me.
SPEAKER_01: This indicates that Thomas and the others were engaging in a frank dialogue with Jesus on this last evening together before the events of the passion.
SPEAKER_01: These discussions showed that the disciples didn't grasp, didn't understand what was about to happen.
SPEAKER_01: But they were earnestly seeking out the truth.
SPEAKER_01: However, as we heard in the reading, Thomas had scoffed when his friends told him the good news about the listen Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We read that eight days later.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.
SPEAKER_01: Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands.
SPEAKER_01: And put out your hand and place it in my side.
SPEAKER_01: Do not disbelieve me.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus shows up again in their midst and answers Thomas's challenge by showing his hand.
SPEAKER_01: In response, this apostle, noted in history as the one to tell, gave the most succinct, most sincere declaration of faith we see in all of Scripture, saying, My Lord and my God, to his risen Savior.
SPEAKER_01: This is not some spontaneous, excited utterance of the type we so often hear, like, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01: This is the confession of a convinced Jew, one who would never take the name of God lightly.
unknown: He was confronted by irrefutable evidence that Jesus was who he said he was.
SPEAKER_01: The I am, the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: And after he beheld the risen Savior, he saw.
SPEAKER_01: Through the eyes of faith, he could no longer unsee the truth.
SPEAKER_01: He saw God's glory.
SPEAKER_01: Thomas is not found again in Scripture, but tradition holds that he took the gospel further than any other apostle.
SPEAKER_01: First into what is now Northeastern Iran, and then into India, where he died a martyr's death at Markus.
SPEAKER_01: As humans, we all have doubts.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus was confronted by doubt during his attempting by Satan, his answer was found in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus' own cousin John was confused about Jesus, he sent his followers to ask, are you the one who's to come?
SPEAKER_01: Or should we look for another?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus reminded them of Scripture, paraphrasing what Isaiah had prophesied in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: In Isaiah, go and tell John what you have seen and heard.
SPEAKER_01: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear.
SPEAKER_01: The dead are raised up, the poor have good news, preached.
SPEAKER_01: See, when we have doubts, we can be comforted by these same scriptures that Jesus trusted and upheld.
SPEAKER_01: For in them is found truth, the foundation of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: I began this message by saying that seeing is believing.
SPEAKER_01: But you know, in this passage, Jesus has a rebuttal to that idea.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.
unknown: When he first came to Martha after Lazarus had been entombed, he had told her, I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever believes in me, though he died yet, shall live.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone who believes in me shall never die.
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe this?
SPEAKER_01: At the rising of Lazarus, Jesus told Martha, did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?
SPEAKER_01: See, a lot of people saw what happened, but not all of them believed.
SPEAKER_01: And so they didn't see that this was God at work.
SPEAKER_01: There's an idea that's widely attributed to the philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas, which goes, to one who has faith, no explanation is necessary.
SPEAKER_01: To one without faith, no explanation is possible.
SPEAKER_01: Many people saw Lazarus being raised from the dead, but not all of them saw it as a miraculous act of God.
SPEAKER_01: Despite seeing the power of God on this play, they saw anything but that.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, the enemies of Jesus saw this act as grounds for seeking his execution.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have been.
SPEAKER_01: Some of them actually become convinced and are transformed by the weight of those irrefutable facts.
SPEAKER_01: And John attests to their sufficiency, writing, now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.
SPEAKER_01: But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: And that by believing you may have life in his name.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is alive.
SPEAKER_01: He has fulfilled the promises set forth by the Old Testament prophets and has satisfied the judgment God made against our sins.
SPEAKER_01: He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the scapegoat who bore the weight of our sins in our place.
SPEAKER_01: His resurrection bears testimony to the power of God to raise us to newness of life in him.
SPEAKER_01: Historians have exhaustively analyzed the evidence, concluding that the resurrection accounts are based on eyewitness testimony.
SPEAKER_01: The apostles made these facts the central feature of their message.
SPEAKER_01: And most of them died defending this very set of facts.
SPEAKER_01: Peter in Acts 2 said, God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.
SPEAKER_01: Yet the people of God still joined together in worship and witness, echoing Thomas as he makes his pivotal confession, my Lord and my God.
SPEAKER_01: Thomas did not crumble under doubt and fear.
SPEAKER_01: He made a powerful confession based on what he saw.
SPEAKER_01: And then he witnessed to his faith in the risen Christ until the end.
SPEAKER_01: When it comes to God's word, believing is saved.
SPEAKER_01: May we all see the hope of our salvation in word and sacrament and shining through one another.
SPEAKER_01: He is risen.