Jesus can handle your questions
Preacher: The Rev. Heidi Haverkamp
Preached on: May 1st, 2011
Audio:
No recordingScripture Text:
John 20:19-31
Sermon:
It’s always bittersweet to me that we read the story of Thomas after Easter. Thomas doesn’t want to believe that this person who has appeared to the disciples is really Jesus, resurrected from the dead, unless he sees and touches the places where the nails have been in his body. Like Thomas, we heard the news of the resurrection last Sunday, and now, we’re faced with some realism: what exactly happened here? It’s bittersweet for me because I think it’s an important question for us to face every year, and yet I always wonder if many of the visitors who come join us on Easter Sunday could be struggling mightily with doubt or questions, and might not have a community of faith to turn over those questions with on a regular basis, and with all the joy and alleluias, there’s not much room for doubt or questions on Easter Sunday.
And so, for better or worse, it’s the Sunday afterwards when we have room again for questions, doubts, and what it means, not just hear the news from Mary Magdalene, but to live with the resurrection as our ongoing reality.
Many people believe that church is a place where you can’t ask questions. In fact, I was having a discussion with a member of this congregation recently who said that he had been punished as a child for asking questions. His mom actually asked him if he would please just STOP – stop asking so many questions at church. He did, and then he stopped going to church altogether, since there was no room there for him and his questions. Some of you may have similar stories from your growing up. Unfortunately, there are probably even more people who can tell the same story about their growing up, but they’ve never felt welcome to come back to church. Part of our ministry at St. Benedict, I believe, if welcoming people and their questions back to church!
It’s clear that Jesus welcomed questions. And Jesus didn’t condemn doubt. Nor did he condemn fear or uncertainty. The disciples, after having witnessed their beloved teacher and friend be crucified, and then finding his body had disappeared and that he had appeared to some of them, don’t really know what to do or think. And they’re scared of the religious authorities. So, they’re hiding.
This is probably not what Jesus had in mind for them. But when he comes to them, what does he say? Not, “I’m disappointed in you all.” Not, “This is the best you could do?”
He says, “Peace be with you.”
Now, who knows where Thomas is when this is all happening. He wasn’t hiding – was brazen Thomas out in the city somewhere, taunting or playing chicken with the Temple priests? Who knows. But Thomas is often the guy in the gospels who says what everyone else is thinking but seems too afraid to say. Earlier in John, when Jesus starts on the road toward Jerusalem, Thomas says, “Well let’s go with him so that we may die with him.” He sounds both sarcastic and resigned to accept whatever might happen. He’s a realist.
And so he says to the disciples, “Hey, Jesus warned us about false prophets and you’re just going to believe whoever tells you so that he’s Jesus come back from the dead? Come on!”
A week later, they’re all still in the locked room only this time Thomas is in there with them, and Jesus returns… and again, he doesn’t scold anyone. He doesn’t say, “Thomas, why do you have to ask so many questions?” He says “Peace be with you.”
And then he invites Thomas to touch him.
That’s so interesting to me. Thomas is the realist, but he’s also the intellectual and the skeptic. But Jesus doesn’t try to have an argument with him or reason with him, he says, “Ok, Thomas: give me your hand and touch me.” We don’t know whether Thomas actually touches him or not, John’s story doesn’t say. We just hear that Thomas gasps with recognition – that suddenly, Thomas can see Jesus standing there in front of him. “My Lord and my God,” he says.
This is a story to reassure us, I think, of how hard it can be to believe in a Risen Jesus when we haven’t seen him. And you know, the people who first read and heard the words of John’s gospel, back in around 120 A.D., probably 90 years after Jesus’ death, also wouldn’t have seen the Risen Jesus. And Jesus says to us, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Those words were for them and they are for us.
Perhaps Jesus also says to us, “Touch me.” “Put your fingers and hands here and here.” We are also invited to meet the Risen Jesus. And we are invited to express our doubts and ask questions. We are invited to be Christian realists. But we are also invited to unlock the doors of our hearts to see if he might come to meet us. If he might come, wish us peace, and breathe the Holy Spirit on us, too.
John ends this passage with a sort of editorial note: “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.” But what he’s really saying is an invitation to us. In other words, may what happened to Thomas also happen to you. That you may see and believe, and have life in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
