But Thomas

John 20: 19-31, page 115
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.””
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”
Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
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.
Sermon
There’s a new book out, though I hesitate to call it new because there’s not much new in it, but it’s newly published and is causing a lot of controversy among good Bible-believing Christians all over the country. There was a big article on it in Time magazine, I’m grateful to Jim Ross who sent it to me because I tried to go to the store to buy it but it was too late.
The cover reads: “What if there’s no Hell?” A popular pastor’s best-selling book has stirred fierce debate about sin, salvation and judgment.
Rob Bell is the author of the book. He’s a pastor in his 40’s, and he’s the kind that has mastered the internet the way Martin Luther mastered the printing press. I’ve listened to his sermons several times on my iPod – they can be podcast just like ours can – but he preaches for a long time unlike your preacher – I’m talking 45 minutes compared to my 12, but he’s good, he’s very good. He talks more than he preaches, and people listen – his church’s attendance on any given Sunday can be over 7,000.
He’s doing something important, I think, in that he knows that he’s not saying anything new. While the sanctuary is modern, his preaching style is conversational, and the music his church offers is more guitar than organ, he’s presenting real, authentic, and time-tested theology, making him more St. Augustine than Billy Graham. He doubts hell’s existence, not because he just thought of it or because of our post-modern society, but because theologians have been wondering how hell can exist as a place where some are stuck for an eternity of damnation in the face of our God who is ever more ready to forgive than we are to confess.
He wrote this new book that’s become so controversial wondering about the existence of hell not long after an art exhibit at his church where an artist had included a quote from Gandhi and a visitor to the exhibit stuck a note next to the Gandhi quotation that said, “Reality check: He’s in hell.”
“Really?” Bell thought to himself. “Gandhi’s in hell? He is? We have confirmation of this? Somebody knows this? Without a doubt? And that somebody decided to take on the responsibility of letting the rest of us know?”
I think I'm with Bell here, as while I’m happy to leave Gandhi’s eternal resting place up to God, should I run into Gandhi in heaven I won’t be surprised or disappointed to see him – some people apparently will however.
I mentioned that you can podcast our sermons – if you go on our church’s website you can listen to any of the sermons from the past year, you can read many sermons older than that, and last Thursday I was just looking around and started reading one of Bill Williamson’s old sermons where he talks about how folks come out on one side of this debate or the other – some find the idea of hell incompatible with the love of God, but others claim that there is so a hell, and you’d better shape up or you’re going there. There are folks in our world who are enthusiastically in favor of hell and are eager to name a few folks who are on their way there. A poll of Americans a few years ago found that 80% believe they themselves will go to heaven, but that only 60% of their friends will be going there. What’s more, the poll found that one in four friends are definitely on their way to hell (Memphis, Commercial Appeal, December 10, 1986).
I think it’s important to be thinking about, either way – those who are convinced of God’s love shouldn’t be too quick to forget about God’s judgment, and those who are convinced of God’s judgment shouldn’t be too quick to go forgetting about God’s readiness to accept humanity’s repentance.
Some are convinced that no one really ever repentents, that people never really change, but Christians have to believe that they do, because we did. God has a way of both changing them and forgiving them, and not only should we be excited about that possibility, we should all be wondering if we are more interested in people being stuck in hell without hope of redemption than God is.
If that’s the case, we all need to be wondering why that is.
In our Gospel lesson for today Jesus enters a locked room – everyone is too afraid to venture out besides Thomas who isn’t there, and Jesus says, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
What Jesus says here reminded me of Jonah in our first lesson. This story of Jonah is important because he is the most effective prophet in the whole Bible – out of all the prophets who warn people, “You must repent,” Jonah is the only one who actually convinces the people to repent.
You would think he would be proud. You would think he would rejoice when the Ninevites – the residents of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, “whose brutality was renowned and was responsible for the annihilation of the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE” – actually repent. But he’s not – he resents them and he resents God because he didn’t really want Nineveh to change and be spared, he actually wanted it to be too late for them and for God to exercise fierce judgment on these people who for all Jonah’s life have been his sworn enemies. And when what he expected to happen didn’t happen, rather than embrace this change in destiny, coming to terms with God’s change of heart, he decides to stay put outside the city where he doesn’t have to embrace the idea that even Assyrians can change.
Jonah doesn’t want to go into the city and face the reality that it’s never too late for people to change. He’d rather “retain” their sin while God and every Ninevite have washed themselves of it whether it makes him miserable or not.
Thomas on the other hand is a different kind of person than Jonah. I think he may have more in common with the Ninevites. While he demands proof in order to believe that what he thought was going happen didn’t happen, that Christ was not dead but alive, he comes to terms with this new reality and is able to go from a place of profound doubt to profound faith making one of the strongest confessions of faith known to scripture, “My Lord and my God.” We readers on the other hand get caught up on his first reaction to the Good News that Christ has risen – his initial doubt – Christians for generations have labeled this man, not “strongest confession of faith known to scripture Thomas,” but Doubting Thomas.
Maybe it’s because we’re uncomfortable with doubt ourselves, so when others doubt, too, it stirs up uncomfortable questions. We need other people to believe so we can believe ourselves, but some people, particularly brave children with a mind of their own are too used to giving voice to their doubts and in the middle of Sunday School class say things like, “So he rose from the dead? That’s impossible!” These kinds of questions terrify grandmothers who don’t want their grandchildren to miss out on the faith that they hold dear. But like Thomas, these brave children can’t help it.
My best friend growing up, Matt, was one of those brave children. We started out in Confirmation Class together but Matt decided that he didn’t want to join the church so he dropped out. His mother was horrified, and when she asked him why he wouldn’t be joining the church he told her that the “visitor” parking spaces were much closer to the church than all the others and if he joined the church he wouldn’t be able to use them anymore. Not that he could drive or anything; I guess he was thinking ahead.
It matters to most parents that their children do the things they are supposed to do at the time they are supposed to do them – baptized as infants, confirmed in middle school, married by 25 with kids by 30 – But Jesus isn’t nearly so concerned with when conversion happens because Jesus doesn’t believe in “it’s too late” – “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Blessed, he says, not the first ones, but the ones who come to it later.
Order matters to us though, and some brag about their conversion as though it had anything to do with them – as though their salvation were some kind of personal accomplishment and not the merciful act of God – as though evading hell made you better than the one in four friends who is probably not going to heaven – as though being one of the 11 who was there the first time he came is more faithful than being the one who wasn’t – as though parking in a “members” parking spot made you more holy than parking in a “visitors” spot – yes, some people care – and have settled into smug self-satisfaction that it’s too late for some. Jonah certainly was doing that as he sat under that vine reminiscing of the days when he knew he was more holy than the Ninevites, regretting the day they all converted and became as forgiven as him – yes some people care about this kind of thing, but God doesn’t.
“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.”
That was the hope of the author of this Gospel of John, as it is the hope of all you believers who truly know that faith is not a first come first served issue, that when it comes to receiving forgiveness, now is just as good a time as any, and whether you met Jesus when you were 5, 12, or 94, it doesn’t matter – because it’s never too late – but people must be convinced of this so you must help others who are afraid it’s too late for them to see that it’s not – whether they’re here today, in prison, or standing at the gates of hell – it’s never too late.
You see, plenty in our world can relate to Thomas, feeling like Jesus came, but they missed the boat and now it’s too late.
Maybe it’s even you.
Maybe you’re that one friend in four and everyone’s pretty sure you’re headed in the wrong direction but no one’s doing anything about it because everyone has settled into the idea that for you it’s too late.
Maybe you don’t know your books of the Bible and it feels like everyone around you does, and coming to church is intimidating because you feel like you’re behind – that everyone else has already seen him and you’re hesitant to ask to see him too. If that’s you I want you to know that you’re not alone – I couldn’t find Jonah in this Bible last service and I was standing up here in front of everybody – I’ve been to school for this, I should know, but I don’t and it’s OK if you don’t too.
What I want you to know is that it’s not too late, even if the world feels like Jonah to you – sitting under a dead vine hoping you still might fail.
Jonah might be smug that way, plenty others might be too, but not Jesus.
Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are you, who have not seen, and yet have come to believe.
Blessed, Jesus said, are you.
Amen.