Those Who Have Not Seen

Scripture Lessons: John 20: 19-31 Sermon Title: Those Who Have Not Seen Preached on April 28, 2019 This Sunday morning, I feel the need to defend the Disciple Thomas. Have you ever felt like he needed defending? Out of all the disciples, besides Judas, I believe Thomas is the one with the worst reputation. Sometimes we pick on Peter. But while we pick on him, we also acknowledge how Peter redeems himself and becomes a great hero of the Church. I don’t believe Thomas is any less heroic, while all the time we criticize him. We call him “Doubting Thomas,” which isn’t fair. We don’t call Peter, “Denying Peter” do we? I believe it’s important to take some time to understand why it was that he wouldn’t just trust what the disciples were telling him. If we had a little more empathy for the guy, we might learn something important from him. In our Second Scripture Lesson for this morning, the disciples were telling Thomas that Christ had risen. For years Christians have been wondering why Thomas couldn’t just take their word for it. However, can you imagine how their story must have sounded to him? Considering their behavior, could Thomas really just accept the testimony of the same guys who had pledged to follow Jesus till the end, then deserted him? Could he possibly trust Peter who had denied the Savior three times? Looking at this situation rationally, in cross examination any attorney or judge among us would find plenty of reason to dismiss the testimony of this group of witnesses because they had all, in their own way, failed to prove themselves as trustworthy and honorable. Worse than that, they were all afraid. People will say almost anything when they’re afraid. That might have been what Thomas was thinking. Surely, he was disappointed in them for being so cowardly, for Thomas consistently proved himself to be the most lionhearted among them. A significant detail in this account we’ve just read from the Gospel of John is there in the first verse: 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. This group of people were so scared that they’ve huddled up in this one house, locked the door, and weren’t going anywhere, but where is Thomas? When Jesus came and stood among them, Thomas wasn’t there. Thomas is the only one who wasn’t hiding behind the locked doors. Did you notice that? It’s important to think through this detail. That he’s the only one courageous enough to leave this locked room. This kind of courage is consistent with the other episodes in John’s Gospel where Thomas is mentioned. While we’ve been told our whole lives not to be like Thomas, in the 11th chapter, Mary and Martha had just sent word that their brother Lazarus was dying. The other disciples are scared to go, afraid that if they go back into Judea, those who oppose Jesus will kill him and his followers. They may have been right about that, but when Jesus insists that they go anyway, marked men or not, Thomas says, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” Throughout the entire Gospel, Thomas is the picture of courage. While the other disciples want to stay where it’s safe, only Thomas is willing to say, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” Only Thomas is willing to leave the security of locked doors to do whatever it was that courageous people were doing in the wake of the Lord’s crucifixion. And now, we must see his doubts as but another example of his courage. The disciples said to 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.” History calls him Doubting Thomas because of this, only do you know what a weaker man would have done? Do you know what a coward would have done? All around us are people who are too afraid to admit what they don’t know and can’t understand, but Thomas was bold to say what stood in the way of his belief. Or how many folks do you know who just go along with what their friends say and do for fear of rejection? Thomas was so courageous that he just put himself out there. This is a rare quality. So many, when faced with a choice between speaking up and keeping quiet would have blended in with those disciples despite their scruples and suspicions, but not Thomas. While sometimes it is easier to agree with popular opinion rather than struggle to find out the truth, Thomas was determined to know, even if it meant seeing the wounds and taking in the gory details of his death. That’s why I believe he has something important to teach us, for while it’s easy to just take someone else’s word for it, it’s not always right. Even now there are those who would just tell us what the Mueller Report says. There are those who say that by it our president is exonerated. Others tell us that by the same report he is fit to be impeached. Who should we be listening to, we all wonder, but you know what Thomas would do? Read it himself. Or, in the wake of another shooting rooted in anti-Semitism, consider how there are still so many who fear the Jews as those disciples did, blaming them for any manner of grievance. Thomas demands we question our fears and our prejudice. “Show me the proof,” he says. Do you know how many lives would be saved if we all demanded our fears and prejudices be validated before acting on them? In the same way, there are those who tell us what to think about illegal immigrants. Some say they’re criminals, others say their friends, but do you know what Thomas would do? Go and get to know one. When I worked as a lawn maintenance man, I was one of the only employees able to get a valid driver’s license, but my crew of illegal immigrants wasn’t made up of drug dealers. No. Back in Mexico, one had been a doctor, another was a dance instructor. You see, too often we take someone else’s word for it, but Thomas refuses. He says, let me see him myself. “Show me his wounds.” This is crucial guidance, for in our world today, there are so many who think they know without truly understanding. Think about those who think they know everything about homosexuality, but none of them really knows a thing until their son or daughter has come into their kitchen saying, “Dad, I’m gay.” This is where we need the courage of Thomas. For it’s one thing to be told what to think and to swallow it, it’s another thing to touch the wounds left by a society who drowns too many in shame. That’s what Thomas did. He touched those wounds, and for all these years we’ve been telling children not to be like Thomas, but when I look out on the world to see how many people are like lemmings jumping off a ledge because of the fools they listen to, I wish our world had a few more people like Thomas in it. He asked to touch his wounds. We can all learn a lot if we aren’t afraid to touch the wounds. Of course, no one likes to see that kind of thing. People often don’t like to talk about the wounds. It’s not polite. Back in High School I went on our church’s ski trip with a broken nose. The doctor had straightened it out and bandaged it, but my Mom wanted me to keep it protected by wearing a catcher’s mask on the ski slope. “What will people say about me if they see me skiing with a catcher’s mask on?” I asked her. Well, no one had the courage to ask me about it, so I never had to find out. People don’t often have the courage to ask about the wounds. People don’t really like to talk about them. Columbia, TN was a community with a wound that no one much liked to talk about. We lived there while I served the First Presbyterian Church for nearly seven years, and one of the things I learned not to ask about too much was the Race Riot of 1946. From books and whispered conversations, I learned that an African American soldier returned from WWII, unprepared to submit again to segregation. When he stepped out of line, pushing a store clerk who was mean to his mother through a window, a mob assembled, and someone bought a length of rope. Hearing the rumors, his family hid him and protected him. In fact, every African American family in town, it seemed, stood armed and ready to defend him. They had seen the last of lynching in their town and weren’t about to let it happen again. However, the town was in an uproar. The National Guard was called in. This was all quite concerning, though hardly a shot was fired. Just the same, the County Jail was filled up with African American men who were arrested for defending this young soldier. Then Thurgood Marshall came to town to defend them. This was his first major legal victory. Today the riot is sometimes called the Prelude to the Civil Rights Movement, but after Thurgood Marshall won the legal battle he had to be snuck out of Columbia in the trunk of a car. Years later, when Thurgood Marshall rose to be one of our nation’s Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, a young African American man went to meet him in his chambers. He said, “Justice Marshall. I’m from Columbia, TN. I want to thank you for the good work you did back there.” The Justice was humble. He wouldn’t take much credit, but then asked, “To get out of Columbia, did they have to sneak out in the trunk of a car?” “No, sir,” he said. “Then I guess I did do something good in Columbia,” Justice Marshall responded. That’s a good story. Unfortunately, it’s a story about wounds. That’s just because all the best stories involve wounds and a force that’s stronger than them. What Thomas was brave enough to see is that the realities of life may even leave wounds on Christ, but God heals them, and those who have the courage to look at those wounds will know just how powerful our God is. What Thomas discovered is that love always wins. Death shall not have the final world. And the light always shines in the darkest of times if only we are bold enough to look for it. Blessed are those who believe these things without having to see them, but for those of us who need proof, we need only seek the wounds to find it. From every brokenness that He heals we know the power of God. Amen.