Easter Doubts – Sermon for April 28, 2019

For this second Sunday of Easter, as it is each year, our Gospel reading is John 20:19-31. There’s also a little of Acts 5:27-32 tossed into this sermon. Here it is:

As you may know, the Bible passages we read each week are selected intentionally. I don’t just pick my favorite stories to preach on, or open the Bible and point. Our readings usually come from something called the Revised Common Lectionary, and the idea is that over a three-year cycle, we’ll cover most of the important stories in the Bible.

Every single year on the first week after Easter, the lectionary gives us this same story from John 20 about “Doubting Thomas.”

On Easter Sunday we hear the good news, the joy of the women finding the empty tomb, and that’s great, but by a week later, some of the excitement fades for most of us. Some years, events happen and life happens and the joy of Easter seems to fade really quickly.

By a week later, we’re ready to hear about someone who has some doubts, someone who’s a bit skeptical. And so we get the story of “Doubting Thomas.”

Chronologically, it makes sense. This story picks up from last week on that very first Easter Sunday. Early in the morning, the women had gone to the tomb and heard the good news, they’d come back and told the men, but the men aren’t convinced.

John tells us at least a couple of the disciples had gone to the tomb themselves, seen the linen wrappings, and believed. But as a group, they’re still not sure. They’re spending the day in a locked room, afraid of being arrested themselves.

For some reason, when Jesus shows up in the room, Thomas is not there. Wouldn’t you love to know where he is? Maybe he’s the brave one and he’s out buying food and getting a sense of what’s happening in the city to tell the others. Maybe he’s just hiding somewhere else. But by the time he gets back, Jesus has left, and again, wouldn’t you love to know where he went?

Understandably, when Thomas gets back and hears what happened, he has some questions. And for that, he’s been remembered for 2000 years as “Doubting Thomas,” which is really not fair, is it? The other 10 disciples are hardly heroic believers at this point in the story. Remember, they’re hiding in a locked room.

All Thomas wants is what the rest of them have already gotten. He wants to encounter the risen Jesus. He wants to visit and talk with him and see him and touch his wounds, just like they did. He wants Jesus to breathe on him too.

The next week, the disciples are together again, and this time, having learned his lesson about what happens when you miss church for a week, Thomas is there with them.

Again, Jesus shows up, and rather than reprimand Thomas, rather than accuse him of lacking faith or something, he just shows Thomas his wounds and tells him to stop doubting and believe. And Thomas believes.

As we gather today, a week after celebrating Easter once again, I imagine many of us have something in common with Thomas and the rest of the disciples.

We’re not hiding in a locked room, and most of the time we believe the good news that Jesus is alive, but there are still doubts. We still have questions. And that’s ok. I think we need to hear this story on the week after Easter because it takes time for us to process what’s happened. We believe, but our doubts remain.

I said last week in my Easter sermon that the resurrection changes everything, and that’s true, the resurrection makes all the difference in the world, but even knowing Christ is risen, faith is still hard. Tragedies still happen. We still wrestle with God.

I’m wrestling with what it means to say Christ is risen and to celebrate Easter a few days after a teenager in our town took her own life. I imagine many of you are wrestling with that too.

I’m wrestling with how to “not doubt but believe” when over 250 people were killed on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka, many of them in church celebrating the resurrection.

It helps, I think, to hear that the disciples doubted too. Jesus tells Thomas, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Beloved in Christ, he’s talking about us. We are the ones who have not seen and yet have believed.

Oh, sometimes we get glimpses. There are times when we understand some of the implications of the resurrection, when we encounter Jesus alive and active in our world and in our lives. But there are also times when it’s really hard to see, and even harder to believe.

Did you catch how Jesus greets the disciples? Both times he comes into the room and he says, “Peace be with you.” Jesus comes into the room where they’re hiding to find them, and he does the same for us.

In the most confused times, in the worst times, in the times of fear and doubt, Jesus comes to us and says, “Peace be with you.”

And then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” He doesn’t leave them alone. We’ll talk more about the Holy Spirit in the next few weeks, but the point is Jesus breathes new life into them. The point is Jesus empowers them to do God’s work despite their lack of understanding, despite their fears, despite their doubts.

Perhaps the most important reason to hear this story a week after Easter is because it’s further proof that Jesus is alive. Thomas gets the evidence he’s looking for. The good news is true. Jesus is alive. And even though it takes a while, even though we still live in a broken, messed-up world, Easter really does change everything.

What Jesus’ rising does not do is instantly make everything better. Did you catch that the living Jesus still has scars? He is able to understand our doubts and fears, to accept us in our weaknesses, because he’s been through life and death.

A week after Easter, as we wrestle with life, it matters to hear that Jesus still has scars. The pain and the wounds of life are real. And so is the resurrection.

One of my favorite lines in the Bible comes from the end of today’s reading from Acts. The lectionary decides that in addition to hearing about that Easter night, we should also jump ahead a few weeks or months.

Peter and the apostles have gotten their nerve back and they’re testifying before the temple leaders and the high priests, and after telling them what happened on Easter, Peter says, “We are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”

We are witnesses to these things. God calls us to testify that Jesus is alive. In the midst of the sadness, in the midst of the fears and doubts, carrying our wounds, we know the hope of Easter. We know that, as Frederick Buechner put it, “Resurrection means the worst thing is never the last thing.”

No matter what you’re wrestling with today, no matter what your own doubts or fears or wounds are today, may the peace of Christ be with you.

Hear the good news that Jesus is alive. Know that because Jesus has been raised, your sins are forgiven.
And there is nothing that can put Jesus back in the tomb, nothing that can separate God’s children from the love of Christ Jesus. Believe in the hope of Easter.

Blessed are you who have not seen and yet have believed.
Amen