"RESURRECTION...the Rest of the Story"
- Rev. Bob Thomas
Senior Pastor
the Epistle Lesson:
I Peter 1: 3-9
the Gospel Lesson:
John 20: 19-31
_______________
I was leading a discussion group of at a retreat a couple of years ago on the topic, “Difficult Christian Beliefs.” We talked about all kinds of issues and then someone mentioned the difficulty of believing in the bodily resurrection of Christ. Many found this a rather far-fetched possibility. Life from death? A dead body risen from the tomb? How can that be credible?
A woman spoke up, “Well, I do believe in the resurrection. I’ve seen it. I’ve lived it. When my husband walked out on me, I could have died. I did die. My life was over. Dead end.
“But then, by the grace of God, and with the coaxing of good friends, I came back. I came to life. I got a whole new life. It was a miracle.
“I believe in the resurrection. I’ve lived it.”
Swiss theologian Emil Brunner writes: “The death of Jesus is (2.) nothing for us if we have not died with him; the resurrection of our Lord is nothing for us if we have not been raised with him.” He went on to insist that Christ and the Christ-event are not merely to be remembered but experienced. E. Stanley Jones, American Methodist writer and missionary to India suggested that the early followers of Jesus had little ritual but a mighty realization. They went out not only remembering Christ but experiencing him.
He was not merely a fair and beautiful story to remember with gratitude—he was, he IS a living, redemptive, actual presence. Those who first followed Jesus knew him in his dying and his rising went forth with the joyous and victorious cry, “Christ dies in me! Christ lives in me!” The Jesus of history had become the Christ of experience. This experience was given to the first disciples of Jesus by faith. Faith opened to them the saving mystery of Jesus dead and risen. It is faith that continues to welcome believers into the experience of the Risen Christ.
Today’s Gospel lesson from John reveals the risen Lord breathing the Holy Spirit into the ten in the upper room on Easter evening. Through this action, they and we become “God-breathed,” taking in the very life-breath of the living God. Thomas was not there that day, but a week later, Jesus’ challenge to Thomas an invitation to new life for each of us: to move beyond the “touchy-feely” world of empirical science that demands tangible proof and into the realm of faith that doesn’t see but believes and loves the living Lord.
Thomas is not just remembered for his doubts. We met him earlier in the gospel narrative at a meeting when Jesus was planning his missionary campaign. Jesus decided that he should go back to Bethany. Peter might have said: “Why on earth do you want to go back there? They tried to stone you the last time you were there!” And Judas might have added: ‘”There is no point in spending time where no one will believe.” Phillip may have spoken for all of them when he said: “Why not find a safer city for now?”
Philip spoke for everyone but Thomas. Thomas had no interest in safety or strategy or converts. He was simply a loyal soldier. If Jesus led him to the ends of the earth, Thomas would have brought up the rear. And if the people in Bethany didn’t like Jesus, too bad for them.
It may not have been simply that Thomas was loyal or that he felt no need to second guess Jesus or that he was unafraid of death. None of those thoughts ever crossed his mind. The whole thing was very simple for Thomas. If Jesus was going to be killed, so would Thomas, because his life would not be worth living without Jesus.
We encounter Thomas again when Jesus is thinking out loud about what the future held for them. Jesus was rambling on about mansions on his Father’s estate and them all being together somewhere and that they somehow would know the way. Thomas interrupted this reverie: “Hold it! We don’t even know where you’re going—how could we possibly know the way?”
The other disciples might have coughed to cover the awkward silence, but Thomas was not the least embarrassed. If the others wanted to pretend that they knew the way, if the others wanted to led Jesus enjoy is fantasy, if the others really weren’t crazy about the trip, too bad for them.
But Thomas was dead serious. His bags were already packed. And like faithful Ruth of the Old Testament, Thomas never wondered about the destination—he just said: “Wherever you go, I will go.” He didn’t even care about the way. He said, “Just point me and shove.”
I have always been impressed with the loyalty of Thomas. And his question and Jesus’ answer reveals to us that Jesus himself is the way.
These additional glimpses at his character gives us a better picture about the kind of person Thomas was. And on that first Easter, when the other disciples told Thomas they had seen the risen Christ, Thomas refused to believe it. Their story didn’t fit into Thomas’ understanding of life and the way he approached life’s problems. If he couldn’t see Jesus with his own eyes and touch the wounds on Jesus’ hands and side…then what his companions told him just couldn’t be true. A week later, Jesus returns and this time Thomas is present and Jesus holds out his hands and offers his side so Thomas could touch and believe.
But don’t forget Jesus comment, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
Jesus is calling for more than experience-based discipleship. Jesus shifts the paradigm to a faith-based model in which all people in every age have the same opportunity the apostles did—to embrace Jesus as Lord…by faith.
Our discipleship is a faith-based approach, rather than an empirical, experiential approach to discipleship. At some point, if we are to know the truth of the risen Christ, we’ve got to take a leap of faith over the gap that reason and experience don’t cover. Maybe instead of saying a leap OF faith, I should say a leap TO faith.
You see, a leap OF faith focuses on the action of the leaper, while the leap TO faith focuses on the reliability of the ground on which the leaper lands.
Consider this: Any personal achievement, whether it’s a long marriage or getting a degree or climbing a mountain or starting a business or raising a family begins with the belief that it is possible.
Believing precedes seeing.
It’s like the two people who were sent to a remote country to sell shoes. One wrote back. “I have terrible news. This is a godforsaken country. Nobody here wears shoes. I’m coming home.” But the other wrote, “This is a wonderful country. Nobody here wears shoes…YET! Send me 5,000 pairs!” It’s all a matter of attitude, what you believe, and how you choose to see.
Remember what Jesus himself said? “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” This blessedness is because those who commit themselves to Christ by faith discover that they have landed on solid ground, a terrain able to bear the weight even of their doubts. It’s a solid place to stand.
Popular Bible commentator William Barclay has suggested that the experience of Thomas has much to teach us.
His one mistake was that he withdrew from the community. Perhaps his grief was too great and he sought to be alone. Whatever the cause for his absence, he missed the first experience of Jesus-risen. As Barclay has noted, we miss a great deal when we separate ourselves from the community. Things happen to us within the context of community of believers that do not happen when we are alone. Therefore, when sorrow overwhelms us, this is the very time when we should seek the heart and face of Christ as these are reflected in the heats and faces of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
From Thomas we also learn of the importance of honesty. He did not ignore his doubts by pretending they didn’t exist. He had to be sure, BUT when he made the leap from doubt to faith, his leap was wholehearted. His surrender was complete…just like his devotion to Jesus during the three year training period. A faith like that of Thomas continues to teach all of us who have not seen Jesus but yet have believed. Faith is Christ is not fully realized in formal creeds but rather by and experience that transforms our behavior toward one another, our perspective toward God and our hope for the future that is not bound by our own death. This wonderful encounter between Jesus and Thomas from the Gospel of St. John shows that the faith of Thomas was not based on an empty tomb but on an encounter with the living Lord.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the entire structure of the Christian faith stands of falls upon the fact of Jesus being raised by God from the dead.
A resurrected and living Lord answers these pivotal God Question
Who is God?
What is God up to in the world?
Who are we as children of God?
What are we supposed to be up to?
Romans 8:11 says: God is the one who “raised Christ Jesus from the dead”
Romans 4:7 asserts: “(God) gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist
Christians have no other God than the one who creates new “life from the dead.” (Romans 11:15).
Resurrection tells us who we really are. This world, for all of its goodness, is not the end, not the ultimate destination of human life. “By (God’s) great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (I Peter 1:3).
We are just passing through…we are resident aliens.
Resurrection is also our summons to mission. The risen Christ tells his followers to go and tell the whole world that Jesus Christ is both crucified and risen. The church of Jesus Christ has a unique truth to preach and we must preach it, that Jesus’ death and resurrection is God’s way of reconciling the whole world unto himself, that this is God’s self-appointed means of salvation for all.
And all this brings us back to the “Difficult theological issues” we began with. Remember the woman who said, “I believe in the resurrection because I have lived it”?
So what about you? Are you living out Jesus’ resurrection? Do you see God active in your life today? Has Jesus come to you and offered his nail scarred hands and pierced side.
I have a little confession to make. I listen to Country Western music on my way to the office most mornings. I usually start out with the classical station but usually switch stations after a few moments. I have become fascinated with the story songs that talk about a glass of sweet tea, headlights being smashed with a Louisville slugger and a 4 year old watching his daddy and quietly following his example. When I was coming to the office on Friday morning I heard the title song from George Strait's new single.
The song is entitled: I Saw God Today. It’s a story song, a ballad. The first stanza and chorus go like this:
Just walked down the street to the coffee shop
Had to take a break
I'd been by her side for 18 hours straight
Saw a flower growin' in the middle of the sidewalk
Pushin' up through the concrete
Like it was planted right there for me to see
The flashin' lights
The honkin' horns
All seemed to fade away
In the shadow of that hospital at 5:08
I saw God today
I've been to church
I've read the book
I know he's here
But I don't look
Near as often as I should
Yeah, I know I should
His fingerprints are everywhere
I just slowed down to stop and stare
Opened my eyes and man I swear
I saw God today
This song is the fastest rising single of his career. He writes how meaningful the song is: “Sometimes we take a lot of things for granted, especially anybody that’s had a child. When they first see them, if they’re in the delivery room or not, when they first see that child, it truly is a miracle and you just realize that all of these things that God has given us and how many blessings that we have around us all the time that sometimes you just take for granted. But if you just step back and take a look around you’ll see what beauty we have around us in the things that He’s created for us.”
Resurrection gives us Hope. In spite of all the difficulties of life, we can keep going on because God is right here with us AND we know the rest of the story. The same God who raised Jesus from the dead, stands ready and eager to raise us as well. Without resurrection, we have nothing to say to a hurting, unsteady world spinning out of control. With resurrection we have good news standing right in front of us if we just open our hearts and look… My Lord and My God.
Resurrection is the Rest of the Story.
Let us pray:
Lord Jesus, we must confess that there have been times when we, like Thomas wondered if the stories about Jesus’ resurrection were really true. Do not reject us in our doubts. Come to us, heal our reservations, our timidity, and our unwillingness to believe the scriptures that so boldly proclaim that you rose from triumphant from the dead. Give us the imagination and the courage, the vitality and the boldness to proclaim with the saints, “He is risen! He is risen indeed!” Then help us to live each day in the light of Thomas’ affirmation, “My Lord, and my God. Amen.
