Affirmation of Faith                                                                                                                                                        Rev. Colin S. Marshall   

11th April 2010                                                                                                                                                         St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Mt. Roskill

Readings: Psalms 49 & 50, John 20:19-31, Acts 5:27-41, Rev 1:1-8.

             On the evening of the first day of the week following His resurrection Jesus appeared to His disciples.  They were together in hiding.  Hiding from the Romans.  Hiding from the Jews.  Hiding from life.  What had happened had been too much for them.  They had placed all their trust, their hope, their expectations for the future in Jesus and He was dead.  How like us.  When faced with what seems to be overwhelming impossible we too want to bury our heads and hide away.

But was Jesus dead? Mary and the women had come back with a confused message.  Jesus’ body was gone, who knew where?  Two men the women had seen had told them He was risen.  But what did that mean?  Had Mary actually seen Jesus only at the last moment realizing it?  And then He was gone.  What did it all mean?  The disciples were confused, afraid and unsure of what was happening.  Their comfort was in being together.  And they were - all except Thomas. 

Thomas the pragmatist.  Thomas was the one who could make a decision.  Thomas was the first to have stood beside Jesus ready to go to Jerusalem with Him even if it meant their deaths.  And it had, at least for Jesus.  Thomas, who called a spade a spade, was no man’s fool.  Thomas wasn’t with the disciples that first of Jesus’ appearances.  Traditionally Thomas has been seen as one who was very miserable and disappointed with what had happened.  That’s hardly surprising.  But unlike the others he wanted to get on with things. Thomas was out getting on with life. 

Alternatively it is possible that Thomas was elsewhere, miserable, hiding away by himself, unable to face the world.  His personality type struggles with the realization they have something terribly wrong.  Sometimes things happen in life that make us question our own ability, that shakes our self-confidence, that undermines our security, that make us doubt our own ability to cope, to be in control. Thomas had to wrestle through what he had been involved in and Whom he had been believing in.  And it seems he was doing this without the other disciples.  Either way Thomas was alone.

But then, as the gathered disciples fretted, Jesus was there in their midst and Thomas was not there to witness it.  For all that occurs John’s gospel records this first appearance only briefly.  And it seems John gives Jesus second appearance, when Thomas was there, slightly more coverage for good reason.  It would seem that the first appearance, from John’s perspective was relatively brief.  Jesus appeared in the midst of a locked room, told the disciples to be at peace, indicated that He was sending them out, breathed on them the Holy Spirit and told them they had the ability to forgive sin.  In fact Jesus did a lot. Why then is John so succinct?  Is it because Jesus appearance was so unexpected, so dramatic, so shocking that the best he could do was simply record what had happened?  Even after years of reflection was this all John could remember?  Probably so.  He like the other disciples were blown away by the impossible become possible.  Jesus, dead and buried had indeed risen.  And Thomas wasn’t there to see it.  The text indicates that Thomas’ colleagues immediately raced to tell Thomas the good news. 

But Thomas didn’t, couldn’t and wouldn’t believe them.  But he did have cause for a glimmering hope. Sometimes when we are so down in our own despair and sadness and disappointments we have trouble lifting our faces up into the light.  Sometimes it all seems too much and the encouraging voices of friends hard to place any confidence in. Sometimes our own reasoning abilities argue against what others insist is possible.  In such a time we might feel that Thomas had good reason to disbelieve the disciples.  After all, how many people had come back from the dead?  But had Thomas also forgotten about Lazarus?  It would seem so.

More noteworthy then to John’s account is Jesus’ second appearance when Thomas was with the disciples.  Either the disciples had convinced Thomas to wait with them or more likely, given Thomas’ personality, he had decided to check out what they were saying for himself, even if somewhat sceptically.   Thomas would come with them but not be taken in by any dubious scheme or mockery of faith.  He would see for himself the nail marks in Jesus’ hand and place his own fingers in the holes.  He would even thrust his hand into Jesus side where the Roman spear had pierced and ripped open the flesh.   So sure was Thomas that Jesus was dead he could make such bold assertions of what he would do.   Sure of course until Jesus appeared again.

A week later the disciples were gathered together and Thomas was with them.  Again the doors were locked through fear of the Jewish leadership and the Romans.  And as before Jesus appeared in their midst.  Again He offered the disciples peace assuring them there was no need for fear.  And then Jesus turned His countenance towards Thomas. 

How would you feel if you were Thomas?  Do you ever doubt the Lord?  Doubt His ability to bring change into your situation?  Doubt that He is really in control?  Do you ever mock God’s ability or involvement and challenge Him to show Himself?  This is what Thomas was really doing, just as, if we are truthful, we too are tempted to do when things don’t seem to be going our way. 

Then Jesus was there looking at this some-time disciple.  Seeing Jesus it is not hard to imagine the range of emotions Thomas must had gone through – shock, fear, awe, and then as he realized what he had been saying – fear and horror and embarrassment.  The raw uncouthness of his proposals must have been shameful as he faced the Risen Messiah.  Now came the time of accountability. And to make it worse Jesus clearly knew.

“Place your fingers in the nail holes.  Place your hand in my side.”  Jesus invited Thomas to do exactly what he had said he would have to do before he would believe again.  Jesus knew as Jesus now knows all things. As He knows every word we speak in public and in private.  Maybe it’s me but I see Jesus having a special compassion for Thomas.  This disciple who had decided for Jesus and stepped forward to support Him, the first to stand with Jesus when the other disciples wavered.  This man who knew his own mind and stuck to it who was no one’s fool.  But this man struggled with faith because he wanted it on his own terms and that wasn’t always going to be the way.  Jesus knew, even then, that Thomas would be His missionary to Parthia and India and would die tortured, cast through with spears and burnt in an oven.  Thomas, who now would make a proclamation of faith equal to Peter’s, was a man of integrity and courage and Jesus had a special love and concern for this disciple.

Thomas’ response to Jesus is simple and understandable.  Given the evidence Thomas recognises, processes and decides instantly.   The conclusion is self-evident.  Jesus is all that He had said and more and now Thomas knows absolutely. His life will never be the same again.  Here is Jesus, “My Lord and my God.” Thomas’s statement is not just an affirmation of Jesus but an affirmation of who Jesus is to him.   Jesus’ words are a challenge to Thomas.  Did he need to place his fingers and hands in Jesus’ wounds to know?  The artists seem to have enjoyed the prospect and it is not outside the realms of possibility but somehow I think that Jesus presence was enough.  Thomas knew and responded in an instant.  And Jesus words seem to affirm this also.  “Because you have seen you have believed.”  Seeing was enough, Thomas didn’t need the gory detail and proof he had so ignorantly demanded.

Jesus continued, “Blessed are those who believe yet have not seen.”  The intent of John’s narrative is revealed to us a few verses later.  John has recorded what is helpful for belief.  Not just that Jesus came back and did more and more wonderful miracles but rather that those close to Jesus who were distraught and devastated at His death and Thomas particularly, who it appears may have been publically sceptical about Jesus resurrection, were completely and totally reconciled to the reality of Jesus’ being alive.  John points us to the fact that the disciples’ lives changed from that moment.  At the time John wrote late in the century the church would have known that almost all of the disciples (excepting John at that time obviously) had died as martyrs, often horrendously.  These men and women, Thomas particularly, would not die in such ways for a lie.  They died knowing that death was not the end and that everything that Jesus said was going to come true, including His return and the judgement of the world.

In Acts 5 we see the immediate impact of the return of Jesus and His impartation of the Holy Spirit.  Peter, like Thomas, had failed in his belief in Jesus at His death yet had been restored by the resurrected Jesus.  Now Peter had a new confidence.  The one who had slunk away in the High Priest’s courtyard was now openly preaching in Jesus’ Name right in the heart of Jerusalem, even in the Temple itself.  It might be seen he made himself a target for Jewish and Roman vengeance in the most public arena possible.  One might almost think he almost had a death wish.  Or was it because Peter was so certain that death was not the end?  Of course it was.  He had met with the risen Jesus who had forgiven and restored him. 

Dragged before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council (and we remember that the Sanhedrin performed both secular and religious duties in running the Jewish state) Peter and the disciples told their interrogators that it was more important to them to obey God than man.

We need to recognise what had happened here.  How had a cowardly mob of disciples who had run away at Jesus arrest and at best only watched His crucifixion from a distance suddenly become so brave and fearless in the face of torture and death? 

In our humanness we rate fear at different levels.  We might be fearful to jump out a window but if the house is on fire we might not hesitate.  One fear is greater than another.  Having met the risen Jesus and knowing that all He taught was true the disciples could rationally have replaced the fear of what man could do with the greater fear of God’s judgement.  This would be a very rational thing to do and Jesus certainly made comment of this nature often enough.  Matthew 10:28 quotes Jesus as saying: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but do not kill the soul.  Rather be afraid of the One who can destroy both body and soul in hell.”  Or in Luke 15:5 Jesus stated “I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.”  Was it fear then that motivated the disciples?  After all isn’t fear of God the beginning of wisdom as Proverbs 9 states?  It is – but it is the beginning not the end of wisdom.

In Jesus we find the complete revelation of a greater truth which John records in a later epistle. 1 John 4:18 tells us that : There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.   This is a critically important thing for us to understand if we are to begin to comprehend what happened in the New Testament period.  The disciples were not motivated by fear but rather by joy and a genuine concern that everyone should be saved.  Their love was not an emotion so much as real action.  The good news is for everyone and the absolute reality of hell is for those who reject the good news.  In their joy of seeing and knowing absolutely the reality of the risen Messiah the disciples were so full of both joy and compassion that they wanted everyone to know about Jesus.  In comparison to what they now knew was coming what really could men do to them?  This is why the first period of the church’s life was so powerful.  The disciples Jesus knew and taught, men and women, had an absolute assurance of what was to come and an unshakeable confidence in the risen Jesus.

Alongside this we see an older wisdom at work.  Many among the Pharisees believed in Jesus but were fearful to make a stand for Him because they didn’t want to be cast out of the synagogue.  Among them was an older teacher, a man of renown and wide respect.  An elder and lecturer who had among his disciples the young Saul who would become one of God’s greatest missionaries in the New Testament.  Gamaliel counselled caution.  Sometimes it is necessary to watch what is happening and see if God’s hand is in it.  It is not always clear at the start.  There are many situations like that today – many things that happen in the churches even.  If it is of God it will last, if it is of man it will fail.  Even among the things of God there are weaknesses that will, in time be exposed, corruptions that will be rooted out.  We are seeing this well and truly in our day.  Gamaliel cautioned the elders that to persecute the apostles might be foolishness.  The logic was simple – cut off the head of a snake and it will die.  But if it isn’t a snake and it is indeed a work of God then the perception needs to be quickly changed because you are walking out of step with God and may even become an opponent of God.  How wise Gamaliel showed himself to be.

One additional understanding affirmed and confirmed the disciples faith: Jesus promise to return.  As they went out into the world they knew that Jesus was alive – physically and spiritually.  They knew that He was going on ahead of them to prepare a wonderful reception for their place in heaven.  But not only that, he would return to fulfil those hopes of the Jewish people, and now the hope of millions of Christians world-wide.  Jesus will return again in the flesh to bring about the culmination of all things, the conclusion of the unfinished prophecies, and when He does this time there will be no doubt.  Every eye will see Him, every knee will ultimately bow and every tongue confess who He is.  It is in this assurance, with this affirmation, that we can begin to understand the dramatic events of the New Testament and we can be sure, that in small ways and large, the Lord affirms the faith we place in Him.  Is your head in the sand?  Do you need to place your hand in His side?  Or are you stepping out in faith looking forward to what’s ahead?  We need not be fearful but joyous, even in difficulty, for all this is passing and greater joy lies ahead in this world and the next.

Let us pray:  Loving Father help us to lift our heads to see what You have in store.  Give us an awareness of Your presence and guidance and help us to keep our eyes on Jesus so that we can take our part in Your plan with confidence.  This we pray in Jesus our Lord.  Amen