These are written that you may believe. - 1 John 1:1-4

Today is the second Sunday in Easter or what I like to call, Thomas bashing Sunday.  It is always so striking to me how quickly we go from celebrating the resurrection of our Savior Jesus, to focusing on an embarrassing moment of weakness that involved a disciple named Thomas.  I can’t believe any of you here are unfamiliar with the story, but as it is our custom on this the second Sunday in Easter, allow me to air Thomas’ dirty laundry. 

It is unknown where Thomas was “on the evening of the first day of the week”[1], but we know he was not with the rest of the disciples when the freshly resurrected Jesus stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”1  When his fellow disciples told Thomas they had “seen the Lord”[2], Thomas now famously said “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”[3]  We cringe a little when we hear how crudely Thomas articulates his doubts, but it is when Thomas is confronted by Jesus that we really feel bad for the guy.  A week after Thomas says he wants to poke his finger into the nail pierced hands of the supposedly resurrected Jesus, Thomas is hanging out with his fellow disciples when suddenly Jesus appears to them again.  This time, after a quick “peace be with you!”[4] Jesus focuses His attention on Thomas.  Jesus offers His nail pierced hands and spear pierced side for the poking and prodding Thomas so flippantly said he required to believe.  Then Jesus said to Thomas “stop doubting and believe.”[5]

Bad enough to embarrass yourself in front of your friends, but how humiliating to do it in front of Jesus, and then to have your friend John record it in his gospel so that today 2,000 years later we are still talking about it.  Poor Thomas is forever remembered for a moment of weakness to the extent that we don’t even call him Thomas, he is now and likely forevermore known to us as Doubting Thomas.  We don’t do that with any of the other followers of Jesus.  We don’t speak of Matthew the Cheater, or Scarlet Letter Mary, or Potty-mouth Peter.  None of the other followers of Jesus are remembered for their moments of weakness.  Which I think is a bit unfair to Thomas especially since “on the evening of the first day of the week”1 Thomas wasn’t the only one doubting.  The women were on their way to the tomb to anoint a dead body because they doubted the resurrection.  Peter and John ran to inspect the empty tomb because they doubted the resurrection.  The disciples on the road to Emmaus were depressed because they doubted the resurrection.  Further, both times Jesus appeared to the disciples they were gathered behind locked doors because they doubted the resurrection.  I am not trying to disparage the other disciples; I am just trying to point out Thomas wasn’t the only doubting disciple. 

Further still, I am not so sure we should be pointing out Thomas’ doubts.  Seems a bit like we are focusing on the sliver in his eye when there is a plank in our own.  Who here hasn’t struggled with doubt?  I suppose it is possible that there is someone here who has the faith of a little child; that is a faith that has never questioned a single word of Scripture.  However, I just pointed out that even the great apostles, who spent three years hearing the word of God from the mouth of God, struggled with doubts.  So, it seems unlikely to me that there is someone here who has never doubted the virgin birth, or one of the myriad of miracles Jesus performed, or the driving out of demons.  It seems unlikely to me that no one here has ever, even for the briefest of moments, wondered if Jesus really was perfectly perfect (not even one little mistake), or if His sacrificial death paid for the entire debt of sin (or if maybe there isn’t something we have to do to help pay the last bit off ourselves), or if His miraculous resurrection actually or symbolically happened.  I am not trying to disparage any of you; I am just pointing out that, still today, Thomas isn’t the only doubting disciple.

Whether we like to admit it or not there is at least a small part of each one of us that secretly wishes we could, maybe not poke but at least, see the nail marks in His hands.  Otherwise, how do we know all this is true?  Jesus hasn’t, at least not to my knowledge, appeared to a disciple in quite some time now.  However, that does not mean we are without compelling evidence that supports the reality of the resurrection.  We have for example the testimony of the doubting disciples. 

Three days after Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried the attitudes and actions of the disciples drastically, suddenly, and uniformly changed.  The disciples go from timidly hiding behind locked doors for fear of the Jews to boldly standing before a crowd of Jews proudly proclaiming that the same Jesus they had nailed to the cross, had risen from the dead.  Every single one of the disciples says the exact same thing and they say it again and again.  Even when the rulers, and elders, and teachers of the law (that is the people responsible for the execution of Jesus) even when those people threaten the disciples not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus[6], the disciples keep testifying to the reality of the resurrection.  Even when the Roman Caesar starts cutting off their heads, feeding them to the lions, and burning them at the stake, the disciples keep testifying to the reality of the resurrection.  The disciples knew that it was not only possible but probable that they would be executed in the most degrading and agonizing ways for testifying to the resurrection of Jesus.  Yet they never stopped testify to the reality of the resurrection, not one of them, not once.

Why!?!  What caused this drastic, sudden, and uniform change in the disciples that had previously been plagued with doubts?  This morning saint John tells us what changed them from doubting disciples to daring disciples.  In 1 John 1:1 we read, “1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.”

The disciples had spent three years listening to Jesus preach and teach.  They didn’t understand most of what Jesus said at the time, but after Jesus rose from the dead, and the Holy Spirit connected the dots for them, the words they had heard Jesus speak took on a whole new meaning.  The words Jesus spoke to them about forgiveness and salvation were no longer hypothetical or theoretical they were accomplished facts.  With their own ears the disciples heard their risen Savior say, “Peace be with you!”

Over those three years the disciples had also witnessed their fair share of miracles, from changing water into wine to the healing of Malchus’ ear.  All these miracles demonstrated to the disciples that Jesus had power over all things in the temporal realm.  But after Jesus rose from the dead the disciples realized Jesus also had power over all things in the eternal realm.  His miraculous resurrection from the dead proved that Jesus also had power over sin, death, and the devil.   With their own eye the disciples had seen the empty tomb where their risen Savior once was laid.

Finally, the disciples never doubted that Jesus was a man.  They worked alongside Him. They ate and drank with Him.  They laughed and cried with Him.  He was their teacher and friend.  They suspected He was more, even confessed Him to be the Christ, but after Jesus rose from the dead, the disciples were certain this man was also God.  For, it was not a man’s ghost that Mary clung to outside the tomb, it was not an apparition that spoke with the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, and it was not a figment of the imagination that broke bread with the disciples.  With their own hands the disciples touched the living flesh of their Savior risen from the dead. 

Everything the disciples’ ears had heard, eyes had seen, and hands had touched convinced them beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus had risen from the dead.  They were so convinced Jesus’ resurrection was real that they were willing to die for it.  But they didn’t need to die.  They could have been quietly convinced and kept the reality of the resurrection to themselves.  So, why didn’t they keep the resurrection reality to themselves?  Saint John answer that question as well.  In 1 John 1:3 we read, “3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”  

The disciples testified, witnessed, proclaimed, and preached the resurrection reality because they wanted other disciples to overcome their doubts and the Holy Spirit has preserved this testimony so that we might overcome ours.  Our God of grace knew we would struggle with doubts.  That is why He has preserved this embarrassing story about Thomas and the other doubting disciples.  God shows us men and women, with whom doubters such as ourselves can relate, so that we, like they, can overcome our doubts and embrace the reality of the resurrection.   

Just as Jesus gave Thomas convincing proofs that the resurrection is a reality, so also has Jesus given you convincing proofs. You have not heard, seen, or touched Jesus, at least not in the same way Thomas and the other disciples did.  However, yours is not a baseless faith.  For years now you have heard with your own ears how the prophecies found in The Old Testament are perfectly fulfilled by the resurrection.  Through their written testimony we call the New Testament you have seen with your own eyes how the resurrection drastically, suddenly, and uniformly changed the disciples.  And even today, though He has ascended to his seat at the right hand of the Father, Jesus allows you to touch His body and blood in the sacrament of the supper.  This account of doubting Thomas and everything else that has been recorded in the pages of Scripture “are written that you may believe”[7]  the reality of the resurrection. 

In a way our ears have heard, our eyes have seen, and our hands have touched.  Therefore, let us proclaim what we have seen and heard so that more disciples might overcome their doubts and believe.  God grant us the conviction of Thomas who in the end, stopped doubting and believed.  Amen.

[1] John 20:19

[2] John 20:24

[3] John 20:25

[4] John 20:26

[5] John 20:27

[6] Acts 4:18

[7] John 20:31