A Demanding Sceptic

On a Sunday 2,000 years ago, Jesus rose from the dead.

However, as we shall see in our reading today,

while Jesus conquered the grave,

he still had to conquer the doubts and fears of his closest friends.

The human heart and mind are sometimes tougher, gloomier,

and colder than the grave.

Only an encounter with the risen Christ may open them up,

and this makes it almost as miraculous as Jesus rising from the dead.

This is exactly what our portion today, the end of John,

John 20:19

chapter 20, verses 19 and 31, portrays,

by means of two events which happened right after Jesus rose from the grave.

We are taught three important lessons in this reading,

about both our daily life and our life trajectory as Jesus' followers.

The resurrected Jesus comforts the fearful.

He also convinces the doubtful.

And the reason is not what people often expect or think.

First of all, the resurrected Jesus comforts the fearful.

Verses 19 and 23 portray an event on the same Sunday as when Jesus was resurrected.

Mary Magdalene goes to Jesus' tomb,

founds it empty, tells the disciples.

Then Jesus appears to her.

She goes and tells the disciples again,

I have seen the Lord.

And yet, they do not seem to believe her.

They are gripped by fear instead,

out of fear of the Jews.

The Jewish leaders were after them.

They did not want to end up on the cross just like their master had.

So these brave men do exactly what brave men do in such situations,

which is they bravely huddle together in an unknown location,

shut the door close,

and hope that nothing will happen.

The world history has just changed completely.

Completely.

But Jesus' closest friends either do not know it,

or they are not ready to be its main protagonists.

On the same night, however, their world was about to change for good.

Jesus appears suddenly out of thin air.

He does not knock on the door.

He just appears out of thin air among them.

And they are suddenly even more afraid.

Instead of fearing the Jews, now they are fearing Jesus.

And so he does two things to allay their fears.

First he tells them, I come in peace.

Peace be upon you.

I am not here in judgment.

Though that is exactly what they deserved.

They knew full well what they had done.

They had disappointed him by abandoning Jesus on the cross.

And their master was left alone.

And they knew what they deserved.

But he does not come to judge.

And then Jesus tells them, touch me.

He wanted to make sure that they could touch him and understand that he was no phantom.

He was not an apparition or something that they were making up in their minds because of their fear.

But it was truly him indeed.

Now it is interesting that Jesus was in a glorified body.

And he did not need to bear the signs of crucifixion with him.

After all, a glorified body is perfect.

It is physical, but it is perfect.

And yet Jesus chose to have and bear the signs of the cross forever with him.

For maybe two reasons.

One is to tell his disciples that it is truly me.

But second, to tell them that the signs of the cross are not the signs of death, but the signs of victory over death.

And now I have won.

Death has been routed forever.

This encounter with Jesus has been inserted in the Gospel of John intentionally.

Because, first of all, it tells us something important about the apostles.

That there were no dummies.

You see, we portray them today in the modern world as if they were illiterate and ready to believe anything that was told them.

But that is just simply not the case.

In fact, their skepticism is stunning.

They have been with Jesus day and night for three full years.

They have seen him miraculously heal impossible sicknesses instantly.

They have seen how a cripple could walk straight after decades of lying down.

And then they even saw once a man like Lazarus get out of the tomb after rotting in it for three full days fully alive.

And this tells us something important.

That our modern day portrayal of the apostles is wrong-headed and not historically correct.

They may not know a lot about theology, but there were no naive simpletons.

Now they saw the biggest miracle.

And they still are in fear.

But why did they not believe?

Well, for maybe two reasons.

Because, first of all, the apostles, like I said, they were first century Jews.

But like most of the people in that world, they knew that when a dead person is interred in the grave, he normally stays there.

Death is the end.

And secondly, and more importantly, they were molded by Israel's theology at that time.

Most of the Jewish schools, they taught that there would be a resurrection of the dead, a physical one, a bodily one.

But that would happen at the end of time when the Messiah would arrive.

And it would happen to the whole nation of Israel, not to just one person.

When the Messiah came, he would change everything.

He would basically destroy paganism.

He would rout the foreign invaders of Israel.

He would purify Israel's hearts.

And all Jews would be resurrected to eternal life.

However, the apostles were completely disappointed.

This is not what had happened.

Jesus had died.

It was probably the end of a disappointing mission for them.

So they did not expect him as a single person to arise from the dead.

Yet here Jesus was once again ruining their wrong expectations.

His resurrection is real.

And it is the harbinger of what will one day happen when he returns for his people at the end of time.

Now they see him and believe.

His friends do not understand him completely yet.

But they see him physically there.

Their theology has been turned upside down.

But now they see Jesus in a new light.

His death was not the end.

Nor was it a defeat as they had feared.

Christ's death was actually the triumph of God.

His resurrection was the vindication of Jesus' mission.

A brand new beginning.

However, Jesus does not just appear to them to allay their fears.

Nor does he just appear to them to basically say,

Wow, this is me.

Can you see?

Believe.

And that is it.

Now you can go to heaven because you believe in me.

No.

He is there not only to show them who he is.

But also to give them a new life mission.

Something that they did not expect.

This life mission is about living for Christ.

It is about representing Christ to the world.

But how can they do that?

They know their fears.

They know their doubts.

They know that they are not perfect.

How can they convince the world about Christ when no one will see him?

So he gives them two things.

Or he does two things in order to give them the power to succeed.

First of all, Jesus symbolically breathes on them.

That is very important.

Because it is to show them that it is the Holy Spirit who will give you the strength to witness to other people.

So that they are convinced about their sin and about Christ.

It is the Spirit that will ultimately convince the world.

And second, the mission that he gives them is guaranteed in its success.

It is authoritative.

How do we know that?

He tells them,

Whatever you forgive will be forgiven.

Whatever you withhold will be withheld by God in heaven.

Now this is interesting because whatever it means, and it is a difficult verse,

it does not mean that it is the church that has the authority because of it being an institution.

This is language taken from the Jewish courts and from the synagogue.

First of all, in the Jewish courts the judge would declare the accused either innocent based on the evidence and thus forgiven.

Or he would consider him guilty as charged.

And he would withhold his forgiveness.

But this is language also used in the synagogue.

Especially by the time when Jesus wrote this gospel which is by the 90s AD.

The synagogue had started to excommunicate as heretics all those who believed in Jesus as the Messiah.

There were heretics which had been living in Moses' day,

they should have been stoned to death because of blasphemy.

Now Jesus, interestingly, turns the world history upside down.

What he is saying is that it is not the world that judges the church.

After he was resurrected,

it is the church's message of Christ that judges or saves the world.

So on this night of the first Easter Sunday,

Jesus appears to his disciples and allays their fears.

But not only that,

Jesus also convinces the doubtful.

Which is in verses 24-29,

we go on to the next Sunday,

right after the first Easter Sunday.

There was one person who wasn't present with the other disciples when Jesus came

and stood in the midst of them in that room.

His name is well known even by those who don't know the Bible

because of a stigma that he bears with him for more than a thousand years,

the doubting Thomas.

Now this stigma is wrong because

even though Thomas did doubt for a moment,

this did not define his lifetime.

And the Bible never calls him doubtful Thomas.

It is the later church that did.

He was by no means a fearful soul.

In fact, if you remember,

by the middle of John's Gospel,

when Jesus said he wanted to go back near Jerusalem

in order to resurrect Lazarus,

the disciples didn't understand what was going on,

but they knew that he would be confronting the Jewish leaders

and that meant certain death.

And Thomas was the one who said,

let's go and die with him.

So Thomas was not afraid to die for what he could see and touch.

But he seems to have been a hard person to convince unless he sees evidence.

He was driven, unlike the apostles, by emotion.

He was more driven by his mind.

So Thomas says to the disciples,

I wasn't here.

I didn't see it.

I won't believe it.

Unless Jesus comes here,

I touch his wounds.

And unless I see basically the sign of the nails,

the hole in the light,

so the light shines through,

I won't believe.

So he throws down the gauntlet for Jesus to take up.

And the next Sunday,

thankfully,

when Thomas is with the others,

Jesus accommodates his request.

Again,

he appears suddenly,

without needing to open the door.

And he also knows what Thomas had said the previous week.

And he tells him,

look at me,

touch me,

and believe.

Now,

we are not told that Thomas touched Jesus' wounds

and was convinced.

Even though what,

that's what most of us,

if not all of us,

tend to think at times.

Actually,

John only tells us that

it was enough for Thomas to actually see Jesus,

standing there,

talking to him personally,

inviting him to touch him.

That was enough.

The presence of the resurrected Christ

was enough for Thomas to be convinced.

And so,

Thomas turns from his doubts

into something completely different.

He blurted out in total awe and adoration

the clearest confession about Jesus' nature

in all of the New Testament.

He looks at Jesus and says,

my Lord and my God.

Now,

these words are not meant as an expression of amazement

to God on high,

but to Jesus in the room.

Thomas said to him,

Jesus,

my Lord and my God.

You see,

Jesus' appearance

changed the disciples' worldview completely.

Even though they didn't understand everything,

suddenly they had greater clarity.

Suddenly they knew

what the scriptures of Israel

really taught about God and the Messiah.

And Thomas' confession

is not one of doubt at all,

but of complete conviction.

Jesus is both human and God.

He is the ruler of life

and the creator himself.

Thomas does not deny monotheism,

but he sees it in a clearer,

more complete light

because of who Jesus was.

Now,

that's a statement that we know

and we're used to.

And for 2,000 years,

we know this story.

And so,

we're not too surprised

at who Jesus was.

But for Thomas to say that

and for the disciples to believe

what Thomas said

was revolutionary,

dangerous,

almost blasphemous.

Because if they said this sentence,

Jesus is Lord and God,

they would be confronted

and they were confronted

with two important fronts.

First,

this was ranked blasphemy

for the Jewish religious elites

to say that a man

was equal to God.

It was the worst sin

that could be committed

against God.

And for that reason,

like I said,

you would be excommunicated

from the synagogue,

but not only that.

By 90 AD,

you would have been separated

from your friends and family.

They wouldn't talk to you

and you would be officially dead

as a heretical son or daughter.

But this also meant

that you could not work anymore

because most of the children

would work in their parents' trade.

And you would be separated

mentally, physically,

from your closest families

and friends.

It was the worst form

of suffering

and self-isolation

while being alive.

However,

when John wrote his gospel,

there was another front

that was even more dangerous

than what the Jews

did to the heretics.

If you said,

Jesus is Lord and God,

you were going against

the grains

of the most powerful,

most cruel empire on earth,

the Roman one.

Interestingly,

by the time when John

wrote his gospel,

Domitian,

the emperor,

had asked people

to call him

Dominus et Deus Noster,

which in English

would be exactly

what John said,

Lord,

our Lord and God.

And so that meant

that if you declare

another person

as Lord and God,

you were committing

high treason

against the Roman Empire

and you would be crushed.

Normally,

you would die

by crucifixion.

Yet,

Jesus,

when he comes,

he convinces

the doubtful

and before,

he also gives comfort

to the fearful.

And the disciples

are ready

to believe

and go forth

in his name.

and John

also inserts

a sentence

from Jesus

that the other

gospels have not.

Thankfully for us,

he quotes Jesus

as saying,

you,

Thomas,

believe because

you saw me,

but happy

and blessed

are those

who believe

without seeing me.

And that's you

and me.

And that is,

in other words,

you and I

are no lesser

than the apostles

for not being able

to see Jesus.

In fact,

they saw him

and they didn't believe.

And Jesus

will bless us

immensely

for believing

without seeing.

You see,

what Jesus

said to Thomas

was,

Thomas,

believing when you see

is good,

but believing

without seeing

is infinitely better.

Now,

the purpose

of the gospel

is given

in verses

13 and 31.

Jesus

convinces

the doubtful

and comforts

the fearful,

but the purpose

and the reason

he does so

sometimes

is misconstrued,

is not what

people think

it is.

We have two

misconceptions

about these

two verses,

13 and 31,

the purpose

of John's gospel

and the purpose

of what Jesus

did.

At first sight,

the passage

is absolutely

clear.

It's in two

parts.

All of this

has been written

so that we

may believe

in Jesus

as the Messiah

and the Son

of God.

And by believing,

we'll have life

in his name.

But we have

two misconceptions

that we need

to take care of

before we actually

understand this verse.

And it's to do

first

with what Jesus

does and why,

and second

with the meaning

of the word life.

You see,

when talking

about Jesus

and the resurrection,

often in our

world today,

even as Christians,

in apologetics

sometimes,

we speak

as if Jesus

is the one

who is supposed

to give us

evidence for who

he is.

And we speak

in such a way

because he does

give evidence

to his friends.

That's important.

He does comfort

them.

He does give

them joy.

He does come

to make us

believe.

But it's as if

we are the center

and Jesus

is revolving

around us.

And the way

we talk about

when we give

evidence about Christ,

it's as if

Jesus is on

trial and

about to be

condemned by us

who are the

judges.

Now,

that's not what

the New Testament

is all about.

And it's not

how Jesus

construed his

ministry.

It is Jesus

who is the

center.

And we are

the objects

of his love.

It is not

that we are

the ones who

invite him in

our lives,

although that is

true.

But it's more

about you

and me

becoming part

of his life.

And so,

his resurrection

was not meant

simply to all

his disciples.

It was not

by any means

like the latest

and biggest

stunt that he

had ever pulled

off like a

Houdini rising

out of the

grave so that

finally they

will believe.

After three

years of doubt,

fear,

they will believe.

No.

Jesus died

and was

resurrected

because it was

the only way

for us,

the condemned,

to be saved.

And John

says,

he who

believes in

the Son,

in Jesus,

has life.

And he who

does not

believe is

already condemned.

Jesus came

and died

and was

resurrected

so we can

have not

only new

life but

a new

meaning,

to be his

ambassadors in

the world.

And second,

we come to

the meaning

of the word

life.

We often,

for many

reasons,

misinterpret

that word

too.

We think

that Jesus

came,

died,

was

resurrected.

So if we

believe this

confession,

when we

die,

we go to

heaven.

That's true.

But that's

only a very

small part of

what Jesus

came to do

and not even

the most

important one.

He didn't

come to give

us life after

death.

He came to

give us

life after

death in

this life,

which is,

when he

came,

you became

new.

When he

comes into

your life,

you're a new

being,

and now

you're going

to serve

him in

whatever you

do,

in the way

you live.

So it's

not about

what you

do when

you die

in a

disembodied

state in

heaven,

but it's

about what

you do

as you

live for

him on

this earth.

When Jesus

breathed on

the apostles

that night,

he breathed

on the rest

of us as

a church.

And you

know when

exactly that

thing happened

for the first

time?

Adam,

and in

the same

way,

when God

created

Adam,

he breathed

on him,

says Genesis

Genesis 2:7

chapter 2

verse 7.

He breathed

on him and

gave Adam

new life,

and Adam

became his

representative

on earth.

Adam then

reneged his

status because

of his sin,

and he lost

his status as

God's ambassador.

And now

Jesus says,

when I breathe

on you,

you are the

new Adam,

you are the

new humanity,

and it's

your mission

to change

the world.

So what

do I learn

personally,

you and

me?

How do we

apply this

in our

life?

Well,

first of

all,

doubts and

fears are

part of the

human condition.

Each one

of us often

identifies

themselves as

Thomas,

or as the

apostles.

We have our

doubts,

we have our

fears,

and we

think we

are hypocrites,

and we feel

as if we are

not ready to

serve the

Lord,

nor does

the Lord

want to

use us.

In fact,

sometimes we

doubt the

Lord himself.

And yet,

remember,

doubts and

fears are

part of

your human

condition,

and it's

not that

when you

believe,

Jesus dispels

them forever,

but it's

that when we

believe,

Jesus is

always there

to make

us not

stumble over

them,

but overcome

each and

single time

in his

strength.

And second,

doubts and

fears were

experienced by

Jesus'

closest friends,

and that's

why this

event is

mentioned.

If they

were not

immune,

but God

still comforted

them,

is he not

going to do

the same

for us?

You see,

Thomas,

I'm sure,

even to the

end of his

life,

would have

had his

doubts,

his fears.

You know

what he

did?

According to

church history,

he traveled

for 2,500

miles all

the way from

Israel to

India to

a different

nation,

a pagan

nation.

He didn't

know their

language,

and he died

there as a

martyr.

And there

is a

church since

that time

that identifies

itself with

Thomas.

Why did he

do that?

Because he

knew that

death was

not the

end.

He didn't

make money,

he didn't

become famous,

he didn't

live to a

ripe old

age.

From that

night on,

though,

Thomas did

not allow

his doubts

to rule

his life,

but Jesus,

the resurrected

Christ.

And so,

therefore,

you and I

have an

important place

in history.

We have

a unique

opportunity

today to

change the

world.

Yeah,

I know,

it's funny,

right?

We,

with our

doubts,

with our

fears,

with our

weaknesses,

how can

God use

us?

Well,

you know,

guess what?

That's exactly

what Jesus

did with

12 ordinary

men,

Paul included.

If before

you thought

that your

life and

testimony

didn't count

or was

unimportant,

think again.

Within the

Western

civilization,

a great

clash is

going on.

It is

about racism,

hatred to

fellow humans,

political

differences that

lead to

demonization of

the other,

cancel culture,

failure to

listen to

one another,

protests,

fears.

As if that

weren't enough,

the coronavirus

pandemic has

changed the

world forever.

We've had,

right now,

we're going

through the

worst crisis

in a hundred

years,

whether

economically,

politically,

or health-wise.

It's a

fearful new

world,

but you know

what?

Our call as

Christians is

to change

it once

more.

So like

Thomas and

the other

disciples,

let's do

it excitedly,

not in our

power,

but in the

name of

Jesus and

in the

power of

the Holy

Spirit.

Let's

pray.

Lord,

we have

our doubts

and fears,

so we

come to

you in

this complicated

life,

so that

you will

allay those

fears and

doubts by

the power

of the

resurrected

Jesus.

Lord,

we believe,

but do

help us in

our unbelief.

And while

we are

weak,

let our

testimony be

strong for

you,

so that

we too,

like those

twelve illiterate

apostles,

two thousand

years ago,

may be used

by you to

change the

world by

starting with

those around

us.

In Jesus'

name,

Amen.