Sermon: Honest to God (John 20:19-31)

I was invited to preach on April 11 (second Sunday of Eastertide) at Anderson Hills Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Cincinnati I chose one of the day’s lectionary readings, John 20:19-31. In this passage, Thomas, one of the disciples, tells the others that he won’t believe in Jesus’ resurrection until he has touched the wounds on Jesus’ hands and side himself. Thomas, frequently known as “doubting Thomas,” is someone with whom I can identify, even today. But is doubt in the resurrection really what Thomas was expressing? Or was it something much bigger? I explored these questions in my sermon (below).

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Photo: notfrancois (Creative Commons license)

This week, a friend and fellow minister posted a question on Facebook: “Do you think “doubting” Thomas was misunderstood?” The question had been on my mind as well, as I considered today’s Scripture text from John’s gospel. This particular passage, this demand from Thomas for proof of life is the moment for which he is best known. His questions seem to indicate that he doubts the Resurrection of Jesus.

But a look through the rest of John’s gospel gives us a more well-rounded picture of what Thomas is all about, and if I had to sum him up in one word, it would be practical. Thomas is a guy who is grounded in the facts. He knows what knows, no less and no mor. And what he knows is what he can see and hear and touch.

Thomas is practical, and also honest, almost to a fault. We don’t hear much from him in the gospels, but when we do, he speaks his mind. Jesus often uses metaphors, especially in John’s gospel. I am true vine and you are the branches. I am the way, and the truth, and the life. Jesus often talks abstractly about his relationship with God, and Thomas and the other disciples ask a lot of questions in John’s gospel – questions that help us understand what Jesus means.

When Jesus makes his farewell speech to his disciples, in John 14, he tells them that he is going to his Father’s house to prepare a place for them. He will come for them, he says, so that where he is, they may be also. And then Jesus says to them (this is in John 14, verse 4),  “And you know the way to the place where I am going.”  To which Thomas pipes up, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” I don’t think Thomas was the only one among the disciples who wondered where Jesus was going, and how they would find him – but Thomas was the one who spoke up. [To continue reading, click here.)