Are you a skeptical person? Do you believe everything you hear, right away? Or does it take awhile before you believe something to be true? The other day I got an email from someone who said that he was my long lost relative. He was trapped somewhere in Nigeria, and needed me to send $5000 to the First Bank of Nigeria. Should I believe that email? Or should I be skeptical? Well, I hope it wasn't my long lost relative, because I deleted it.
Lots of people say lots of things - how much do you believe? How much do you doubt? For almost two thousand years, Christians have been saying that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. Do you believe it? A lot of people don't. A lot of people are skeptical. Nothing is sure except death and taxes, people say. But what about the resurrection of Jesus? A Christian would say that nothing is sure but death and taxes and the resurrection from the dead, and all the promises of the Bible. Do you believe that, or do you doubt?
This morning, we're going to look at a part of the Bible where Jesus talks to us about doubt. And we're going to see what the one and only cure for doubt is, as the Bible describes it.
We find the disciples together on Easter night. Now what typically happens at your house on Easter night? At our house, we put the kids to bed, and they are typically exhausted from waking up too early in the morning - 4:45 am to be exact. After everyone goes to bed we spend a little time trying to find all those little pieces of plastic green grass all over the house, and we try to clean things up.
For the disciples in the first century, the atmosphere was a little different. They were locked up in a house. They were probably tired, but more than that, they were afraid. Just a few days ago, they had witnessed Jesus executed, and now people were saying that they saw him alive. And then suddenly, Jesus stood among them. And everyone was overjoyed except for one disciple, and that was Thomas. He wasn't with them that night, and when he came back later and they told him that they saw Jesus alive, he was skeptical.
I won’t believe it, he said. I need to see Jesus with my eyes. I need to touch Jesus’ wounds with my hands. I need physical proof. Otherwise, I won't believe.
Why was Thomas so skeptical? You see, Thomas didn’t want to get burned again. For 3 years, he had followed Jesus and thought he was the Messiah. But then he saw things and heard things that made him feel like something was not right. He saw Jesus arrested, even though he was all-powerful. He saw Jesus tortured and crucified even though Jesus could raise people from the dead. None of this made any sense to Thomas. Everything he saw contradicted what he believed. And he wasn't about to go through that again. He wanted proof.
Have you ever struggled with doubt? Last year I surveyed the students I teach in religion class. The number one thing they wondered about was if they believed the right thing. Is Christianity really the right religion? Are all these things I believe about Jesus really true? The resurrection, eternal life in heaven - sometimes, I have doubts, the students wrote. Do you ever have doubts?
What causes doubt? Thomas doubted because of the trials and troubles he witnessed during Jesus' suffering and death. That still is the number one cause of doubt today - trouble, difficulty, hardship.
It's easy to believe in the resurrection of Jesus on Easter morning at church when all things are well, but it's hard to believe when you're in the ER and your child is struggling with health problems. It's easy to believe in Jesus when everyone around you is singing "I know that my Redeemer lives" but it's hard to believe when you're surrounded by people who don’t believe in anything and everyone thinks you're foolish for being a Christian. When difficulties and hardships enter our lives, faith is tested. We struggle with doubts.
On this side of heaven, you can't really avoid it. And the purpose of this sermon is not to teach you how to avoid struggles and doubts. The purpose of this sermon is to teach you what to do when you DO have doubts - what do you do? Where do you go? What is the cure?
During the days of the Bible - the cure was simple - to spend time with the risen Jesus. A week after Thomas doubted, Jesus appeared to him, and forgave him. He showed Thomas his hands and side, the very wounds Jesus received when he paid for Thomas' sins. Stop doubting and believe, Jesus told him. And just like that, Thomas' doubt went away. "My Lord and my God," he told him. Here is the only place in the Bible that someone flat-out calls Jesus my God. No more doubting for Thomas. Someone once said, "Those who doubt most, and yet strive to overcome their doubts, turn out to be some of Christ's strongest disciples." That sounds like Thomas.
Today, Jesus wants us to believe without proof - "Because you have seen me, you have believed," he said to Thomas. "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." He's talking about us in these verses. Not seeing, and yet believing. And so for you and me today - what is the cure for doubt? How can we believe without seeing?
Thomas touched the wounds of Christ. You and I can touch the wounds of Christ every time we take the Lord's Supper. Thomas was able to look Jesus in the eye. Today you and I can look Jesus in the eye every time we read the Bible or hear his Word preached and taught. And what do we see when we read the Bible, what do we experience when we take the Lord's Supper? We see a Savior who looks at us with eyes of love. We see a Savior who knows all about our doubts and fears and unanswered questions, and he says to us, "Peace be with you."
But look at all of my problems, we say. But look at my sacrifice for you, Jesus says. Here in the Bible we see a Savior who forgave Thomas for his unbelief, and still today he keeps forgiving us for all the times we have also have struggled to believe. The Gospel writer John tells us that this right here - the Word - this is the place to go whenever we have doubts: "these are written that you may believe (not have doubts and skepticism but believe) that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."
There was once a boy who didn't like way his Mom looked. Now that's nothing new. But this was a unique situation. His Mom had some very bad scars on the one side of her face and neck, very noticeable. And as the boy got older, he was starting to feel more and more ashamed of the way his Mom looked. Even thought it was just the 2 of them - there was no dad or brother or sister, he didn’t want to be seen with her as he got older, with those big scars on the side of her face. The boy and the Mom started to not get along, and one day he told her, "I don't want you to pick me up from school anymore."
That's when she knew it was time for her to explain where she got those scars. Many years ago, when the boy was just an infant, and it was just the 2 of them back then, the Mom woke up in the middle of the night, and there was a fire in their apartment. There was no one there to help them. And so she ran by herself through the fire into the boy's room, and pulled him out of his crib - he was just a baby, and ran through the fire again and out of the apartment, and the boy was safe, and the whole side of her body had been burned in the fire. That's where those scars came from my son, she said.
And from that moment on, the boy was never ashamed of his mom again. Every day when he looked at her, he knew just how much she loved him.
There are times in your life when you will doubt that God really loves you. You'll be angry with God. You'll wonder if he cares about you. Maybe you doubting right now. When that happens, go to the Bible, and look at the scars of Jesus Christ. Listen to his words of forgiveness and grace. Come to the Lord's Supper, and partake of his body and blood of the Lord, sacrificed for you. Here is your cure for doubt. Stop doubting, and believe. Amen.
