Made New -
In The Midst Of Reality
Bible Reading:
John 20: 19-31
PREPARED BY
KEN GEHRELS
PASTOR
CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
NEPEAN, ONTARIO
GUARANTEED TRUST
Some years ago there was a financial institution which sought to draw potential investors by calling itself "Guaranteed Trust." In a world of financial risks and uncertainties that’s a smart move. Nothing appeals more to the cautious majority than the reassurance that its little nest egg is locked away in rock-solid security.
But guess what. As we all discover sooner or later, there really is no such thing as rock-solid security.
Scan the Yellow Pages today and you won’t find a listing for Guaranteed Trust. So much for security.
The old saw says, "The only thing certain are death and taxes."
We’ve all heard that. And experienced it:
- in once secure jobs being downsized or declared redundant
- in dreams of golden years and active retirement evaporating into endless trips to the doctor and a constant blanket of pain
- in a bliss-coated honeymoon exploding into a messy divorce
Every found anything on which you’d bet the family farm?
Like the fellow who said to me, "Pastor, I’ve become kind of cynical. Every time things start to go good I begin to look over my shoulder. There’s probably a mack truck of some sort roaring right at me."
Can you identify with that, some?
Ever find yourself getting cynical - maybe a bit; maybe a lot?
Something secure, for sure? I doubt it!
THE DOUBT OF THOMAS
If you can appreciate that, perhaps you can better understand Thomas’ posture in that upper room:
arms crossed, eyebrows twitching, mouth pulled tight.
"If you want me to believe this, you’ve got to prove it."
I mean, he’d trailed Jesus for three years, pinning all his political and religious hopes on this man who claimed to be Messiah. He was a determined fanatic - ready to die with Messiah Master Jesus. In John 11 we hear him talk to his buddies as Jesus was preparing to go into a dangerous area where wanted posters with his face on it were plastered on every corner. "Let’s go with him, so that we can die together."
That’s commitment!
But now - well, he’d seen his hopes whipped, publicly humiliated and nailed to a cross. He’d seen the tomb closed, seal put on it, and fierce Roman guards blocking any access.
The curtain had fallen.
The only thing for sure is.... death.....
So no wonder he clams up. Bible tells us that he wasn’t with the others when Jesus appeared to them. Perhaps he was like some of us when we’re really hurting. Needing a bit of space to clear his head and shed a few tears.
And then when they begin to crowd his turf with crazy stories about some amazing bailout, rescuing his demolished hopes from the scrap heap,
well, hey -
Would you react much differently than he did?
Would you, after the painful, emotional events of that Friday?
Would you jump right back in with both feet after your carefully constructed hopes and dreams and plans of the last years had been cruelly dashed?
What do they say? "Once burned, twice shy."
CHRIST’S GENTLE RESPONSE
And how does Jesus deal with his doubt? Does he come down hard? Get angry? Give a lecture? Leave in disgust and frustration?
What does the Bible say?
He approaches Thomas on his level. Spends time with him and his other buddies who in their own way also wrestled with disbelief about the impossible becoming reality -- a dead person coming back to life.
In fact, Jesus spends 40 days just going around helping His friends come to terms with and overcome doubts about this incredibly great event of history -- His resurrection from the dead, His victory over the powers of death.
And in the course of that time He gently rebuilds their trust, showing them a certainty not just IN death, but BEYOND it;
Certainty in a powerful, eternally-risen and living Christ who remains committed to His people forever; a covenant-making, covenant-keeping God.
Covenant Trust.
A trust that leads to a whole, secure eternal life for all who can get beyond doubt, go out on a limb, and pin their hopes for life and beyond in Jesus.
"Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
It’s OK for Thomas to need reassurance. And there is a whole, certain, eternal life awaiting him. Blessed are those who are willing to take an extra step and believe without having to personally stick their fingers and hands into the body of Christ.
That’s folks like you and I.
Can you make that step and accept that which gave Thomas such a rough ride - that Jesus suffered, died, was buried and yet rose again?
Can we accept that there is a new life, a new relationship with the Powerful Creator of the Cosmos available through this Jesus?
That when we pray, He listens?
That when we call, He responds?
That when we struggle, He cares and guides?
That as we wander through life, His Spirit goes with us, guiding us?
That when we die, He takes us to Himself?
Can we accept that, in a world where we wonder about the fate of a hundred or more children on a rusting slave ship off Africa’s coast; where corporate profits sometimes run rough shod over human rights and the needs of so many poor; where ecological concerns are dropped because of so-called national interests; where people whose lives seem so promising get victimized by tragedy or illness or death.
Sometimes you have to wonder, don’t you?
Sometimes doubt does creep in, doesn’t it?
Not just us.
And not just Thomas.
Other bible characters share similar questions - crying them out to the Lord:
"How long, O Lord?" (Ps 13, 35)
"Why do the wicked prosper?" (Jer 12:1)
"Why do the righteous suffer?" (Hab 1:4)
GET THE REFERENCES FOR THESE
Can you hear the questions?
See - sometimes it doesn’t make sense.
There seems to be no logic.
And so, at the end of the day, where are we left to go?
FACING THE EVIDENCE
And what do we have to go on?
Thomas - he finally received a great miracle gift, was able to stare our Lord in the face; handling, touching that needed to stabilize his faith.
But what about us?
Or those we know and love who struggle with doubt in their spiritual lives - our children, other relatives, co-workers? What can we say to them?
Do we need to check our brains at the door, and make a leap into the irrational unknown? Trust without any substance? Is Christianity a religion for people suffering from cranial vapour lock?
Ultimately, of course, there’s going to be an element of faith that has to be injected into the process. I’ll tell you up front that if you, or anyone, hangs back and keep pushing, there will finally be nothing shy of death and personally standing in the eternal beyond, face to face with God, that will convince you.
I can’t prove God exists.
I can’t prove Jesus rose from the dead.
....anymore than you can prove He didn’t.
What I can do is wonder out loud about a few things.
a few things that are as real as any element that rocks our faith, that challenges our hope.
I can and will wonder aloud about these real things - because I believe that we can see them as touchstones, anchors, reality checks that help us hold firm in faith during the storms that threaten to rip it to shreds.
I will wonder.
And then each of us will have to respond in our own way.
Those close to us - kids, spouse, co-workers - who wrestle, will have to respond in their own way.
First thing I wonder about is a historical event -- I see a whole bunch of men and women just like Thomas, change rather abruptly from people scared silly and hiding in the dark shadows of Jerusalem’s streets, to becoming bold proclaimers of a strange fact -- Jesus, risen from the dead. Proclaimers of that fact, and willing to die for that proclamation. In fact, many of them did die, often after hideous torture.
Now, no one would suffer for an obvious lie.
And only a few lunatics would die for delusions. Not 1000’s.
So what’s up? I wonder.
Second thing I wonder about is the reality of an empty tomb. The early Jewish authorities were totally frustrated with this new Christian religion. They hated it. Well, all they had to do to shut the whole business down was produce Jesus’ body. But they couldn’t. The grave is empty. Empty after being carefully guarded by a unit of crack Roman commandos. What are we to make of it?
Third thing -- I read in this book, the Bible, stories about people who have encounters with Jesus, personal face-to-face encounters.
Now the earliest manuscripts we have of this book date from the 2nd century AD, less than 100 years after it was written and after the events recorded in it. There are over 24,600 ancient pieces of the Bible still around.
Compare that to this: We accept the writings of Homer, the Greek poet as valid, yet the earliest manuscripts we have of his work The Iliad date from the 13th century AD, and there are only 643 manuscripts of it. How much more valid is the testimony of the bible.
In the face of that, what are we left to say about the accuracy of the Bible’s message and the accounts it gives us?
MAKING A RESPONSE
What ARE we to say?
Fact is, it’s a hard response we’re called to make.
Naturally we would, as Max Lucado points out, tend to do like Thomas did - We’d find it hard to believe that God can do the very thing that He is best at: replacing death with life. We bear little hope that the improbable will occur. We forget that "impossible" is one of God’s favourite words.
[Lucado, No Wonder They Call Him The Saviour, p.47]
As Jesus said to Thomas: "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out our hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." (v.27)
"Come on Thomas, stop sitting on the fence. Stop holding back. Let go of your uncertainties. Trust me."
Jesus is asking Thomas to make a big decision, to give himself completely. Which he does -
"My Lord and my God!"
Thomas finally knew where it was at. This Jesus is God. Period. And he became, finally, Thomas’ Lord -- his master, his supreme commander.
No more holding back. Thomas opened his heart, his mind, his very innermost spirit and soul to the control of Jesus.
And that finally, will have to be the last and greatest step each one of us will have to take. No holding back. No halfway. We’ve got to open our hearts and minds and souls to the control of the Jesus of Easter, letting go entirely, giving him absolutely everything!
For some of us that will come gradually over the years, starting perhaps very young.
For others of us it becomes a radical discovery later in life.
For all of us it is an ongoing process, for there are always going to be little corners of life (and sometimes big sections) where we keep trying to grab control back from our Lord and God, Jesus.
Remember the words of Jesus: "Stop doubting and believe."
If you look at those words in the language the bible was first written it translates literally like this:
"Don’t become faithless, but believe."
Become...... Friends, whether you like it or not, all of us in our journey through life are moving either towards faith or away from faith. The life of faith is a life of becoming..... Over and over and over again the Bible is very clear that you can’t plunk down somewhere and remain the same.
Your faith will either grow or shrink.
It’s one or the other.
The desire of our Lord for you, and me, and those we love is
- that we would travel the road towards increased faith, growing awareness of, and experience of, and living by the reality of Jesus Christ as risen from the dead, Lord of Life, and Master of Eternity.
That each one of us, in every single nook and cranny of our lives, would turn to Jesus and say what Thomas said,
"MY LORD AND MY GOD!"
