See My Scars And Believe

SCARS - See My Scars and Believe (Easter Sunday)

April 21, 2019

John 20:24-30 (p. 757)

Introduction:

One of my favorite movie scenes is from the movie Jaws…you remember the one where Brody, Quint and Hooper go out to try and kill this gigantic white shark who’s been terrorizing the town of Amity…

On one of the evenings Quinn and Hooper have a little too much to drink and start exchanging stories about scars.

SHOW JAWS MOVIE CLIP (3:41)

By the way, Hooper gets quiet when Quint talks about the USS Indianapolis because after it was sunk, half of it’s crew were taken by sharks…

Quint’s USS Indianapolis scar wins!!!

I have to be honest…I’ve never been all that excited about showing people my scars…and I promise you I’m gonna give anybody a run for their money in one of those contests…maybe even Quint…

I’ve been around hundreds of people who have had surgeries or injuries…and it doesn’t happen often, but every once in a while I’ll come across someone (almost always a guy) who says: “Do you want to see my scar? Do you want to see where they cut me? Hey, let me show you my incision!”

By the way…I have no desire in any way, shape or form to see your scar…but if you need to show me it…I’ll admire it. My wife loves that stuff…she could watch a medical procedure on TV about brain surgery while eating spaghetti…but I’m not like that. You can’t unsee what you’ve seen…so, I’d prefer you keep it to yourself.

Scars tell a story about something painful that’s happened in our lives…they shout out a message about past surgeries, car wrecks, injuries and abuses. It usually takes some trust and intimacy to reveal your scars to someone.

Sometimes people show their scars so people can really believe their past pain…

It’s what Jesus does for Thomas in our test:

Listen to the story:

JOHN 20:24-30 (p. 757)

Folks, here’s a true statement…

I. IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE IF YOU’RE NOT THERE WHEN JESUS SHOWS UP

Listen, I don’t know if Thomas saw Jesus’ body after the crucifixion…there’s no Biblical record that says if he did or didn’t…

John the beloved did…he was there with Mary, Jesus’ mother and Mary Magdalene and others…There were eyewitnesses to the scars He bore through the scourges and the thorns…They were right there when the sword penetrated His heart and water and blood rushes out…

John even writes about what he personally witnessed.

JOHN 19:25-35 (p. 756)

John was there…He’s the man who saw it and gave testimony to it…

And we know without a doubt the first people he shared this eyewitness account with were the other disciples…including Thomas…also called Didymus (He was a twin).

I’d bet Thomas had witnessed other crucifixions…The place of the skull, Calvary, is well known…The Romans skillfully used this horrific form of capital punishment to strike fear into law breakers. Thomas knew what it and they were like…So, as John describes what had happened to Jesus in detail, Thomas and the others continue to hide from the authorities…They grieve, they mourn…there must have been a deep sense of hopelessness after 3 years of following Jesus…He’s dead…He’s been buried.

Luke in his gospel writes this right after the crucifixion… “When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew Him, including the women who had followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.” (Luke 23:48-49)

“All those who knew Him”…Did that include Thomas and the others? Watching from a distance? We don’t know. But we do know many from the inner core witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion…Nicodemus and Joseph from Arimathea quickly took His body down and prepared it for burial…and then they laid it in “a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid.” (Luke 23:53)

[I’ll never forget March 2, 2004…I watched my dad take his last breath while his whole family was gathered around him…I remember the folks from Milward’s coming to get his body and wheeling it out the front porch, covered in a maroon blanket on a gurney…Many of you have been at this place with someone you love deeply…After their death, after they’re gone…you feel “numb”…then heartbroken, you hug and need to be hugged…Death is hard…even for those of us who believe…For me, I knew I’d never hear “Son, what are you doing it that way for?” Again…the man who had taught me more about being a man was gone…and even at 44 I felt really alone and afraid without him.]

And I believe this is what the now eleven closest followers of Jesus felt after His death…including Thomas.

And if you’d shown up at my house 3 days later telling me my dad was alive again…I’d have thought you were crazy…maybe even a little cruel.