John 20:19-31
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
Thomas was not going to be a fool. Sure the women had come back with their report of the angels at the tomb. Sure the other disciples had claimed to actually have seen Jesus themselves. But Thomas’s attitude was, if it seems too good to be true, it’s probably not true. Maybe the women just said that stuff as a way of dealing with their grief. Of course, the empty tomb was harder to explain. Guards were placed there by Jesus’ enemies precisely to keep the body from being stolen and stories like these being made up. Where was Jesus’ body? If the Jewish and Roman authorities could have produced it, they certainly would have. And the appearance to the disciples wasn’t easy to figure out, either. They couldn’t have all hallucinated the exact same thing at the exact same time. And they had no reason to make up such a story, either. They were afraid for their lives. That’s why they had been behind locked doors. Still, Thomas wouldn’t accept it unless certain specific criteria were met. He had to see with his own eyes and touch with his own hands; only then would he believe it.
We should learn from Thomas two pitfalls to avoid. First of all, God doesn’t have to fit our criteria. It’s not for us to place certain conditions on God of what He should be like, and if He meets them, only then will we believe. Who’s really #1 in that scenario? Sometimes we make an idol out of our own intelligence by requiring God to fit into our logic of how we think things should be and how we think He should act. And if everything doesn’t fit the mold, then forget it; He must not be real or worth trusting. We begin to sound a lot like Thomas when we think, “Unless God behaves in a way that makes sense to me; unless I see certain evidence of God in my life; unless He answers my prayers and comes through for me the way I want, then I won’t believe.”
The second pitfall to avoid is the whole reason why Thomas ended up doubting at all: he was absent from the assembly of the disciples when Jesus appeared. Thomas missed church. And of course you’re going to start having doubts when you cut yourself off from the life-giving, faith-sustaining words and presence of the Lord. Thomas was off by himself somewhere, isolated from the rest of Jesus’ followers, even as we sometimes isolate ourselves from fellow believers in difficult times. And so Thomas missed out when Jesus came among them. He probably figured he’d be better off on his own at this point–just like those who think that they can have a fine relationship with God all by themselves without gathering together with other Christians. But Jesus comes where the assembly is, where two or three or more are gathered in His name around His preached Word and His holy Sacraments. You skip church and you miss out on the gifts Jesus Himself gives. That’s why pastors are bothered when people don’t show up.
Of course, that’s not to say that any of the other disciples were better than Thomas. On that first Easter evening, they were all there timidly hiding out from the Jewish authorities with the doors bolted shut. All of them had proven unfaithful and disloyal when the heat was on. But the risen Jesus comes to this wretched bunch nonetheless, in the flesh, miraculously, through the obstacle of their barred doors. For His humanity now shares fully in the glory of His divinity. His is a real body, truly risen from the grave, but now it is exalted completely into the majesty of His eternal nature as God the Son. And so locked doors are no barrier.
And the first words that Jesus says to them are “Peace be with you.” Those are His words of absolution and forgiveness to them. They might have been afraid that Jesus would come to chastise them for their failings. But it is written, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” In effect Jesus is telling them, “I have payed for all your sins by my suffering and death; they died with me. And now I am alive to bring you mercy forevermore. Don’t be afraid. I have made things right for you. You are reconciled to God the Father through Me. Peace be with you.”
And then Jesus shows them the wounds in His hands and side. Of course, He didn’t have to keep these wounds; they could’ve been undone in His resurrection. But He chooses to let them remain. For these are His glory; these are the signs of His sacrificial love for us. These are the precious treasure of the church for all eternity. For by His wounds we are healed and saved. When Jesus shows the disciples His wounds, then their fear is turned to gladness. Jesus is known by His scars. This is no impostor. It’s the same Jesus who died and who is now alive again in the flesh. Jesus is with them; and so there is nothing to fear. Nothing can be done to us that hasn’t already been done to Jesus. And He has done it all to death on the cross and triumphed.
Then Jesus does something rather amazing. He takes this rag-tag bunch of forgiven sinners, and He makes them apostles and pastors. Again Jesus says, “Peace to you!” With His first word of peace Jesus absolved His disciples and took away their fear. With His second word of peace He sends them to absolve others and take away their fears. “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” In the same way that Jesus was sent to reveal the Father and speak on His behalf, so now the apostles are being sent to reveal Jesus and speak on His behalf and give out the gifts that He had just won.
Jesus breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Jesus gives them His breath and His words and His Spirit so that they can be like Ezekiel and give life to the dry bones of sinners. With His breath, Jesus resurrects and resuscitates His church.
“If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” The apostles, and those who follow after them in the apostolic ministry, are given the very authority of Christ to proclaim and dish out His forgiveness to those who repent, but to withhold forgiveness from those who remain unrepentant. Jesus here is establishing the office of the ministry so that His voice may continue to be heard in the church, so that we may have the certainty that all the benefits of Jesus’ death have truly been given to us personally–His called and ordained servant has spoken it. The Catechism puts it this way, “I believe that when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by His divine command. . ., this is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ, our dear Lord dealt with us Himself.” This is all drawn together even more simply in the order of Private Confession and Absolution that Luther gave in the Catechism. The pastor asks the one who has just made confession, “Do you believe that my forgiveness is God’s forgiveness?” And the believing penitent answers, “Yes, I do,” and is absolved.
We must learn, then, to grasp the truth that the risen Jesus is still literally coming among His people with His gifts of forgiveness and life. It’s no coincidence that Jesus appears in the Gospel both times on a Sunday. For we are to think of every divine service as a little Easter, another resurrection appearance of Jesus; it’s the 8th day, the day of the new creation. Our Lord Christ continues to come among His people very concretely through His Word. Even now He stands among this rag-tag bunch–we who so often hide away behind our own bolted doors, fearful of the future, afraid of being alone, burdened by guilt–and He says to us right here and now, “Peace be with you. My peace I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Shalom, peace–everything is in its place, made right and whole again. You are forgiven; I am with you.”
Jesus didn’t have to appear that second time when Thomas was there. But in His mercy, He did. Jesus said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” Thomas’s skeptic mind had made him blind until he read like braille the markings of the spear and nail. Then Thomas could see, “My Lord and my God!” It was true! Thomas confesses Jesus to be God in the flesh risen from the dead for him.
And we also are given to confess the same thing with Thomas and say of Jesus, “You are My Lord and My God.” This is no myth, no childish fairy tale; it’s for real, it’s true. Our eternal life is built on this sure foundation, this living reality of Easter. Only a Savior who is truly alive in body and soul can save us fallen people in body and soul. And Jesus has done just that. Something less than a real resurrection for Jesus would mean something less than real life after death for us. But because Jesus did, in fact, rise bodily from the grave, we who have been baptized into His body will also rise from the grave on the Last Day, even as we already share in His new life by faith. Life after death is not only a spiritual reality, with our souls in heaven; it will also become a very physical, concrete, fleshly reality too at the end of time. For it is written, “Christ will change our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.” And Job spoke these familiar words of faith, “I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.” This is our sure and certain hope in the resurrected Christ.
In a moment you will hear it said in the liturgy, “The peace of the Lord be with you always.” And then the risen Jesus will invite you to touch His hands and His side in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Like Thomas, He bids you to come into contact with His own living flesh and blood, so that your faith may be strengthened. You feel the nail marks in His hands. For with His own hands, Christ Himself gives you His true body, imprinted with the mark of the cross. And you reach out your hand and put it into His side. For what was it that flowed from Christ’s side but His precious blood? Therefore, when you reach for the blessed cup of Christ and receive His life-giving blood, you are truly touching His holy side. Like Thomas, you, too, know Jesus by His scars.
Listen, then, to what Jesus says to you and take it to heart, “Blessed are you who have not seen Me and yet have believed. For by so believing you have everlasting life in My name.”
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠