Pastor’s Corner
“My
Lord and my God” — John 20:28 (NRSV)
“I have a hard time believing.”
I hear this often as a pastor,
and I can relate to it. If I drive by a store with a sign in the window saying, “5 Diet Coke
12-packs for $5.00,” for instance, I tend to be skeptical about what I am seeing. The same for
a used car with a sticker saying, “Low miles, a real cherry: $500.00!” I also tend to skeptical
when I hear an announcement of some kind that goes totally against my knowledge or experience,
the idea that I can lose weight and still enjoy a Big Mac, for example.
If you are like me, as I suspect you may be,
take heart: we are like the disciples on the evening of the first Easter Sunday. John’s gospel
tells us that the followers of Jesus were behind locked doors, “for fear of the Jews.” In truth,
they were also there because they just couldn’t believe what had happened, the stories told to
them by the women in their circle that Jesus had risen from the dead. Someone rising from the
dead? For many in the room that night it all seemed too good to be true; there were those who
doubted. It did not seem to matter that Jesus had told them that these things would come to pass.
Their minds were about as locked up as the door to the room.
And yet, neither locked doors, nor locked minds,
can keep Jesus away. He comes and offers them His presence, proof of His resurrection, and He
extends to them a peace that will remain with them: “Peace be with you.” He offers them exactly
what they need to allow their belief to blossom.
And then, it seems, there is Thomas. We tend to
call him “doubting Thomas,” or consider him the odd man out in this story. But we need to look
more carefully at text. Nowhere does the word doubt appear in connection with Thomas; Thomas just
happens not to be in the room when Jesus makes his first appearance. Like the rest of the disciples,
Thomas wants desperately to believe.
And later, we read that Jesus does come to him in
a very real and personal way.
But we need to clear up yet another detail about
Thomas and that encounter. We may believe that Thomas only comes to believe in Jesus’ resurrection
by actually touching Jesus. But, once again, a careful reading of the text does not show that this
happened. We see Jesus offer the invitation to Thomas to touch him, but there is no indication that
Thomas did, in fact, finger the wounds of our Lord. I have always fond this interesting—and
illuminating. How so?
I believe all of us want to believe, and belief
comes hard in the world in which we live. We want to see Jesus, in particular, to know that Jesus
is real, to know that Jesus is the One we should embrace. To me, the incredible lesson in this
passage is not that Thomas believed because he touched Jesus, but because Jesus reached out to
him in such a way that Thomas did believe. This story, therefore, is not really about Thomas, as
much as it is about Jesus: who Jesus is to us, and what Jesus does for us. The moral of the story?
We have a God who seeks us out!
“I have a hard time believing.”
This is our human condition. But it is a condition
that our God understands, and addresses. Easter Sunday may be behind you on the calendar, but
I pray that you will continue to know that Jesus is your Risen Lord. Indeed, I pray that our
Risen Lord will encounter all of us in such a way that the story of his life, death, and
resurrection is not an idle tale, but truth—the truth that will set us free—free from bondage,
from despair, from sin - even from death itself!
Wishing you the Peace of Christ!
Todd R. Allen
Pastor
