Introduction
One of the most famous boxing matches in the history
of the sport was between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman for the Heavyweight
Crown. The fight took place in Zaire (now DR Congo) and is known as
“the rumble in the jungle”.
Foreman was a muscular and stocky man, built like an
ox, and he absolutely pounded the leaner and more elegant Ali for seven full rounds.
He landed punch after punch onto his opponent, who barely managed to get off
the ropes.
It looked like a mismatch and everyone thought Foreman
would be Champion of the World at the end of the contest.
But remarkably it was actually Ali’s intended strategy
to soak up every punch until Foreman’s energy was spent, his arms heavy and
stiff with lactic acid. In the eighth round, Ali suddenly danced off the ropes,
and with just a few, well-aimed punches Foreman was on the canvas and counted
out.
It’s a great metaphor for Good Friday and Easter
Sunday. The devil had Jesus on the ropes: he landed every blow, he gave Jesus a
relentless pounding, it was absolute carnage - and everyone thought he had won.
But Jesus, on his cross, was soaking all his evil up,
and in the eighth round – or rather, on the third day – he rises from the grave,
deals the devil an almighty and decisive, knockout blow and says, “take that.”
Never mind the rumble in the jungle, this is “the boss
on the cross” and “kaboom from the tomb.” Jesus’ arm is raised and he is
declared the victor.
Between Easter Day (late-April this year) and early
June, we’re going through John’s account of the resurrection and the way it was
experienced by several individuals; Mary Magdalene, John, Peter and Thomas.
Have you ever noticed how busy Jesus is after his
resurrection?
It’s stunning. Put it this way; what would you do if you had just:
- carried the
full weight of the sins of the world
- secured the
salvation of a fallen and broken human race
- totally satisfied
and soaked up the wrath of God
- given the
hordes of hell a damned good thrashing
- and triumphed
over death in a ferocious and epic battle?
If it was me, honestly, after all that - I’d be taking
it easy. I’d take at least a couple of weeks off, reclining with cocktail and
canapes by the swimming pool, nice head and shoulder massage, thalassotherapy, pedicure...
I think I’d have the whole spa treatment, gold package
with all the optional extras. And frankly, I’d think I was worth it. But not
Jesus... The risen Lord is a man on a mission.
The morning he is raised, having shrugged off the
small inconvenience of an earthquake, Jesus bursts out of his tomb and off he
goes, we know not where. Then, not long after, he’s back in the garden to appear
to Mary Magdalene and give her instructions on what she needs to do next.
A bit later, according to Luke’s Gospel, he goes for a
15-mile walk to Emmaus, giving a stunning lecture on the entire Old Testament and
its meaning (with no notes), in the punishing afternoon sun, and then back
again.
Easter
Sunday Evening
That same evening, as soon as he gets back to
Jerusalem, Jesus appears to 10 of his disciples, behind locked doors. There
they are, huddled together, terrified of being associated with a man who had
been lynched by a mob, looking sorry for themselves in a way that only men can.
But their encounter with the Lord leaves them overjoyed.
Thomas isn’t present at the time. It doesn’t say why. We
can only speculate. Perhaps he has just slipped out to get some bread for
supper.
My guess, for what it’s worth, is that his mind couldn’t
cope with everything he had seen. Was he an introvert, a loner, one who found
the company of others difficult? Did he feel maybe he just had to get out of
the house, get some fresh air, be all alone and think it all through? That’s
the way it feels to me.
You notice, incidentally, in John chapter 20, how we
all handle grief differently.
- Mary Magdalene
- she needs to be close up and involved; she wants to actually touch the
body and personally embalm it.
- The ten disciples
- they get together in a group, to vent their feelings and support each
other emotionally.
- Thomas - he
seems to be more comfortable detached from the group, bottling it all up, and
on his own.
Question: which of them does Jesus show himself to? Answer:
all of them. And he meets them exactly where they are. Listen, however you
react to the death of a loved one, if you know Jesus, he’ll walk with you
through the valley of the shadow of death and you need fear no evil.
So, Thomas is away from the others, trying to make sense
of it all. He has a lot to process; a sudden and traumatic end to the movement
he believed in, his leader in whom he had put all his hopes is now dead and buried.
Judas has tragically ended his own life. And now (*pointing to temple*) some hysterical
women are saying they have seen Jesus alive. Well, thinks Thomas, it’s probably
just wishful thinking. Most likely some kind of coping mechanism…
What do we know about Thomas? Not very much. But
enough to build up a definite impression.
It says in v24 that he had two names; Thomas and
Didymus, which both mean “Twin.” Thomas is Aramaic and Didymus is Greek.
Whenever I tell people I once dated a twin, they usually
ask if I ever got them mixed up. But it was easy to tell them apart actually.
Jane had a small birth mark on her left hand and Jeremy had a moustache!
The thing about identical twins is that they can have
the same physical features, the same mannerisms, the same temperament, the same
height and build, but one is a follower of Jesus and the other is not.
No matter what family you come from, no matter what
genetic make up you are born with, you have to decide for yourself whether Jesus
is going to be Lord of your life or not.
Have you made up your mind yet? Sooner or later, we
all have to get off the fence and say what we really think.
We don’t know anything about Thomas’ twin, and how he
or she responded to Christ, but we do know that Thomas gave up everything to
follow Jesus as a disciple. Never mind about how others in your family respond
to Christ – what about you?
Well, if Peter was Tigger, Thomas was more like Eeyore.
He appears to have been a bit downbeat and pessimistic. He was probably something
of a melancholic.
Only three things he ever said are recorded in the
Bible, and all of them support the hypothesis that he is not that guy who lights
up the room. He is, of course, most well-known for his “I don’t believe it”
speech in our reading today. He gives the impression of being analytical,
sceptical, maybe even a bit cynical.
But he is also on record as saying, a bit gloomily (in
John 14), “Lord, we have no idea where you’re going. So how do you expect us to
know the road?”
He seems to have had a very literal, scientific mind. “Never
mind vines and branches, tell us straight. What do you mean, the place you are preparing?
Make it simple and understandable.” Thomas wants specifics, not symbols. He deals
in facts, not figures of speech. Some of you are like that. That’s OK. Jesus chose
Thomas to be his disciple.
The only other recorded words we have from Thomas are
when they get bad news that Lazarus is terminally ill in John 11. And Thomas
says, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
You could always count on Thomas to spread a bit of cheer.
I bet the others were saying, “Thanks for sharing that with the group, Thomas.”
What a blessing it must have been spending days on end
in a locked room with this guy...
Maybe that’s
why Thomas isn’t there when Jesus appears the first time! “Look, Thomas, here’s
25 shekels, why don’t you go out for a long
walk and come back with some bagels for tea? Don’t feel you need to rush back,
eh?”
So off he goes and when he returns (v25), now the men say
they have seen Jesus too. In fact, in the Greek it means, they kept telling him, “We have seen the Lord!”
It’s Sunday – and the believers
have come together. It’s church. That’s where we should be on the Lord’s day, if we can. Because, like Thomas, you can
miss out on life-changing blessings by not being with other believers at the appointed
time.
Hebrews 10.25 says, “Let us consider how
we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting
together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another.”
It doesn’t have to be a big church; it
doesn’t even have to be a good church. Jesus promises to be where even two or
three are gathered in his name. And look, the first two Sundays of the new
creation Jesus shows up both times. Thomas wasn’t in church
that day and he missed out.
To be fair, we have to admit that some churches are really
unwelcoming. Like in this passage, where the doors were locked (v26), sometimes,
tragically, churches give you a stony reception; they’re unfriendly, impersonal,
physically uncomfortable and boring. (Apart from that, they’ve got a lot going
for them).
But all Christians should find a church where they can
grow and then invest in it. That’s just a little aside.
Thomas comes back from his little walk and they all keep trying to tell him he’s missed a
great service. “Ah, wow, the presence of the Lord – literally! It was, well, how can I put it? I can’t describe it. Thomas,
you just had to be there.”
Thomas says, “Yeah, right. I don’t think so.” He thinks
it’s some kind of practical joke.
“I need to see it for myself. I’ll believe it when I
see the marks in his hands where those nails went. In fact, no. I need to feel as well as see. Unless I touch the
holes where the nails went and the gash where they thrust the spear – give me a
break.”
Thomas is not going to be taken in by some
fantasy. He’s not prepared to take a leap into the dark. He’s a realist. He’s got
a rational mind.
The very vocal atheist Richard Dawkins
famously said, “Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need
to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of… the lack of
evidence.”
Thomas might actually agree with that. He
doesn’t want to look an idiot; he doesn’t want to be gullible and naïve, just trusting
what people say without any proof. He wants a peer-reviewed
study or forget it.
Thomas has objections. He has problems. He
has questions. That’s fair enough. This life from the dead thing is, after all, a bit weird.
By the way, (shameless commercial break now),
the Alpha Course is such a great environment for exploring those questions
about faith. We started on Thursday, but that was just an introductory evening;
there’s still time to sign up and there’s plenty of room for you if you want to
come.
One Week Later…
So, Thomas is naturally guarded. He says, “Let’s
see some evidence first – and then we talk.”
- A day
passes. Nothing.
- Then 2
days. Nothing again.
- Wednesday
comes and goes. Still nothing.
- Four days. No
sign of Jesus. I love the way Jesus lets Thomas stew…
- Five days. Now
the others are starting to wonder. “Was it a dream?”
- Then, it’s the
sabbath. It’s been 7 days now...
Thomas is thinking, “I told you so. It’s a figment of
their imagination.”
Thomas is thinking, “I told you so. Flash in the pan. Hallucination
is common at times of distress and grief. It’s probably a figment of their
imagination.”
But 8 days later, again, the Lord’s Day, Jesus appears again - “Shalom. Peace be with
you.” And, this time, Thomas is there.
Jesus stands among us and says to each one here who is
not finding faith easy, like he did to Thomas, “Come close. Reach out. It’s
me.”
Notice that Jesus doesn’t heap guilt on him. He
doesn’t judge or criticise or harp on about the past. There is no hint of condemnation.
It’s just good news. “Shalom. I want to give you peace.”
It’s an awkward and embarrassing moment for Thomas because
(v27) Jesus singles him out. But it is also a very
eerie moment; because he says, “Put your finger here;
see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and
believe.”
Do you see what this means? A
shiver goes down Thomas’ spine. His analytical mind sees straightaway that, a week
earlier, Jesus must have been listening to what the
eleven had been saying in that locked room. He heard everything that Thomas
said about the hands and side. Jesus had
been in that room all the time.
The evidence that Thomas needed – or said he needed –
was to see the nail marks in Jesus’ hands and to put his fingers there, perhaps
in case the scars were painted on his skin by a makeup artist.
Does he step forward to touch the crucifixion wounds? Does
he carry out a physical examination? Thomas doesn’t need to. It seems he cries
out, “My Lord and my God” spontaneously and immediately and with conviction.
That encounter with Christ is enough. And his affirmation
of faith goes further than anyone else in the whole New Testament, acclaiming
Jesus as Lord and God. No human being had ever called Jesus that before. And it’s
not just “you are the Lord, and you are God” – but “my Lord and my God.”
You are so blessed if you grew up in a believing
family. That’s the best start in life you can have. But Jesus is mum and dad’s
Lord and God, until you come under his
lordship for yourself.
And look, v29, there’s a blessing
for you if you believe in Jesus for yourself, without having seen him with your
eyes. One day, we will all see him face to face.
Ending
As I end, I want to just draw your
attention to v30-31. We didn’t have them read earlier, deliberately, because I
wanted to highlight them separately.
“Jesus
performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not
recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that
Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life
in his name.”
John is writing this Gospel down and he
knows he’s nearly at the end. I love to picture him rolling back the parchment
and scanning over everything he’s put down so far.
He’s had to be selective. He’s had to
condense 3½ years of the greatest life ever lived into an essay that takes a
couple of hours to read. And he thinks, “Oh man, there are so many other things I could have said. But I’ve said enough.”
Then he writes this; this is how it literally reads in
the original: “These are written that you may go on believing that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that
by going on believing you may go on having life in his name.”
As the Christian author James Watkins once said, “A
river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its
persistence.”
So, keep moving. Keep believing! Keep the faith. The more
you keep going, the more you keep going. Don’t give up. Don’t slow down. Keep
your eyes fixed on the Lord. And may you know the blessing of believing without
having seen.
Let’s pray…
