The following sermon is the fourth of six in the series titled, The Easter People, presented by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia. The title is Thomas, and the scripture reference is John chapter 20, verses 19 through 31. The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, Peace be with you. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. And Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.

Now Thomas, one of the twelve called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and place my finger in the mark of the nails and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.

Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. And then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and place in my side.

Do not be faithless, but believing. Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me?

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.

The Gospel of the Lord. This is the fourth in a series of meditations on the Easter people, men and women whose lives were transformed by their encounters with the risen Christ. You realize by now that I have departed from the lectionary in order to take these encounters in the order in which they occurred. And so it is that our consideration of that first Easter day has already occupied three full weeks.

We began with Mary Magdalene meeting Jesus at the tomb on Easter morning, thinking at first He was the gardener until He spoke her name. And then sometime during the day, He met privately with Peter, and what an incredible meeting that had to be, in which the big fisherman's haunting guilt at having denied his Lord was swallowed up in Jesus' love and forgiveness for this would-be sturdy disciple. And last week we thought about the greatest Bible study in history as Jesus himself unfolded it, walking along the road to Emmaus with Cleopas and his friend, and then sitting at table, they suddenly recognized him as he broke the bread in that very familiar gesture, and then he vanished out of their sight.

I want you to imagine the scene back in Jerusalem. The apostles and others are literally hiding in a locked room somewhere in Jerusalem. They are afraid of the Jews.

See, the word is out. The authorities are looking for them. The soldiers said somebody stole the body.

Obviously, the apostles must have done it. Who else would? And the Jews and others are out to find them, and they are terrified that the same thing might happen to them as happened to Jesus Himself.

The women who went to the grave early in the morning to finish the embalming have confirmed the fact that the tomb is empty. Mary Magdalene claims that she saw the Lord and spoke to Him, But they dismiss that as the story of an emotional woman. Peter himself says exactly the same thing, and they don't know what to make of that.

And then in come Cleopas and his friend. They know where the apostles are. They come rushing in.

They pound on the door. They're out of breath. They're hot.

And they've run in seven miles from Emmaus. And they tell of their incredible encounter with Jesus on the road and at table. and suddenly there he is.

He didn't pound on the door. He's not breathless. He's just there.

Suddenly in the midst of that locked room, there he is. Luke says they were startled and frightened thinking they were seeing a ghost. And he says, no, no, I'm not a ghost.

Touch me. Handle me. The ghost doesn't have flesh and bones.

That's not enough. They're still terrified. He says, do you have a piece of fish?

Let me eat it. That's a very good test, by the way. If you think you're seeing a ghost, just offer him a piece of fish and you'll know one way or the other.

Mark adds, he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. John says simply, he said, peace, shalom. He has to say it twice.

Peace, peace be with you, don't be afraid. And then he showed him his hands and his side. If anything at all is clear from the Gospel account, it's clear that the disciples were not expecting this.

When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. Matthew 28, 17. When they heard that He was alive and had been seen by Mary Magdalene, they would not believe it.

Mark 16, 11. When Cleopas and his friend went back and told the others, they did not believe them. Mark 16, 13.

And even after Jesus stood among them and said, See, My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see. A ghost doesn't have flesh and bones as you see that I have.

Even then, Luke records, they still disbelieved for joy and wondered. Isn't that a great phrase? They disbelieved for joy.

This was too good to be true. But it was true. And one by one, they came to know it firsthand.

Except for Thomas. Now we don't know why he wasn't there with the others on that Easter evening. He may have been out attending to some financial matter.

That had been Judas' responsibility, but by this point he has killed himself. It doesn't really matter. What matters is that Thomas simply wasn't there.

He missed it. And whenever it was that he finally returned to what had to be a scene of total pandemonium, He said, I don't believe it. I repeat what I said to you on Easter morning.

Please don't talk to me about simple, uneducated, gullible, superstitious fishermen ready to believe anything. It just doesn't wash. Thomas has spent three years of his life with these other men, night and day, eating, sleeping, studying, traveling, lodging, learning.

He knows their character. He has literally entrusted his life to their common commitment. And now their unanimous testimony is, we've seen him, we've heard him, we've touched him, we've handled him, we've eaten with him, he's alive, he's risen, and Thomas says, I don't believe it.

Unless I can put my finger in the nail print, and my hand in His wounded side, I won't believe it. Stop and think about it. Faith doesn't exactly flow like a river through much of the New Testament.

Gabriel tells Zechariah that he and Elizabeth are going to have a son, John the Baptizer, in their old age, and it records Zechariah doesn't believe it. Mary tells Joseph that she is supernaturally pregnant and he's going to be the stepfather of Messiah and he doesn't believe it. He wants to put her away quietly.

Jesus tells all of his disciples over and over again that he's going to die but he will rise from the grave. They don't believe it. And now the ten tell Thomas that they've seen the Lord and he just plain doesn't believe it.

I want to say this to you. Thomas' words sound like defiant skepticism. I will not believe it.

But I think that beneath those words, his heart attitude is one of desperately wanting to know the truth and an unwillingness to settle for anything less. You know, it works both ways. Our words can be on one level and our heart can be someplace very different from that.

Think about the rich young man. Comes running up to Jesus, greets Him with words of praise. It says He knelt before Him and said, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

His words sound wonderful. But when Jesus gives the answer, it says He went away sorrowful because He had great possessions and He was unwilling to pay the price. his words said one thing but his heart said something else and so also with Thomas Thomas used words of skepticism and doubt but beneath them was the desire to know the truth that sets us free and isn't it lovely that Jesus not only gave him proof but gave him exactly the proof that he had demanded a special visit an encore performance Eight days later, Jesus appears once again, the very same words, peace be with you.

And he says, come here, Thomas. Put your finger in the nail print. Put your hand into my side.

And it says, Thomas fell to the ground with the fullest confession of faith thus far uttered. Many had called Jesus rabbi or teacher or master or even Lord. Some had acknowledged Him as Messiah, or Savior, or the Holy One of Israel, the Son of David, or even a King.

Way back at Caesarea Philippi, Peter had said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. But it was Thomas, the one we call the doubter, who first confessed, My Lord and my God. My God.

To a human being. To a resurrected one. The full divinity of Jesus.

That encourages me. I hope it encourages you. To see that Jesus is not afraid of honest doubt.

He welcomes it. You may remember another story. John the baptizer.

the one who first proclaimed Jesus as the one that everyone in Israel was looking for. Only things don't turn out the way that John expected. He thought he'd be at Jesus' side leading some sort of a revolution, and instead of that, he finds himself languishing in jail.

And so he sends a couple of his disciples with the question, are you the one who is to come? Or should we be looking for somebody else? and instead of rebuking him Jesus doesn't say John what in the world is the matter with you of all people you should know who I am he doesn't say that he says just watch just watch for a little while and he goes on with his ministry of healing the sick and setting the oppressed free and then he steps back from it and he says now you tell John the things that you've seen and heard The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed.

Blessed is he who takes no offense at me. Again, he gives proof. He doesn't just say, of course I am, go tell him so.

He gives proof. And interestingly enough, again, it's packaged in exactly the right package for John. Remember what John called himself?

The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare a highway for Messiah. One of the places that that's talked about is Isaiah 35.

And you go back and read Isaiah 35. The things that Jesus did are specifically mentioned in Isaiah 35 in the paragraph immediately preceding the discussion of the way prepared in the wilderness. In other words, he gave John the proof that he needed in exactly the terms that he would most easily recognize it.

He doesn't rebuke honest doubt. He welcomes it. As a matter of fact, he turned around then and faced the crowd and gave John the highest acclamation that he ever gave to anybody.

Words of highest praise. No one born of woman is greater than John the Baptizer. Highest praise given in a moment of John's greatest doubt and weakness.

And so exactly the same thing for Thomas the doubter. He doesn't reprove him. Not reproof, but proof.

In exactly the terms Thomas demanded. You know, Jesus didn't go chasing after the rich young man. He knew his heart.

It says Jesus looked at him and loved him, but he let him go. He gave no answer to Pilate. Pilate says, why won't you answer me?

Don't you know that I have the power to set you free or condemn you? All Jesus said is you'd have no power at all unless my Father gave it to you and he wouldn't answer Pilate's questions. he didn't try to convince Caiaphas he told the Pharisees if you believed Moses you would have believed me for he wrote of me and he had very harsh words his harshest words were for those who claimed to have a lot of faith but who denied it by their actions now that you say we see your guilt remains but for those who were honestly seeking he had all the time and all the proof in the world he met them at their point of inquiry not for those whose words were right but whose hearts were wrong but for those whose words may have been wrong but whose hearts were right do you understand what I'm saying?

don't judge it on somebody's words Sometimes words of blasphemy, of seeming defiance, are right on the surface of a desperate hunger to know the truth. And sometimes very beautiful words cover over a hard attitude that is terribly wrong. At a much earlier point in the story, recorded back in John chapter 7, Some Pharisees heard Jesus' claims to divinity.

They saw exactly what He was claiming. And in essence, they said to Him, Prove it. And you know what His answer was?

If anyone is really willing to do God's will, he'll know the truth of my teaching. See, it's not a matter of intellectual argument about the existence of God. It isn't even primarily some sort of laboratory experiment that will demonstrate it.

The issue is, are you willing to follow the truth where it leads you? If you're not willing, then He's not going to fuss with that. If you are willing, He will give you enough truth, and enough truth, and enough truth, packaged exactly right for you, to bring you to the point of conviction.

Maybe you've had the experience of some friend or member of your family challenging you with a very tough question. You know, and you say, Oh, you're so glad that he asked that one because you just happened to know the answer. And so you start in to give him an answer to his very difficult question.

And before you're halfway done, he says, Yes, but... And he shifts to some completely different question. Have you had that experience?

So you start in on that one. And he sees that you've got an answer to that one. He says, Yeah, yeah, but what about...

And you begin to be aware he's not really looking for an answer. He just wants to win the argument. Don't fuss with it.

But to the person who is genuinely seeking, don't be afraid of their doubt. Don't be afraid of their question because Jesus isn't. He welcomes it. God spoke through Jeremiah in these terms.

He said, you will seek Me and you will find Me. You will find Me. when you search for Me with all your heart.

That's a promise. You will seek for Me and you will find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. Thomas demanded proof.

Jesus gave him exactly the proof He demanded. No rebuke. And Thomas went off to be the first missionary to India.

If you know anything about India, you know it's a country full of religion. The Hindus dominate the population, although there's every other kind of religion represented there. You know, at one place in the Upanishads, it says that the Hindus believe there are 30 million gods.

And you see, it would be easy to settle for just adding Jesus to the list. Just one more. Isn't it interesting that of all the apostles, the one that he chose to send there was the one who said, I'm not going to settle for easy belief.

Adding Jesus to the pantheon, I want rock bed truth to build my life upon. But Jesus did add this, Blessed are those who have not seen with their eyes. Blessed are those who have not seen, who yet believe.

And Peter added this, Without having seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him, and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. Let's bow our heads together. Lord Jesus, if there be those among us here this morning who still are not quite convinced, we pray, confident because of the way You treated Thomas, the way You treated John, we pray that You would make Yourself known to them.

Lord, if we have opportunity to meet with friends and neighbors who have hard questions, give us confidence to share this good news with them. And give us the grace to know that behind the questions may be a heart that desperately wants to know You. Thank You for making Yourself known to us.

We worship You this morning. We pray in Your name. Amen.

Amen.