In many small towns in Wales you had a lot of people called ‘Jones’. E.g ‘Tom Jones’. To save confusion people used to refer to people by their occupation as well as their surname. So Tom Jones would be ‘Jones the pop-star”, the butcher would be ‘Jones the Meat’, the baker be ‘Jones the Bread’. We even had an undertaker known as ‘Jones the death’.
Our bible story today was about a disciple who became known to history as ‘Doubting Thomas’. If he had been a Welshman maybe he would have been ‘Jones the Unbeliever’.
The story.
Women to the tomb. See Jesus alive. Tell the men. They don’t believe.
Couple of men go to the tomb. Discover Jesus is alive. Tell the others they don’t believe!
They are all together… except for Thomas… in a locked room. Jesus appears to them. They all believe. Tell Thomas. ‘Where were you? We saw Jesus!” Tom says; “I don’t believe it! The Bible reading actually reads:-
John 20: 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."
We can all be like Jones the Unbeliever. The resurrection is a most unbelievable thing to understand. We don’t easily take other peoples words for it! We, like Thomas, want firsthand experience! Just because millions of people since the first disciples declare they believe it, doesn’t convince us.
Thomas had seen Jesus murdered. He knew that the Romans, when they crucified people, did a thorough job. They would be in big trouble if they didn’t… particularly when it came to getting rid of a troublemaker like Jesus. The last thing they wanted was rumors that they had not done their job properly.
The way Jesus died had really impacted Thomas. He remembered the cruelty of the nails. He remembered the moment a spear was stabbed into Jesus side to make sure He was really dead. It’s almost as though he believed that the other disciples had seen something… a ghost … an apparition… but whatever it was they had seen … it wasn’t Jesus. Couldn’t have been. Because Thomas had seen the nails and spear.
But a week later they were still arguing about it… and Jesus appeared to them again. This time Thomas was there. He singles Thomas out and says, as we heard in our Bible reading (verse 27)… "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."
It’s more than Thomas can take. He never does reach out his hand, but falls on his knees and says, ‘My Lord, My God!” Thomas the Doubter becomes Thomas the Believer!
Jesus said something very interesting to Thomas. He said "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
We cannot go back to that upper room and be with the very first disciples on that day Jesus appeared to them. That’s not going to happen.
But we are fortunate that Jesus has left us other ways we can experience His love. We have the stories and letters of the New Testament, that tell us, not only what Jesus and the very first disciples got up to, but also all about people who came after the first disciples. People like Paul, who never met Jesus before He was crucified, yet still experienced His love in ways that convinced Him that Jesus was alive.
We have the stories of people over two thousand years, from every generation and culture, who share that same message, that Jesus is alive and that His love can change our lives through the power of His Holy Spirit. I’m one of those people whom the love of Jesus has changed and who believes in His resurrection power to change.
We also have the communion that we are celebrating today. Thomas said that he needed to see the scars and touch the wounds of Jesus before he would believe it. Jesus invites us to remember Him, not through seeing and touching, but through taking and tasting.
We break bread to remind ourselves that Jesus body was broken on the Cross. And that He allowed that to happen in order that our broken lives can be put back together by the love of God just as His was in His resurrection.
We drink wine that reminds us of the blood that flowed from His side when He was pierced by a soldier’s sword. As we drink it down it can remind us that God wants His love to flow into our lives and fill us with the desire and strength to make this world a better place, by loving each other just like Jesus loved us.
People sometimes tell me that, for reasons they can’t explain, they feel the presence of Jesus in a special way as they share in bread and wine in community with others. They just know Jesus died for them and that His living love is going to get them through whatever life brings their way!
Jesus invites us all to place our faith in Him. To trust that God is able to do for us all the things we cannot do for our selves. Forgive our sins. Renew our lives. Grant us strength to serve. Grant us insight to understand His Word in Scripture. All this is the work of God’s Spirit going on around us and within us, guiding and leading us in the ways of God’s Kingdom.
A great place to travel on our faith journey is to come to this table and receive the elements of bread and wine, visible reminders of the scars and wound that Thomas said helped him believe. Maybe today in faith we also can come too Jesus and declare “My Lord and My God!”
Rev. Adrian J. Pratt
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