April 27, 2025 Sermon
Sermon title: “Thomas Has a Problem!”
Scripture: John 20:19-31
(Other lectionary suggestions include Acts 5:27-32, Psalm 150, and Revelation 1:4-8.)
John 20:19-31
Jesus Appears to the Disciples
19When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Jesus and Thomas
24But Thomas (who was called the Twin ), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” 26A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” 28Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
The Purpose of This Book
30Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
We have probably all heard of “Doubting Thomas,” and in a way, that’s too bad. Yes, Thomas doubted - but the fact that he had some questions means that it’s okay if you and I have some questions. Also, after having doubted, Thomas took the Gospel all the way to India, and that’s farther than anybody else traveled. As Lutheran Pastor Mark Hall says, “Thankfully, Jesus does not turn away from Thomas, nor does Jesus turn away from us when we are filled with doubt.”
There’s a seminary professor by the name of Thomas Long (he’s with the Candler School of Theology in Atlanta), and a person I have personally met. In one of his books, Prof. Long points to Matthew 13, which has the story of the wheat and tares. He “notices that the first reaction of the field hands to the discovery of weeds in the field (the weeds signify evil) is doubt, the impulse to call into question the trustworthiness of the landowner (God). Doubt, according to Long, is the natural, often helpful first response to tragedy and evil. It is not the last response, not the only thing we have to say, but if we don’t make room for our doubt it’s unlikely we can come to believe or share our faith with authenticity.”
So, there can be doubt. Let’s leave room for that. I am reminded that during the Civil War, somebody wrote President Lincoln a letter in which she said, “I hope God is on our side.” Lincoln’s response was that he hoped we were on God’s side. Even the great Abe Lincoln could struggle with doubt.
Maybe we’ll come back to Thomas, but I want to mention something else.
Diana Butler Bass writes a column or blog called The Cottage. She has an interesting insight that I’d like to share. A few years ago, she was asked to preach on the Scripture we heard today, and this is what happened. She says, “My attention drifted away from Thomas and back toward the first sentence of the story: When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked...Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’” Diana Butler Bass was shocked! “What house?” she said. And then she says, “Of course! The house where, just a few days before they’d had the Passover meal. The house where Jesus had washed their feet and called them his friends. Where they had shared bread and wine - the house of the ‘upper room’.” The disciples had gone back to the upper room. Maybe they went there to grieve and maybe to remember and maybe to prepare for their own arrest. “But they had gone back to the room with the table, their last gathering place. Thus, on the night of the resurrection, Jesus showed up there. With his friends. At the scene of the Last Supper. On Easter, Jesus goes from the tomb back to the table.” The point is, THEY NEVER RETURN to the CROSS!
Certainly the wounds remain, but Jesus never points toward Calvary or the blood-stained hill where he was crucified. Says Diana Butler Bass, “He never valorizes the events of Friday.” “Instead, almost all the post-resurrection appearances - which are joyful and celebratory and conversational - take place at the upper room table or at other tables and meals.” And then she says, “What if the table is the point?” For most of our lives you and I are told that Good Friday is the point. But what if we were WRONG? Says Bass, “What if the most significant day was the day before - the day of foot washing and the supper, the day of conviviality and friendship, the day of Passover and God’s liberation? What if we’ve gotten the week’s emphasis wrong?”
What Diana Butler Bass is saying is that the CHURCH has placed such a big emphasis on Good Friday, you and I are forced to interpret Maundy Thursday through the events of the Cross. So, we have been led to think that when Jesus talks about his broken body, he’s thinking about his own death. As she puts it, “A doomed man’s final meal while the execution clock ticks.” How morbid is THAT, she says. And then she says this: “But his friends didn’t experience it that way. They weren’t thinking about a cross or a blood sacrifice. They saw Friday through Thursday. They were celebrating Passover. They were in Jerusalem with friends and family. (not just 12 guys at a long table – sorry Leonardo) at a big, busy, bustling holiday meal to commemorate God freeing their ancestors from slavery. Passover is a joyful meal, not a somber one. And, because Passover was about liberation from a hostile oppressor, it was fraught with political expectations and possibilities. Would God free them likewise from Rome? Was the promised kingdom at hand? They were thinking about their history and their future, and they were enjoying the supper together."
I don’t want to be too flip about this point, but I’d think we all agree that Jesus loved meals! Look at all the stories in the gospels about food! Some folks have even suggested that (in Diana Bass’s words) “Jesus was sloppy with supper invitations. He never thought about who would be seated next to whom. He made the disciples crazy with lax ideas about dinner parties. All he wanted was for everybody to come, to be at the table, and share food and conversation.” And you might recall that he invited tax collectors and other sinners, and he even got into some trouble with his critics. In short, everybody was welcome: women, Gentiles, the poor, faithful Jews and those who weren’t so faithful.
Diana Bass includes in her writing a quote from Rabbi Harold Kushner. Remember him? He wrote a book entitled, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People.” Here’s what Rabbi Kushner says about those Sabbath meals: “And the laughing. The sharing. And the singing. One melody is scarcely spent when another comes forward. We don’t even notice the racket of the children. There is a great holiness in this room. It grows with the sharing.” Kushner tells the person to whom he hands a cup of wine, “Here, keep it going.” And they DO keep it going. “From hand to hand. Drunk from and refilled. Time and time again.” And Diana Butler Bass says, “Sabbath. A vision of the kingdom of God. The meal reminds us and continues the promise. What if Maundy Thursday was that? The Last Supper of the Old World. The last meal under Rome, the last meal under any empire. And {{what if}} it is the First Feast of the Kingdom That Has Come. The first meal of the new age, the world of mutual service, reciprocity, equality, abundance, generosity, and unending thanksgiving. Pass the cup, keep it going, hand to hand, filled and refilled, time after time. THIS NGHT is the FINAL NIGHT of dominion, the END of SLAVERY; and this night is the FIRST NIGHT of COMMUNION, the beginning of true freedom: (as Jesus said) I will no longer call you servants but friends. This table is the hinge of history. The table is the point. Thursday is the Last Supper and the First Feast. The Holy Thursday Revolution. Pull up a chair. Bring a friend.” My thanks to the Rev. Diana Butler Bass for her insight.
Pastor Skip
