Prove It! (A sermon based on John 20:19-31)

Prove It!
A sermon based on John 20:19-31
Sunday, April 19, 2009 -- Easter 2B

    I have some exciting news for you all. I've won the lottery! No, kidding. Seriously. I have. Do you believe me? Maybe not. Maybe you want me to prove it. Well, I can't prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. But I can give you some evidence that will help turn your doubt into faith.
    Maybe you doubt that I've really won the lottery because you know that I don't buy lottery tickets. I know the odds of a win are so slim, that I'd rather keep my dollar, put it in a bank, and take the tiny bit of interest I get. It may not be a big win, but it's a sure bet. And I didn't buy a lottery ticket. But someone did give me one. [Reveal lottery ticket.] And I did scratch off the little silver circles.
    But maybe you still have your doubts. Maybe you doubt that I've really won the lottery because I'm not wearing a brand new suit this morning. I didn't drive in to on a new Harley. And I didn't offer to take you all out to Ruth's Chris like I may have suggested I'd do in a previous sermon. And maybe you doubt that I've really won the lottery because, well, it just seems too good to be true.
    Alright, enough of my game. I'll turn your doubts into faith. I was given this lottery ticket and I did win. I won $2, though I've yet to cash it in.
    You know, in a similar way that you may have had your doubts about my winning the lottery, the disciples had their doubts of Jesus resurrection. And Jesus didn't prove it beyond the shadow of a doubt. But he gave them plenty of evidence to turn their doubts into faith. And though we don't see the risen Savior standing before us, offering to let us touch his hands and feet, he gives us plenty of evidence too. He gives us the evidence of his Word. And he turns our doubts into faith. Listen to the evidence presented by the apostle John in John 20:19-31...

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." 24 Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 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." 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." 28 Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." 30 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

I. The Evidence that Jesus Lives!

     Jesus was dead. John saw it with his own eyes. The women among them witnessed it first hand. Of that fact, there was no doubt among the eleven. But now they heard conflicting news, first from the women, who said the tomb was empty, then from Mary who said she'd seen him herself. John saw the empty tomb and Peter said he too had seen the risen Jesus. 

    But it was all too much to take in! That Jesus could raise the dead, they knew. They'd seen that with their own two eyes. But could he raise himself from the dead? No one could do that! Not even Jesus! ...Could he? It all seemed too good go be true!

    Then, not long after the two disciples from Emmaus burst through the door swearing that they too had seen the living Jesus... there he was! He walked right through their locked door to show them his hands and his feet and to prove to them that he really was alive! He had risen! He had risen indeed! The ten believed!

    But Thomas wasn't around. He missed it. And he still had his doubts. For a whole week he heard the others, the ten, the women, those from Emmaus, all swear that Jesus really was alive. They had seen his hands and his feet--the identifying marks that it really was him. But he couldn't believe it. That is, not until he saw with his own eyes. "Prove it!" he insisted. And Jesus did just that. He said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."

    What condescending love Jesus had for his disciples that he would stoop to their level, to give them the proof they so stubbornly insisted upon, to grant Thomas his defiant request! 

    And what condescending love Jesus shows to you and me. No, Jesus doesn't appear to us, but he convinces us of the truth by his Word. Notice how Jesus' relationship with his disciples changed almost immediately after his resurrection. No longer would they hold on to him and see him with their eyes. From now on they would rely on the Word--the word of the women, the word of other eye witnesses, the words that Jesus had spoken to them, the Word passed on to us.

    And through the Word, we too are convinced that Jesus really is alive. After all, if the resurrection didn't happen, if it was all just made up by the disciples, why would they report that Jesus first appeared to women, to those whose witness in that Jewish culture would have been instantly dismissed? Why would they have report that they were so hard to convince? Either this was the most elaborate and detailed hoax in all of history, pulled off by a bunch of uneducated men, or it really did happen.

    The disciples didn't make up the story. They didn't write down their eager wishes born out of an excited expectation that Jesus would rise from the dead. Instead, they came to believe that he really was alive in spite of their dismay that he would not rise, in spite of their objections, in spite of their stubborn refusal to believe. 

    And in doing so, they've convinced us that's it true. Jesus lives! We can't prove it beyond all shadow of a doubt, but we don't really need to. The evidence would hold up in any court. Jesus is risen! He is risen indeed! And that truth makes all the difference in the world!

II. The Evidence of Peace with God

    So what's the big deal that Jesus lives? Well, it's not just that he lives, but how he lives. When Jesus visited the disciples he didn't come back with lightning bolts to strike the cowardly men who deserted him and abandoned him when he needed them the most. Instead, he came back with what must have been a shocking greeting to the disciples: "Peace be with you!" Even to "Doubting" Thomas he said, "Peace be with you!" And of course out of the mouth of Jesus, it's more than a kind wish, it's a fact.

    But I don't think they doubted because they were so cynical by nature. I think it was because the news was too good to be true! In next week's sermon text Luke tells us that even after he showed them his hands and his feet, "they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement." I imagine each of them thinking, "Peace? For us?! After what we've done? After the way we've deserted him?"

    "You've just won the lotto!" "Yeah, right. Read those numbers back again." "The cancer is gone! We've found no trace of it!" Uh... sure... can you just run that test again?" "Your every sin is forgiven!" Come again? Even that horrible stuff I did way back when? Even the times I've doubted Jesus? Or worse, even for the times I've been apathetic and didn't even bother to examine the evidence of the resurrection, to be prepared to give that evidence to other? I'm forgiven for the times I've backed down from the cynic because I had no idea how to respond? And then went home without bothering to find the answers to those tough questions? After all of the apathy I've given Jesus, you're telling me I'm forgiven?!"
    And even though it seems too good to be true. The living, breathing, eating, teaching Jesus, gives you the evidence that it's true. Your sins are fully forgiven! The holes in his hands and feet, the gaping wound in his side, the demonstrate how he paid for your sin: He did die on a cross. He did endure hell itself to pay for your and for every person's sin. And the resurrection is proof that God accepted his payment.
    Jesus lives, not to strike , you down, but to give you peace. Peace is with you! Peace with Peace in the face of cancer and the thought of death. Peace in the face of the death of a loved one. You have peace in every situation because you have peace with God with the certainty that every one of your sins is forgiven!

III. The Evidence is to Be Shared

    How do you have such a knowledge today? It's because someone shared it with you, isn't it? Just like the women shared ith with the disciples, like Peter and John shared the news with the other nine, like the ten shared it with Thomas, your parents, your spouse, your pastor, or a stranger who left a Bible in a hotel room, someone gave you the Word. And by that Word you believe. By that Word you have peace with God. By that Word you have life in his name. For, "these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." And not just that you may believe. But these are  meant to be shared.
    I think it a bit unfair that we've dubbed Thomas, "Doubting Thomas." We don't call Peter "Denying Peter." Or James and John, "Power Hungry James and John." We don't classify others by their sinful weaknesses. And we wouldn't people to do so of us. Thomas repented of his sin. And he, like the other disciples, soon left Jerusalem to share the Good News with others, just as Jesus had sent them to do. Tradition tells us that Thomas went to India to spread the Gospel there.
    And Thomas and the rest aren't the only ones sent by Jesus to speak of his forgiveness. You too are sent. You are sent to spread the Good News that Jesus lives! That because he died, and because he lives again, everyone can have peace with God. So spread the news, friends! Invite the neighbors over! Talk to your co-workers about your faith! Share with them the Good News, that others too may believe even though they cannot see, that they may believe the Word and be blessed with eternal life, that we might say of them the words of 1 Peter 1:8, "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with and inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls."
    Dear friends in Christ, you may  not have won the lottery, but you have something much better: Forgiveness of sins, peace with God, and the certain hope of the resurrection. "Blessed are [you] who have not seen and yet have believed." In Jesus' name, dear friends, amen.