Sunday 24th April 2022 John 20:19-end

The end of today’s gospel excitingly tells us the purpose of this account: ‘Now these things 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.’

So many things happened when Jesus was in the disciples’ presence and we don’t know about most of them. We only see a small part. We wonder and imagine what else could have happened - we may even yearn to know. But what we have is the gospel, and we know these words were carefully, and prayerfully selected for us - and for the purpose that we might come to believe.

This is why I think that this part about Thomas is included to be such an encouragement to us and to help us shape how we might approach faith.

Sadly ‘doubting Thomas’ has come to have negative connotations. As if somehow the other disciples were more worthy for believing instantly. Do we even know that they did believe instantly? Thomas hadn’t been there the previous occasion and he wasn’t simply prepared to take their word for what had happened. I think at this point it is good to remember how massive this whole thing is. We are talking about a person who had died - and they definitely knew he was dead - by the Romans - publicly - COMING BACK TO LIFE AND WALKING THROUGH WALLS. Let’s not for a second start to think this is normal.

Thomas was real - he was honest. He was being realistic - a pessimist maybe - but he was being entirely human in this circumstance.

When we are encouraged to have childlike faith - that is not the same as blind faith. I understand that to mean to have open hearts like children and be ready to embrace things bigger than themselves, full of wonder and joy, not held back by fear. But children do not blindly accept things - you will know this if you have ever spent any time around a ‘questioning child’. I refer to the ‘why’ phase.

What Jesus said to Thomas at the end was not necessarily a rebuke, but an encouragement to us. How much more blessed are those who will come after you? This is an encouragement to us - this passage is written so that we might believe - so that we might be blessed!

But is certainty on our part the right response? Is that how we should respond to God? Is certainty healthy?

The notion of faith in the West can sometimes be more of a rational mental belief rather than a calm and hopeful trust that God is inherent in all things, and that this whole thing is going somewhere good.

I do not believe that doubt is the opposite of faith. But rather, as philosophers have suggested, it is certainty that is the opposite.

Many people of great faith have struggled with doubt - (if not all!). After Mother Theresa’s death, it emerged from letters to her spiritual director that she had experienced many years of doubt: she wrote ‘Darkness is such that I really do not see — neither with my mind nor with my reason. — The place of God in my soul is blank. — There is no God in me.”

It seems that a movement from certainty to doubt and then doubt to acceptance is necessary. Acceptance of the mystery of life and the mystery of God. Can we find peace without knowing all the answers? Does having answers give us an illusion of control and power?

Perhaps it is surrendering our need to be certain that we truly surrender ourselves to God. To trust him.

When we were on our Youth Alpha camp, we played team games that involved guiding your blindfolded teammate with your voice. It was hard! The person who was blindfolded could easily have found their way through a basic looping obstacle course on their own, but the aim of the game was that the teammate guided you. The blindfolded person had to resist the urge to take the blindfold off - they had to follow the voice of another. It was awkward and challenging! It was a great experience in surrendering control.

Doubt leaves us vulnerable. Certainty creates a false pride. I don’t know if Jesus had doubts, but I know that Jesus was so incredibly vulnerable. This is not a comfortable place to be. And I think as humans we often go to the greatest lengths to avoid being vulnerable - to protect ourselves and our families, as well as our possessions, jobs, reputations and so on. But this is only ever a thin covering. We are turning away from reality and convincing ourselves that we can find certainty and answers and that these will save us. Consider the role that science played in how society responded to the pandemic. People became frustrated because they wanted concrete facts. Sometimes this is just not possible. But even if we could, those answers cannot save us. This is not how Jesus lived.

In Acts 5:27-32 we read that God has given the Holy Spirit to those who obey him (v32) To those people who ‘Submit to God as their ruler’ This is about putting God first, in your heart,

When Paul says ‘we must obey God rather than any human authority’ (v 29) He is showing that God is above humans in their hearts.

It is hard to do this, but this is what faith is. Trusting God above ourselves.

The word repentance comes from the greek

Repentance - greek metazoan To change your mind? To reverse a decision

Meta = higher beyond. Could also be change/alter

It means to change your thinking, to think higher and beyond. Our translation can feel a bit limiting when we think of repenting as turning around on a certain behaviour. This is more than that; this is about changing our way of thinking and going beyond the smallness of our current situations. God is so much bigger. But it takes faith to do this.

To hold the full mystery of life, is also to hold the mystery of death.

It seems that we are living through a Mental Health crisis right now. In all age groups, the instances of MH are higher than ever. We can be gripped by fear and anxiety when we have to sit with uncertainty. We have lost the art of resting in the unknown. The wonder and mystery of God can never be fully known.

We are all parts that make up the whole - We need courage and faith to listen to each other’s questions. We reflect God as a collective, not as individuals. The parts of God that one person has seen and experienced are slightly different to those of another. The gifts we have, the insights, the traits and parts that define us, everyone is a little different and each time we get to another person we can learn a bit more about God. As individuals, we can never comprehend the whole of God.

It is an illusion that we can know all things, we never can. The idea that we can know and control so much leads to false expectations and leaves a baron space for creativity and growth. I am sure this cannot be helping our mental health crisis.

Knowledge is not the cure to anxiety - but being loved in the uncertainty, in the doubt. Being accepted as we are.

What we have is the assurance that we are always loved. That is a certainty that we do have.

I love the bravery and honesty of Thomas’ questions. Thomas's doubt drew him closer to Jesus. It didn’t keep him from his friends and it didn’t reduce his faith.

When the object of our faith becomes laws, ideas and statements we have missed the point. The object of our faith - is a person.

There is an answer to every question we have. His name is Jesus. Our faith is that God is on our side. God overcame, he breaks the chains.