“21st
Century Christianity: Doubt, Trust, Faith.”
John 20: 19-31
(NRSV)
How does doubt turn into trust?
Doubt (Greek word “dia-krinō”) is wavering in the definition of, or meaning of actions
or motivations of others leading to a hesitation of choice or commitment.
Trust (Greek word “pis-teu-ō”) is best translated as “believing in or upon.”
Doubt turns into trust based on faith. Faith (Greek
word “pis-tis”) is accepting proof so
that something can be believed in and trusted. It is through faith that truth
is learned.
Cicero said, “Through doubt we arrive at the truth.”
Jesus would agree. God would agree. While it is good
to believe without doubts God knows that we humans will have doubts and require
“booster shots” from time to time. It’s just a matter of us learning to see
God’s word and truth around us.
The father of the Reformed Church, Ulrich Zwingli preached, “Everything that is true is
God’s Word, whoever may have said it.”
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!"
After he said
this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they
saw the Lord.Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me,
I am sending you."And
with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.If
you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them,
they are not forgiven."
Now Thomas
(called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus
came.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."
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!"
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."Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my
God!"Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed;
blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Jesus did many
other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded
in this book.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.
In our day and time the prevailing
question is “Did This Really Happen, is it true?”
The first thing we have to deal with
when we read the resurrection accounts in the gospels and Acts with a skeptical
eye is to decide if they really happened. After all, none of us have
encountered a resurrected person; none of us have seen any of our friends laid
out in a casket and then talked with them at Starbucks or Panera Bread a couple
of days later.
So this incident in scripture, and
others like it, leaves us scratching our heads and wondering if it is real. You
hear pastors saying it’s real but can we be trusted? Can God’s Word be trusted?
Some of us reply immediately out of
faith, that it is real, that Jesus really did rise from the grave, and that
this incident really did occur as John describes it. If that describes you, you
can skip over the rest of this sermon. But the rest of us need to do a little
more thinking about it.
There are three different approaches
to the resurrection accounts:
Theory 1: The resurrection accounts are
theological fiction. This means that the resurrection
accounts did not occur at all; they are fictitious stories invented by the
writers (or others) to make Jesus heroic despite His nasty death. In other
words, they are the product of theological pipedreams of the ancient church.
This theory was fashionable back in
the days when scholars thought the gospels were written in the second or third
centuries. Archaeology and historical records show that they were actually written
in the first century, when there was a community for whom the crucifixion and
the events over the next few days were personal memories.
It doesn’t seem very likely that
they would tolerate such outright lies about such events. The disciples were traumatized
by the crucifixion, so it is much more reasonable to assume that they at least
believed that these events occurred.
It is also likely, if the
resurrection accounts were theological fiction, that there would have been an
effort to make them all the same, to get the details straight.
In a murder mystery novel, all the
clues come together at the end to form one possible solution. Fiction is neat
and tidy, but actual reality is messy. The truthful accounts of honest
witnesses are sometimes very hard to harmonize.
The resurrection accounts aren’t
neat and tidy. They leave us wondering, for example, if the Ascension took
place in Galilee, as Matthew appears to imply, or in Judea, as Luke and Acts
seem to say. If we put them all together, it is more like a scrapbook of
assorted memories than a fictional narrative.
The resurrection accounts were
written during a time when there were witnesses who would object to a
preposterous embellishment of events, and they do not have the character of
fiction. The High Priests and Romans were still around too. Whatever the
resurrection accounts are, they are not theological fiction.
Theory 2: The resurrection accounts
are just bereavement visions that every survivor has.
Theory # 2 says that they really did
occur exactly as the gospel writers describe them, but the accounts are only
subjectively true. We know that when a person dies, especially under traumatic
circumstances, that it is common for the survivors to experience the presence
of the dead person in the days and weeks immediately following the death. This
can take the form of dreams, visions, or auditory hallucinations. So perhaps
these resurrection accounts are products of the disciples’ grief.
Many people have told me of these
types of experiences where people encounter and “see” deceased loved ones in
their homes and work places. From what I have read, and what I’ve seen these experiences
are normal and typical for a person who had witnessed a tragic death, or is
grieving.
The resurrection accounts do not fit
this pattern. There were multiple witnesses who were all wide awake at the
time, the duration of the incidents was too long, and skeptics, such as Thomas,
could see them. Thomas was not an exceptional case.
All of the disciples were skeptical
of the resurrection until they saw the Risen Jesus. It was only then were they
convinced, and the resurrection appearances did not comfort them, but rather energized
them. These were physical events.
Bereavement visions comfort the
bereaved; they do not end the bereavement, as the resurrection appearances did.
Bereavement visions certainly do not charge up a person to the degree that they
can evangelize the world and march fearlessly into death!
Whatever the resurrection accounts
are, they are not the same type of phenomena that accompany bereavement.
Theory 3: The resurrection accounts
really happened as described and can be trusted.
This theory asserts that the
resurrection accounts are objectively true. That is, if non-believers had
stumbled into the scene, they would have witnessed it also—and in fact that
happened, especially in the case of this passage.
There is no way we can prove it
definitively after all these years, but I think this is the only explanation
given the facts at hand. Not just because of the character of the resurrection
accounts themselves, but also because the accounts depict the disciples deep in
grief before the resurrection appearance and energized and emboldened after the
resurrection appearance.
They even proclaimed the
resurrection in the very city in which Jesus’ crucifixion occurred—the very
location where their claims could most easily be disproved.
It was also the most dangerous place
to make them public. It is true that early Christians were confident as they
were put to death for this belief, and it was this unwavering confidence in the
face of torture and death that made the early church grow.
Obviously, something more than a
literary fraud or a bereavement vision must have occurred. The only explanation
I can think of is that the resurrection accounts were real objective, physical events
that really occurred. I have no reservations believing that these events
happened. I have faith in the entire story of the life of Jesus.
And the best part of this is that Jesus
didn’t penalize Thomas for doubting the resurrection, and He won’t penalize you
if you have misgivings about it. You are not saved by your beliefs but by your
faith; by your reliance on Jesus Christ.
John effectively tells us that the
Bible does not contain the entire blueprints for the universe. It does not contain
the answers to all of our possible questions.
There are things that you won’t
learn by reading the Bible, like auto repair, sub-nuclear physics, tap dancing,
double-entry bookkeeping, or why there are wasps and mosquitoes. Those things
are not essential to our salvation. The Bible’s purpose is to save our souls, reveal
God’s Will and Love to us and not be used just as a proof text to hit others
over the head with.
An unknown pastor wrote, “Faith is
the capacity to trust God while not being able to make sense out of
everything.”
The Bible equips us with the desire
and ability to have faith in Jesus Christ, and for that purpose it does its
job.
D. L. Moody said, “A little faith
will bring your soul to heaven, but a lot of faith will bring heaven to your
soul.”
We can move from doubt to trust to
faith. He is Risen! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment