I Will Never Believe

​2nd Sunday of Easter – A                                                       LSB #’s 465, 472 tune 461, 470:1, 4-7
Text – John 20:25b
 
But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, & place my finger into the mark of the nails, & place my hand into His side, I will never believe.”
 
I WILL NEVER BELIEVE
 
 
It’s only been seven days since we celebrated Christ’s Easter resurrection from the dead.  The lilies are still blooming & strains of the Agnus Dei may still be echoing in your mind.    Yet, throughout the world, & in our own hearts & minds, the challenge, “Did God really say…” also continues to echo across the millennia. 
Thousands of years of God’s history have not dimmed the struggle of doubt in our hearts & minds.   Those doubts may not be as broad as those of Thomas, “I will never believe,” yet each of us still has those moments when the promises of Christ seem to fall short of our expectations.  St. Peter wrote in the Epistle lesson that God the Father has:
“…caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”  (1 Peter 1:3b ESV)   However, because we are emotional creatures, corrupted by sin, that living hope often feels more dead to us than alive.  Satan is not taking time off just because Jesus rose from the dead. 
Lurking in our hearts & minds are troubling questions about life, suffering, death & destiny.   Given our sins, can we ever hope to be at peace with God in heart & mind?  Can we even pray, “Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief?” 
Thomas may not seem like a shining example, given his attitude which demanded proof before he would believe.  However, if Jesus can turn his heart, is it possible that He can turn yours & mine?  Seeing his risen Savior liberated Thomas from the despair of crushing unbelief, such that he exclaimed, “…My Lord & my God!”  (John 20:28 ESV) 
Another promise of Christ is given right in the Gospel reading, “Blessed are those who have not seen & yet have believed.”  (John 20:29b ESV)   Maybe you’ve been praying for someone, or some blessing for years, & have not seen the results you’re praying for. 
Do you feel blessed in that “not seeing”?   Jesus said you are more blessed than Thomas who saw Jesus in person.  That is, as long as you believe in Christ as your Lord & Savior.  That believing is the Holy Spirit’s gift to you.  It was the Holy Spirit’s gift to Thomas.  It is a gift that is so easy to take for granted especially because it’s nothing that we can see or touch. 
Adding to the uniqueness of the gift of faith, it is something you cannot explain to an unbeliever.  Without the Holy Spirit, they cannot understand it, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, & he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”  (2:14 ESV) 
Yahweh created each of us so that He could enjoy our company.   Faith is a gift not of our doing.  It is a gift we cannot manage or control.  Either we have faith or we don’t.  There is no middle ground.  We either belong to God or we have rejected Him.  He does not jam religion down our throats, yet He desires that we accept the gift of eternal life that He offers to us. 
Faith is unlike anything else in all of creation.  Faith is complicated & confusing, until it isn’t.   Thomas wanted facts.  He wanted evidence.  He wanted proof, until he didn’t.    One look at the risen flesh of Jesus & the unbelief of Thomas evaporated, “…My Lord & my God!”  (John 20:28 ESV)   There are times in life when faith is simple & other times when it’s complicated. 
Thomas had been tempted to work from the worldly standard for acceptance & trust.  He would only believe that which could be proven.  Then, he met the crucified & risen Son of God.  All of Thomas’ human reasoning was destroyed.   In this world, in this life, believers still struggle with unbelief.  Each & every day it attacks & tempts us to demand proof & evidence.  Our sinful & fearful nature wants to remain in control.  This incident is the 3rd time in the Gospel of John that fear is a motive.  Each time, that fear gets in the way of something positive.  It blocks positive things for us, & it blocks positive things for the people around us.  Fear is a lack of belief in God’s goodness & in His ability to protect us. 
Fear always springs from unbelief even if it’s only momentary unbelief.   Love that comes from God always drives out fear in those who believe in Him.  Fear never leaves people who refuse to trust Jesus as Lord & Savior.  For them, everything then depends upon their ability to manage life.  In the modern narrative “I” am the center of “my” universe. 
This means it is up to me to make all things right in my world.  I must justify myself, to myself, through my achievements at home, work, in the community, online, wherever.  Living as if God is not God leads people into a story that appears to be total freedom.  It’s what Satan tempted Adam & Eve with.  It’s what they were drawn to. 
Instead of freedom, it brought the death that Satan desired for Adam & Eve.  Luther did not call him the old evil foe for nothing.   The problem of freedom from God is that I cannot possibly live up to my own standards.  Being my own hero, my own god, turns my story into a tragedy.  Jesus came to be the hero of the story of all the personal stories that end well. 
Jesus overcame sin, death, & the Devil, even while we are mired in sin, buried in the ground, or daily assaulted by our ancient foe.  Yet, in order for Jesus to help us be recreated, we need to acknowledge that we need it.  Thomas was sinking into the despair of unbelief & Jesus confronted him not to embarrass Thomas, but to save him:
“Do not disbelieve, but believe.”  (John 20:27b ESV)  Yes, Jesus calls out the sin of Thomas, but we hear that Jesus effectively recreated the faith of Thomas, as Thomas responds, “…My Lord & my God!”  (John 20:28 ESV)   Thomas had been frustrated by the death of Jesus.  Though it was God’s plan, it made no sense to Thomas.  Jesus relieved all of Thomas’ frustrations by appearing to him – alive.  If all of life is about me, or about you, then there is no hope for any of us.  If we are the center of our universe, then on the day we die, the universe dies.  Obviously that’s not true because billions of people have died & the universe is still here. 
We may not appreciate being called out for our sins, nor for being called out for unbelief, but Jesus does so because He is not just our Savior, but also our Lord.  When He calls us to faith, He’s called us into His kingdom.  He is God & anyone who believes in Him belongs to Him. 
We are not our own.  If we were our lives would be miserable because all of us, even together, are powerless to save ourselves, let alone anyone else.  Jesus demonstrated His power through doing miracles, or signs as the apostle John calls them.  Jesus’ resurrection from the dead was a mind-blowing demonstration of His power to recreate life out of death. 
Throughout the Gospel of John, we are given glimpses into a variety of ways people encounter Jesus & struggle with their faith in Him.  The example of Thomas reveals that Jesus can & will reach to us even when we’re being crushed by the despair of unbelief. 
Twice in the Gospel reading Jesus says to His disciples, “Peace be with you.”    Jesus knows our struggle with unbelief & evil foe behind it.  Jesus came not to make our lives easy here on earth, but to make our lives in heaven perfect & eternal.  Until then, He is with us even to the end of the age, bringing us forgiveness, life & salvation.  Amen. 
 
 
These things did Thomas count as real: the warmth of blood, the chill of steel, the grain of wood, the heft of stone, the last frail twitch of flesh & bone.        The vision of his skeptic mind was keen enough to make him blind to any unexpected act too large for his small world of fact.       May we,  O God,  by grace believe  & thus the risen Christ receive,  whose raw imprinted palms reached out  & beckoned Thomas from his doubt.  Amen.  LSB 472:1-2, 4.