‘Life after death’ – sermon by Owen Rogers from John 20:19-31 and 1 Peter 1:3-9
We began with several items that have a function, including a torch and a calculator. We discussed how we know they actually exist and decided that:
– We can see them.
– We can touch them.
– We can watch them doing something. Someone demonstrated each item’s function.
It was a bit like this when Jesus appeared to his disciples. Find John 20:19-31 in your Bible. Read verse 19. This verse tells us that the disciples saw Jesus. Suddenly he was there, standing among them. They heard his voice as well, because he spoke to them. What was the first thing Jesus said?
Later, Thomas touched Jesus and, as a result, he believed that Jesus was alive. This story is well-known and popular. The phrase, ‘doubting Thomas’, is well-established in our vocabulary. But, I don’t think Thomas deserves the bad reputation that history has doled out to him: Thomas, the Doubter…..the unbeliever……
Why hasn’t anyone noticed that at the beginning of this text it was Jesus who immediately showed his hands and side to the disciples when he first appeared to them. No one seems to pay attention to the text. Jesus knew the disciples would be stunned, would not know what to make of this and would have questions and doubts in their minds. Wouldn’t we all? So, as soon as they saw him he set about to prove that he had come back to life. First they got the proof, “then they rejoiced.” It was only AFTER Jesus revealed the nail holes and the opening in his side that the disciples believed! So why pick on Thomas? Thomas merely wanted the same confirmation the others had received.
You see, I can readily identify with Thomas. I was born asking “who, what, when, where, and why.” And this is true of everyone with a lively mind. Frankly, I think this text has been misinterpreted through the ages. Jesus pre-empted the disciples’ confusion, willingly showing his scars to those nearest and dearest to him as a sign that he understood their desire to question. Faith, by definition is trusting in things not seen so, in spiritual matters, there’s plenty of opportunity for questions and doubts.
Do you have doubts in your life? Are there times in your life that you feel a kind of doubt that is overwhelming? Do you think it’s strange that people in church rarely talk about doubt, especially their own doubts? Oh, it’s very easy to talk about Thomas and his doubt but not so easy to talk about our own doubts. What about your doubts? What about my doubts? I firmly believe that our doubts help make us human beings. A closed mind is not a good thing. A mind that’s too open is not either. What one needs is an inquiring mind with the ability to come to a conclusion. We need the ability to ask the questions, discover and evaluate the evidence, and commit in faith to the truth.
I have to admit that I have never really doubted that God exists. However, there have been times in my life when I doubted that God really cared, that my prayers could make a difference, that God was really at my side. Thomas was courageous. His fear and doubt were honest. He may have doubted but he never gave up hope. Jesus commended Thomas for his personal confession of faith, as the reality of life after death sank in: a reality that is still very much ours. Let this lead us, too, into praise.
The Rev. Dr. Christian Brocato has this to say, “For me, one of the miracles of Christ’s resurrection is that through it all, through the ups and downs of our lives, we continue to hope. We continue to hope beyond the fears, the doubts, the stress, the anxieties of our lives because the Resurrection of Christ is the hope of eternal life made real, made manifest, made present for all to know, to understand, and to believe.
We are here today because we look for that hope to be made real, manifest and present in our lives. We are here today because God has called his people to be together as a community of faith renewed and invigorated by the celebration of Easter, the event in salvation history that takes our fears and our doubts and nails them to the Tree of Life for all eternity.
Christ is risen, truly risen, and because of that fact, we, too, can rise out of the darkness of all the things that hold us back in our lives into the marvelous light of Resurrection Joy!”
Eyes of faith
A most encouraging note, to me, is that Jesus does NOT say that those who believe without seeing are MORE blessed than those who see. When he saw, Thomas came out with the deepest response – he grasped that Jesus was God, and worshipped him. Jesus accepted the worship but he gently chided Thomas for needing the evidence rather than accepting the word of his friends. Peter picks up on what Jesus said in John 20 in his own letter. In 1 Peter 1:8 and 9 he commends his readers for believing without seeing and implies that their faith will carry them through great trials (verses 6,7).
We are in a similar position to those who received Peter’s letter – they believe without seeing and God commends them. His promises of salvation, relationship with him and of eternity will be fulfilled in us.
Financial worlds can be rocked by crises; physical worlds can be rocked by earthquakes. Life is uncertain. How different is the transitory nature of wealth (with all its potential for corruption as well as possibilities for good), compared to the inheritance we are promised as Christians (1 Peter 1:4). What God has stored up for us in heaven will never decay or be ruined or disappear. Salvation offers us life after death. It is a future inheritance that we have already gained. As Peter describes this, he pours out praise. There will be trials and struggles. Faith will be tested. But the promise of protection (verse 5), salvation (verses 5,9), and Christ’s return (verse 7) enable the followers of Jesus to persevere. Such promises impact present reality, clothing us in joy with an even greater future realisation. It’s good now but it’s going to get a whole lot better!
We finished by reading Revelation 1:18 together, preceding it with the words, ‘Jesus says…’
Jesus says, “I am the living one! I was dead, but now I am alive for ever and ever.I have authority over death and the world of the dead.”