Bible Passage: John 20:24-31
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: April 11, 2021

Bulletin April 11, 2021

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

Many years ago when I was still a Seminary student in Mequon, I found myself in a discussion with a person who did not believe that Jesus Christ is true God.   They were zealously trying to convince me that he was not God!  After bringing up parts of Scripture that clearly say Jesus is God, I brought up our text for this morning.  I asked the person what they made of Thomas’ words when he saw the risen Jesus.  Thomas says:  My Lord and my God!  It seems like such a clear confession, doesn’t it?  But do you know what the person answered?  They said, “Haven’t you ever been so surprised at something that you said, ‘My God’?”  As if Thomas spoke that way we do today!

No, Thomas’ words were not the equivalent of texting “OMG!” Thomas’ words were CONFESSION.  Indeed, they were a little creed.  A creed is a statement of what one believes.  We in the Church know all about creeds.  We know the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed.  Well, today we want to spend our time considering Thomas’ Little Easter Creed:  “My Lord and My God!”

Thomas does not at first appear in our text as a confessor.  He began as a skeptic.  A week earlier, on Easter evening, the other disciples had been locked up tight in that upper room.  They were afraid and confused.  And out of nowhere, Jesus stands in their midst, alive!  Oh, the disciples were so happy to see Jesus alive again!

For whatever reason, Thomas had not been with them Easter evening.  So the disciples were eager to tell Thomas about their night.  We have seen the Lord! (v. 24)  But here is where Thomas’ skepticism shows itself:  Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, and put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe!” (v. 25)  Thomas lays out the terms and conditions necessary to convince him Jesus was risen from the dead:  sight and touch!

Doubt can find a thousand reasons to exist.  But our text gives us a little clue why Thomas may have been such a natural to doubt news of the resurrection.  He was called the Twin (v. 24).  Thomas may have been, and had, an identical twin.  Identical twins know all about mistaken identity!  Identical twins know all about people mistaking one person for another.  Identical twins are routinely mistaken for each other.  Happens all the time!  Is it possible the other disciples were mistaken?  Is it possible they think they were tricked, fooled, faked out?  Here’s what can’t be faked:  nail holes through hands and a spear puncture in the side.  Short of that evidence, Thomas says, “Count me out!”

A week passes, and the disciples are in the room again.  This time the Twin is with them.  And then, the risen Jesus is, too!  Again the greeting, “Shalom alicha!”  Peace be with you! (v. 26)  Then Jesus turns and addresses the skeptical Twin:  Put your finger here and look at my hands.  Take your hand and put it into my side.  Do not continue to doubt, but believe.  (v. 27)  It’s interesting.  We are not told whether Thomas does what he says he had to do and what Jesus invites him to do!  Thomas said, “I’ve got to touch!”  Jesus said, “Touch!”  All we know is that Thomas’ skepticism became confession.  His doubt dissolved in the presence of the risen Jesus and became faith:  “My Lord and my God!”

What a wonderful Easter creed it was!  So short!  So packed with meaning!  My Lord.  “Lord.”    That word of humble trust and submission.  That word that acclaims the greatness of Jesus.  “You are the great I AM!”  To call Jesus “Lord” is, in the end, the ultimate acknowledgement of who Jesus is, as Paul says in Philippians:  At the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:10-11)  “My God.” Thomas’ little creed confesses the deepest mystery of the person of Christ!  “You stand as a man who was crucified, died, and was buried.  On the third day, you rose again from the dead.  Yet you are God!”  Doubt became creed!

Do you ever have doubts?   You would truly be a unique individual if you never had doubts.  To say you never have doubt is to say you have perfect faith.  Anyone here willing to raise your hand and stake that claim, “I’ve got perfect faith”?  There’s a couple things wrong with doubt.  First, to doubt is to live with what Luther called the  “monstrum incertudinis.”  That means the “monster of uncertainty.”  The worst monster of all!  To live without the certainty of God’s goodness and grace and forgiveness and heaven is to live a tortured existence.  And secondly, and more importantly, to doubt what our God has said is sin; it is to say to God, “I am not so sure you can be trusted.”

Sometimes in our doubts, we talk like Thomas.  We declare, “Here is what it will take for me to believe!”  We dictate to God our terms, what he must do to “prove” himself.  We name the “nail marks” and puncture pounds we need to see and touch in order to believe.  Shame on us!  We ought rather to listen to what John tells us in our text:  Jesus, in the presence of his disciples, did many other miraculous signs that are not written 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. (v. 30-31)  In our doubts, we need the Word of God! 

In the pages of the written Word, the risen Jesus stands in front of each one of us!  And the Jesus on the pages of our Bible is as real and certain as the one who stood before Thomas.  And listen to John carefully!  The Word puts Jesus before us not as an interesting historical figure.  Not so that we have an example of how to live decent lives.  In the written Word the risen Jesus shows his hands and side and says, “Put your finger here and look at my hands.  Take your hand and put it into my side.  Do not continue to doubt, but believe.  It does this so that we believe that Jesus is the Christ.  The Christ – the Sin-Bearer of the world.  So that we say our own little Easter creed:  “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin Mary, is MY LORD.  He has redeemed me a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sin, from death, and from the power of the devil.” (Luther’s Small Catechism, 2nd Article of the Apostles’ Creed)

And that by believing, you may have life in his name.  When you have seen the nail marks and the puncture wounds on the risen Christ in the Word of God and believe that he is your Savior, you have life.  Don’t ever look out at the world and those wild and desperate souls who engage in reckless and risky behavior to “feel alive,” to convince themselves they are not dying men, and think that they are “living the life.”  They are not.  You are.  In the risen Jesus, you have exchanged the existence of being weighed down by guilt and sin and shame and regret and fear, for the life the risen Jesus alone can give.  The life of forgiveness and peace and certainty.  Jesus was speaking about YOUR life in our text when he said:  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. (v. 29)  Yours is the blessed life!

It is through the powerful written Word that the risen Jesus stands in this room today.  It is through the powerful written Word that we too confess the precious little Easter creed that first belonged to Thomas, and now belongs to us:  My Lord and my God! 

Amen.

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