April 23 2006 Lectionary Reading
John Powell tells of how he began as a novice in the
Jesuits. “It was terrible. We knelt on wooden blocks for three hours a day--we
all had housemaid's knees ! One day I was walking along
in my long black cassock, and I thought, What if there is no God? I went up to
the novice's chapel, a small little chapel on the third floor of our novitiate,
and I prayed, "This is mayday. This is mayday. O God, help me, if you're
there." And nothing happened.
So
I went down to the larger chapel, the community chapel--I thought I'd get
better service there--and I said, "O God, please help me!" And
nothing again; nothing happened. For
four months……..
I
had to experience four months of hollowing out, the emptiness in being far from
God the emptiness brought about by my doubts.
Then,
one night in the spring of that year God touched me. I was walking along the
corridor in the building set aside for novices, and just before our night
prayer I felt filled with the presence of God,. It was like being alone in a
room and suddenly feeling a hand against your face. everything
changed because God touched me, and suddenly nothing was the same.
When I read that sometimes doubt eats
away old forms of faith, so that new and deeper ones can be born in us--I truly
believe it".
I
wonder if that describes the experience of Thomas in meeting Jesus
?
Doubt
– and then ‘everything changed because God touched
me, and suddenly nothing was the same.’
Words can scarely describe the events on the
evening of that first day of the week.
The disciples are gathered in the upper room, with the doors locked for
fear of a raid by the city guard sent by the Jewish authorities. The darkness
lies heavy over the city, darker still in the upper room.
And then, the gospel tells us, Jesus appeared among
them........He spoke peace to them, He showed them the marks on hands and in
His side………
Jesus the crucified stands among them..........now
risen.
the fears, and the sorrows of past days are over;
the tears and the anguish are past……..
for Jesus the crucified stands among them..........now risen
He is there before them, in perfect peace, in
sublime calm, and invincible strength.
Now that upper room, where the door is locked out
of fear, is a place of joy.
Why ? Because the risen Lord is there.
And His perfect peace, sublime calm, and invincible
strength, his victory over death is also theirs.
And when the moment is dark, and we find ourselves
locked in a situation, darkness looms. There to, Christ, comes in grace, and
perfect peace, sublime calm, and invincible strength, His victory all these are
ours also.
Now he is with them again, Jesus who was crucified,
full of grace and truth, love, and power.
Here is Jesus Christ crucified, and risen. And they
are filled with joy.
Now
we read……… 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."
That’s Thomas’s reaction
We spent some time last Sunday considering the
first reactions of those who had known Him, when they find the tomb empty, those who
heard that He was risen.
Mark records something of their reaction – When the
women Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome to the garden, They find the stone rolled back, and a young
man sitting who tells them that Jesus is no longer there – that they will meet
Him in Galilee. We read that they shook with fear,
they were bewildered, and overwhelmed. What has happened, and what the young
man has said to them – is at that moment incomprehensible. Its
beyond their grasp.
Now, we see a different reaction from Thomas –
doubt, disbelief, unbelief
"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."
doubt, disbelief, unbelief.
Why ? something
unique has happened
this is his reaction to
the incomprehensible ….. the mystery……
A unique thing has taken place and Thomas
struggles to grasp it.
But scientists struggle to understand the
beginning of the universe, because it happens only once. A
single time. That out of the
nothingness, that was
there before suddenly a particle the size of a grain of sand appears – and
explodes into the universe, measureless, magnificent, mysterious that we
know. In those first few moments at the
beginning, scientists are confronted with creation - a happening that is on the very edge
of our understanding, almost beyond comprehension…..a single event, a single
happening. And there is nothing else to compare it with. Scientists call this
‘a singularity’.
Is this perhaps a way of describing what we
witness in the resurrection of Jesus, a singularity ? A single event, a single happening, a unique
event, on the very edge of our understanding, almost beyond comprehension, in
which we see God’s power, that same power that created the universe – we see in
the resurrection of Jesus ? The resurrection of Jesus,
you see, is on a scale, far greater, deeper, than we might have ever thought or
imagined.
Small
wonder that Thomas cannot grasp, and is unable or unwilling to believe…………. it
is just too great for him to comprehend. "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."
Then,
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!" 27 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." 28 Thomas said to him, "My Lord and
my God!"
There
are several important things here. The first is this. When
Thomas says, "My Lord and my
God!" He is saying this to Jesus.
For
Jesus Himself has met with Thomas……….
the other disciples haven’t argued Thomas into believing, or convinced him
to accept anything………..
No – Thomas meets with Jesus Himself. Jesus who is
Himself the way, the truth, and the life
Jesus who knows Thomas and those doubts and the
nagging disbelief in Thomas’s heart and still invites Thomas to trust Him…………..
Isn’t this the heart of the matter
? that faith, our faith, Christian faith has at
its heart the living, risen Jesus Christ,
who knows us, our doubts our disbelief but yet, invites us to put our trust in Him…………..
Paul puts it like this in Romans 5. we have life through this one man, Jesus
Christ everything of God is found in Jesus Christ, all the
richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge................
He knows us - our doubts and unbelief and invites
us to put our trust in Him………….. and puts in the place of doubt, trust; in the place of
unbelief – faith.
and all the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge................
The
second thing is this - John’s gospel tells us that Jesus
twice showed the wounds in His hands and side:
first to the disciples and now Thomas - He said to Thomas,
"Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it
into my side."
This, and there is no doubt about it - then is
Jesus Christ who was crucified.
He shows the disciples, and then Thomas His hands
and side,
It is important to understand - here - is the One then, who was Crucified……..
He shows the wounds in his hands and side,
At the end of the First World War, the poet, Edward
Shillito wrote a poem called Jesus of the
Scars………. about the experience of pain, and suffering that stayed with
those who had been severely wounded. For Edward Shillito ,
the scars, the marks on Jesus’ body took on new significance……… he wrote………….
The heavens frighten us; they are too calm;
In all the universe we have no place.
Our wounds are hurting us; where is the balm ?
Lord Jesus, by Thy Scars we claim Thy grace……..
If when the doors are shut, Thou drawest near,
Only reveal those hands, that side of Thine;
We know today what wounds are, have no fear,
Show us Thy Scars, we know they are a sign.
Edward Shillito, writing in poetry of the marks, of
the pain and suffering of Jesus, that he knew himself. Show us Thy scars, we know they are a sign.
A sign of what ?
Well, when we look at the wounds in His hands and
His side, we see something of the reality of the world we live in, its
injustice, its violence, its rejection, its callousness,
all of this is marked upon His body. His hands and His side carry the marks of
the nails, the wounds of the cross, the mark of this world. And so those wounds
show what this world is like, what we are like, who have done this to God’s
only Son, the beloved.
But when we look at the wounds in His hands and His
side when we look at the marks of the nails, the wounds of the cross, His hands and in
His side we also see the price He paid for us, in offering Himself for us, for
our life and salvation.
But yet Jesus is One who is changed, the
inconceivable power of God’s Holy Spirit has transformed him:
he has entered a new stage of being
He is present in the upper room with the marks on
hands and in His side,
but His is now the power………..
Paul puts it like this - sown in weakness as Paul says, Jesus
is raised in power
As a human being, Jesus, has been changed, His is a spiritual
body,
This is why Jesus gently asks Mary Magdalene not to
cling on to him..........
appears through closed doors in
As Paul puts it……… when we look upon Christ as the
disciples did that night,
we see how our own weak, failing sinful life will be transformed:
And we see in Him what you and I will be like
when God raises us from the dead
............the promise of the New Testament is
that we shall be like Jesus.................
that He is the first to rise (Acts 26), that He is the firstfruits, then
when He comes those who belong to Him. So will it be with the resurrection of
the dead. Says Paul in 1 Corinthians: The
body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised
in glory; it is
sown in weakness, it is raised in power; so shall we bear the likeness of
the man from heaven.
that new life, which we see in Jesus Christ, will be ours
also.............................
Praise be to the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ! In his great
mercy he has given us new birth into a
living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead.
AMEN.