Try to remember the last time you told someone something and they didn’t believe you.  You knew you were telling the truth—but the person you were telling didn’t believe you.

          That’s what happened to the disciples after Jesus’ resurrection.  Remember there were twelve disciples to start with.  Then Judas betrayed Jesus, turning Jesus over to the Jewish leaders who wanted him dead.  In his remorse, Judas hung himself.  That left eleven disciples.

          The first part of our passage for today tells briefly about their encounter with Jesus.  Ten of the eleven disciples were together in a locked room when Jesus first appeared to them.  The eleventh disciple, Thomas, was not there.  In today’s passage, we will read about the disciple who has often been called “Doubting Thomas.”

          It’s significant in this story that the disciples were gathered in a room with the doors locked.  That is because they feared for their lives.  They thought that the same people who had crucified Jesus would be out to get them now, and they were very afraid. 

          At this time, they had not yet seen the risen Jesus.  Let me read the first portion of this account, from John 20:19-23.

¹⁹On 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!" ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

 ²¹Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." ²²And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

          This is a rather complex little passage, and it’s difficult to interpret the exact meaning of Jesus’ actions and words here.  It doesn’t tell us how Jesus got into the locked room, but it strongly implies that Jesus did not knock at the door.  He was just suddenly there in the room with them, and presumably the doors were still locked.

          He greeted them with a blessing, “Peace be with you.”  I think he really meant “Peace be with you.”  He knew how frightened they were.  He wanted to bring peace to these frightened, troubled disciples after all they had been through in the past few days.  And of course, the disciples were overjoyed to see him.  That is probably a major understatement.  Remember that they knew Jesus had died a horrible death on the cross, and his body had been placed in a tomb.  Then the women had told them about the empty tomb and the grave clothes and the appearance of the angels.  But they must have been terribly confused.  They really did not know what to make of what was happening. 

          Now, Jesus appears among them.  He shows them his hands and his side.  The author assumes we know why Jesus shows his hands and his side—there are deep wounds where the nails pierced his hands, and there is another large wound in his side, where the sword pierced him.

          In John 19, the account of the crucifixion tells us that when Jesus was crucified, it was the day before the Sabbath.  Because of the Sabbath, the Jews didn’t want the bodies to be left on the crosses.  So they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.  But when the soldiers came to Jesus, they found that he was already dead, so they did not break his legs.  Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water from his side.

          Now, Jesus shows them his wounds so they will truly understand that he is really real and they are really seeing the risen Jesus, and not some sort of apparition.

          Again he says to them, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."  Jesus gives them this commission.  Now that he has risen, they are not to go back to their old lives, but they are to go and tell the people about Jesus. 

          This might sound sort of simple to us, but remember that right now, they are badly shaken, and are huddled together in a locked room.  They are much too frightened to tell people about the risen Jesus—they are hiding behind locked doors.  Then, it says Jesus “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.’” 

          Fifty days later, on the day of Pentecost, there will be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

          I am going to confess that until rather recently, I had it in my head that the Holy Spirit was created on the day of Pentecost.  I had never really thought it over very carefully, and I just assumed that before Pentecost, there was no Holy Spirit.

          That is absolutely wrong. And let me say here that it is a wonderful thing to continue to question our assumptions and be willing to see things in a new way.  Some of you, like me, grew up in the church—attending Sunday School, youth group, and hearing what must add up to many thousands of sermons.  If you are like me, you might think you pretty much have the Bible all figured out and there’s not much left for you to learn.  Let me challenge you to get back into reading the Bible, and reading it more carefully.  You will discover, as I have, that there is so much more to learn.  There is a wealth in the Bible that is endless, and none of us will ever know everything there is to know.  If you’re not already doing it, get that Bible out and start reading it.  But back to our story.

          I had always assumed the Holy Spirit entered the picture at Pentecost.  However, there are many indications of the Holy Spirit throughout the scriptures that come before Pentecost—this is just one of them.  Pentecost was a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but by no means the first time the Holy Spirit was active in the world.

          So Jesus breathed on the disciples, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  I think one thing we might take from this is that the Holy Spirit seems to be given at different times for specific reasons. 

          Right then, on that day when the disciples are so frightened and still very confused, Jesus breathes on them the Holy Spirit.  There will still be another day when the Holy Spirit is poured out on them in a very spectacular way—that is the day of Pentecost.  But at this time, they are receiving orders from Jesus.

          The next line is a little bit puzzling.  Jesus tells them, “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”  We Protestants don’t quite know what to make of this.  The Catholics understand this to mean that spiritual leaders—popes, bishops, priests—have the power to grant forgiveness of sins as well as to decide when someone should not be forgiven.  From what it says here, they seem to be on to something.

          However, Protestants have “protested” that God alone, through Jesus Christ, has the power to forgive sins, and we do not need any human mediator between us and God.  I can’t solve this disagreement here and now.  But let me say that I think we need to approach differences of interpretation with great humility.  Humility says we might even be wrong!

          It is possible that Jesus meant this only for the disciples, and it was not meant for all believers who would follow.  Or maybe the Catholics are right, and we should be having formal confession of sins.

          My interpretation of this is that Jesus does call us to work with God to bring forgiveness to one another.  Sometimes I think we discount our ability to bring healing and forgiveness to those who are hurting.  If we speak words of forgiveness to one another, I believe God hears our words and honors them.

          Particularly when a person struggles with guilt that just does not seem to go away, we can speak God’s forgiveness to that person, and our words of forgiveness may be a very important part of God’s healing in their life.

           Jesus also says, “if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”  This part of what Jesus says is particularly troubling.  The way I would explain this is that our words of unforgiveness can also have great impact on another person.  If we refuse to forgive someone, we can, in effect, damn that person to living a life of guilt.

          Do you know someone who is living with guilt?  Is there someone who needs to know that you forgive him or her, and so does God?  I believe what Jesus is saying here is that this is important, and you can have the ministry of bringing forgiveness to someone who needs it.      

          I want you to understand that my interpretation of this scripture is not the final word.  I would welcome your input on this as well.  Read this passage again, pray about it, and let me know what you think.

          The second part of this passage is more familiar, and it focuses on the story of the man we often refer to as “Doubting Thomas.”  Some people are pretty hard on Thomas because of his doubting, but I really like Thomas.  He seems so real to me.  He is a person who thinks for himself and holds his ground.  Thomas was not present when Jesus appeared to the disciples the first time.  We have no idea why he was not there, but now he is there.  And for those of you who will wonder, in this bilingual world they lived in, Thomas was his Aramaic name and Didymus was his Greek name, and in English, both names mean “twin.”

 ²⁴Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. ²⁵So 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."

 ²⁶A 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!" ²⁷Then 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."

 ²⁸Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

 ²⁹Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

 ³⁰Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. ³¹But 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.

          This second appearance Jesus makes to the disciples is a beautiful story of Jesus’ great kindness to one who doubts.  Jesus knows what has been going on in Thomas’ mind and heart.  Thomas must be a tortured person, because he simply cannot bring himself to believe what the others have told him.  Ghost stories are nothing new—they had them back then, too.  So Thomas probably thinks his fellow disciples, in their fear and in their confused mental state have had some sort of experience with a ghost.  

          I like Thomas because he is a person of integrity.  He is not going to just believe their story without knowing for sure it is the truth.  He wants to know in his own mind that Jesus has really risen.  He tells the other disciples, "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 Jesus comes to Thomas, just as he came to the others.  Even though Jesus came to them a week earlier and spoke peace to their troubled hearts, they are still meeting behind locked doors.  But this time, Thomas is with them.

          Once again, Jesus came and stood among them, without bothering to knock or use the door.  Suddenly, he was simply there with them.  And Jesus speaks directly to Thomas.

          Jesus says to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."

          And Thomas said to Jesus, "My Lord and my God!"  Can you just imagine how Thomas feels?  Jesus has come to him and shown his wounded, risen body to Thomas.  And Thomas can only respond in worshipful awe:  “My Lord and my God!”

          The risen Lord is not an apparition; not a ghost; not a figment of the disciples’ imaginations.  The risen Lord is Jesus, and he shows he wounds to Thomas and to the rest of the disciples and to us.

          Jesus, in his death on the cross, demonstrates to us a God who loves us so much that he became a vulnerable human, willing to suffer and to die so that we might know the presence of God in our lives.

          After Thomas put his hands on Jesus’ wounds Jesus said, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  These words reach all the way down the centuries to us.  We are the ones who have not seen Jesus, but have believed in him.  We are the ones Jesus called blessed.

          John, as he is writing this book, hopes that all who read his account of Jesus will also believe.  So he says, “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.”

Prayer:

Jesus, we are truly humbled by your gift of love for us on the cross.  You are amazing almost beyond our ability to comprehend.  Your love absolutely confounds us.  It’s mind-boggling for us to imagine the pain you suffered on our behalf on the cross.  All we can do is say thank you.  Thank you for your wounds that Thomas touched.  Thank you for inviting Thomas and us to stop doubting and believe in you.  Lord, we acknowledge that you are the Christ, the Son of God.  We are so grateful that by believing, we can have life in Jesus’ name.

Amen