Sermon for Easter 2 
The Text: John 20:19-31 

Some of our popular sayings are really quite absurd, like “seeing is believing”. Which translated means, ‘If you see, you don’t need to believe.’  This saying is also absurd because, people have refused to affirm what they have actually seem with their own eyes. They often have vested interests for doing so. 

Remember, Jesus’ opponents had witnessed His mighty miracles and yet they refused to believe in Him. Earlier in John’s Gospel, after Jesus miraculously fed 5,000 people, Jesus said: “You have seen me and yet you do not believe (John 6:36).”  

In the Bible, believing makes seeing possible. At her brother Lazarus’s death, Jesus tells Martha, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see God’s glory (John 11:40)?” 

Faith opens our eyes to the things of God that others cannot or refuse to see. Faith involves taking a risk, the risk of commitment. Some people have never found commitment easy. There have always been those who have found faith in God a struggle, like Thomas did in today’s Gospel. When you consider all the attacks on our Christian faith in our media, it is an amazing miracle that so many people in the world, not only believe in our Lord but give visible evidence of their faith week by week. Thank God for every sign of faith you see around you.  

Thomas didn’t initially share Peter’s Easter joy. Because he was absent the first time our risen Lord appeared, when His followers were gathered together. What blessings he missed out on by being absent from the company of his fellow believers. Consider what blessings, what enrichment and strengthening of your faith you may have missed out on by absenting yourself from the fellowship of the Lord’s House on Sunday. That is why God urges us: “Some people have got out of the habit of meeting for worship, but we mustn’t do that. We should keep on encouraging each other, especially since you know that the day of the Lord’s coming is getting closer (Hebrews 10:25).”  

Thomas grieved over his Lord’s death longer than he needed to. He believed he was a realist. He had expected all along that Jesus would be crucified. When Jesus planned to visit Mary and Martha because their brother Lazarus had died, Thomas replied, “Let us also go that we may die with him (11:16).”  He didn’t lack courage. He was a loyal follower of Jesus, who wasn’t afraid to ask the questions of Jesus no one else dared ask. “Lord, we do not know where you are going”, he said. 

Thomas is the most defamed of Christ’s apostles. He has been dubbed “doubting Thomas”. We don’t refer to Peter as “Peter the denier”. There is something about Thomas. He strikes me as a suitable patron saint for our times. He wasn’t prepared to believe because others said so. He wanted a genuine faith, a firsthand experience of the risen Christ. He wasn’t going to be content with second-hand testimony.  If others had encountered the risen Christ, so must he. Thomas did not ask to hear our Lord’s voice or see His face; he wanted to see Jesus’ wounds. He was only interested in the resurrection of His wounded Saviour. The wonderful thing about the other apostles is that they did not rebuke him because of his doubts, but gently kept him informed about their Easter experience. 

Maintaining friendship and fellowship with someone plagued by doubts has won many a doubter back into a stronger, firmer faith. I have found that most doubters are dissatisfied with their doubt, and long for the joy a firm faith provides. Thomas’ lack of faith does more for us than the firm faith of his fellow apostles. Thomas doubted, so that we need not doubt. 

Jesus now comes to His followers on His Day, the Lord’s Day, Sunday. This time Thomas makes sure he is with the others. Thomas had perhaps begun to realise that the place to find an answer to doubt was not in isolation, but in the company of others with a stronger faith than his own. As Jesus has often done with others who need their faith strengthened, Jesus gives Thomas what he needed to have, a firm faith in Him. Jesus displayed His wounds which revealed the depth of His love for Thomas (and us). Thomas may have been slow to believe in Jesus’ resurrection, but at a bound, he leapt ahead of the others and was the first to come to full faith in our Lord when he said: “My Lord and My God”, he confessed. He confessed a greater faith than eyes can see. Thomas gave expression to the highest act of worship in the New Testament. The words “My Lord”.   

We remember Thomas more for his supreme confession of faith than his previous doubts. Jesus calls a faith like ours that hasn’t seen Him “blessed”. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe (John 20:29).” Our Lord commends, praises and blesses a faith that heroically continues to believe without immediate or obvious confirmation. Faith means trusting in advance what will only make sense in hindsight. Faith that makes a difference believes that our Lord is with us in all our difficulties, disappointments and doubts. 

Faith that thrives constantly feeds on God’s Word. Christians are more likely to read God’s Word for comfort and help if they believe God is with them in their difficulties and doubts. 

Regular prayer and worship help keep our faith in good shape, fit to meet life’s challenges and setbacks. Amen.   

Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.” 

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”