“Touching Wounds, Finding Faith”
John 20:19-31
I Peter 1:3-9
PAUMC
03/30/08
Coming to that moment of faith, where we KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is real, can be so easy and simple, but yet so difficult. This is what we see in Thomas, the disciple who needed to see the risen Jesus before he believed.
A staunch atheist died a number of years ago. He strongly defended his atheism amidst his friend’s attempts to get him to believe in God and in Christ. After he died, his friends asked his wife why he resisted so much in believing in God. She said, “You are right, he did not want to believe. He wanted to KNOW.” His friends had spent so much time arguing about belief that they forgot that ultimately faith in Christ is not about ascribing to a specific belief, but it is about an experience with the risen Christ where we KNOW at the core of our being this living reality of Christ.
Subscribing to a specific belief didn’t do it for Thomas either. He had to experience Christ in order to KNOW this reality that the other disciples had experienced.
Thomas wasn’t the only one that was skeptical about the claims that Jesus had risen. His reputation over the centuries has given him a bum rap, I think. We’ve called him “doubting Thomas” over the years. But when you read the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection, Thomas wasn’t the only one who met the news of the risen Christ with skepticism. Skepticism was how all of the other disciples reacted as well when they first got the news.
When Mary and the other women went to the tomb that Waster morning they didn’t expect to see anything but a dead body. Nobody anticipated this story would turn out the way it did. This Jesus whom they loved was dead. When the women who discovered the empty tomb went back to tell the other disciples, they were met with unbelief. “It seemed to them an idle tale and they did not believe,” the Gospel of Luke says.
In the Gospel of John, Mary didn’t believe until Jesus said her name, “Mary.” She saw him, but didn’t recognize him. When he said her name, she KNEW it was him.
No one could bring themself to believe at first. They were intrigued, but not convinced. Curious, but not persuaded. It was not until they recognized Jesus standing in their midst that they realized He was risen indeed. They had to experience Jesus’ presence. Then they understood that when Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.”
Thomas response to the news of the risen Christ was really no different than any of the others. He had to experience the living Christ, not just hear about him, before he could KNOW. It’s the same way with us. I suspect that it wasn’t the nail pierced hands that made Thomas believe, but Jesus’ presence, his voice calling his name.
I’m glad that the Bible mentions the initial fear and unbelief of these people. It makes them seem so human and real – not so different from us. If the risen Christ transformed them, then the same is possible for us. More than that, It’s good to be reminded that the power and love of God are not thwarted by shaky beliefs or low expectations.
Faith in Christ is not about ascribing to a correct doctrine or set of beliefs. It’s about an encounter with the risen Christ. It’s not about proving God’s existence or proving the claims of the Bible are true. It’s about KNOWING.
John Wesley, in all of his struggles to have faith, learned this loud and clear. In all of his efforts to become holy, he doubted his own faith, even to the point of thinking he shouldn’t preach any more till he had faith. A wise Moravian friend said to him, “Preach faith till you have faith. Then preach faith.” So that’s what Wesley did. He later had an experience where he KNEW God’s presence; that famous Aldersgate experience where he said his heart was strangely warmed.
A while back I heard a tape of a man who is a recovering alcoholic. He was going through the Big Book and explaining the 12 steps. He said that when he started in AA to work the steps he was a fanatical atheist. Didn’t believe in God. He would try to convert others to his atheism, sending Jehovah’s Witnesses running from his doorsteps. So the step about tuning you life over to a higher power was a tough one for him. He couldn’t bring himself to believe that a higher power existed. He had even gotten to a point where he actually wanted to believe but couldn’t. But he was committed to working the 12 steps anyway. His alcoholism had made his life a living hell and he was desperate for a way out of this hell. So he translated that step into service for others.
He finally came to believe when there were things changing in his life that he couldn’t explain away. He finally realized that one had to experience God, one had to KNOW the presence of God in order to have faith.
Unlike the other disciples who simply see Jesus, Thomas longs to come close, to embrace, to touch. He boldly asks for what he needs. Maybe he knows that once he comes close, he will never be the same. Maybe he knows that if he touches the wounds of crucifixion, he also touches the power of resurrection.
And so, Thomas challenges us to touch the wounds of Christ; to put our fingers in the mark of the nails that crucify people daily and put our hands in the broken and wounded sides of human pain and suffering. Resurrection life is real and tangible, and it promises to change us forever. Jesus does not condemn Thomas for his request but gives him the strength he needs to face resurrection.
It takes courage to face resurrection, because in doing so, we first have to face the crucifixions of life, the pain and struggle that seek to destroy. But as we dare to touch these very real wounds of crucifixion in our world, which are the wounds of Christ, we also touch the power of resurrection, this life force we call compassion. As we dare to touch the wounds of the world, as seen in the faces of individuals we meet, it is compassion that compels us to get involved and take action. It is the resurrection power of compassion that moves us beyond ourselves to work towards alleviating the pain of each other.
This is the force behind social justice movements. Many of us have experienced touching the wounds of Christ as we have engaged in the outreach of this church, and it is the resurrection power of compassion that drives us to respond. Many of us have touched the wounds of Christ in the face of people experiencing devastating effects of bigotry due to race, gender, sexual orientation or disability. Many of us bear the wounds of Christ because we’ve been on the receiving end of this bigotry. And it has been these wounds, our own and others, that move us with compassion to respond.
I see the resurrection power of compassion in the civil rights movement, the disability rights movement, in the Reconciling Ministries Network within the UMC, and all other movements that work to end oppression.
What one of us has not touched the wounds of Christ as we reach out to a friend who has just received bad news of a devastating illness or a tragic death; or have provided safe shelter for a friend fleeing an abusive relationship; or have been the listening ear for someone trying to make sense of their own woundedness.
It takes courage to touch the wounds of Christ in this world. It means letting go of some comforts, overcoming the fear of risk. And I think one of the biggest barriers that keeps us from risking are the wounds we have inside of us. The pain and woundedness inside us can numb us into playing it safe. Touching the pain of others means allowing their pain to touch ours and that can be scary. As a pastor for over two decades I am continually confronted with the hidden pain of others. I’m often overwhelmed at how people keep the secret pains of their lives buried so deep that no one can touch it, including themselves. It is easy to deny pain. But the pain and woundedness within each of us are also the wounds of Christ, and as we touch these wounds, we touch the wounds of Christ and the resurrection power of compassion in us and for us.
And so, like Thomas, Jesus invites us to come close. Even in the midst of our doubts he invites us with love, invites us to touch, to experience, and to KNOW the power of resurrection in our own lives.
Christ is risen! Can you believe it? Do you KNOW it? If not, the KNOWING will come as you dare Christ to be present in your life.