A while ago, a young man asked me a question I could tell was weighing heavy on his heart. He told me that his father wasn’t sure if Moses actually parted the Red Sea or if there was some other more logical explanation to the Exodus. The young man was obviously upset by his father’s doubts. He asked me, “pastor, is my dad going to go to hell because he doubts what the bible says?”
I wasn’t at all surprised by the young man’s question. In fact, I am a little surprised a question like that isn’t asked more often. Every one of us here this morning is a believer, but let’s admit it, the bible says some incredible things. The book is full of miracles and wonders that defy what we call “the laws of nature”. There are things in the bible that just simply can’t be comprehended by humanity; things we don’t understand and can’t explain. Perhaps the most incredible of all those things is the thing we celebrated last Sunday, the rising of a man from the dead.
In our gospel lesson we read about a man who struggled with doubts. He did not believe his friends when they told him their Rabis, who three days earlier had been nailed to a cross and buried in a tomb, was alive and had appeared to them. The man said, “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.”[1] (If this man had a son the young man would have likely been terrified about that state of his father’s soul.). The man continued to struggle with his doubts for a while. John tells us it was only a week but if you have ever had a crisis of faith, you know how long a week can feel.
Thankfully Jesus did not abandon the man to his doubts. Jesus came to the doubting man with the very proof he had requested. “put your finger here” Jesus said to him “Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”[2] The man said, “My Lord and my God!”[3] Then Jesus said, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”[4]
I think when I have read those words in the past, I secretly felt like Jesus was saying I am a better person than a doubter like Thomas. You know what I mean? In our second lesson for this morning saint Peter, writing to “God’s elect”[5], says to you and me, “8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him.” We are the people Jesus was talking about. Unlike all the doubting Thomases of the world who demand proof of sight before they will believe, we love even though we have not seen, and we believe even though we do not see. Which is probably why Jesus said, ‘Better are we who have not seen and yet have believed.’ But that is not exactly what Jesus said. Jesus did not say we are “better”, Jesus said we are “blessed”.
The truth is we struggle with doubt as much as the next guy. We may not doubt the same thing Thomas doubted; we may not doubt the resurrection of our savior Jesus, but we doubt. We listen to scientist talk about evolution and we doubt. We read about miracles that defy explanation and we doubt. We see how timeless truths clash with our current culture and we doubt. Just like the father who is looking for a logical explanation to the parting of the Red Sea we are no better than the guy who asked to poke his finger into the nail holes in Jesus’ hand. Like it or not, we are all a bunch of doubting Tommys and Tammys.
Jesus doesn’t call us blessed because we don’t doubt. Jesus calls us blessed because we have the advantage of not seeing. We don’t typically think of the lack of sight as an advantage but hear me out. First, our eyes can easily be deceived. Magicians and mirages are two quick examples of how easy it is to deceive our eyes. One causes us to not to see things that are there the other causes us to see things that are not there. Second, our eyes can be heavily influenced by what others see. For example, what does Jesus look like: what color are his eye, his hair, how tall is He, how much does He weigh? For most of you your description of Jesus’ physical appearance is heavily influenced by the way artist depict Him in paintings. Most artists don’t depict Jesus as a short, brown eyed, curly haired, Jew, so it is unlikely that is what you imagine Jesus to look like. Finally, it is difficult for our eyes to unsee something. This is where I think Thomas was at a particular disadvantage compared to us. Thomas had spent so much time seeing Jesus as his rabis that he struggled to see Jesus as his Redeemer. I think this is what also why Jesus wasn’t honored in His hometown. The citizens of Nazareth were so used to seeing Jesus as a carpenter that they struggled to see Jesus as the Christ. I imagine even His mother Mary struggled to see the son she raised as her Savior from sin. This is why I said we have the advantage of not seeing and one of the reasons I believe Jesus calls us blessed.
We who have not seen and do not see have an advantage over a guy like Thomas. But it is not simply our lack of sight that makes us blessed. We have something Thomas didn’t have, we have the Testaments of holy Scriptures, both Old and New.
In many ways reading the record of the event is a greater blessing than being an eyewitness of the event. Don’t get me wrong, If I had the option to see the resurrected Jesus with my own eyes I would jump at the opportunity. But think of the blessings the scriptures offer us. This written record of events, like the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, can be compared and contrasted, studied and scrutinized, evaluated and examined again and again and again. We can read the Easter account in Matthew, then reread it in Mark, then reread it again in Luke, then reread it again again in John. We can then combine all those accounts and understand things from more than one perspective. We can then compare Jesus’ Easter event to other events recorded in Scripture (such as the healing of the sick, the casting out of demons, and the raising of Lazarus from the dead) to see if Jesus’ rising from the dead is in keeping with everything we know about His character. Then we can take all of that we now know about the Easter event and see if it is compatible with all 1,000-year-old prophecies of the Old Testament (like the Isaiah one that says the one who will be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities would “see the light of life”[6]). Finally, we can read explanations of the Easter event in books like Acts and 1 Peter that tell us what this all means for our sin and salvation. And as I said, we can do all of that again and again and again. It would have been awesome to be one of the woman our risen Savior appeared to outside the empty tomb or one of the disciples to whom our living Lord showed His scars, but don’t discount the blessing we have in the written record that the Holy Spirit has preserved for us. This is another advantage we have over a guy like Thomas and another reason why I believe Jesus calls us blessed.
Thomas got to see Jesus. He was invited to touch the holes where the nails had pierced Jesus’ hands and put in his hand where the spear had pierced Jesus’ side. And yet we are the ones Jesus calls blessed. Not because we don’t have our doubts. We all struggle to believe miracles and wonders that defy the “laws of nature”, we all struggle to believe things we don’t understand and can’t explain, we all struggle with doubts. But, despite our doubts, we are blessed because just as Jesus did not abandoned Thomas to his doubts Jesus does not abandon us to ours. Just as Jesus came to Thomas with the proof he needed, so also Jesus comes to us with the proof we need. He comes to us in the pages of scripture so that we who have not seen Him, love Him and we who do not see Him now, believe in Him.
I should probably tell you what I said to that young man who was worried about his father’s doubts. I told him I was glad his father admitted that he struggles to believe some of the things the bible says because it shows that he is honest and a critical thinker. When God encourages us to have the faith of a little child, God does not mean that our faith should be ignorant and uniformed. I told the young man I didn’t believe his father was going to hell because he had doubts. I told him even one of Jesus’ disciples had doubts. Then I told the young man how he might be able to help his father with his doubts. I told him to show his father how God separated the land and the sea in the book of Genesis and how Jesus calmed the wind and the waves in the book of Mark and then tell his father the same God who created and controls wind and wave can certainly part a sea.
The next day the young man’s father called me to thank me for not telling his son he was a heretic that was going to burn in hell. I repeated what I said to his son and invited him to join me for bible study so that we could talk more about his doubts. He hasn’t accepted the invitation … yet, but I don’t plan on giving up on him any more than Jesus gave up on Thomas or you or me.
We all struggle with doubts, yet we who have not seen, love Him and we who do not see Him now, believe in Him, not because we are better but because we are blessed. Amen
[1] John 20:25
[2] John 20:27
[3] John 20:28
[4] John 20:29
[5] 1 Peter 1:1
[6] Isaiah 53:11