Prayer: Come Holy Spirit, come.  Take my lips and speak with them.  Take our minds and think with them.  Take our hearts and set them in fire with love for you.  In Christ’s name, we ask it.  Amen.

There is a story that I like to tell about a man who for fifty-one years was blind.  He couldn’t see a thing.  His world was a pitch-black hall of sounds and smells.  He felt his way through five decades of darkness…And then He could see…A skilled surgeon performed a complicated operation and, for the first time, he had sight.  He found it overwhelming.  “I would never have dreamed that yellow is so …yellow,” he exclaimed.  “I don’t have the words.  I am so amazed by yellow.  But, red that is my favorite color.  I just can’t believe red.  I can see the shape of the moon—and I like nothing better than seeing a jet plane flying across the sky leaving a vapor trail.  And of course, there are sunrises and sunsets.  And at night, I look at the stars in the sky and the flashing light in the heavens.  You could never know how wonderful everything is.”

He’s right you know.  Everything we see is wonderful.  And, those of us who have not spent a lifetime blind can’t imagine how wonderful it must be to receive sight.  Nonetheless, this man is not the only person to spend a lifetime in the midst of something wonderful without really seeing it.  There are very few people who have not at one point or another suffered from some sort of blindness.  A person can witness thousands of sunsets and not appreciate the power and beauty of one.  A person can spend a lifetime in the Rockies and never recognize the majesty of the mountains.  A man can spend dozens of years in a relationship with a woman and never take the time, even a moment, to look into her heart.  A person can live a moral and religious life, seeking to do as much good as possible, and not ever really see or know Jesus our Lord and our God.

I wonder have you ever seen Jesus?  Not an image that comes from a book or an icon or a painting.  And not an image of what others—your friends, families, schools, or churches—have told you, but your own experience of Jesus.  Are you an eyewitness of His majesty?  Have you been touched somewhere inside by a sermon or a song or a verse or a scene or an act of love that offered you a glimpse into a Divine window…and just like that…there he is…Jesus.

In our Gospel lesson today, we hear Thomas’ story of seeing Jesus after He is raised from the dead.  Now, as you know, Thomas has become a cliché in our world for those of us who refuse to have faith in any number of things including God, “a doubting Thomas.”  I want to suggest that perhaps this characterization of Thomas as the doubter is not entirely fair or for that matter altogether biblical.  In fact, Thomas and his confession that Jesus is Lord and God can be an encouraging example for those of us who seek to see and know Jesus in our own lives.  After all who here can honestly say they have never doubted God or never questioned their faith?  We all have a little Thomas in us and perhaps that’s a good thing.

Now three days before today’s Gospel lesson begins, Jesus, as you know, is crucified, dies, and is buried on a Friday.  And remembering further back just five days before the cross of Good Friday, Jesus entered Jerusalem behind the cheers of the masses—which we celebrated with our joyful procession on Palm Sunday—two weeks ago.  The people of Israel hoped that this, Jesus, who worked wonders in the name of God was going to usher in a new age.  In this new age, Jesus would restore Israel to its former prominence on the geo-political stage.  Jesus would throw off the yoke of Roman oppression, and establish Israel as a realm of justice and peace, a sanctuary of solace in an otherwise broken and pain filled world.  The disciples, who new Jesus better than anyone else, thought Jesus would enter Jerusalem to be lifted high upon a throne from where he would rule the world with power and might.  However, as we well know, instead of being lifted high upon a throne, Jesus was lifted high upon a cross only to die a traitor’s death of the most excruciating sort. 

Now back to today’s Gospel lesson which takes place on the first Easter Sunday.  It is evening, and the disciples are gathered together confused and scared.  They are blinded by their fear and grief.  They cannot see or make sense of the world around them.  Not only have they lost a leader in whom they had placed incredible hope for the nation of Israel, they lost a personal, intimate friend and loved one.  Moreover because of their close association with Jesus, a executed traitor of the state, their very own lives are now threatened.  And, what’s worse Jesus’ body has apparently been taken.  Peter and John saw the empty tomb with their own eyes.  In addition, Jesus’ dear friend Mary Magdalene has brought them strange and upsetting news claiming that she has seen Jesus and he’s alive, but how?  Then suddenly that night, the first Easter night, Jesus appears in their midst.  Knowing their fear and confusion Jesus immediately passes them the peace, “Peace be with you.”  And he offers them his body to touch and to see.  Ghosts, after all, do not have flesh and blood.  The disciples are overjoyed at the appearance of the risen Lord.  That is all but one, Thomas, he is not with his fellow disciples.

Now when Thomas returns, the disciples tell him that they have seen the Risen Lord.  And as we know, Thomas infamously refuses to believe.  He like the others is overwhelmed with the events that have unfolded over the past week.  He like the others is now full of profound grief and fearing for his own life.  This seemingly good news is simply too much to take.  The story must have seemed like some kind of sick joke or mass delusion.  Thomas is full of questions and doubts, so he declares, “Unless I see the marks of the nails in his hands…I will not believe.”  Honestly…would you have done or felt any differently?  I can’t say honestly that I would have.

A misconception that many Christians fall prey to is that questioning or doubting is the opposite of faith.  It is not.  Fear is the opposite of faith.  Fear blinds people from truth; faith frees people to see the truth.  How do you convince a large number of people to participate in a mass suicide, which has happened many times in many places, like Waco in 1994?  How does a charismatic leader convince a significant part of a nation to participate in genocide something that has also happened over and over again in history?  In large part, Fear is the answer.  Once people are griped by fear, they are blinded.  They will stop asking if their actions are right or wrong.  They will stop searching for the truth.  Questioning and doubting are not the opposite of faith.  Instead, our questions are the route by which our eyes are opened to the possibility of faith, not our parent’s faith, or our friends’, or our schools’, or even our church’s, but our own faith. 

I want us to pay particular attention to the way that Jesus responds to Thomas’ doubts and declarations.  You see to me, it would make complete sense if Jesus had chosen not to reappear when Thomas was present.  After all, Thomas had spent the last three years with Jesus watching him heal the sick, cast out demons, and work all manner of miracles.  Jesus had even point blank told Thomas and the others that this would all happen just as it did—including his resurrection—and still Thomas refuses to believe.  Nonetheless, as justifieable as it might be in our minds, Jesus does not disown Thomas.  Instead, one week after Jesus’ first appearance to the rest of the disciples, he appears a second time in their midst and this time Thomas is present.  Once again he passes them the peace, “Peace be with you.”  And, once again, this time to Thomas, he offers his body to see and touch.  But it isn’t necessary.  The blind man Thomas now sees.  His doubts and fears are relieved.  Thomas confesses, “My Lord and my God!”

With these words the Gospel of John comes full circle.  Chapter one begins, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…full of grace and truth.”  Thomas becomes the first person in this Gospel to acknowledge the truth with which John begins his account…that Jesus is God…his God.

If and when you have questions about your faith, ask them.  Come to God in prayer and make your fear, confusion, and disbelief known to Him.  When you feel like the eyes of you heart are blind and you can’t see God working in your life, follow Thomas’ lead and express those doubts in anyway you can.  I promise your seeking will lead to finding.  Your doubt will lead to faith sometimes in the most curious and unexpected of ways…just like that…he will be there…Jesus...your Lord and God.      

A final note about the man who was blind for 51 years with whom I began my sermon: here is something else he says that is worth considering, “Grass was something I had to get used to…I always thought it was just fuzz.  But to see each individual green stalk, and to see the hair on my arm growing like trees, and birds flying through the air…it’s like starting a whole new life.”  Getting vision can be like that.  Especially seeing Jesus our Lord and God, It’s like starting a whole new life.  Amen. 

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