Why Ask?

Text: John John 20:19-31

Focus: Doubts

Function: to help people see that legitimate questions are an essential part of the faith

¹⁹When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were 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 his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” ²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

²⁴But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

²⁶A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁷Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” ²⁸Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. ³¹But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Today we are looking at the very end of the book of John. And I find it interesting that the last story that it includes is the story that has been, in many people’s opinion, misnamed “Doubting Thomas.”

The person we know as Doubting Thomas was actually asking a sincere and honest question.

But before we get to that, there is a whole lot of theology in this passage that is important for us to try to unravel.

You hear me pray and preach, almost every Sunday that we be filled with the Holy Spirit so that we can carry out our tasks.

Starting at verse 19, through verse 23, we read about Jesus’ first appearance to them according to John account of the resurrection. The first thing Jesus does is extend His peace to them.

It was stated that at first they thought they were seeing a ghost. But Jesus wants them to know that He has risen in bodily form, not just as an apparition from beyond the grave. He wants them to know that He has risen from the actual grave itself and is now standing among them.

He extends His peace and then breathes the Holy Spirit on to them.

And He gives them the purpose of the Holy Spirit. He says, Just as the Father has sent Him, so He is sending us.

Forgive people their sins. You forgive them. We have been taught that only God can forgive sins. But Jesus, in this passage, gives the church tremendous authority to forgive sins.

And I don’t mean the institution called the church that could either give or withhold communion based on their own doctrines, but the Church universal, the body of Christ.

We are the Church. Not the institution. And Jesus has called us as the Church to forgive the sins of others, to forgive the sins of the nations so that the world can be healed.

We lay down our right to revenge when we join the Kingdom of God, the family of God, the Church universal when we trust Jesus to save us.

The power of the Spirit resides inside of us so that we can forgive and heal the world of its transgressions. Peter said, Love covers a multitude of sins.

People wonder why I am so generous against so called “sinners.” It is because we are called to be like Christ and forgive the sins of others.

Now, on to doubting Thomas.

I titled the sermon, “Why Ask?” because I have come to realize something in my Christian journey. It is okay to ask questions and to have doubts.

It is in the place of questions that we are compelled to seek the face of God and wonder, even ponder, the possibilities of God’s grace, mercy and love.

Although Thomas probably didn’t witness Jesus’ execution as an enemy of the State for crying out against injustice, apparently John was the only disciple who was there at the cross according to the gospel accounts, we believe that he knew of Jesus’ death and burial. We don’t know why he wasn’t with the others, or what he was doing, there is no record, but he wasn’t there when Jesus first appeared to the twelve.

So, his doubt is sincere. He wants to see for himself.

He has to have proof. Now Jesus goes on to sort of reprove him for not believing the witness of his fellow disciples when they told him that they had seen the Lord.

But Thomas wants to make sure that it isn’t a ghost that they were speaking to. So, he wants proof of flesh and blood, not of life after death. He apparently already believes in ghosts and the spirits of people who have died and not ascended into heaven.

So the question is, Why Ask?

Right before the parable of the good Samaritan, we see the answer to the question, “Why ask?” when the Pharisee asks Jesus “who is my neighbor?”

The text says: “The Pharisee, wishing to justify himself, asked…”

Why did he ask? His question is not a sincere question of faith and doubt, while he is trying to reason out what has happened that he cannot explain, like Thomas, but one of a selfish nature intended to assuage his guilt over the fact that Jesus is right, he does not love his neighbor as himself.

Thomas was not trying to justify himself OVER the teachings of Jesus, he sincerely wanted to know if this was a physical verses metaphysical resurrection.

I believe that Jesus loves sincere questions. Mary asked the angel when he told her that she was going to give birth to the Savior, she said: “How can this be since I am still a virgin?”

God understands our human frailty. I believe that if we are not honest with God about our doubts, then we are insincere with God.

I tell people that God has big shoulders and can take it.

I have been reading through the book of Job in my morning devotions. And for the first time, for some reason, I am understanding it.

Job’s so called friends ASSUME he is guilty because calamity happens to him.

But Job knows that he is innocent and Job never curses God.

But that does not mean that he does not question God throughout the book.

He speaks of their idea of fairness and says that it cannot be true because bad things are happening to him and he didn’t deserve it.

He wants to have an argument with God.

And in the end, God appears to him and he gets his wish and he is properly humbled in the presence of God.

The whole book is about asking sincere and honest questions with the answer, “You cannot put God in a box or imagine what God is doing.”

So Thomas paints a picture for us that Jesus honors sincere questions. They are honest.

But have faith sill, Blessed are those who believe and have not seen. That is us.