Sunday, April 19 2009
Second Sunday of Easter
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Maybe you are wondering why I used a different slightly different translation than the NRSV. Well it really only comes down to one verse-verse 27-where Jesus says to Thomas after Thomas places his hand in Jesus’ side and in the nail mark in Jesus’ hand-“Do not disbelieve, but believe.”
The NRSV has Jesus saying “Do not doubt but believe.” Now perhaps you think that I am just being a little nit-pickey. Maybe you think that I am making a big deal out of nothing. But at the end of the Gospel lesson Jesus says that it is through believing that we have life in His name.
And so by that we know that by not believing in the atoning work of Jesus we remain in death. Paul says the wages of sin is death. And so if in believing we receive new-life in Christ, then through unbelief we are in death. And from this we can see that all sin basically comes down to unbelief. And so, in that light the difference between doubt and unbelief is huge.
If Thomas is merely doubting then Jesus is just coming along and offering Thomas a word of encouragement; as if to say “Oh Thomas stop being such a fuddy-duddy. Get on board with the new thing that God is doing.” If Thomas was merely in doubt, then Jesus was merely showing up to clarify things for Thomas; to tie up some loose ends, before Jesus ascended to His Father.
But Thomas was not merely in doubt, he was in disbelief. The Greek word that the English Standard Version (ESV) rightly translates as ‘disbelieve’ and the NRSV wrongly translates as ‘doubt’ is pronounced apistis. The King James Version actually translates it as faithless. Both ‘faithless’ and ‘unbelieving’ are pretty much accurate summations of the definition of apistis, and so both would work very effectively as English translations of this word. “Disbelieve” as the ESV has it, also works very well.
But “doubt” does not work. From this we can see that to refer to this as the “doubting Thomas” lesson doesn’t quite cut it. It doesn’t have quite the same intensity as what was really going on. Thomas was not merely in doubt, he was faithless, he was unbelieving. And so Jesus was not showing up in that house where Thomas and the rest of the disciples were hiding out, merely to offer words of encouragement, or merely to clarify Thomas’ confusion.
In his unbelief Thomas had actually cut himself off from the apostolic ministry. For those eight days in between when Thomas refused to believe the testimony of the disciples and when Jesus showed Himself to Thomas, Thomas was basically not a disciple. He was unbelieving. He was faithless. And so he was subject to the wages of sin that are death; not just physical death, but eternal death-eternal separation from God.
And so, in that light we can see that when Jesus appeared in the house where Thomas and the disciples were hiding, He was actually showing up to call Thomas back to faith. He was calling Thomas back to the fold of the apostolic ministry. He was calling Thomas from death in unbelief and faithlessness to life in faith in Christ Jesus.
Dr Nestingen speaks of how being justified is to be properly aligned with God; to be put in a proper relationship with God-and that is what was going on in this passage. Jesus was justifying Thomas by bringing him back into a proper relationship with God through faith in Christ Jesus.
And don’t think that the other disciples were doing any better. They had also been told of Jesus’ resurrection. In John’s account of the resurrection, he records Mary Magdalene encountering the empty tomb and then seeing the risen Lord Jesus who tells her to go tell ‘His brothers’ or the rest of the disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead. The next time we see the disciples that Mary went to tell is when they were hiding in their house for fear of the Jews. It appears that they weren’t so quick to believe without actually seeing either.
In this account of what should probably be referred to as the unbelieving or faithless disciples we see that when Christ Jesus withdraws Himself from us we are truly helpless. Jesus told them that He would be raised after three days. They had heard from the women that Jesus had done just that-that He had been raised from the dead. They had seen Jesus confirm everything He said about Himself through great miracles of healing performed on the blind and the lame and lepers. They had seen Jesus cast out demons. They had seen Him raise the dead. But still, until they saw Him in the flesh raised from the dead, they were mired in their unbelief and despair.
So what does this mean for us? Does this mean that because we have come generations after the apostles and do not have the good fortune of having been able to see the risen Jesus in the flesh that we are then left in our unbelief and despair? Well, if faith were up to us. If it were up to us to muster our own faith through our own best and most sincere efforts, then essentially yes.
But Jesus does not leave that peace that He brings to Thomas and the rest of the disciples in that house from this morning’s Gospel lesson in that house. He does not leave it in that period of time centuries ago. He acknowledges that Thomas and the other unbelieving disciples finally did believe that Jesus had risen from the dead because they had seen Him risen from the dead. But then He says blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.
Jesus is making a promise there. He is not trying to give some extra motivation for those who would not have the good fortune of knowing Jesus in the flesh to believe. He is promising that in spite of the unbelief of the disciples, that the good news of salvation through faith in His perfect life, death and resurrection would continue to be proclaimed and would continue to be believed.
For John writes that these events that took place within the life, death and resurrection of Jesus were written down so that we would come to believe that He is the Messiah, the Son of God and that through believing in Him and what He has done for us; laying down His life for us and atoning for our sin- for our forgiveness and rising from the dead -for our salvation, that we would have eternal life in His name.
Through these simple words we can know that, just as He did not leave the disciples alone in their despair and unbelief, He does not leave us alone in our despair and unbelief. He comes to us in His Word proclaimed. He comes to us in the sacraments; He will come to us in a few minutes in His body and blood in bread and the wine of Holy Communion. And because through these means of grace, He fills us with faith and forgiveness then He comes to us through each other also. He comes to us and He brings us peace-the peace that surpasses all understanding. He re-aligns us. He justifies us.
And so we can hear the words of John from the 2nd lesson that they, these disciples declare to us what was from the beginning, what they have heard, what they have seen with their eyes, what they have looked at and touched with their hands, concerning the word of life-that we may have fellowship with them-and that along with the disciples our fellowship is with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ-whose blood cleanses us from all our sin.
And so we need not fool ourselves into thinking that we don’t have sin. We can face the reality that our unbelief is unbelief. We don’t need to reduce it to doubt. We can go to Christ Jesus and confess our sins of unbelief and despair’ knowing that He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and will give us faith by coming to us as He came to Thomas and the rest of the unbelieving and faithless disciples and bringing us peace and justifying us, through His Word and sacraments.
Amen
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Maybe you are wondering why I used a different slightly different translation than the NRSV. Well it really only comes down to one verse-verse 27-where Jesus says to Thomas after Thomas places his hand in Jesus’ side and in the nail mark in Jesus’ hand-“Do not disbelieve, but believe.”
The NRSV has Jesus saying “Do not doubt but believe.” Now perhaps you think that I am just being a little nit-pickey. Maybe you think that I am making a big deal out of nothing. But at the end of the Gospel lesson Jesus says that it is through believing that we have life in His name.
And so by that we know that by not believing in the atoning work of Jesus we remain in death. Paul says the wages of sin is death. And so if in believing we receive new-life in Christ, then through unbelief we are in death. And from this we can see that all sin basically comes down to unbelief. And so, in that light the difference between doubt and unbelief is huge.
If Thomas is merely doubting then Jesus is just coming along and offering Thomas a word of encouragement; as if to say “Oh Thomas stop being such a fuddy-duddy. Get on board with the new thing that God is doing.” If Thomas was merely in doubt, then Jesus was merely showing up to clarify things for Thomas; to tie up some loose ends, before Jesus ascended to His Father.
But Thomas was not merely in doubt, he was in disbelief. The Greek word that the English Standard Version (ESV) rightly translates as ‘disbelieve’ and the NRSV wrongly translates as ‘doubt’ is pronounced apistis. The King James Version actually translates it as faithless. Both ‘faithless’ and ‘unbelieving’ are pretty much accurate summations of the definition of apistis, and so both would work very effectively as English translations of this word. “Disbelieve” as the ESV has it, also works very well.
But “doubt” does not work. From this we can see that to refer to this as the “doubting Thomas” lesson doesn’t quite cut it. It doesn’t have quite the same intensity as what was really going on. Thomas was not merely in doubt, he was faithless, he was unbelieving. And so Jesus was not showing up in that house where Thomas and the rest of the disciples were hiding out, merely to offer words of encouragement, or merely to clarify Thomas’ confusion.
In his unbelief Thomas had actually cut himself off from the apostolic ministry. For those eight days in between when Thomas refused to believe the testimony of the disciples and when Jesus showed Himself to Thomas, Thomas was basically not a disciple. He was unbelieving. He was faithless. And so he was subject to the wages of sin that are death; not just physical death, but eternal death-eternal separation from God.
And so, in that light we can see that when Jesus appeared in the house where Thomas and the disciples were hiding, He was actually showing up to call Thomas back to faith. He was calling Thomas back to the fold of the apostolic ministry. He was calling Thomas from death in unbelief and faithlessness to life in faith in Christ Jesus.
Dr Nestingen speaks of how being justified is to be properly aligned with God; to be put in a proper relationship with God-and that is what was going on in this passage. Jesus was justifying Thomas by bringing him back into a proper relationship with God through faith in Christ Jesus.
And don’t think that the other disciples were doing any better. They had also been told of Jesus’ resurrection. In John’s account of the resurrection, he records Mary Magdalene encountering the empty tomb and then seeing the risen Lord Jesus who tells her to go tell ‘His brothers’ or the rest of the disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead. The next time we see the disciples that Mary went to tell is when they were hiding in their house for fear of the Jews. It appears that they weren’t so quick to believe without actually seeing either.
In this account of what should probably be referred to as the unbelieving or faithless disciples we see that when Christ Jesus withdraws Himself from us we are truly helpless. Jesus told them that He would be raised after three days. They had heard from the women that Jesus had done just that-that He had been raised from the dead. They had seen Jesus confirm everything He said about Himself through great miracles of healing performed on the blind and the lame and lepers. They had seen Jesus cast out demons. They had seen Him raise the dead. But still, until they saw Him in the flesh raised from the dead, they were mired in their unbelief and despair.
So what does this mean for us? Does this mean that because we have come generations after the apostles and do not have the good fortune of having been able to see the risen Jesus in the flesh that we are then left in our unbelief and despair? Well, if faith were up to us. If it were up to us to muster our own faith through our own best and most sincere efforts, then essentially yes.
But Jesus does not leave that peace that He brings to Thomas and the rest of the disciples in that house from this morning’s Gospel lesson in that house. He does not leave it in that period of time centuries ago. He acknowledges that Thomas and the other unbelieving disciples finally did believe that Jesus had risen from the dead because they had seen Him risen from the dead. But then He says blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.
Jesus is making a promise there. He is not trying to give some extra motivation for those who would not have the good fortune of knowing Jesus in the flesh to believe. He is promising that in spite of the unbelief of the disciples, that the good news of salvation through faith in His perfect life, death and resurrection would continue to be proclaimed and would continue to be believed.
For John writes that these events that took place within the life, death and resurrection of Jesus were written down so that we would come to believe that He is the Messiah, the Son of God and that through believing in Him and what He has done for us; laying down His life for us and atoning for our sin- for our forgiveness and rising from the dead -for our salvation, that we would have eternal life in His name.
Through these simple words we can know that, just as He did not leave the disciples alone in their despair and unbelief, He does not leave us alone in our despair and unbelief. He comes to us in His Word proclaimed. He comes to us in the sacraments; He will come to us in a few minutes in His body and blood in bread and the wine of Holy Communion. And because through these means of grace, He fills us with faith and forgiveness then He comes to us through each other also. He comes to us and He brings us peace-the peace that surpasses all understanding. He re-aligns us. He justifies us.
And so we can hear the words of John from the 2nd lesson that they, these disciples declare to us what was from the beginning, what they have heard, what they have seen with their eyes, what they have looked at and touched with their hands, concerning the word of life-that we may have fellowship with them-and that along with the disciples our fellowship is with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ-whose blood cleanses us from all our sin.
And so we need not fool ourselves into thinking that we don’t have sin. We can face the reality that our unbelief is unbelief. We don’t need to reduce it to doubt. We can go to Christ Jesus and confess our sins of unbelief and despair’ knowing that He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and will give us faith by coming to us as He came to Thomas and the rest of the unbelieving and faithless disciples and bringing us peace and justifying us, through His Word and sacraments.
Amen
posted by Steve at 9:40 AM
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