 John
20:19-31
That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting
behind locked doors because they were afraid of the
Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there
among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he
spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and
his side. They were filled with joy when they saw
the Lord! Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the
Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he
breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If
you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the
Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They
told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied,
“I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in
his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my
hand into the wound in his side.”
Eight days later the disciples were together again,
and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were
locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing
among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he
said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at
my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side.
Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” “My Lord
and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.
Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have
seen me. Blessed are those who believe without
seeing me.”
The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous
signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book.
But these are written so that you may believe/
continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the
Son of God, and that by believing in him you will
have life by the power of his name.
Let's begin at the end this time for
our message. Why? Because verse 30 and 31 is the
Thesis Statement for the Gospel of John, telling us
clearly and beautifully why all of this has been
painstakingly written and preserved over the
centuries by the direction of God.
Usually, I read this text on Easter or around Easter
and I find myself tearing up in church most times I
read it year after year. My voice cracks, or wavers
in strength and tears well up, clouding my vision so
that I have trouble reading my sermon notes. Why do
you think that is?
Part of it I think has to do with the satisfaction
of a good ending, where the audience is let in on
the point of it all. That is pretty gratifying when
you finally get it... "I finally figured it out!"
I try to be a person who focuses more on the "big
picture" than on the minutia. I try pretty hard to
not miss the forest for the trees. These two verses
give us a big piece of the meta-narrative... or the
grand story... of what God is doing within His
Creation on a worldwide scale. Verse 30 and 31
provide a very big picture indeed!
What is God's intent for The Gospel of John? How is
The Gospel of John to be understood and/or embraced
and/or applied? We need to know the answer! These
words were put to page so that you may believe that
Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by
believing in Him you will have life! It just feels
good to be let in on the Grand Tapestry of God's
redemptive plan!
I also think tears come a little easier to me when
reading this verse because I'm pretty overwhelmed
that God cared enough about me to send His Son so
that I might be brought back home into the fold once
again! That really does mean a lot to me personally.
God cares for us deeply and I truly believe knew us
by name 2,000 years ago and made sure that The
Gospel of John said what it needed to say for our
benefit and the benefit of humanity.
"These are written so that Ryan may
believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God,
and that by believing in Him he would have life." We
could go around the room couldn't we... "These are
written so that ________ may continue to believe
that Jesus is the Messiah...." This is not some cold
textbook or merely a clinical historical record.
These scriptures have been revealed for a glorious
purpose flowing from an eternal and unfailing love
for us! What a gift we have received! "These are
written that YOU may believe!" YOU! God has reached
out to all of us on a personal level!
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Maybe I get teary eyed when I read
this text because, as a human being, I feel deep
within that there should be something more to this
life than living and working and struggling and
running in that economic or materialistic rat race
(There better be more than just breathing and paying
taxes and dying). All human beings are looking for a
deeper understanding of life or a deeper experience
of life. A life with purpose. A life that endures. I
life that transcends our environment and/or
surroundings.
I think most everyone knows that they were created
for something more, or hopes/prays/wishes that they
were created for something more. To know that in
Christ there is life is the gift of all gifts! The
Greek here for life in The Gospel of John is zoe and
contextually seems to be used throughout John to
describe eternal life.... the life that Christ
provides. Sometimes "Psuche" is used in this gospel
(where we get psychology), but this word is used
primarily to describe losing one's life or Jesus
giving his life... his whole self... for us.
What peace flows into our hearts to know that our
inner compass pointing us to something greater
wasn't just wishful thinking or our imagination
running wild, but instead something that God gave us
to point us towards the eternal and abundant and
meaningful and full life that Christ provides!
That'll bring tears to your eyes... We have found
what our comprehensive self has been searching for
from the very beginning... from when we engaged in
our first breath!
A few quotes continue to emphasize this point...
"As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul
longs for you, O God. My being thirst for God, teh
living God. When can I go and see the face of God?
Psalm 42:1-3
"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in
this world can satisfy, the most probable
explanation is that I was made for another world. if
one of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does
not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably
earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it,
but only arouse it, to suggest the real thing." CS
Lewis
"The simple desire for God is already the beginning
of faith. All of us have doubts. They are nothing to
worry about. Our deepest desire is to listen to
Christ, who whispers in our hearts." -Brother Roger
of Taize
These truths have brought me tears of joy, season
after season, as I have read this text, and I am
grateful.
And how did we arrive here? How did we get to the
point where we can say: "We Believe!" We have not
seen the resurrected body of Jesus like Thomas and
the other disciples did. We didn't have that
benefit. Jesus taught us to "walk by faith." We
cannot exclusively "walk by sight" any longer.
By the grace of God, unleashed fully through the
cross of Christ and through the empty tomb, our
souls have tenderized or softened or opened so that
we can receive Jesus, becoming His disciples. This
did not happen because of some intellectual ascent
or because of inductive reasoning or because of
state-of-the-art empirical research.
This happened because we have seen
the Resurrected Jesus through the eyes of our heart,
and this sight is possible because of the work of
the Holy Spirit. Blessed are we, for we have not
seen with our eyes, yet we believe. I am so thankful
that our vision is much more comprehensive!
Thanks be to God,
Amen.
[Ryan Edgecombe
Broadwell Christian Church
Central Presbyterian Church - Petersburg]
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