John 20:19-31
When 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." After he said this, he showed
them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the
Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent
me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to
them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are
forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
But Thomas (who was
called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So 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."
A 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." Then 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."
Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him,
"Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have
not seen and yet have come to believe."
Now
Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not
written in this book. But 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.
A friend of mine says that when he went into the Army, he was given a physical medical examination. The recruit in front of my friend was asked if he had any scars or identifying marks. He answered, "No."
The
medic at the table said, "Boy, everybody has some scars or other
identifying marks. You better tell me yours or I'll have to take you outside
and give you some!" Suddenly the guy ahead of my friend remembered a scar
or two.
The
medic was right, of course. Seems that everyone has at least one scar and a
story to tell about it.
When I
was a child, I took my father's pocket knife and began to carve a piece of
wood. It wasn't long before the knife slipped and I accidentally carved my
thumb. I hated to call for help, because I knew I wasn't supposed to be using the
knife to begin with, but with blood flowing freely, I decided it would be in my
best interest to confess my guilt and ask for help.
Help
came from my father, who took a needle and thread and stitched up my thumb. Dad
was not a doctor, but he'd spent his life in textiles, and I guess he figured
he could sew anything, whether it was cloth or skin.
I look
at my thumb today, and every time I reach for a knife, I see the scar and I
remember -- I remember to be careful.
In the
movie, Jaws, three men are out at sea searching for the man eating Great White
Shark. During a lull in their search, they find themselves sharing coffee and
sharing horror stories. Each one has scars and each one tries to one up each
other. One of the characters has scars from the war, another has scars from a
previous shark attack. The character played by Richard Dreyfus rips open his
shirt and points to his chest without speaking a word. Another man asks,
"What? Bypass surgery?"
"No,"
answers Dreyfus, "Betty Sue, 7th grade. She broke my heart."
All of
us have scars. You can't live life without being hurt.
In
Shakespeare's "Henry V" the King makes a stirring speech to his
soldiers before they are to fight the French in the battle of Agincourt .
The English army is terribly outnumbered and morale is low. The speech made by
the King is magnificent and the English go out and win the battle and the war.
The battle was fought on Saint Crispian's Day. Henry tells his troops that
after this, whenever Saint Crispian is celebrated,
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian:
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vig'l feast his neighbors,
And say 'Tomorrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then he will strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
In the
New Testament Lesson for today, Thomas demands to see the scars upon the hands
of Jesus. He is full of doubt and when he is told by one of the other disciples,
"We have seen the Lord," Thomas responds with some honest and sincere
doubt. He has a "gotta see it to believe it" attitude.
Thomas
looks at the other disciples and says, "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."
What do
these scars mean?
For
Thomas, it serves as proof of the Resurrection.
Thomas
has a nickname. It is "Doubting Thomas." He earns that nickname
because in our New Testament lesson, he expresses doubts. "Unless I see
the scars...I won't believe," says Thomas.
But
this like referring to the patience of Job. Job is a long book in the Old
Testament and the man named Job lost his patience very early in the book. He
spends most of the time in the book of Job very impatient.
So it
is with Thomas. Throughout most of the written record we have about this man,
Thomas was a man of great faith and belief. It is Thomas who is the first to
say to Jesus after the Resurrection, "My Lord and my God."
Actually,
it would have been unacceptable for Thomas to have done anything else but
express doubts. There is a difference between trust and gullibility. There is a
difference between being a person of faith, and a sucker.
Proverbs 14:15 cautions us: "The gullible believe anything they're told; the prudent sift and weigh every word."
After
the Resurrection, God made sure that people served as witnesses. Actual
witnesses who saw with their own eyes and felt with their own hands. It was
important that there would be people like Thomas who could express doubt and
demand evidence, and once confronted with that evidence, believe.
We
think of Easter as a one day event, but it actually is a season of several
days. In the Book of Acts, we read that
there was a 40 day period between the time Christ rose from the grave and the
day he ascended into Heaven (Acts 1:3).
Forty
Days!
Easter
season is a lot longer than simply one Easter Sunday.
Forty
days is enough time for Christ to see and to visit a number of people.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance:
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
that he was buried,
that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
and that he appeared to Peter,
and then to the Twelve.
After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers
at the same time,
most of whom are still living, (at the time Paul wrote his letter to the Corinthians)
though some have fallen asleep.
Then he appeared to James,
then to all the apostles,
These
scars became part of the fabric of evidence that the Resurrection was not a
rumor or a figment of imagination brought about by grief and denial. The
Resurrection was real.
To
Thomas, that is what the scars of Jesus meant -- the Resurrection is real.
What do
these scars mean to us?
For us,
it serves as a reminder of the humanity of Christ.
There
is something about scars that seems to make a person "more human".
We are
sometimes suspicious about people who seem to be "too perfect": about
children who don't have some signs of scraped knees, about teenagers who don't
show any signs of acne, about models whose hair is perfect the moment they step
out of the surf, about people who are in their "twilight years" who
have no signs of graying hair or wrinkling faces.
There
is something about our scars that makes us real, believable, trustworthy.
Maybe
it is because we know that life hands out its damaging blows to all people of
all ages, of all backgrounds.
It is
sometimes easy for us to accept the divinity of Christ, and to forget the
humanity of Christ. But Christ was both divine and human.
In
Philippians, Paul said (2:6-7), Jesus, being in very nature God, did not
consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness."
Those
scars remind us that Jesus remains human, just as he remains divine.
Those
scars remind us that Jesus felt pain, just as we feel pain.
Those
scars remind us that Jesus suffers, just as we suffer.
To
Thomas, the scars meant evidence of the Resurrection.
To us,
the scars remind us of the humanity of Christ.
But
what do these scars mean to Jesus?
Isn't
it strange that the Resurrection brought Christ back to life, but left Him
scarred.
Here is
Jesus, the man, appearing to his friends and showing them the scars that his
life, his suffering, and his death, inflicted on him. Isn't it amazing that, in
whatever occurred at the time of the resurrection the scars were NOT
obliterated? They remained. They are still there.
We have
a permanently scarred God. And he comes, scarred, to be with us with whatever
scars we bear, with whatever wounds we carry, and with whatever doubts we
harbor.
Isn't
that incredible? Isn't that an amazing demonstration of God's love for us? That
he would continue to carry the scars, the reminders of the pain and humiliation
he went through.
Think
about what it means for Christ to have scars on his hands.
Our hands
are the one part of our body that is almost always in view of our sight. We
can't see our ears unless we look in the mirror. We see our feet if we
intentionally look down. But our hands are almost always before us. No matter
what we do, we usually see our hands as we do it.
That is
why in the Old Testament, some people would wear small boxes on their hands.
Inside the boxes was a small parchment with a portion of Scripture.
In
Deuteronomy, God told the people (Deut 6:6-9):
These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
This
way, if a person reached to steal something, there was the Word. If a person
went to hit a person, there was the Word. If a person went to touch someone in
an adulterous way, there was the Word.
Now
what does Jesus sees when He reaches out for us? He sees the scars on his
hands...
Therefore,
when Jesus reaches out to judge, He sees the scars on his hands.
When
Jesus reaches out to bless or comfort, He sees the scars on his hands.
When
Jesus reaches out to receive us, He sees his scars.
Thomas
needed to see the scars in Christ's hands. Those scars remind us of the
humanity of Christ. Those scars remind Christ of his love for us.
Copyright 2015.
Dr. W. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved