Jesus and Thomas

Sermon – John 20:19-31 – Jesus and Thomas

In his commentary on John’s gospel, Tom Wright (a leading New Testament scholar) mentions a large and famous clock which he can see from his window. He says:

“Consider the journey that the clock makes from midnight to midday. The hands start together at 12. They take their time making their separate way around the clock face. Finally they come back together again. It’s the same time as it was when we started, yet it’s half a day later. It’s a different time because of all that has happened in between, and yet it’s the same.”

He then goes on to suggest that John’s Gospel has been carefully constructed like that clock face. And the end of John’s Gospel brings us back to the beginning.

(Pause)

Any good story has a beginning, middle and end …and the four Gospels are no different.

They each have a dramatic beginning …Matthew, Luke and John begin with the passages that we usually read at Christmas time …and Mark begins with Jesus’s baptism.

All four gospels have an action-packed middle …four different accounts of Jesus’s life and ministry.

And they each reach the same climatic ending …accounts of Jesus’s death and resurrection.

However, John’s Gospel is rather different to the other three.

Unlike the others, John’s Gospel ends where it began.

Rather like the hands on the clock face. We have come full circle. We find ourselves back at the beginning …it’s the same, but it’s also different.

…and, as we shall see, this greatly affects how we are meant to view ‘doubting’ Thomas, and what it means for all of us.

(Pause)

But first, I need to clarify exactly where John originally intended his Gospel to end.

Please take your pew Bible’s and turn to John chapter 20 on page…

Reading from verse 28:

Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’

Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Now if you think that this sounds like the end of a book, I would agree with you …and many New Testament scholars would agree with you too.

It’s a very good ending… and if you were reading this for the first time, you might be surprised to discover an extra chapter.

Now John Chapter 21 is one of my favourite chapters in the entire Bible. It contains two great Bible stories; the miraculous catch of fish, and the Jesus’s reinstatement of Peter.

It also clearly quashes an erroneous rumour that was circulating within the early church, namely that Jesus had told John (the author of the Gospel) that he would remain alive until Jesus returned.

So, I can see why Chapter 21 was added, and I’m really glad that it was …but, as a piece of literature, it doesn’t provide quite such a good ending to the book.

Instead, it feels more like an epilogue. Perhaps something that John himself added at a later date (possibly in response to questions that people at the time were asking about Peter and himself). Some other scholars think it was added by another author after John had died.

Either way, Chapter 21 is a much-loved chapter. It’s part of our scriptures …and was inspired by God …however, it is unlikely to be the original ending that John wrote.

For that original ending we need to read Chapter 20 …and, as we shall see, it’s here that we come full circle.

(Pause)

So, keeping a finger in Chapter 20 …let’s turn back to the beginning of the Gospel on page…

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

John’s Gospel starts by taking us back to the dawn of time, and the creation of the universe.

And you can’t read these words without being reminded of Genesis chapter 1…

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light… And there was evening, and there was morning – the first day.

And now, at the end of his Gospel (turn back to John Chapter 20) …notice how John keeps talking about ‘the first day’. Verse 1:

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb…

Verse 19:

On the evening of that first day of the week…

Verse 26:

A week later… (which, again, would have been the first day of the week)

This is no minor detail.

Rather, John is bringing us back to the beginning.

In Chapter 1, he reminds us of the first creation.

In Chapter 20, he is making the point that Jesus’s resurrection marks the beginning of God’s new creation.

There are other parallels too.

In the Garden of Eden, God breathed the breath of life into Adam, and gave him responsibility for looking after God’s first creation.

In Chapter 20, Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into the disciples, and gives them responsibility for working out God’s plan for his new creation.

This new plan will start by changing individuals, one life at a time … and will ultimately lead to the new heaven and a new earth which John describes in the book of Revelation.

But God’s new creation starts here… on the day of resurrection …the first day of the week.

(Pause)

Secondly, God’s plan for the new creation hinges on people recognising that Jesus is none other than God himself.

Which brings us to Thomas.

Eddie Edwards (ski jumper 1988 Olympics) Eddie the Eagle

Ian Botham …Beefy …when younger his friends called him ‘Bungalow’ because he had nothing upstairs

Alex Higgins… Hurricanes Higgins

Robert Stroud. During his time at Leavenworth Penitentiary he reared and sold birds and became a respected ornithologist (The Birdman of Alcatraz)

Frank Sinatra …Old Blue Eyes

Doubting Thomas. I do feel sorry for him …especially because it’s so unfair.

(Pause)

People sometimes get nicknames because of some remarkable characteristic or action. But there was nothing remarkable about Thomas’s doubting …in fact all the disciples had doubted.

On Easter morning the women had gone to the tomb. The found the stone had been rolled away, the tomb was empty, and two angels told them that Jesus had risen from the dead. Luke then tells us:

When [the women] came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.

All the apostles refused to believe. It was only when they had seen Jesus for themselves that they believed he had risen.

It wasn’t Thomas’s doubting that made him stand out …rather it was his subsequent faith.

Verse 27…

Then [Jesus] said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’

Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’

“My Lord and my God!” …no-one had ever called Jesus that before. That’s the remarkable thing about Thomas.

(Pause)

Once again, John has taken us back to the beginning of his Gospel.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

And Thomas is the first person to recognise it.

(Pause)

Throughout Jesus’ ministry, people had been asking “Who is he?” …and it’s fascinating to trace the change in responses that people gave.

For many people in the crowds, he was a great prophet.

Peter, eventually reached the point where he dared to go further. “You are the Messiah” he said to Jesus. God’s chosen one.

Peter also said that Jesus was “The Son of God” …and the centurion who saw how Jesus died remarked that: “Surely he was the Son of God!”

But they all fall short of the claim that John makes at the first verse of his Gospel… “The Word …was …God.”

And now, in the final verses of the book, it is Thomas who joins the dots for the very first time… “My Lord and my God!”

Not Doubting Thomas …but Faithful Thomas.

(Incidentally the phrase “Doubting Thomas” doesn’t appear in the Bible, and it’s first occurrence in the English language was about 130 years ago in 1883. So we can blame the Victorians for besmirching Thomas’s good name!)

(Pause)

Finally, each one of us is invited to be part of God’s new creation.

Back to Chapter 1, verse 11:

He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

Isn’t that amazing?

And now to the last couple of verses in John’s original gospel. Chapter 20, verse 30:

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Once again, John has brought us full circle back to the beginning.

John has written his gospel so that ordinary people like you and me might believe:

That Jesus is the Messiah (which means the chosen one)

That Jesus is the Son of God

And that, like Thomas, we say to Jesus “My Lord and my God!”

That’s how we join God’s family.

That’s how we become God’s children.

That’s how we gain eternal life.

That’s how we become part of God’s new creation.