Missing Jesus
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
April 27, 2003
John 20:19-31
I. INTRODUCTION
We were having one of those profound theological conversations in my office the other day. I think we were comparing Superman to the rest of the superhero roster. There was the usual comparison of super abilities: flight versus spider webs; x-ray vision versus a utility belt. You know how that goes.
But it occurred to me that all the superheroes have something in common. Their alter-egos—Clark Kent, Peter Parker, and Bruce Wayne—they are never around when the superhero is there. In fact, Clark Kent will always just be showing up as Superman has just left. In fact, their co-workers are always commenting that the alter ego has just missed the superhero. “Poor Clark, he’s always just missing Superman.”
II. TEXT
I got wondering whether the other disciples thought something like that about Thomas. We read in tonight’s gospel lesson that Jesus came and appeared to the disciples. “But Thomas (who was called the Twin) one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.” He had just missed him. I wonder what the disciples thought of that. Actually, we always focus on Thomas as the doubting one that we usually miss something that I would like answered: where was Thomas anyway? Where is he, shopping? Checking out real estate opportunities in the Jerusalem suburbs? Registering for class? Placing a help wanted ad for a new rabbi?
Where was he?
III. DOUBT
We always get on Thomas about his doubting. “Doubting Thomas”—it’s even a cliché in our language. But is his doubt really what’s central to this story? His doubt is no greater than the disciples when they first heard the report from the women. And certainly his doubt is no greater than our own.
And Jesus doesn’t hold Thomas’ doubt against him. When Jesus comes, he doesn’t say, “How could you not believe?” He offers himself freely and gives Thomas the very thing he seeks. But he says to him : “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
IV. MISSING JESUS
Thomas had doubted because he had missed Jesus.
For the same reason the disciples had. Sometimes we are prone to that kind of thinking. Often times you’ll hear people say things like “Wouldn’t it be good to have been back in Galilee with Jesus and the disciples? Wouldn’t it have been nice to have seen it?” Leaving aside the fact that there’s no guarantee that you would have been any more clued in to what Jesus was doing than the disciples were, there is a presumption in a statement like that that’s faulty. The presumption is that in order to have experienced Jesus, you had to have met him in person, in the flesh.
That’s what the disciples think. They don’t believe the report of the women right away. That’s what Thomas thinks—he doesn’t believe the report of the disciples.
Thomas and the disciples are in many ways like us: reluctant to accept the fact that Christ can be present for us even when we are not in his physical presence. We, too, wish to see his wounds and touch them before we are willing to believe that he is present with us.
How hard it is for us to believe. Especially today.
A. Enlightenment Christianity
We’ve come a long way from the Medieval Church. It was for a very long time believed that truth was known by revelation. God spoke and communicated his truth to those who heard him. The problem with this was that there would often be competing claims on revelation. Martin Luther received different revelation than the Pope.
If it had been simply a disagreement among theologians, it might have stopped there. But the theological issues in the Reformation became the political issues that divided the various kingdoms of Europe. The result was the Thirty Years War, which devastated Europe and left untold thousands dead. When it was all over, they signed the Peace of Westphalia, and determined that religion would never be allowed to dictate foreign policy again. Revelation was an insufficient basis for a national policy.
And thus began the Enlightenment: when Reason became the basis of Truth. In order to be persuasive, one cannot simply claim revelation, but must be able to demonstrate it to others, by appealing to reason. Out of this came the Scientific Method and with that a whole host of scientific advances and medical discoveries. We have a lot to be thankful for from the Enlightenment. It transformed our law, our science, our medicine, our politics. It transformed our religion.
We’re still very much in an enlightenment frame of mind. We want things to be proven. The burden of proof is on the one making the claim. The Apostles proclaim, “We have seen the Risen Lord.” We respond “Prove it!”
V. CONCLUSION
Those whosay, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have been back there with Jesus and the Disciples, walking those paths of ancient Galilee?” are making a sentimental statement that is based on two basic misconceptions. The first is that if we were back then, we would have not been as clueless as the disciples were. The second is that in order to experience Christ, in order to really experience him, we would have to encounter him in the flesh.
That’s clearly what Thomas is thinking. Thomas didn’t see the Risen Christ and so he doubted. He wouldn’t believe until he saw Christ in the flesh.
We still don’t know where Thomas was. But we do know where he wasn’t. He wasn’t with the community of the faithful. He wasn’t with the Church. What Thomas shows us is that we encounter Jesus in the Church he left for us. A church he gave himself freely for and freely to. A Church into which he breathes his Holy Spirit.
The Church is the community that gathers in remembrance of the deeds, teachings, and sacrifice of Jesus, and which testifies to his resurrection.
We can encounter something of God on our own. But we need each other to truly understand what it was that Christ did for us. We proclaim God as a community of persons—Father, Son, and Spirit—and it is in community that God is known. First in the community of the people of Israel, then along with them, the community of the Church.
Encountering Christ is not limited to those who saw him in the flesh. We encounter Christ the flesh of his body: in the Church and in each other. We are those who are “Blessed … who have not seen and yet believe.”
