Locked Doors

John 20:19-31

Photo by MILKOVÍ on Unsplash

There was a couple who was having trouble disciplining their two young sons. 

The boys were mischievous and could always find a way to get themselves into trouble. 

They were the kind of troublemakers that got into mischief so often that they took the blame for even the trouble they weren't responsible for causing. 

They savored their reputation for being troublemakers. 

One day their mother went to the Pastor at the Church and asked him if he would discipline the boys. 

He had a reputation for “putting the fear of God into them” as many would say

He accepted the challenge and when they arrived the pastor called them in one at a time beginning with the youngest boy; Jake. 

Jake sat down across from the pastor who glared deeply into Jake’s eyes. 

The pastor broke the silence, asking Jake,

“Where is God, Jake?”

Jake just stared at the Pastor in fear, unable to respond.

The pastor spoke up asking slightly more forcefully,

“Where is God, Jake!?”

Jake began to shake his head, murmuring, 

“Uhm uuhhhh”

Finally the pastor grew impatient and loudly inquired, 

“Jake! Where is God!!!!?”

Jake jumped up and bolted out of the office, slamming open the pastor’s office door and fleeing into the coat closet outside. 

Jake’s brother, Tommy ran to the closet and opened it to see what was wrong. 

When he opened the door Jake pulled him into the closet with him and advised him; 

“Don’t go out there Tommy! They can’t find God and now they think we took him!!!!”

~

Every pastor who faithfully examines our Gospel text for this Sunday 

-also known as “low Sunday” because church attendance drops significantly-

Will try to explain how Thomas gets a bad wrap. 

The common idiom “Don’t be a doubting Thomas!” has been used and abused for a very long time. 

It is apparent that either due to consistently low church attendance the second Sunday of Easter, or less than inspirational preaching, the message has not been received. 

I still hear people imploring others NOT to be a doubting Thomas, no matter how many have preached, taught, and referenced this text. 

Thomas does get a bad wrap and it saddens me, because the other disciples seem to get off scot free. 

I like Thomas, cause he is as bold as brass. 

He doesn’t deny his questions and he doesn’t deny his doubt. 

But what really makes Thomas stand out to me, is that we don’t open the story today finding Thomas quivering and cowering behind -NOT ONE- but SEVERAL locked doors. 

What’s more, even after the other disciples have seen Jesus, they go back into this house, a week later, and hide again behind, at least, TWO LOCKED DOORS!

Why shouldn’t Thomas doubt?!

The disciples are all proclaiming that they’ve seen Jesus!

Such great news! The disciples are sooo thrilled that they are going to go back inside and cower behind the very same locked doors!

If they had really seen Jesus, if they really believed that he was the Christ who has defeated death, than why are they still hiding behind LOCKED DOORS a week later?!

But where is Thomas at the beginning of the story?

Who knows? But at least he isn’t hiding with the rest of the disciples!

Wherever Thomas is, he is exposed to the world. 

He is exposed to a world that has crucified Jesus and may still be looking for his followers. 

Maybe Thomas pulled the short straw and had to go out for groceries? 

There really is no telling. 

I don’t want to portray him as a hero, because we really don’t know where or what was going on with Thomas when Jesus makes his first appearance. 

We do know he wasn’t in hiding in that moment, 

We know he didn’t witness Jesus’ first appearance, 

And we know he didn’t believe the disciples when he got back. 

I don’t blame him for doubting, I would have doubted too, sometimes sisters and brothers, 

I still do. 

~

The two appearances made by Jesus in our Gospel happen a week apart. 

The first appearance occurs on a Sunday evening, behind SEVERAL locked doors. 

The next appearance occurs a week later on the very next Sunday, behind the very same locked doors!

My oh my, how the church has changed, huh?

Photo by Łukasz Maźnica on Unsplash

Sunday in and Sunday out, congregations gather together behind the four walls of their respective locked doors. 

Jesus appears to us in the Word, the water, the body and the blood. 

Then, we hang our faith on the coat hooks by the door until we get back together next week. 

If the faith of the disciples never left that locked house, or that locked room, but instead remained safely tucked away between NOT ONE but at least TWO locked doors, where would the church be today?

Where is the church going today, if our faith stays locked up in the safest place we can keep it?

And if faith is as easy as liking and sharing a picture of Jesus on social media in the safety of our homes from our armchair pulpits, 

I’m honestly not sure the church will ever have much to offer this world. 

But if the church is to follow Jesus’ greatest commandment to love one another as he loved us, we are going to have to get outside of these four walls a little bit. 

We may even need to carry on a conversation with someone who doesn’t believe like us, doesn’t even like us, perhaps they will even mock us a little bit. 

In the Gospel today that is exactly what Thomas does. 

He mocks the situation, presenting the conditions that must be met in order for him to buy into this story. 

"Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and I JAM my finger into those wounds, unless I FORCE my entire hand into the wound in his side, I will not believe!”

The Incredulity of St Thomas, Rembrandt 1634 PD

The language is even more forceful, maybe even more vulgar than what many of us have heard before in this text. 

Thomas is asking to do something beyond a little investigating, he is challenging what he has been told in the most offensive way imaginable!

I don’t think Thomas would be very welcome in most congregations today. 

His questions are offensive as are so many other questions we refuse to ask in the church, 

Questions the church sometimes avoids, 

Questions we’ve just come to believe you don’t talk about if you are to call yourself a Christian. 

Questions meant to remain outside of our locked doors. 

Perhaps all because we prefer a faith that is not challenged or tested?

Or do we want to encourage a faith that is like a “house of straw” for our children?

Sending them out beyond these locked doors into a world where that faith will be challenged, by not only people but life, regardless of how badly we want to protect them from it!

Thomas offers us an example of an AUTHENTIC faith, authentic because he doesn’t pretend the questions don’t exist. 

If he denied his doubts, 

if he just claimed to believe the story the disciples told him, 

we wouldn’t have to call him doubting Thomas anymore would we? 

We could just call him; disingenuous Thomas.  

Thomas states his doubt explicitly and offensively

And in spite of their cowardice, at least the disciples model one practice for ministry we should keep in mind, 

They don’t kick him out!

In spite of Thomas’ doubts and challenges, he remains among them, a welcomed member of the community. 

Sisters and brothers, THAT is discipleship. 

Discipleship isn’t found in our agreements, it is found in question and in loving debate. 

That is why we have four gospels that are rarely in agreement about what happened in the midst of Jesus’ ministry or why it took place. 

Thomas’ challenge does not go unanswered, but the reply is seldom interpreted correctly. 

John’s gospel has a tendency of not wasting a single word, nearly each and every detail of John’s gospel points to a deeper meaning. 

So, in spite of the way Thomas is portrayed responding to Jesus in this story, 

All the paintings and R.E.M. music videos, 

Thomas never seems to take up Jesus on investigating these wounds, much less jamming his hand or fingers in any of those wounds.

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, Caravaggio 1601-1602 PD

Its just not in the text. 

What does happen, is that Jesus not only invites Thomas to investigate the wounds, he orders Thomas to thrust his finger and hand into his wounds. 

Seeing those wounds exposed before his eyes, 

being ordered to investigate those wounds in the most horrific way possible sends a clear message to Thomas 

and it should send a clear message to us today as well. 

There is nothing that God isn’t willing to expose to us to draw us closer in relationship. 

God is exposed as a man, a lowly man, vulnerable to disease, poverty, humiliation, condemnation, the cross, and yes even death. 

Even after death, God comes to Thomas through a Savior. 

A Savior, who rather than ordering Thomas into a state of blind obedience and submission to a faith he is commanded to follow, 

Elects instead to be exposed once again, in order to invite Thomas to participate in this gift of faith, to take up this gift of faith for himself. 

And Thomas most certainly does take up that gift. 

Thomas traveled farther beyond the borders of the Roman empire than any other apostle. 

Thomas took the gospel of Jesus Christ to the farthest reaches of the first century church; 

India. 

Not bad for a doubting Thomas, huh?

Amen

Thomas the Apostle,
Russian Icon from first Quarter of the XVIIICentury
PD