Today’s Scripture

Psalm 80:1-7               Micah 5:2-51               Hebrews 10:5-10         Luke 1:39-56

 

John 11: 16 Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

 

John 14: 5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"

 

            It is all so unbelievable.  An angel appears to a young Mary and tells her she is going to be the earthly mother of the Son of God, the Messiah, the promised one who will save his people from their sins.  It is all so unbelievable that as Mary approaches her elderly cousin Elizabeth who happens to miraculously be pregnant also, the baby in her womb leaps for joy at the word that the embryonic Messiah is in his presence.  It is all so unbelievable these angel messages and miraculous births.  It is all so unbelievable that God takes on human form from conception to the ultimate sacrifice to work salvation for his people.  Who is going to believe all of this?

 

            Unbelievable is the term that later follows the disciple Thomas who becomes known as “Doubting Thomas.”  Still, Thomas is another of the people in Scripture whom God has given to us as examples of God’s love, his miracle of establishing faith in a person’s heart, and the witness of simple people that brings millions of others to faith in God’s saving grace in Jesus.

 

            The word for Thomas in Hebrew and Aramaic means twin and is not necessarily a name.  He is also called Didymus, the Greek equivalent and how he was called by Greek-speaking Christians.  Some early Christians in Syria called him Judas Thomas, or Judas the twin.  After the resurrection we know nothing of Thomas except from some church traditions of the 3^rd and 4^th century.  According to these stories Thomas took Christianity to India and was martyred there.  There is no substantial evidence to this.  His symbol includes a carpenter’s square and a spear.  The square as tradition holds that he built a church with his own hands.  The spear as he supposedly was killed by the spear of a heathen priest. 

 

            What we know about Thomas is recorded only in the Gospels.  We know he was chosen as one of the twelve disciples.  Thomas was a faithful follower.  When Jesus predicted his coming betrayal and death, (following Lazarus’ resurrection), Thomas boldly steps forward among the disciples saying, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”  Thomas didn’t hesitate to speak to what he understood and to what he believed in.

 

            That boldness appears again as Thomas speaks up when he does not understand.  When Jesus tells of preparing rooms for us in his father’s house, he concludes saying, “You know the way to the place where I am going.”  Thomas is the one who speaks up, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"    To this Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."  God uses Thomas’ boldness to bring out the questions that you and I so many times are afraid to ask.

 

            The last we see Thomas is when he openly questions the resurrected Christ.  This is a moment of great comfort to every Christian as there are those times when we begin to doubt our faith, begin to doubt if all of this is believable or not.  God placed Thomas in this position to show how he restores us from our moments of doubt, moments of weakness in faith.  Jesus appears to Thomas and again answers his questions.  To this Thomas cries out, “My lord and my God.” 

 

            How many times in Scripture are there people who wonder if God’s promises, his love, his deliverance is true, if they will ever happen?  Try the Israelites in the wilderness, Joseph in the pit, Abraham and Sarah with the promise of their own son, Elijah time and again, youthful Jeremiah, Zechariah in the temple, and the man who confessed, “"I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" [Mark 9:24].

 

            There are lots of Thomas’s in Scripture.  We are all Thomas’s.  One moment we are willing to die for Christ.  Another moment we wonder what he is saying and ask for clarification.  And then are the moments when all of this is so unbelievable we cry out for just another sign.  As Jesus loved and restored Thomas each time, he loves and restores each one too.

 

            God’s miracle giving you saving faith works through hearing his word, his word of Jesus Christ.  He washes all of your sins and seals you in that faith in the ever flowing waters of baptism.  He strengthens you remembering how he redeems you as he brings that body and blood in the very bread and wine as he commanded that Thursday evening.

 

            Thomas, the twin.  You too are twins.  God has made you brothers and sisters of his son Jesus.  He has restored you to his image again in the resurrection to come.  You are co-heirs with Jesus of all of his heavenly splendors.  As he did not let Thomas fall away, God promises to never let anything snatch you out of his hands, that nothing can separate you from his love in Jesus Christ. 

 

            As you come to the altar, take a look at the empty manger.  This evening it will be occupied to remind you how this miracle occurs.  This morning, this evening, and every moment of our lives we can fix our eyes on Jesus who saves the Thomas’s, who saves the you’s and the me’s, and now sends us all out to witness this miracle to others who will believe.

 

            Praise the Lord for this.

 

We think of Thomas as we again hear God’s words to us through Paul, “And this peace that transcends all of your understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”  Amen.