April 27, 2025 Second Sunday of Easter
Readings: John 20:19-31, Revelation 1:4-8
“Believing and Waiting”
Here we are, we’re at the first Sunday after Easter and it is called the second Sunday of Easter. Historically one of the least attended Sundays. We’ve finished with Lent, Holy Week, and Easter, so let’s get down to life as usual. Some people take this time for Spring Break. Pastors take this week off after all the events of last week, leaving for some needed R & R. We all desire normality in our living. Some can give in to those things they gave up for Lent. So did you believe in what you were doing for sacrifices during Lent or were you just waiting for Lent to end just so you could get back to; whatever it was you desired. That has an interesting ring to it, desired, what do you truly desire? Then there is that statement, “anything worth having is worth waiting for”. You need to answer for yourself what are you waiting for? What has been interesting for me, this whole week there has been multiple connections with today’s theme, Bible Study parable; conversations and interactions I have had with others. Are we truly believing and waiting for the return of Christ? If Christ returned today, what would he find? Would he truly find us believing and waiting in earnest for the mission?
This morning’s passage has been labeled and judged the message about doubting Thomas as long as I can remember. Is that what we have reduced the Apostle Thomas to, a doubter? The Gospel says that he will not believe until he can put his finger in the holes of Jesus’ hands and put his hand in the side of Jesus’ pierced body. Is that all there is to this story about Thomas. I will have to admit that for years I too thought and preached about how we doubt and fall short in our belief, unless it’s right in front of our face so that we are able to touch and see it. From a pastoral standpoint it makes for a sermon. What if there is more to this story than meets the eye, and I mean that literally. What if there is something about this story that we are missing? We do not remember that in John 11:16 Thomas states that “Let us go to Jerusalem and let us also go, that we may die with Him”. Does that sound like doubting Thomas? Let me also pull some thoughts on Thomas that I have picked up from watching the series “The Chosen”. It just so happens that Thomas and The Chosen came up in conversations I had with others this week. Now this isn’t Gospel, but it is possible because there is very little known about Thomas in historic writings. At the wedding in Cana, Thomas and a very close friend, did what we would call the caterers at the wedding. They witness the water turned into wine. According to The Chosen later in the story, the partner and he are engaged to be married, but she is killed. Jesus does not do a miracle healing of her, even at Thomas’ begging. Thomas is confused and heartbroken. Then Thomas sees the rise of Lazarus. This serves to confuse Thomas even more in the series. Finally, it’s not written in the Gospels that Thomas witnessed Jesus put to death on a cross, and just like the other Disciples, he did not understand. Is the series story assuring us what did happen beyond the Bible, no! Is it possible, yes. It serves to help us grasp how someone might do something that we fail to understand.
What about the disciples that doubted Mary and what she saw? Two disciples did not believe enough to take Mary at her word, they had to go see for themselves. Would we have believed any differently? What about the remaining nine Disciples, where were they on that first Resurrection Sunday? Did they doubt as well? There is not much in the Gospels that can give us a clue where they were. We are told that John, Mary Magdalene and Jesus’ mother were at the crucifixion. After Jesus’ burial the Disciples locked themselves in a room fearful that the Sanhedrin and Roman army were after them as well. We could judge, or label them as non-believers for that type of inaction.
As a society, we label people, most of the time we label people wrongly. It is because we are judgmental. Again, the only person we can be judgmental on, in any way, shape or form, is ourselves. We can only look at ourselves and decide if we are following God’s rules and laws. Disney has over the last several years been doing features on the characters labeled as villains in their earlier movies. This is to help us understand why and how they became what we judge as villains. The commentators from the UMC for today suggested that pastors focus on all the different groups that have been disenfranchised in the past by society and the church. They even went as far as to name groups and that we should accept and their beliefs. We are to give justice to those who were wronged in all civilization’s past. To a point I respectfully disagree. We are to love them as Christ does but we are to stay firm in our beliefs, unless it proven against Gospel. We do not have the ability or authority to change what happened in the past. We can only change how we personally will treat those wronged in the here and now as well as the future. You cannot correct wrongs at the expense of other individuals, which may be innocent of any wrongdoing. By that I mean you cannot serve justice to someone by creating an injustice on someone else that may or may not have been involved in the first place. To quantify that, the commentators used the reading from Revelation that all groups, no matter their beliefs, will receive justice. While it is true, justice will be served, on the day of Jesus’ return, God will serve justice to all of those on Earth. Satan will bring before God all the injustices each individual committed, all the false theology they personally held on to and shared, in hopes of receiving a conviction on that soul. However, only those who believed, confessed Christ as their Lord, waited patiently and righteously on Christ return, will receive everlasting life.
In Bible Study this week we were given the parable about the wise and foolish Virgins. They went out to wait for the bridegroom’s return. Five only took their lamps and five took their lamps and extra oil. It was a long wait and when the bridegroom was finally coming, the five who did not plan ahead, had to go back and get more oil. As a result, they did not get to attend the wedding feast. The parable warns us that we need to be prepared in our waiting and belief, for we know not when Christ will return. We also studied the passage before that told us only God knows when the return of the Son of Man will come. For just as in the days of Noah, the world was in full merriment and did not know the flood was coming until it was too late. Has the more than 2000 years since Jesus’ crucifixion influenced wrongly our believing and waiting for today? Have we gotten too caught up in merriment and self-satisfaction as the people in Noah’s time? Have we become ill prepared as the five in the parable? What about our own life experiences that has caused us to make wrong decisions in our relationship and beliefs of Jesus. Those will have an effect on our salvation, as John tells us in Revelation. May we not be among those who will mourn on His return. The good news as John tells us in the same passage, Grace and Peace can come to us who believe and wait for Jesus returning. There is Hope for all who have times of doubt in the Lord. Thomas was blessed by the Lord because he had seen, we are the ones who will be blessed even though we have not seen. We need to be steadfast in our believing, while we diligently wait for the return of the Son of God.
