Title: This is faith

Jesus said, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Christ is risen! Alleluia!

Thomas wasn’t any different from the rest of us. Show us the proof, and we will be on board with you. But, expect us to believe you, when what you are telling us is unlikely, improbable, or incredible? Sorry, Bub. What’s next—where’s the bridge that you really want to sell me?

So, don’t pick on Tom when he declares that he will never believe that Jesus has risen from the dead unless he sees the marks in His hands, and places his hand into Jesus’ side. Come on, who rises from the dead? Which dearly departed, among your loved ones and friends, ever departed Ramsey’s under his own steam?

It just doesn’t happen. Yet, it happened to Jesus; and it happened just as Jesus promised it would happen: after He was crucified and on the third day.

Do we see a hint of Thomas’s faith-problem in the fact that he wasn’t with the other disciples? We are told that the disciples were behind closed and locked doors for fear of the Jews. Surely, because they were Jesus’ closest friends, and since we know that the Jews were afraid that these men would steal Jesus’ body and lie that He had been resurrected, they were scared silly that they were next to be arrested, tried, convicted, and crucified.

So, why wasn’t Tom with them? We are not told, but it is fair to suspect that there was a problem, based on the manner in which John reports the details. John also is the only one who bothered mentioning that Thomas was also called Twin. But, why? We aren’t told that he had a twin. Besides, if Tom had a twin, and he was called Twin, what was his twin called?

Some commentators wonder if Thomas weren’t called Twin, and that John specifically made note of it during the telling of this event, because it indicated something about Thomas’s character. Was Thomas a two-faced person? Was Thomas easily swayed from one idea to another? When people weren’t sure how Thomas would go on a topic, would they ask, "Which Thomas am I talking to: you or your twin?"

Interesting, too, is this. As the lesson begins, it is the night of Easter—the very day of our Lord’s resurrection. Jesus’ disciples were locked up and fearing the worst. The Lord greets them, "Peace be with you." Then, He proves that it is Him, the same man whom they saw nailed to the tree. Without their asking, Jesus showed them His hands and His side.

When Jesus came to the men a week later, and being aware of Thomas’s demand, He offered His hands and side for Tom’s touch. The Lord knew what was in Tom’s heart, so He told him to stop believing, and to believe. Thankfully, Tom believed, falling down at Jesus’ feet and declaring Jesus to be his Lord and his God. Then came the familiar scolding, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

And, that, my friends, would be you, who have never seen Jesus, yet have believed. This is faith. Not seeing, yet believing. Not witnessing Jesus on the cross, yet trusting that it happened. Not touching the hands and side of His resurrected body, but trusting that He was resurrected, the same man who had been crucified.

This is faith. Even more that you didn’t witness the events of Good Friday and Easter, but that you trust that they accomplished what you have been told they accomplished, as the Holy Spirit had Paul write in Romans, that Jesus was put to death as payment for our sins and was raised from the dead so that we can stand before God and pronounced not guilty of our sins.

This is faith. You take the Lord Jesus at His Word, when He breathed on the disciples and commissioned them to forgive the sins of those who repent and retain the sins of those who don’t, that when your called pastor forgives your sins in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, this forgiveness is just as sure and certain as if Jesus, Himself, spoke it.

This is faith. As Jesus charged the disciples to go to the ends of the earth, baptizing all nations and teaching them everything that He commanded them, that when your called pastors baptized you and your children, that baptism gives what the Word of God promises: rebirth and renewal in the Holy Spirit, union with Jesus Christ, and the forgiveness of sins.

This is faith. As Jesus blessed the bread and wine at His Last Supper, and bid the disciples to do the same in remembrance of Him that, when your called pastors bless the bread and wine, Jesus continually fulfills His promise, providing His real presence in, with, and under our own bread and wine so that you eat and drink His gift of forgiveness, and receive the strengthening of your faith which moves you to fervently love one another as He loves you.

This is faith. You take the Bible as the Word of God. You trust that it fulfills for you what it promises: it teaches you who God is, who you are, and how you have eternal life in Jesus Christ.

This is faith. As you grow in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you grow in the Law of Jesus Christ, to love one another as He loves you.

Your faith in Christ informs you that you don’t treat each other as you want them to treat you in order to win points with God, but you treat others as you want them to treat you because you have the love of Christ living in you.

Your faith in Christ strengthens you that you don’t have to do good things to earn salvation, but rely on His good work on the cross as your entire paycheck, despite how you are surrounded in this world by every other religion which says exactly the opposite.

This is faith, letting Jesus do everything for you. This is faith, remaining passive in this salvation relationship. This is faith, not believing that coming to church wins you favor with God the Father, not believing that doing good toward others chalks up more and more points to your eternal account.

This faith. Living a life of love, for love’s sake, not for any other sake. The Holy Spirit has brought you to know that the entirety of your life is a gift, thus you are never in a position to make a single demand. You are always in a spot of receiving from God, and you are always in a spot of receiving from your loved ones, friends, community, workplace, and government.

The daily bread things that you receive for this earthly life are the physical picture of the spiritual things that you receive for eternal life. This is faith, to trust that this is so.

You don’t demand to see. You don’t demand to touch. You don’t demand to do anything more than what the Lord has promised you to believe Him—to take Him at His Word that, as He promises you, it is so.

Jesus Christ is God. He is faithful. He is trustworthy. He has to be, because He is God, but also because what He is asking you is what Thomas was asked: to believe the unlikely, the improbable, the incredible.

See, no other religion has it, because no other savior has done it. Only Jesus Christ met death and defeated it. Thus, through the gift of faith, you fall at Jesus’ feet and declare Him to be your Lord and your God—without seeing Him until after your death—because of the good news of Easter: Christ has risen! Alleluia! Amen.