Believe Without Proof

Transcript

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[0:00] Thank you, Clark. As you probably remember, the first reading is just our lectionary text for this day because we're not preaching through the lectionary. But I like that passage from Luke. That's kind of Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount, except it's sort of on a level play. So it's the Sermon on the Plain. But there are some themes that are sort of echoes of the Sermon on the Mount there. And it's a good word, isn't it? Especially about loving your enemies and not judging people or condemning them.

[0:28] It's a good one. All right, let's take a look. Our sermon text is John 20. It's verses 24 through 31. And just a few words of introduction. This is our third week of the book study. And we're going to see chapters 3 and 4 today. We'll look at a little bit. And just to recap, chapter 1 was kind of about unsolicited prayer and unscientific remedies that were being offered to our author. And the major theme there was that there's a distinction between cure and healing. And I'm hoping we'll see more of that in the future. And then chapter 2 was about discrimination, both legal and illegal. And the major theme there was that the church has a problem with fully including disabled people. It either doesn't want them present or it wants to section them off out of sight. And that's not how the church needs to be. So that was a good word. And today our passage is referred to by the author in chapter 3. So I'm always trying to preach from a text that our author is kind of pointing us towards. So this is often called the story of doubting Thomas. And this is a text we often see in the season of Easter about how blessed it is to believe without first seeing. So let's go to our reading. John chapter 20, starting with verse 24.

[1:43] One of the twelve disciples, Thomas, nicknamed the Twin, was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, we have seen the Lord. But he replied, I won't believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them and place my hand into the wound in his side.

[2:06] Eight days later, the disciples were together again. And this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked, but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. Peace be with you, he said. Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don't be faithless any longer. Believe.

[2:31] My Lord and my God, Thomas exclaimed. Then Jesus told him, you believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me. The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him, you will have life by the power of his name. Let's pray.

[3:02] Father, thank you for your word. And we ask that you would add your blessing to it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, let's start by looking at the Bible text. And we should say that the center, just remember how important this is, the center of the church's witness was that Jesus was raised from the dead. Without the resurrection, there's none of this, you know, makes any difference. In fact, the apostle Paul says that if Christ is not raised, then we of all people are most to be pitied. But Christ was raised, the first fruits, right? So the witness about Jesus being raised from the dead is very important. The eyewitness accounts of him being raised. So the first person to see Jesus alive after his death was Mary Magdalene. And then most of the disciples. And then, as we are told, hundreds of other people saw Jesus alive after that, before he died. Before he was taken up into heaven in the ascension. So this is no small thing. The resurrection proves that everything that Jesus said about himself is true. So without the resurrection, the whole thing falls apart. But it also validates. All the things he said, I and the Father are one. He says that in the Gospel of John. People could be skeptical about that. But raising somebody from the dead, that's pretty good proof.

[4:18] You say, okay, I can believe all the other things he said. And it's not just the past things that were true. All the prophecies in the Old Testament about him were true. But all the future things that he talked about are also going to be true. So the resurrection is super important, right?

[4:37] So that's why I think we would take time on a question like this of Thomas. He didn't see it, so he didn't believe. But it's so important that he believe. And it's so important that he see that eyewitnesses to the resurrection really do matter. So you're going to find that. And I'm going to cut Thomas a lot of slack throughout this time. And there's a good reason for that. But there's one little bonbon here. It's a wrinkle in the incarnation. And maybe you caught it. It says that Jesus appeared to the disciples even though the door was locked. Did you catch that? Like, how did he do that, right? And the implication is that he sort of materialized in their midst like Star Trek. You know, like Star Trek. I can't make that noise. The shimmering. It was better than that. He doesn't need that.

[5:23] And so the incarnate, the Jesus, the resurrected Jesus is a little bit different than the other Jesus. Because before his death, he does get out of some sticky situations. But he doesn't do it just by dematerializing and showing up somewhere else. He kind of, oh, there we go, kind of snakes his way through the crowd that was trying to throw him off a cliff and so on. So he's a little different. How else is he different? He has wounds that are open.

[5:49] And they're not healing up as a sign. This is the stigmata. This is a sign that he has been crucified. And so Thomas is able to actually probe these wounds with his fingers, right? So the post-resurrection Jesus is a little different in some important ways. But I don't have a problem with this. I think this is really fascinating. So the first time he visits, Thomas isn't with him. We all got that, right? And then when his friends tell him, he doesn't believe it.

[6:18] And so he's a skeptic. I don't think he's faith. I mean, Jesus says faith. But he's a skeptic. And I don't like calling him the doubter. So don't, we say doubting Thomas, but don't say, I mean, I would say don't say doubting Thomas. He just needs, he's kind of like he's from Missouri, right? You know, the show me state. He just wants to be, he just wants somebody to show him. Like, I'm a kind of a skeptic. I need to see it. I need to touch it, right? He's an evidence person. And I like that. I like that. I used to be an engineer. We kind of like science and observations. And maybe Thomas had like a little, like, graph paper. And he was a little bit of a skeptic. And he's like, I observed Jesus on, you know, taking notes.

[6:58] So, but so he insists. It's not just seeing. He has to touch. So there's all these senses are involved. He has to touch and feel the wounds. And then I am putting myself in Thomas' business. And I think if 10 of my closest friends, people I really trust, told me something was true, I might believe it. You know what I mean? Like, those are 10 people. 10 people. That's pretty good. 10 people. 10 really close, you know, people. But I also wonder that if there's this lingering trauma that they all had watching Jesus died, that believing that he came back is almost too good to be true. So, like, he doesn't want to get crushed, right? He doesn't, he wants it to be true, but he doesn't trust himself to believe it just yet because he doesn't want it to not be true. So I think there's a lot of emotions going on here. I'm kind of imagining what it's like to be Thomas, right? But in any case, he gets his chance. Jesus appears, proves it all to him. And this appearance then becomes this teaching point about faith because the disciples see it and they believe. And then eventually it's for everyone who sees, who reads the gospel, not without seeing Jesus. And there's that line that Victoria mentioned, and it was in our text.

[8:13] Blessed are those who believe without seeing. There's some sort of extra blessing on them in a certain way, right? Right. And this is not an indictment on Thomas because if we remember properly, this is why I wouldn't single Thomas out, is the other 10, they didn't believe it either when they heard it from Mary Magdalene. Remember?

[8:39] So they're no better than him. You know what I mean? They're no better. They're all in the same boat. They only all believed once they saw it for themselves, right? So. The, I would take away from this, this just praise for us.

[8:56] Without hurting yourself too much, pat yourself on the back because you have believed in Jesus without seeing him. Unless you've, tell me if you've seen him. I really want to hear it. But if you've touched him, that's great. But we have, we have indeed believed without seeing. And that's the kind of faith that we've been called into. And it's, it's a beautiful thing. Okay. So that's kind of a little bit about our passage. And we're going to come back to just one part of that when we get to the, the book reading. So I'm going to go to the book and I'm going to do this in reverse order because I just want to talk more about chapter three than chapter four. But I'll say something quick about chapter four. The title of that chapter is Disability Justice.

[9:33] And for the doubters that there is a problem. So we can even doubt that there's actually injustice going on, I suppose. And our author just brings facts and figures that can easily be verified. And I have no doubt that is all true, that there is legal and illegal discrimination against the disabled. That's actually happening in our society, partly as a result of some of the laws that we have, and partly from the lack of enforcement of laws that we have. Right? So there is injustice towards disabled people. And this problem isn't, this, this is, this can be addressed. This is actually something that could be worked on. Right? So there's many other injustices in the world that have been addressed.

[10:15] And some with more progress than others. So this is definitely something that can improve. So the question is, why doesn't it work? Why doesn't it improve? Right? What, has it not changed much since 1990 when the American, Americans with Disabilities Act was passed? Well, what it takes is awareness of the problem, just like anything else, and then a will to make a change. And so part of that would be to put away our disbelief that the disabled are disabled. And our disbelief that they have it as bad as they do. And our disbelief that this is a problem for anybody. Right? So I'm not accusing anybody here of disbelief, but it's, I think, it's either ignorance or disbelief. And once the awareness comes, then, then this movement for justice can take off. But it has to start with awareness. Right? So that's it for chapter four. But I want to say just a few things about chapter three now. And the name, the name of the title of chapter three is Disability Doubters. Right? And some of it strikes me as a little bit similar to, to chapter one. There's this whole host of people who seem to know what medical advice to give to total strangers. Like. Put garlic in your sock or something like that. You know, good advice.

[11:25] So there's, there's also another whole group of annoying people who have appointed themselves sort of as inspector generals over whether a person who says they're disabled is really disabled. Right? They've kind of made themselves the interrogators of disabled people. And a lot of it has to do with disabled parking. Now this, this didn't happen to me quite the same way, but it was just a funny thing. And I'm not going to say. I'm not going to say where I encountered this person, because I think some of you might have encountered them too. But it was in Mountain View.

[11:57] I was out in the open and a person came up to me and told me I was doing something wrong. And they had a little, like a sheriff's, you know, the six pointed star that with the little circles on each point, it looked like a little sheriff's star. It was on their lapel, but it was blank. And I was like, who, who is this person? Is this person a police officer? I couldn't quite tell. And they were kind of telling me. What I was doing wrong and what the laws were and how it was their job to, you know, watch everybody. And then I was like, I was like, wait, are you, are you a police officer? And they're like, no, no, but I'm just out here doing, you know, I'm just out here just making sure everybody does the right thing. And, and I was like, what, who, I don't even need to talk to you. You know, like, who are you? You're like the most annoying person I've met today. I'm sorry. Do not judge lest you be judged. Do not condemn. But it was annoying. It's like, who are you? Go home. You don't have other things to do with your life. What are you? I mean, it's like, I don't have time for, I don't have time to talk to you. And why do you have time to talk to me? And then like a week later, I saw him doing it to somebody else.

[13:06] And I almost went up to the person he was talking to and said, don't listen to him. He's not really a, he's not in law enforcement at all. He's just putting on a little fake badge. Just, you don't even have to listen to him. But then I thought, why do I need to police the fake police? Then I'd be doing his, you know, so I just. I was like, he'll figure it out. They'll all figure it out. I just went on my way. So I was like, so who are these self deputized people? Right. They're super annoying. Hate to say it. So here are the self deputized people who are interrogating our author when she parks in a handicap spot and she gets out of her car and they're like, are you really disabled?

[13:43] Prove it to me. Like, there's this, like, you have to prove to me that you really deserve that spot. And that's. Like. Like really a lack of boundaries. Right. Why would, why could you demand proof from a total stranger? That's missing all sorts of personal boundaries. And why should that person have to answer you? They don't have, actually, they don't have to answer you. And it's, it's, it's just, I think it's kind of pointing to this idea that we have all these ways of coping with disability. Right. One is to cure it with stupid cures. Right. And another is to, is to act like it's not really there. Then we feel better. Again, we're always feeling better about ourselves. And we're also putting ourselves in a position of power because we're enforcing the law. Right. So.

[14:32] There's some preconceived notion of what a disability is. And if it doesn't present itself, then the person who's parking in that spot is cheating. All right. Does anybody, I'm about to say a name, does anybody know a really famous, really, really famous handicapped person? A handicapped parking spot cheater?

[14:55] Has anyone read Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs? Nobody likes cheating. And, you know, but if somebody parks in a disabled spot and they're not really disabled, that is pretty low. I mean, we have to say that because actually they're taking a spot from somebody who needs it. Right. And we should, doesn't mean we have to go up and interrogate them, but they have to judge themselves. So.

[15:20] I don't want to get in trouble because I think they're listening. So I'm just going to actually quote an interview that, so Walter Isaacson wrote this biography of Steve Jobs. And in that biography, he talks about how Steve Jobs leased a new car every six months because the state law said that you didn't have to put plates on it for six months. And so he would just get a new car every six months, a new Mercedes. And he would park it in the handicapped parking spots. At all the Apple buildings, because it saved him time, evidently. And also, since he didn't have a license plate on it, he couldn't get a ticket for it. You know, plus this private property, I guess. Anyways, I suppose police can give tickets on private property. I don't really know. But anyway, so he did that. And then when it was time for him to get a license, he just traded in the car. So this is what.

[16:14] And why? I don't know. Because so this is what Walter Isaacson said in an interview. He said, if you were listing. Listing the 1000 adjectives for Steve, nice would not be one of them. He was his biography. I mean, Steve Jobs asked him to do his biography. So it's like he asked for that. So there's 1000 adjectives before you get to nice, which is pretty. Kindness would not be up there. I told him, why are you that way, Steve? And he said, this is who I am. This is the way I am. People say, well, he didn't put a license plate on there. He's. Sometimes. Parked in the handicapped spot or he cut in line. He actually seemed to live as if the normal rules didn't apply to him anyways. But again, he was fabulously innovative and brilliant person. So it takes all kinds, right? You know, but we have we are we have our fair share of eccentric billionaires out here in the world, don't we? That kind of do their own chart their own course. I wish it was just as relatively benign as parking in a handicapped spot, but it's not that way anymore. Okay. So that's pretty. Pretty bad. But I would I would put this.

[17:22] In the area of this is not my job. To even to challenge Steve Jobs, because what do I know? What do I know about Steve Jobs? If I saw him doing that? I don't know. He might be disabled. It's not my job to figure that out. I don't need to do that. I don't. I have better things to do with my time. Right.

[17:42] So unless they get out of their car and they like sprint to the store. But even if they do that, it's not my job. It's somebody else's job to figure that out. Right. We have people we pay. I don't need to deputize myself. Right. So we need to remember that there are all these hidden disabilities. We keep coming back to that. Right. There's hidden disabilities. I can easily imagine somebody who has a heart condition. They looked on the outside. They look just like anybody else. But their doctor has said, don't walk more than 100 steps without resting in between. You can imagine. I don't even know if that's a condition, but I can easily imagine something like that would happen. So I don't need to stop that person who's getting out of the handicaps. But I can't even imagine somebody who's going to the store and going into the store. They just may have a disability I can't even see. Right. So I can't see it and I don't need to add to their challenges. That's the thing is like they already have a challenge and then somebody interrogates them. Why do we need to add to their troubles that day? I don't think we do. So anyways, it's that was all it wasn't super heavy, but I think it's time for the top 10 list. Okay.

[18:42] Is this everybody's favorite time? There's two top 10 list today. So I had to choose. But I'm doing chapter three's top 10 list. These are the top 10 disability denials. Sorry if I'm spoiling these for you. Okay. So it says folks say these to me when they approach me in public criticizing me for not being disabled enough. Like how that is the thing is like you need to be more disabled. Oh, do I? Is that what you want? I don't know. Okay. Number 10. Stop using your grandpa's placard.

[19:12] Number nine. Just wait until you get to my age. Then you'll really be disabled. Okay. Number eight. You're not disabled. You're differently abled or special needs or handy capable or an angel. For some reason that the angel is there. I don't get that. Seven. You rely too much on that cane.

[19:31] Number eight. Number six. I'm going in the wrong direction. Number six. Don't let your disability hold you back. Well, I thank you. But I think that was the whole point of this whole book. Okay. Number five. This is the worst one or the funniest one or the saddest one. You pick. The only thing I like about this book. I think disability is a bad attitude.

[19:50] Oh, really? In other words, like my paralysis, that's not a disability. Just my bad attitude about it. That's insane that anyone would say that. Okay. Now, the next two are kind of creepy. Sorry. Number four. You're too pretty to be disabled.

[20:11] So disabled equals ugly. I don't like where's the math there. Okay. Doesn't work out. You're too pretty to be disabled. Number three. You're too young to be disabled. Have they been to the children's hospital? I don't think so. Number two. You don't look sick. Number one. You can't be disabled with a smile like that.

[20:31] All right. So, laugh or cry. You choose. That is so messed up. I mean, I'm not going to be in disbelief. I believe that all these things were actually said. Like, I could part of you be like, oh, it's not true. It's not that bad. She's made some of those up. No, I mean, the whole thing is about believing today. I believe that all those things were said to her. She's just good at remembering them and writing them down. You know, that's really good. Okay. We're done, pretty much.

[21:01] Let's pull this all together. Let's go back to our scripture. Thomas wants proof, and people harassing the disabled want proof. But there are different proofs. Okay? Bear with me. It's as simple as this. It's proving good news versus proving bad news. Thomas doesn't want to get his hopes up. His doubt can only be lifted by good news. Jesus is actually, you know, risen. But the deputies, let's call them, their doubt can only be lifted by bad news, which is a very common theme throughout all this. You're not disabled enough. I need you to prove to me that you're disabled. Then I feel better about myself for judging you. I don't really know. So, um, they're missing all sorts of boundaries, and it's a very common theme throughout this. So I think the takeaway is clear. As Christians, we believe without seeing.

[21:56] Wait a second. How did everything get so messed up here? What have I done? There it is. So all, so we, like I said, congratulate yourself for believing without seeing. You believe in Jesus. You haven't seen him. You haven't heard him. All the author is asking us to do is that we be open to people with disability and believe them even if we can't see what the disability is, right? So just translate that faith to their disability and say, I don't have to, you don't have to prove it to me. And let's respect their privacy and not make them prove that they're disabled and their day may be hard enough as it is, and it's part of treating them as fellow human beings, which is where this is all heading. Let's pray.

[22:39] Father, thank you again for your word. your word. Thank you for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thank you for our author who's put these challenging thoughts all to paper for us, and we pray that you would teach us through it. And we ask it in Jesus' name.