Pastor Jonah preached John 20:24-29. He said that Jesus is not found in the right places; he’s found in the honest ones. Lector: Lisa Tant
Pastor Jonah preached John 20:24-29. He said that Jesus is not found in the right places; he’s found in the honest ones.
Lector: Lisa Tant
Would you rather someone tell you what you want to hear…or be honest?
Likely depends on what you want…if you just want to get something out of someone, probably just what you want to hear.
But…if you want a relationship, you want honesty.
Not just the kind of honesty that says something true, but that says something real
Because relationships require something real.
Here’s an example. Your spouse asks you why you came home so late from work.
They say truthfully say, “I went chick fil-a for dinner.”
But what if they went to chick-fil-a because they just got fired and were too scared to come home? Or because they were meeting with their ex? Or because that’s where their drug dealer met them?
We can all feel it when someone tells us what we want to hear, or when we tell people what we think they want to hear. But saying something true is not the same as saying something honest.
And if what we’re after is intimate, healthy relationship, we have to become honest.
The story for us today is honest. A man named Thomas doesn’t do what we might expect, or what we might expect Jesus would want. But he does something honest.
Thomas’ name means “twin” and he’s pretty straight laced
During their last meal together, Jesus says he’s going to go away.
But also thathe will come back and so they can all be together.
He says to them in John 14:4 “you know the way to where I’m going.”
He started this section by talking about trust. Trust me, he said to them.
Trust is the foundation of all relationships. That’s what Jesus is after here.
Trust me, you know the way. What Thomas says next is not what we would expect.
But it’s honest:
“No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
-John 14:5
Don’t say that Thomas! Where’s the faith or trust there? It’s not here.
Instead, we see honesty. Trust and honesty are the heart beat of relationships.
Jesus has a relational invitation: trust me. Thomas has a relational response: honesty
Jesus responds by saying “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
He’s saying you want to know the way? You want to find TRUTH? Life? It’s me.
Perhaps he’s subtly affirming Thomas’ honesty here, knowing you’ll never find the real truth of a matter without honesty.
A beautiful, timeless conversation…but we know what happens next.
Jesus is arrested. Peter denies him. A sham court tries him. Roman guards beat him.
Cruel soldiers crucify him. Heart broken friends bury him.
What do you think was going through Thomas’ head?
Three days later, his friends find an empty tomb. His friend Mary actually sees Jesus.
Which brings us to today’s text:
That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders.
-John 20:19
10 of the remaining disciples are HIDING in fear AFTER the resurrection!
But a failure of nerve cannot keep Jesus from the ones he’s after.
He… teleports?.. into the room. Look how v. 19 continues:
Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said.
-John 20:19
If you imagine Jesus teleporting behind the lock door of your life, what do you think he would say?
If he suddenly was standing behind the wall of the things you think he wants you to say…what would he find? What might he say?
“Shalom” he says to them. Peace. Wholeness. Hope.
A word of comfort/encouragement.
He showed them his wounds as if to say, “it’s me. It’s really me.”
He breathed on them, filling them with the Holy Spirit, forgiving their sins.
Beautiful. Absolutely stunning.
Is there a part of you, though, that is thinking “yeah but…”
Isn’t there at least a tiny part in the back of your head that finds this hard to believe?
Teleportation? Supernatural Holy Spirit breath? Forgiveness of all their sins?
I mean…”shalom” is the first word Peter hears out of Jesus’ mouth since his betrayal!
If we’re being honest, not correct, but honest…it can be hard to believe.
So, right on time, we get another dose of realism from Thomas
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 fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”
-John 20:24-25
Jesus teleported in! He showed us his wounds! He’s alive!
You can feel the exasperation in Thomas’ voice. Ten of them are lying? Really?
Plus Mary? But again…Thomas says what we don’t expect from a disciple of Jesus…but he says what we would all be thinking!
He’s honest. I won’t believe unless.
And then nothing happens. Silence. No teleportation, no word of peace.
Look at this little detail in v. 26…
Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them.
The doors were locked.
-John 14:26
Eight days later…Eight days of silence. And they’re still locking the doors.
Thomas had 8 days of silence. And the other disciples were just as scared as before.
As far as I can tell, the Bible doesn’t say why Thomas was called “twin”, or who his twin was.
But the more I think about it, the more I try to put myself into this story, I think I know who his twin is. I think it’s me. I think it’s you.
I see myself most clearly in Thomas. I hear the stories, I see what’s happened in my friends’ lives, and I’m skeptical. I wish it was me.
I see myself in Thomas in another way…it was Thomas, too. Not just his friends.
For three years. He saw the miracles. He was with Jesus. But it wasn’t enough.
I’ve seen miracles. I’ve been a witness to the power of God…but I am Thomas’ twin.
It wasn’t enough for the other disciples locked in their room, either.
They saw Jesus, see his wounds…and keep locking their doors!
Thomas didn’t say the right thing in all of this. But he was honest.
Do you ever feel like your whole life has been 8 days of waiting?
Maybe some of you have spent years trying to cover that up with right answers instead of honest ones.
Jesus is after a relationshipp, though. He’s after you.
He doesn’t want you to say the things you think he wants to hear. He wants you.
Think about the way we pray…how many Father Gods do you put in there?
Can you imagine talking to your spouse or a friend that way?
Certainly, there’s a degree of reverence and awe that is appropriate.
But why do we pray so weird?
I think a lot of us say what we think we’re supposed to say, but we’re not honest.
Maybe that’s why god can still seem like a stranger after decades of praying.
It can’t be real if we can’t be honest.
I wonder what might happen if we stopped calling him Doubting Thomas, and started calling him Honest Thomas.
I wonder what might shift in us if, every so often, we put down the pressure of being right and tried instead to be honest.
Honest with God, honest with our close friends like Thomas is here.
What might happen?
Well, eight days later, Jesus teleported into a locked room.
Again, he says Shalom, and now, he invites Thomas in. Close enough to touch him.
Thomas cries out in faith, “my lord my God!” And listen to what Jesus says.
You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.
-John 20:29
Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.
Same word used in the beatitudes…means fully human, whole, alive.
Those who experience shalom…we are better off than honest Thomas.
But how can that be? Two ways forward for us to learn to live this way.
First, make space for honesty.
There must be space in the way you pray, in the way you talk to friends, in the way you journal…whatever you do…there must be space for honesty.
TRUTH is one of our core values as a church. It’s hugely important. But listen now:
If there’s no space in your life to tell it like it is, for honesty, you’ll never arrive at truth.
If you can’t take a break from saying what should be, and start saying what is, you’ll never come to the one who is the way, the truth, and the life.
He’ll be an idea for you, not one closer than a brother, not a wonderful counselor, not a prince of peace or an empowering presence. Jesus will remain for you an idea.
Be like Honest Thomas at least some of the time.
Take a cue from the psalms and pray something that isn’t true from time to time.
Pray something honest from time to time. It can even be small. You know what I do when it’s raining and I’m going to target and I’m tired and fussy?
I pray for a good parking spot. Is that right? I don’t know. But it’s honest.
It’s as honest as my kids wanting to buy a pony or move into a castle.
I’m glad my children feel the freedom ask things that are honest, and so is our Father.
Second, expect Jesus to show up where he’s not supposed to
Think about where he shows up. Behind locked doors, touching lepers, praising protstitues, dining with drunks, and teaching tax collectors.
Whe God came near, he didn’t come where we thought he was supposed to
He came to the honest ones.
He came to the people and places where there was no pretense or pretending.
Which means when we are honest, we’re in Jesus’ favorite place.
He won’t often be where we would expect, in the shoulds and ought-tos.
He won’t often be in the holy sounding prayers. But he’ll be there in the honest ones.
And every week, we get a reminder of what this means.
Jesus shows up for us every week in something real and something honest.
In bread and wine. Simple, unexpected elements.
Here, we can see the holes in his hands, feel the hole in his side, see his body and blood…Jesus is not found in the right places, he’s found in the honest ones.
COMMUNION