"Believing the Evidence"
Sermon by the Rev. Matt Kennedy

Easter II 2006
The Church of the Good Shepherd

Emma [our four year old] has figured out that there are lots of people in her life and that when the possibility of getting in trouble rears its head those other people are a great help.

A couple of weeks ago we came downstairs to find the floor, cabinets and walls painted in various primary colors. We asked her: “Emma did you open the paints when mommy and daddy told you not to?”

“No” she said with paint all over her body.

“Then who did?”

“Aedan.”

Aedan is her two year old brother who was, in this case, most definitely the paintee not the painter.

She's recently brought her faith into the picture.

The same thing with the paints happened again this last week and we asked her again: "Emma why did you get into the paints after mommy and daddy said not to?”

“Jesus told me too.”

After this sort of thing happened a few times last week, I decided to ask her: “So Emma, is Jesus real or is Jesus pretend?”

She responded, very matter of factly, “Jesus is pretend.”

No Emma, Jesus is real. Even though you can't see him, he's real.”

Emma looked at me and laughed, “That's silly daddy.”

Last Sunday we discussed the bodily resurrection of Jesus and some of the evidence that demonstrates that the bodily resurrection is not pretend; that Jesus appearances to his disciples were not like visits from an imaginary friend.

One obstacle we dealt with was the popular objection that Emma has apparently embraced, that since the resurrection has not been duplicated it cannot be demonstrated; that since we don't see resurrections now there is no way to demonstrate or to believe that one ever took place in the past.

That's when I asked how many people had ever seen the battle of Waterloo . No one here saw it and no one can duplicate it and yet everyone believes it happened because reliable eyewitnesses wrote about it and their accounts were backed up by other eyewitnesses and the physical evidence of the battle field.

In the same way the historical fact of the resurrection can be believed because reliable eyewitnesses spoke of it and wrote of it and their testimony was backed up by other eyewitnesses and the physical evidence of the empty tomb.

All of this goes to show something unique about Christianity. People often think of faith and evidence as opposites. Faith, some say, is a blind leap into a dark chasm; believing despite what the evidence suggests.

That sort of "belief despite the facts" might work with other faiths, but not with Christianity. Ours is a faith based on evidence and history. The core event at the heart of everything we believe was the public life, death, resurrection, and ascension of a historical figure: Jesus of Nazareth. As such, it's verifiable. It can be shown to be true or false. If it's shown to be false then Christianity is all a nice show, but no one should base their life on it. I certainly wouldn't. If he didn't rise from the dead in his body, then Emma is right. Jesus is just pretend; our imaginary friend in the sky.

That's why brilliant people, stark raving geniuses, have tried to disprove the resurrection for 2000 years because if you disprove the resurrection, Christianity falls. Christianity is still here because they have all failed.

Lies don't last that long. The Truth lasts forever. The resurrection is truth.

The Christian faith is based on an event that took place in history that can be shown to be true. This is where our gospel lesson comes in this morning. People tend to misinterpret Thomas' doubt because they come to the story misunderstanding the nature of real faith. Open your bibles and look down at verse 29. “Because you have seen me, you have believed, blessed are those who have not seen me and yet believed.”

The temptation is to pull this verse out of context and say that real faith is believing something when evidence shows it not to be true. “The world is flat. I know it's flat. I have faith that it's flat.” That's not the kind of “belief” Jesus is blessing. He's not saying “Blessed are you when you believe in me despite the evidence.” He's saying “Blessed are you when believe the evidence.” That was Thomas' problem. He had enough evidence, he just didn't believe it.

First he had the word of his fellow disciples. Look at verse 25, “So the other disciples told him, ‘We've seen the Lord.'” These are the men with whom he's faced death for three years. How many have served in the military? Military training is designed to put you into survival mode: to put you through anxiety and suffering with a core group of people. This creates an unbreakable bond of trust so that when all else fails you know you can at least trust the guys next to you. After the crucifixion, all else had failed for the disciples. They were terrified and in hiding, but they were together. A deep trust-bond had formed between them. So when all 11 along with the various Mary's tell Thomas that they'd seen Jesus alive with their own eyes, Thomas' had multiple, reliable, trustworthy eyewitness accounts. He had the sort of testimony lawyers would kill for.

Second he had physical evidence, the evidence of the empty tomb. If he couldn't believe his ears he could have walked to Joseph of Arimathea's tomb where Jesus had been buried to see with his eyes. Peter and John had raced to the tomb earlier and found it empty. Thomas could have done the same. Knowing the integrity of his friends, knowing about guard detail that had been guarding at the tomb, Thomas would have been left with a real mystery. His friends wouldn't and couldn't have stolen the body. So where did it go? Today, 2000 years later, Jesus' bones have never been found. Where did they go?

Finally, Jesus told his disciples, Thomas included, that he would rise from the dead on the third day. Anne's mom is coming to visit in June. She's given us notice of this in advance. So, if she arrives on the day she's told us she will and Anne calls saying, “Hey My mom is in town,” it would be sensible of me to believe her. Jesus told Thomas and the others in advance that he would rise on the third day. Now Thomas had more than twelve reliable eyewitnesses and an empty tomb saying that what Jesus said would happen has happened.

All three of these things taken together: the witness of the disciples, the empty tomb, and the predictions of Jesus himself, gave Thomas a solid foundation to believe that Jesus had risen alive from the tomb. Thomas wasn't being asked to have blind faith, but to believe the evidence. Now we can see the point of Jesus' words. “Blessed are those who believe [the accounts of the disciples] without seeing [me].”

As more archeological and extra-biblical evidence surfaces to verify the New Testament as a reliable historical document, we moderns have more evidence than Thomas that the resurrection really happened without seeing Jesus' risen body.

It's totally understandable to doubt and question. But sometimes “questioning” can be used as an excuse not to see something you know is true because when you acknowledge it's true, you know you'll have to follow it.

The world has all of the evidence it needs to believe beyond a reasonable doubt that Jesus rose from the dead body and soul. But to believe that means, as we said last week, believing that Jesus is who he said he is and that all his laws, words, and promises are absolutely true.

That, I think, is one of the things that made believing the evidence hardest for Thomas. If his friends spoke the truth, then Thomas knew couldn't just go back to his old life. His life would have to change.

That's what makes it hard today. That's what makes lies like the Da Vince Code and the Gospel of Judas so popular. They make it easier to deny the evidence, suppress the truth, hide from God, and remain unperturbed by the claims of the gospel.

The fallen fear of truth, the love of darkness, gives force and energy to the world's willed doubt, its willed rejection of the light.

But there's something more to Thomas than denial.

Thomas didn't just want to hear about Jesus. He wanted to experience Jesus himself.

I went through a brief period after being persuaded that Christianity was true during which I believed it all in my mind, I had a head knowledge of Jesus, but not a heart knowledge. I knew about him. But I didn't know him. People would talk about how Jesus changed their hearts, people I trusted, but I hadn't felt that yet. And until I personally experienced Jesus I couldn't really come to faith. I think that's where most of us can sympathize with Thomas.

Faith, as you know if you come to my class on Sunday mornings has three parts. First there's knowledge. You've got to know what something is before you can have faith in it. But knowledge is not the sum of faith. You can know everything about Jesus and still not have faith. The second part of faith is belief. You can believe that Jesus rose from the dead, that he was born of a virgin, that the bible is divinely inspired and absolutely true and that will give you just as much faith as who? Satan. Satan believes all of that. Knowledge and belief are necessary but it is the third part of faith that sets Christians apart from Satan. It's the part that Thomas wanted and lacked but finally came to: surrender.

Most of you know the gospel. You know that God in Jesus Christ has come to save you from having to bear the eternal consequences of your sin by bearing them himself and dying on the cross and then rising again to give you new life. Most of you believe it to be true. But if you stopped there you wouldn't have full faith. That comes with the surrender of your heart. And that surrender comes when you experience Jesus personally. When feel that tug; that pull, that present voice in your heart saying “come to me.” Give yourself to me.” That's the risen Jesus speaking to your heart.

Jesus let Thomas put his hands on his side and feel the holes in his wrists. Jesus loved Thomas enough to let him feel him and touch him. That's what finally led to Thomas surrender, to fall to his knees and say, “My Lord and My God.”

Jesus loves you and me too and he knows that we need to experience him. So while he doesn't come to us in the flesh, he does come. He knocks on the door of your heart, you hear him and if you surrender, he comes to live there and you know him, personally. That's why conversions are tearful. Jesus lets people feel him in the deepest part of their souls. They fall to their knees and say with Thomas “my Lord and my God” and from that moment there's a personal relationship. I can't doubt that Jesus is who he says he is anymore because I know him personally. I wake up and he's there I go to sleep and he's there. I hear his voice and I see the effects of his work on my life. If you know Jesus you know exactly what I'm talking about. He's not our imaginary friend. Imaginary friends don't change lives, minds, and hearts. Imaginary friends don't change habits. The living, real, and risen Jesus does. He gives us solid evidence, but he gives us more than solid evidence, he gives us himself.

Let us pray...

Amen

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