It Starts with Trust

Based on John 20:19-31

My heart goes out to those disciples. They found themselves in a situation that must have felt way over their heads. Three years before they were leading ordinary lives. But now they find themselves gathered together behind locked doors in fear of their lives. And they weren’t sure what their next move would be. Should they lay low until people moved on from the scandal of Jesus who claimed to be the messiah but now was crucified and buried? Should they make a break for it and scatter to the winds, live in hiding? It must have been a scary time.

But then things got even more intense. Jesus appears before the disciples. Locked doors would not keep him from standing in their midst. He makes it clear to them that although he can just show up, materialize out of thin air, that he is not a ghost. He still possesses a body. He eats fish in front of them. He really is alive! And then he says to them, “Just as the Father sent me, so I send you.” And he breathes on them, just like how God breathed on Adam and Eve back in Genesis, making them alive. Something deep is happening here, like some kind of new creation or something. The Spirit of Life is being blown into their bodies. The disciples are commissioned and empowered to go out into the world to continue what Jesus started. Of course, as we learn, Thomas wasn’t there for some reason and missed the whole thing. He had to deal with the rest of the disciples talking about all this and feeling frustrated that he missed it. It didn’t help that he refused to believe them unless he could see Jesus for himself. That’s showing quite a lack of trust in his fellow disciples. Did he think they were making all this up? Why would they lie to him? Well, after all, what happened was a mind-blowing experience.

There is so much here to take in. In fact, there’s too much to include in one sermon. I want to zero in on what Jesus did to prepare his disciples to get out of that room with the locked doors and into a world that was not safe to continue the work of reconciling the world to God.

First, let’s consider the mission that Jesus gives the disciples. He said to them, “Just as the Father has sent me, so I send you.” This is where the link is made, where the disciples are invited in to join this great work. What again did the Father send Jesus to do? John 3:16-17 gives the answer. God loved the world so much that God gave the Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. God sent Jesus into the world to save the world. How is the world saved? Those who believe in Jesus will not perish but have eternal life. It is all about believing that Jesus is the Son of God. Those who believe are reconciled with God. Their sins are forgiven. This is the big mission. God wants to be reconciled with humanity. The reconciliation is made possible by believing that Jesus is the Son of God.

So, while Jesus was going about his life, he demonstrated in all kinds of ways that he is the Son of God, from turning water into wine, to raising Lazarus from the dead, to rising himself from the dead and now standing before the disciples eating fish. And the next week, when Thomas sees Jesus for himself, he falls to his knees and says, “My Lord and my God!” That’s the confession of truth that saves, that forgives sins and reconciles people with God, believing that Jesus is who he says he is.

Now, he is going back to heaven. Somebody has to keep talking about Jesus, bearing witness to who he is so that others can come to belief and be reconciled with God. That’s where the disciples come in. Jesus is commissioning them to go and tell what they have seen and heard. But it’s not just about testifying. When Jesus gave them the commandment to love one another just as he loves them, he said the world will know they are his disciples because of their love for one another. It’s more than talk. It is their love for each other that will draw people in. Talk and action go together in this work they are being commissioned to do.

Now that all sounds great. But the disciples are going to need some assistance because the world behind those locked doors is not a safe place. Jesus himself was mocked, beaten and crucified. It would be foolish for the disciples to go out there and think that people will come around and accept the truth of Jesus. To be honest, most people will likely be like Thomas. If you can’t show me Jesus, then all I’m hearing is a delusion or a made up story. No one is going to take these disciples seriously. How will anyone believe them? On its face, what Jesus is commissioning them to do seems like a fool’s errand.

Jesus supports them in two ways. First, he breathes on them the Spirit of God. The very Spirt of God now dwells in their souls. It’s like they have been born anew. They are qualitatively different because of the indwelling of the Spirit. They are possessed by the Spirit just as Jesus is possessed by the Spirit. In a way they have become colleagues with Jesus. They are possessed with the same Spirit, the Spirit of Life. This is what is going to make it possible for them to get out there into a disbelieving world and witness to what they have experienced even as they love one another as Jesus loved them.

The second thing Jesus does is give them peace, that is, an inner peace. When Jesus gave them peace, that does not mean that their lives are peaceful. Far from it. These disciples, when they leave the room with the locked doors, are going to be as lambs among wolves. They will experience a lot of abuse. Many of them will be killed. All of them will be laughed at and not taken seriously. There will be nothing peaceful about their lives. Yet, they will have an inner peace in the midst of the chaos. Maintaining that sense of inner peace, as they love one another, and as they bear witness to what they have experienced of Jesus, this all adds up to a powerful witness. And although there will be plenty of people who will not believe what they are saying about Jesus, there will be those who will be moved by their peacefulness, their love, and their unrelenting firmness that what they are saying is true. Those people who will come to believe in Jesus because of their witness, not because they saw Jesus for themselves, will be blessed indeed.

How did you come to believe in Jesus? Who bore witness in your life? I was blessed to have so many people early in my life tell me about Jesus. But what they told me wasn’t just information. It wasn’t about making arguments to prove to me that Jesus was real. No, they told me about their relationship with Jesus. They spoke of how with Jesus they found meaning in life. They spoke of how much it meant to them to know that they were loved by Jesus. They spoke of a relationship. And those who told me of their relationship with Jesus were people who had a peaceable spirit about them. They were loving people. These were people that not only told me about Jesus, they loved me. They made me feel safe, accepted, wanted. As I look back on my life, it should not be surprising that I came to belief in Jesus as a teenager because by that point I had been told enough times about Jesus from people who loved me that I could trust that what they were saying about Jesus was true. I didn’t have to see Jesus for myself because I trusted those who were telling me about Jesus.

Isn’t that how we come to believe in Jesus for ourselves? At the root of it, for us to believe in Jesus we have to trust that what people are saying about Jesus is true. We have to trust them. We have to have faith that Jesus is not a fairy tale or a made up story but that there must be something to it because people have been talking about Jesus for 2,000 years. And when people who love us, who we trust, tell us about their relationship with Jesus, that can be convincing. That’s how the work continues: when people who have come to believe in Jesus bear witness to their belief with a peaceable spirit and in the context of expressing love for others.

Here is our challenge. As we make our way in this world, can we commit to be a people known for our love? It seems to me that before we can have a platform to tell others about Jesus we need to first establish that we are safe and trustworthy. It is by cultivating that peaceable spirt in the midst of the chaos of life that helps set us up as trustworthy witnesses of Jesus. It also requires expressing love. People are more apt to trust you, listen to you, believe you, if you are a loving person. And people can tell if your love is authentic or if you are being manipulating or fake. Love can’t really be faked. So, you see, for us to continue the work that Jesus started, we have our own work to do. We need to nourish the capacity to hold an inner peace in the midst of chaos. We need to authentically love others. All of this lays the foundation from which we may have the opportunity to bear witness to how we have come to believe in Jesus.

Just know that this is not something you are meant to do by yourself. The disciples were gathered together when Jesus came. He didn’t sidle up to each disciple one by one. He commissioned while they were gathered together. This is a group activity and not a solo effort. We are gathered as a community of faith so that we can help each other develop the capacity to receive that peace that Jesus gives us, and so that we can assist each other in loving well. The work of bearing witness to Jesus is something we do together. Yes, you will have one on one conversations. But never forget that you belong to the community of believers. We are all in this together.