Easter 2 B
Newborn Thomas
John 20:19-31
12 April 2015 – Redeemer
What does a newborn baby need above all else? A mother and a father. Secular folks might argue with me, but God doesn’t miraculously deliver children into our lives. To conceive a child requires a woman and a man because God’s will is that children are raised by a man committed to being a father and husband and a woman committed to being mother and wife. God does not delight in the plight of orphans that is why from the very beginning He commanded His people to care for those in and from broken families.
Thomas isn’t even a newborn. He’s an unborn, not yet born into faith in the resurrection. Jesus Christ is newborn from the grave and He has the life that Thomas needs. Jesus is breathing again and Thomas needs that breath of God, like Adam in the Garden, needing that breath of life to be brought to life.
On the Historic Church Calendar today is called “Newborn Baby” Sunday. That title comes from the first words of the Introit, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation.”
In his unbelief Thomas is an orphan. He’s all alone, as alone as the women on their way to the tomb. Thomas heard the reports of Good Friday – there were plenty of witnesses to the crucifixion of Jesus. He believed them when they saw water and blood flowing from Jesus’ side, when his body twitched for the last time and then went still in death. He knew the horrors of the Roman cross and believed the certainty that dead is dead – the stone in front of the tomb sealed that fact.
Where does a dead god leave you? It isn’t hard to answer my question. Have you ever set your heart upon something? A girl, a car, a split-level house with a three car garage, a goal at work, a promotion, a certain balance in your portfolio, and then whatever it was – the “god” you hoped in, died. That girl, maybe even your wife, left you for another guy. That split level dream house ended in a nightmare when you miscarried a child or lost one of your children before he reached his dreams. The market crashed, right after you decided to retire.
Thomas had witnesses that confirmed the death of his God, this Jesus of Nazareth, who wasn’t some phony god like money or family or fortune. This guy claimed to be the real deal – God in the flesh, the Son of the Father, the Word of Life. The Roman spear said “Dead.” The Blood and Water proclaimed, “Dead.” The tomb and stone “Dead.”
But that had all changed. Jesus isn’t dead. He is risen and Thomas needed to know and have and breath in this life of Christ. Thanks be to God Thomas had a Father who desired to adopt him and a mother through whom he would receive this life from Christ. God the Father made life known to Thomas through His Son Jesus. Saint John tells us this in the Epistle – the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. Now there’s a word there that isn’t too familiar to us – that word “manifest.” You may have heard of a shipping manifest – it’s a piece of paper that reveals or tells you what’s in the box or crate that you just received. A manifest reveals what is hidden from your eyes. How is our Father (whom we cannot see) made manifest to us? Through His Son. How is the life that our Father has and we desire and need made manifest to us? Through His Son. God has made manifest His love for us in this – while we were yet sinners Christ Jesus died for our sins. God made manifest His desire to adopt us as His dear children in this – that He forsook His only begotten Son at the cross. Think how hidden God’s love is – hidden in the flesh of a little baby born in Bethlehem, hidden in the suffering of a convicted but innocent criminal on a cross, hidden in the Father damning His Son in our place.
Life was even more hidden for Thomas because he skipped church on Easter Sunday. (He wanted to catch those last big sunfish before the ice went out.) On the evening of that day, the first day of the week (Easter Sunday) the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, he showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when He said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.”
The hidden reality, what was now manifest in the upper room is that the 10 had never been abandoned or orphaned. Jesus had done all this for them. Jesus gave up His Spirit at the cross and breathed His last so they could breath forever. Like a newborn baby taking its first breath – Jesus breathed into His men their first breath of real life – the breath of sins forgiven, the breath of the Holy Spirit giving life. With that breath He also ordained them to bring His life to sinners, by forgiving their sins, and the first person they thought of was Thomas. Thomas hadn’t been at the family table. Thomas had not yet received life from the Risen Jesus.
So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” This is simply what the Church does. She, like a mother, reaches out to the orphans. She speaks the Words of Jesus, the revelation of the Father, so that she might give that life to others. But Thomas said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, I will never believe.”
Do you remember that word “manifest”? Thomas wanted to see the resurrection manifest. He wanted to behold the risen flesh of Jesus Himself. That is what he needed to no longer be an orphan. Thankfully the Holy Spirit led Thomas to go where Jesus makes Himself manifest. The next Sunday Thomas was in Church. And there he was born from above into faith – by the Word and presence of Jesus. “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”
Very few people were given what Thomas was given. By Biblical accounts about 520 people saw the risen Jesus in His flesh. That’s still plenty of eyewitnesses, but for us today – Jesus is not made manifest to our eyes. When we are born from above in the waters of baptism – there is nothing manifestly different about us – except what God says in His Word. We have died to sin and risen with Christ and God is your Father. When the Holy Spirit breathes the life of forgiveness into you through absolution you may not feel any different, but you are – by that forgiveness you are alive forever and certainly rising from the dead. When you sit down at Lord’s table – all that is manifest to your eyes is bread and wine, but the Lord’s word makes manifest to your ears that this is the risen body and blood of Christ, a living food from heaven that bestows forgiveness and life.
All of this is given by Your Father in heaven through your mother on earth – through the Church, so that you may know and believe – you have not been left alone. God has not forsaken you. Jesus isn’t dead. He is risen and breathing and by His breathing again you know your sins are forgiven. He gathers you into His family by the birth of your baptism so that you can be nurtured by His Word and fed by His Supper. You are not an orphan. You are a child of your heavenly Father, born and raised and fed through the church, you mother if you will. And all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
11 April 2015 anno Domini