John 20:19-31
“Questions”
April 24, 2022
The late great actress Ruby Dee was known to say, “The greatest gift is not being afraid to question” so here goes:
Are we on the verge of WWIII?
What is the fate of this earth that we’re supposed to be stewarding and taking care of and what more should I be doing?
Will we find a long-term safe way to live with COVID?
What will it take to bridge the great divide in our nation?
How many tries will it take me to get the answer to tomorrow’s Wordle game? Okay that one was just an attempt to lighten the mood a bit.
Every great teacher I’ve had in life knew and exercised the power of asking questions.
There was never a more dull and uninstructive approach to learning than a teacher who just rambled on with tons of information and then pretty much expected verbatim regurgitation in order to get an A in the class.
My best teachers were the ones who insisted on engaging us by asking questions that forced us to figure out how we were going to solve a problem or questioned us on how and why we would respond to the same issue that a historical figure had or took us on a journey of the imagination in figuring out all the possible solutions and together encouraging us to narrow down the options before we arrived at a solution.
Question-asking is definitely one of Jesus’ most powerful teaching tools and not just for the students right there in front of him but for those of us who are trying to learn from Jesus 2000 years later.
Jesus was not about passing out answers but, rather, he was the king of questions – by a long shot.
In the Gospels, Jesus asks a total of 307 questions while he is asked just 183. And of those 183, he only answers 3 of them.
Here in John’s Gospel, the tomb is found empty, and Jesus has appeared first to a crying Mary Magdalene after seeing the two angels.
They ask her why she’s crying and then Jesus follows up with the same question.
Her tears are dried when Jesus calls her by name.
She goes and tells the disciples, except one of them is missing.
Thomas may have drawn the short straw and it was his job to go rustle up some food for his scared friends who were busy hiding.
We have no way of knowing how terrified Thomas may have been, looking around every corner with worry or maybe he was the brave one.
Thomas missed Jesus’ big reveal and had to learn about it secondhand, so all he wants is proof that his friends really have “seen the Lord.”
Maybe he’s more of a hands-on learner – needing not just to hear about Jesus’ return but to actually experience it in order to process what had to be unbelievable news.
And Jesus offers Thomas a very hands-on response – look at the scars in my hands…go ahead, poke your finger right there in my side.
Notice, though, that Jesus does not criticize how Thomas’ processes this information that informs his faith.
Throughout history doubt has seemed for many to mean disbelief.
But that’s not what Jesus is doing here.
One writer points out that Thomas just wanted a “firsthand experience of the risen Christ” and Jesus complied and appeared to him.
If we don’t read those words of Jesus as Jesus condemning Thomas than all that Jesus is pointing out first with the question is that those of us who don’t have a firsthand experience of the Risen Christ also are blessed.
He isn’t condemning the ones who yearn, like Thomas for the hands-on experience. (Marcus J. Borg, Jesus: Uncovering the Life Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary)
Jesus’ question is a way of assuring that all future generations who won’t be eyewitnesses to his resurrected bodily self, are still included by virtue of a faith that gets its assurance by the experience of the ones who were there.
While we were not there in body, and yet, here we are in faith begs the question – how do we see the spirit of the Resurrected Jesus among us here in our current world in 2022?
Jesus with his question is teaching his disciples that they should not rely too heavily on signs and wonders because he wants those that are his followers to have a faith that can be sustained even when they don’t “see” anything remarkable or even those times when what they see before them is dismal, tragic, or seems hopeless.
What are we to do with the amazing miracle stories including Jesus’ physical resurrection from the dead?
We can be both awed and ask questions about what is possible and what is seemingly impossible.
Thomas, rather than getting a bad rap, speaks for so many of us in his questioning.
And he has done the challenging Jesus routine before.
In that reading that so often is a source of comfort at funerals, Jesus describes the preparation for the disciples of the house with many rooms as he gets them ready for his departure from them.
It’s Thomas that asks, “Lord, we do not know where you are going, how can we know the way?”
And Jesus answers Thomas with those famous words,
“I am the way and the truth and the life.”
Another reason not to sell Thomas short is the fact that amid all the praise and adoration heaped upon Jesus by his disciples, it is only Thomas who really gets who Jesus is and makes the true declaration of faith with his words, “My Lord and My God!”
Easter continues and Thomas shows us that we didn’t have to be there at that first Easter.
We weren’t there and Jesus is showing us with a question followed by a blessing that we still get to be a part of his work.
We get to continue to ask, “How are we going to continue to carry on the Jesus story?”
Our lives will be the answer. Amen.