That Word Creates Trust

A Sermon on John 20:19-31 for the Second Sunday of Easter, Series B, 2024

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Trust is a difficult thing to find in this world. I’m not talking about the word ‘trust,’ because that’s everywhere. The most trusted name in news, the most trusted name in real estate, the most trusted name in plumbing, we put that word on every slogan and motto in the world. It means nothing. I claim to be better than that guy. But when I call that guy a lying monster who wants to destroy your children, it turns out the bar of being more trustworthy isn’t very high. So while we hear more about trust now than we ever have in our lifetimes, nobody actually gives any trust, nor are there that many who have shown themselves worthy of such trust. 

Contrary to what you may have experienced in your life, this is not a new problem. In the 1600’s, a philosopher named René Descartes tried to fix the problem of what could be trusted by seeing what could withstand extreme amounts of doubt. Even your senses could all be a delusion, if what they perceived were controlled by a malicious, evil demon. And that idea was the entire plot of the 1999 movie The Matrix. Turns out the only thing Descartes could ever be sure of was the fact that he existed, because doubting his own existence proved that he did, in fact, exist. Otherwise, who was the one doing the doubting? He penned the famous words, “I think, therefore, I am,” rendering unto himself the name of the Lord Almighty, Creator of all things. But at least you can say he believed in himself.

The problem with all this is that people are built by God to believe in something. To trust something. We want to believe things, but we have been burned so many times. The products we trust are changed to garbage. The politicians we trust sell us out. Sometimes, the people we love and trust the most betray us. And that hurts.

I really think Thomas wants to believe. It would be amazing to know that Jesus had risen from the dead. And it’s not like he didn’t have reasons to believe. Thomas saw Lazarus rise from the grave, even after commenting that they were all going to die if Jesus went. Thomas saw Jesus raise the son of the widow from Nain. It’s not like resurrection isn’t already on the table. Perhaps Thomas heard the lies told by the soldiers after being paid by the chief priests. Perhaps Thomas was upset that he was the only one who went out looking for Jesus when news the grave was empty first came. Surely if Jesus had risen, Thomas would have found Him, because Thomas was the only one of the disciples brave enough, and worthy of seeing Jesus’ resurrection. 

But whatever reasons we may give, the fact remains that Thomas refused to believe. “Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, and place my hand into His side, I will never believe.” There is no promise attached to the scars of Jesus. Touching those places has no special power in them. Thomas wants to be able to convert himself, make himself believe. But in an untrustworthy world, would touching the scars really convince anyone? Nevertheless, Thomas insists.

And in this, we get to see who our Lord really is. Jesus enters despite the closed door. Whether the closed door of the room or the closed door of Thomas’ heart. Our Lord does not ask, “Why did you abandon me that night?” Or, “Why did you refuse to believe?” He simply takes the bruised reed, the faintly flickering light that is Thomas, and gives Thomas the faith that Thomas could not create himself. “Put your finger here.” “Put out your hand.” Not because doing so will let you create that faith and that trust. But I give it to you, because I am here, and have spoken to you this Word: Believe.

We are taught in our catechisms, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.” That’s what happens here. Just one week before Thomas, [Jesus] breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And He did not stop there. Jesus says in the same breath, “If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven.” 

Jesus gently bears with Thomas’s unbelief. And by His Word, forgives Thomas of the most dangerous of sins. The Holy Spirit no where promises to work outside the Word of God. But within that Word, the Holy Spirit brings Jesus to us. All Jesus’ works. All Jesus’ promises. All Jesus’ gifts. The Holy Spirit delivers them to us by revealing that Word to us. And what does God’s Word say? It’s all about Jesus. All about His death. His resurrection. The Holy Spirit creates trust through the forgiving of sins. And He puts that trust-creating Word in our mouths. 

What if Jesus had never ascended into heaven? What if He stayed on earth, and set up a place where people could gather and hear Him? What would we pay? What would we sacrifice in order to be there just once? And yet, we would hear nothing else except what we hear from every faithful pastor preaching in every faithful congregation in all the world. Your sins, which are great and many, have been forgiven in full by the death of Jesus Christ at His cross. Death, the consequence for our numerous sin, has been overcome completely through Christ’s resurrection on the third day. The devil, your enemy, who rests at nothing to torment you, has been conquered, silenced, defeated.

Even God’s own righteous wrath over the sin of the world, over your sins in particular, has been placed under the authority of the human beings that Jesus Christ has sent out. So that when a pastor says to you, “I forgive you all your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” those are Christ’s words, given at Christ’s command, and they are as trustworthy as the Lord Himself. You are fully forgiven in that Word, and the wrath of God will not fall upon you for the sins which now stand absolved. 

Our Lord then connects His Word to water, by which He baptized you. And you emerge cleansed, and clothed, and full of faith and trust. Our Lord connects His Word to bread and wine, by which He makes the body and blood of Jesus at His cross. He feeds you with that body and blood. makes a place for you at His table. Your sins are taken away. That Word does so much. Promises so much. And delivers so much. 

Can we trust such a Word? After all, our world is filled with words. And so many of those have no value to them at all. People will say anything to get what they want. And will change what they say from one day to the next. Words are so common that we treat them as though they have no value at all. But the Word of God is the power of God unto salvation. It is common, because it is that necessary. And the Holy Spirit works in that Word to create the trust, the faith, that holds onto promises such as what our Lord has made to us. Your sins are forgiven, because Christ died and rose for you. That Word creates trust. Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Thanks be to God.