April 27: The Second Sunday of Easter

There is a Hasidic story about a rabbi who told his students that if they studied the scriptures, the words of God would be placed on their hearts. But why not in our hearts, asked one of the students. The rabbi explained that only God can put scripture into one’s heart. But when you read and study the story of God’s love the text can be put upon your heart. When your heart is broken, that is when the words can fall inside. 

I love that image. The words of God falling into our broken hearts, filling them with God’s goodness.   

 Imagine if each time you read Scripture your heart is being wrapped up with those words, layer upon layer. God’s words: Love is patient…, the Lord is my shepherd…, In the beginning was the word…, the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed…, God saw it and it was good…, Love one another as I have loved you. 

And then when the worst thing happens, when the other shoe drops, when you stumble and fall, when it feels that you can no longer breath and your heart will simply cease to beat.  It is then as your heart breaks open that God’s words enter in. 

I have searched you out and known you…, wherever you go I will go…, Arise, shine for your light has come…, be still and know that I am God…, nothing, nothing can separate you from the love of God. 

All of these words from scripture enter in. God’s word binding up the broken hearted. 

Today we meet one disciple who begins the story broken hearted: Thomas. Let’s start off by cutting Thomas a break and not think of him today as doubting Thomas. He’s just Thomas who didn’t know just yet. He’s just Thomas who unlike his fellow disciples had not yet seen Jesus. The same disciples who were not convinced when Mary Magdalene told them the good news but only after Jesus had appeared to them. 

That’s the Thomas we are talking about today. The Thomas who said unless I see Jesus’ wounds and touch his side, I cannot understand what you are talking about. Not bad doubting Thomas who couldn’t believe without seeing. But Thomas whose heart was broken.   

Where was Thomas when Jesus visited the disciples the first time? Had they sent him out for something? Was he an introvert who couldn’t bear trying to process his emotions in a room full of people? For all we know Thomas had some indigestion and politely excused himself out of kindness to his friends. 

So, Thomas arrives back on the scene and there is big news. Jesus is alive. They have seen him. But Thomas wasn’t there. So Thomas sits with this story and his friends for a week, and my guess is that he was struggling mightily with reconciling what on earth was happening. 

Did he think back to the time he had spent with Jesus and all that Jesus had said and done? What words from Scripture ran through his mind? What words that Jesus spoke to him began to seep into his broken heart? Did he replay Jesus’s teaching on the hillside, blessed are those who mourn? Were there glimmers of hope that began to trickle into his broken heart? 

Did he remember Jesus saying to him,

“Don’t be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. My Father’s house has room to spare. If that weren’t the case, would I have told you that I’m going to prepare a place for you? When I go to prepare a place for you, I will return and take you to be with me so that where I am you will be too. You know the way to the place I’m going.” 

Did he remember asking Jesus, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?” And Jesus telling him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have really known me, you will also know the Father. From now on you know him and have seen him.” 

Are those the words that flooded into Thomas’ heart when he stood there in front of Jesus?

If you have really known me, you will also know the Father. From now on you know him and have seen him. 

“My Lord and my God.” That’s what came out of Thomas’ mouth.  My Lord and my God. Thomas declared Jesus’ divinity. HE IS GOD WITH US. He is the Alpha and the Omega.  

Then Jesus said, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” 

What if this is Jesus opening Thomas’ heart? You knew this, Thomas. You knew me. You didn’t have to see me. See, you KNOW ME. It’s the very first thing you said to me. YOU KNOW ME. Your Lord and your God. 

But I wonder, did that question of Thomas’– “How do I know the way?” —still linger for him? 

I KNOW You Lord, I know you have prepared a place for all of us.  I KNOW YOU, but I am still not certain of the way. 

That is the question that lingers for me in the post Easter days. I know you Lord, but I’m still not sure I know the way. Knowing the goodness of the Lord does not for me mean that I do not doubt. 

In his book, Alphabet of Grace, Frederick Buechner writes about being pushed to answer to his faith. To state definitively why he believes what he believes, straight. This is the question lobbed at him. 

“Have you ever had what you yourself consider a genuine, self-authenticating religious experience?” When I hear that, I hear, Have you seen something like Thomas has seen? 

To which Beuchner replies, Without somehow destroying me in the process, how could God reveal himself in a way that would leave no room for doubt?  If there were no room for doubt, there would be no room for me. 

Is there no room for doubt? I do not believe so. My Father’s house has room to spare. Is there room for doubt, room for us as we learn the way to go? Room for us to let the words of our Lord and Savior seep into the broken places in our hearts and in this world? 

Jesus came into the room for Thomas, made room for him. He didn’t leave him to simply believe what his friends had told him.   

I believe Jesus comes into the room for us, too. Makes room for us, too. 

Room for you. Room for me. Room for Cabell as she begins her ministry as a deacon of the church. Room for Preston who will be marked as Christ’s own forever today. Room for all.

Blessed are those who have not seen but yet have come to believe. 

To me sounds an awful lot like… 

Blessed are those who hang on even when it seems impossible. 

Blessed are those who struggle to know the way to the room Jesus has prepared. 

Blessed are those who make room for others. 

Blessed are those just like Thomas who find that there is room in their broken hearts for God to enter in. 

 Amelia McDaniel