Is Seeing Believing?

Text focus: John 20:19–29

This week, I was in Casper for 3 days for the Wyoming District gathering, and it was a real mountain top time. We had worship and workshops, we talked business, and we spent time in community with each other. It was a time of building relationships by learning together, lamenting together, and celebrating together. It is so easy to be filled with hope in moments like these, those times when the goal is to dream and imagine. And now I am home, as I was doing laundry and finishing my sermon last night, I realized how going back to your normal rhythms and expectations, that energy and excitement is quick to try to fade away. It was already starting to feel like those experiences were distant. I realized that it takes work to bring those moments, that energy, the hopes and dreams with you. To return to your normal and take those dreams from imagined outcomes and give us that energy from the gathering of the community and to turn them into realities.

We meet the disciples in a very similar place with today’s story.

The disciples have followed Jesus and watched and listened and dreamed as he taught them and performed miracles. Now Jesus has been crucified and those dreams are hard to hold onto. John’s Gospel takes us immediately from the wonder of Easter morning into a very different scene: a locked room. The disciples are gathered together, not celebrating, not proclaiming, but hiding. The doors are shut. The text tells us plainly, they are afraid. It becomes clear that some of that fear comes from uncertainty. The disciples were unsure of how to take all the things that Jesus had taught them, the things they now know to be true, and apply them in the real world that they live in, a place where it has proven dangerous to hold these ideas.

So they gather in a room afraid,

Afraid of the authorities.

Afraid of what comes next.

Afraid that what happened to Jesus might happen to them.

Even after hearing the news of the resurrection, fear still has a grip on them.

And maybe that feels familiar, because many of us live in that same space. Caught between resurrection hope and very real fear. We have heard the good news, but we are still unsure what it means for our lives, our world, our future. Because if we are honest, the moment of resurrection is amazing to rejoice in, but it is not always the easiest reality to live into.

Because to live into this reality means opening ourselves to something new,

and allowing for transformation in our lives. And it is into that space, into that locked room that Jesus comes.

The first words Jesus speaks are simple, “Peace be with you.”

As with the disciples in Luke’s story last week, Jesus does not approach them with correction or disappointment. He doesn’t come to them saying, “Why didn’t you believe?” He speaks first a blessing upon them. When he says peace be with you. It is not just a greeting, it’s a gift. Christ’s peace is a deep, restoring peace, one that speaks directly into fear and uncertainty.

And then, almost immediately, Jesus does something unexpected. He sends them. He gives them responsibility. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” So often in scripture, when God’s people are messing up rather than taking away a task or disciplining them in some way, God gives them greater responsibility.

Think about that for a moment. These are not disciples who have it all figured out. They are not bold or confident. They are still behind locked doors. They are not even getting it right. And yet Jesus sends them out with one of the most important tasks, sharing the good news. Which tells us something important. God does not wait for us to become fearless before calling us. God meets us in our fear and calls us to move forward through it.

Then Jesus breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” This moment echoes back to creation itself, when God breathed life into humanity. This is a moment of new creation. Something new is beginning. And with that breath comes yet more responsibility, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Now, this verse can feel uncomfortable. What does it mean that the disciples have this kind of authority? Does it mean that their grace is to replace God’s? Or that they have the power of eternal judgement, controlling who is forgiven and who is not? I don’t believe that is the intention here. In this responsibility of forgiving, they are entrusted with sharing the message of forgiveness. They are sent out to be the embodiment of the grace that they have received. They are called to live in such a way that God’s grace becomes visible in the world through them.

And here is where it connects back to fear. because when we are afraid, we tend to hold tightly to wounds.

We rehearse what was said.

We remember what was done.

We build walls to protect ourselves.

We demand that the person who hurts us demonstrate repentance, showing us that they are truly sorry.

Fear tells us that forgiveness is dangerous, bcause when we let go of those grudges, fear screams at us that we are losing control or somehow excusing the harm.

So, we stay in our locked rooms. But Jesus speaks peace into that place and then calls us to forgiveness. Not as a burden, but as a way forward.

Because when we withhold forgiveness, we don’t just hold onto pain. We often reinforce the very walls that keep us trapped. Forgiveness is not about pretending nothing happened. It is not about denying pain or forcing reconciliation. It is about refusing to let harm have the final word.

Forgiveness is about choosing to participate in God’s work of restoration and kingdom building.

This message is important and honestly could probably be the whole sermon, but I would be remiss if I didn’t recognize what was missing. Scripture tells us that Thomas was not in the room with the disciples when this happened. We don’t know why he wasn’t there. Scripture doesn’t tell us.

Maybe he was out getting supplies.

Maybe he was an introvert and needed space to be alone.

Maybe he was searching hoping to find Jesus like the women had or scouting to see if the soldiers were coming for them next.

Maybe he was already out there telling the stories of Jesus.

We can only imagine what he might have been doing, but what we do know, is that he was the only one of the disciples outside those locked doors.

And when the other disciples tell him, “We have seen the Lord,” Thomas responds with those famous words, “Unless I see… I will not believe.” It’s easy to label Thomas as the doubter, but that might not be fair. Because Thomas is not asking for anything more than the others had received. He is asking for the same encounter. He wants what they had. He wants to see. He wants to know.

And if we are honest, so do we. We may not say it out loud, but we ask similar questions. Where is God in suffering? Why don’t I feel what others seem to feel? Why did something awful happen? How do I know what God wants of me? How do I know if God is real?

We want something tangible, something certain, something we can hold onto.

And here’s the truth, these questions may be labeled as doubt, but they are not unfaithful. Doubt is not the opposite of faith. Indifference is.

Thomas is not indifferent. He is engaged. He is yearning. He is seeking. And that kind of questioning is not rejected by Jesus; it is held in grace by Jesus. It is in the questioning that Jesus so often meets us and calls us.

So a week later, the disciples are gathered again in the locked room. And this time Thomas is with them. And once again, Jesus comes saying, “Peace be with you.” And then he turns directly to Thomas. “Put your finger here. See my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side.” Jesus meets Thomas exactly where he is. Not with shame or rebuke. Just invitation.

And Thomas responds with one of the most powerful confessions in all of Scripture, “My Lord and my God! The one who doubted, the one who sought after Jesus, the one with the questions, speaks the clearest truth.

Then Jesus says, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” This is where the sermon title and primary question for today comes into focus. Is seeing believing?

For the disciples, seeing did not immediately erase fear. We found them gathered in the locked room a week after seeing the resurrected Jesus. For Thomas, seeing led to a confirmed belief. Perhaps because it affirmed the belief he was already wanting to believe, but was struggling to take the final step with, or perhaps because he just needed that thing that made it certain. But Jesus expands the definition of faith, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Faith is not just about what we can see. It is about trust. It is about relationship. It is about living into a reality we cannot always prove, but have come to know.

And this is where we live. We have not seen what they saw. We have not walked with the pre-resurrected Christ. We have not touched the wounds on his hands. And yet we are called to believe, and we are called blessed when we do.

But let’s be clear: believing without seeing is not the same as blind faith. We are not called to follow without question. We are not called to ignore harm or truth.

Faith includes discernment. As Methodists we approach are faith in a four fold way.

Wesley knew that deep solid faith requires us to test what we hear and see against what we know and understand about the character of our Triune God.

1. To read and study the scriptures,

2. To use our common sense and critical thinking skills developed through our experiences,

3. To hold our understanding upon what tradition and history have taught us, through the writings of apostles, scholars, and those who came before us who witnessed to their own experiences and understanding of their faith,

4. and in all of it to use our intellectual ability to reason, to ask questions about who made the decisions that influenced the beliefs we have been handed, and what may have influenced their beliefs culturally. To ask how to the beliefs we hold nourish or neglect the fruits of love, justice, mercy, humility, and grace in our lives.

We were given such a gift by John Wesley in this quadrilateral, these 4 ways of approaching our faith, of understanding scripture, and witnessing to the Divine Trinity.

Because they give us a road map to discern if we are moving toward God or being lead astray in our faith. To identify that when something does not bear the marks of love, justice, mercy, humility, and grace then it is likely leading us away from the faith in God and when it does bear these marks, it is likely in line with the work of God. So yes, we believe without seeing. But we do not believe without thinking critically, without questioning our understanding and long held beliefs, and without spending time discerning where God is leading us to.

So we return to that locked room. The disciples are afraid, Thomas is questioning, and Jesus stands among them, speaking peace. And maybe that is where we are too.

Behind doors we have closed out of fear. Holding onto wounds we are not ready to release. Asking questions we are not sure have answers. And still Jesus comes. Jesus speaks peace to our fear. Jesus invites us into something more.

The question is not simply, “Is seeing believing?”

The question is, Will we trust the peace that meets us in our fear? Will we step into the work of forgiveness? Even when it’s scary. Will we allow God to unlock what fear has kept closed?

Because resurrection is not just something we celebrate. It is something we live, it is something we are called to embody. Jesus calls us even from behind locked doors,

even in our doubt, even before we fully understand, even when we are unsure of what comes next. And before sending us out, he blesses us, saying, "peace be with you".