Perry Mason and Doubting Thomas

By

Reverend Litton Logan

April 23, 2006

Scriptures:

John 20:19 through John 20:31 (NRSV)

¹⁹When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” ²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Jesus and Thomas

²⁴But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

²⁶A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁷Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” ²⁸Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

The Purpose of This Book

³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.  ³¹But these are written so that you may come to believe^£ that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Sermon:

          These are the famous “Doubting Thomas” scriptures.  Generally, we call a person who doubts the prevailing tenets of their religious doctrines or requires a lot of facts and proofs in matters of faith a Doubting Thomas.  I think Thomas has gotten a lot of bad press over the years.  I think Thomas was the greatest person of faith in the New Testament after Jesus himself.

          If you think about it, Thomas is a down-to-earth, on top of it kinda guy.  Just because a bunch of his friends told him Jesus had arisen for the dead doesn’t mean he should have believed them contrary to everything else he knew about dead people.  How many of you would have believed?  Not me.  I am just like Thomas, I would have had to see and touch before I would have believed in the resurrected Jesus.  I am, like Thomas in several ways.  I tend to be a very practical and somewhat skeptical person of faith.

          I would want more than the testimony and eyewitness accounts of some guys who had already proven they were a bit dodgy.  I would want corpus vitae.  I, like Thomas, don’t want to base my life on rumors and ancient fables about a resurrected miracle working, itinerant, Jewish preacher from Nazareth, named Joshua bar Joseph.

          I have often thought that these scriptures would make an excellent plot for a Perry Mason episode.  I am crazy about Perry Mason and I used to take a late lunch when I was the pastor in Stroud, OK to watch the re-runs of the old black and white episodes while I ate.  I have seen every one of the two-hour made for TV Perry Mason movies at least twice.  Even now, when I see there is a Perry Mason reruns on TV I either watch it or tape it.  (Incidentally, there is a Perry Mason movie on Monday night.)  Perry doggedly supports his clients, throwing his resources into the fight to prove his client’s innocence.  He is cool, clam, collected, and in love with a blindfolded lady named Justice.

          I always felt sorry for the D.A., Hamilton Berger.  He was a hard working and common sense oriented prosecutor, who frequently missed the creative dimensions of justice and truth.  I believe Berger only beat Perry once.  In the end, however, Berger was always on the winning side because Perry revealed the real, guilty person and Berger prosecuted them in the end.

          I loved those scenes when Hamilton Berger would jump up, objecting in indignation about some of Perry’s creative and unorthodox methods of reveling the truth.  Berger would say, “I object your honor, Mr. Mason is trying to turn this court room into a circus.”  “This line of questioning is irrelevant and hearsay.”  Perry would beg the courts indulgence and promise to reveal relevance to his line of questioning soon.  The judge would say, “Okay, Mr. Mason, but make it soon.”

          This is much the setting of today’s scriptures.  Thomas makes a good Hamilton Berger.  He is practical, forthright, and not inclined to believe a lot of creative stories regardless of who they come from.  The laws of nature say that when you are dead, you’re dead.  If Jesus had been all the disciples thought he was then he wouldn’t have died in the first place.  So, get over it, move on, and get a life.  That’s it; all this other stuff about resurrection is just so much hearsay, histrionics, and ecclesiastical, power oriented theatrics.

          However, the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, begs our indulgence.  Give the Advocate a few more minutes and he will reveal the creative power that will render a judgment in this matter.

          Eight days after the resurrection even old practical, skeptical, real-world Thomas has the proof he is looking for, or does he?  Is the resurrected Jesus proof enough to justify Thomas’ insight and his exclamation and proclamation?  Let us go back and look at Thomas’ words again.

²⁸Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”  ²⁹Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Notice Thomas doesn’t yell out, “My God, it’s you, Master, you’re alive.”  No, he exclaims, “My Lord and my God!”  Thomas is the first disciple, the first human being, to recapitulate and affirm John’s opening proclamation that the fullness of God’s wisdom—the logos--was incarnate in Jesus. 

          Here is the person who didn’t believe Jesus was alive now making a quantum leap of faith by declaring that Jesus is the fullness of God’s wisdom in the flesh—the Christ.

          At this encounter, the process of Jesus’ glorification is complete; people can now touch him as Jesus invites John.  Jesus is no longer Thomas’ friend and teacher but he is his Lord and the saving fullness of God. 

Now, this doesn’t sound like a man of little faith to me, does it to you.  Where does this leap of faith, which declares Jesus as Lord and God, come from?  This kind of insight and faith you don’t acquire through touching, seeing, or hearing.  (Oh, by the way, in John’s Gospel Thomas never touches Jesus.)  So, again I ask what is the source of insight for Thomas’ leap of faith?  Thomas’ leap of faith requires something more than normal human sense and logic.  It requires a power beyond reason, beyond physicality; it requires the help of the Holy.

          Remember, Thomas had not been with the disciples when Jesus first appeared and breathed the breath of the Holy Spirit on them.  Yet, through that breath in John’s Gospel the Holy Spirit came into the world and became the ubiquitous power of faith for all to believe that Jesus was and is the Christ of God.

          The knowledge that Jesus is the Christ of God in John’s Gospel comes as a gift of the Holy Spirit and becomes power of the Church across the ages.  It is given to each human being who says, “Yes,” to the teachings and witness of the life of Jesus and who strives to be in the world, as Jesus.  Thomas is the first disciple, the first human being, in John’s Gospel to speak after the gift of the Holy Spirit is given to the world.  Thomas’ first words were to be echoed in the confessions of Christians across the ages—“My Lord and My God!”

          Friends, this is no Doubting Thomas, but a gigantic Faith-ing Thomas.  So-called Doubting Thomas is dead on in doubting the warping of the natural order of things; Faith-ing Thomas is right on, affirming God’s Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

          The power that allowed Thomas to see Jesus as the Christ must come to each of us just as it did to Thomas.  Being a contemporary of Jesus, viewing his miracles, and even touching the resurrected Jesus, I am sorry are not sufficient proofs to declare Jesus to be the Christ—God in the flesh.

          Physical evidence may be sufficient to prove that Jesus was a powerful man of God, who was resurrected from the dead, but that is all that such things prove.  The only way a person can proclaim Jesus to be the Christ of God sufficient unto salvation, now or forevermore, is through the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit.  This is the reality that stayed Mary Magdalene’s touch—Jesus had not sent the Holy Spirit into the world to help her see and know him beyond their previous relationship. 

          O, how blessed are all those Christians across the ages who have believed through the gift of the Holy Spirit that Jesus was the Christ of God.  I’ll tell you something else:  It is a wonderful thought to know that the disciples, male and female, required the same gift of the Spirit to believe that Jesus was truly the Christ of God that you and I require.  Every human being requires the power of the Holy Spirit to proclaim him, “My Lord and My God!”

          Hear Jesus’ benediction to us who believe without having seen:  “…Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”  He is talking about you and me.  Blessed, happy, are we because we have not seen and yet we believe through the power of the Holy Spirit.

          “Your honor,” says Mr. Berger, “I withdraw my objection.  The Advocate has proven his case; Thomas is innocent of all charges of being a doubter.”