The Value of Unbelief (Second Sunday of Easter)

Sermons on YouTube…

Every year, on the Sunday after Easter – regardless of the lectionary cycle – we read this story about Thomas refusing to believe the report of the Resurrection. In a way, it seems like a downer of a story to read at a time of the year that’s supposed to be happy and joyous and filled with everybody proclaiming, “He is Risen indeed!”

Why even read this story at all? Moreover, why did John bother to include this long story about Thomas not believing? Of course, there is the part about “believing even though you haven’t seen.” But in fact, not a single one of the disciples believed until they saw the Risen Jesus. And if you’re writing a Gospel in which you want to encourage people to believe, why highlight one of the leaders who insisted on not believing?

So usually, what we do when we read this story is that we gently chide Thomas for being obstinate, and then quickly move on the happy part where everybody believes!

But maybe John tells the story like this because there’s actually some value to unbelief, at least initially. That sounds contradictory, but actually as we read the whole story, there is some value to unbelief.

The unbelief in the story of the Resurrection is valuable because:

• First of all, it’s honest! – after all, none of the disciples believed until they saw Jesus and he showed them his hands and his side; it was only then that they “rejoiced.” Mary Magdalene’s report clearly hadn’t been enough for them, but of course, Mary herself had seen and touched Jesus already. And if the first disciples of Jesus had gone into the world and acted as if they had immediately believed and nobody had ever doubted, they’d be selling a lie…

• Unbelief was what led Thomas – and all of them – to belief. Notably, Thomas doesn’t call the disciples liars or accuse them of playing a cruel prank on him; he’s simply seeking the same validation that they’ve received. He’s looking, not so much for incontrovertible proof, as he’s looking for a sign that what seems impossible just might be possible. And he doesn’t leave the group; he’s willing to wait and see and listen to the witness of those who have had a different experience than he has; for Thomas, and really for all of them, unbelief is the first step in the journey to faith…

• Prepared the community of disciples for witness in a world where unbelief would be the first and most common reaction to the story of the Resurrection. We like to read stories where it sounds like the first disciples get up and say, “Jesus is Risen” and whole crowds of people instantly believe and convert to Christianity! But clearly, that was very unusual, and if the disciples were going to share their faith, they needed to be prepared for the fact that most people would find the story unbelievable, at least at first, and that those people weren’t outside the group of people Jesus loved, just as Thomas wasn’t…

And for those same reasons, unbelief has some value for us, too. Even though unbelief isn’t where we like to be, or what we like to dwell on, it’s still true for us that unbelief can have some value because:

• It forces us to be honest about our faith. We often like to imagine that in the ancient world, if somebody got up and told a story about something miraculous, most people would believe it! But that was never the case. And it’s not the case in our day and age either. Nevertheless, many of us grew up in a society in which a huge majority of people were, at least on paper, members of a Christian church. And so we got used to the idea that when we talked about Easter and Jesus being raised from the dead, most people would politely nod and not argue the point, even if they really didn’t believe it and even if they weren’t Christian. And so sometimes today, we may be tempted to wonder, “what’s wrong? Why doesn’t everybody believe this?” And this is sometimes made worse by Christians who imply that if folks don’t believe the story, there’s something really wrong with them. But a better approach to sharing our story is to admit that it’s often hard to believe, and that even some of the most faithful Christians at first had a hard time believing was well. We believe, not because it’s easy to believe, but in spite of the fact that sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes it’s hard when we can’t “see” Jesus either. And often, we can’t prove it to others. That’s just the way faith is. But honest faith is often the key to moving beyond unbelief…

• Unbelief is sometimes the opportunity Jesus uses to help us along personally. Thomas, if he had just said, “oh, OK, if you guys say so I’ll just go along with it” he might have gone the rest of his life wondering. But his “unbelief” offered an opportunity for Jesus to show him, and the other disciples, and us, something that we all needed. There are also sometimes Christians today that tell us we shouldn’t question things about our faith. Often, questions are portrayed as “unbelief.” But precisely for that reason, wrestling with questions and wondering about God is often the opportunity for God to work in our lives and help us to know and feel his presence and power in our lives. Questioning and asking is good for us personally – even if it stems from some unbelief – because it opens us up to God’s action in our lives. And for us, too, unbelief is often the first step in a journey to deeper faith…

• Accepting unbelief prepares us to be witnesses of Jesus in the real world around us. As we move beyond a time in our society where most people are at least, on paper, members of a church, it can sometimes feel like we’re a shrinking minority. And there are some Christians today who view people who don’t believe as enemies. But the story of Thomas reminds us that that’s not the case. Thomas wasn’t cast out when he refused to accept the story of the Resurrection. And the Risen Jesus then sent his disciples out precisely to people who often didn’t believe, and hadn’t believed before. People who don’t believe – even if they keep on not believing – are still people Jesus wants and loves. And often, it’s in loving people as Jesus did – even in their unbelief – that creates an opportunity down the road for believing…

Doubting and unbelief are often uncomfortable parts of the story of faith. But they aren’t the end. And often, they have value.

Doubting and unbelief are parts of the story that have value when they keep us honest to the fact that faith is often about accepting a reality that you can’t prove to others. Doubting and unbelief can have value when they help us to ask questions and go deeper than simply going with the flow. And doubting and unbelief have value when they remind us that the reality of the Risen Jesus is for everyone, even those who may now doubt or even refuse to believe.

Amen.