"Tearing Down the Walls (Part 2)"

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text which serves as the basis for this morning’s message is from the Gospel reading for today, John 20:25 "Thomas declared, ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus,

Christ is risen! Alleluia! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

As you’ve probably figured out by now, this world we live in is not an easy place to cultivate and keep a strong relationship with God. There are so many things around us and within us that stand between us and God; things that get in the way between you and a right relationship with God; things that distract us from God. Things like doubt, things like confusion, things like fear, things like sinfulness, things like death. All these things act like walls between you and God, they keep you from knowing God, they keep you from following God. It’s as if we’re barricaded from God by all these walls.

So, the question we’re asking during these Sundays after Easter is, how can these walls be overcome? How can these walls be brought down so that we can grow deeper in our relationship with God?

And the specific wall we’ll talk about today is the wall called "doubt"—the wall that the disciple Thomas struggled with in today’s Gospel reading. Thomas doubted that Jesus really had been raised from the dead.

So, what is doubt, exactly? Look at the way Thomas describes his doubt. He begins his doubt statement with the word "unless." I think that’s key. "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, etc. I will not believe it," says Thomas. So I think doubt, basically, is to go before God with any sentence that begins with the word, "Unless..." Doubt is testing God, with the assumption that God can’t pass the test. Doubt is saying to God, "Do such and such," with the assumption that God can’t do such and such. Doubt is saying to God, "Be such and such," with the assumption that God can’t be such and such. Doubt, basically, is telling God what He can’t do.

And that doubt can come in a variety of forms. Some people say God can’t have created the heavens and the earth. Some people say God can’t have raised Jesus from the dead. God can’t help me in my sickness. God can’t restore this broken relationship with my friend or sibling or spouse. God can’t be interested in what goes on in my daily life. Doubt is telling God what He can’t do.

And we shouldn’t be surprised when doubts trouble us. All the people we read about in the Bible—all the people we call "Bible heroes"—like Abraham and David and Deborah and Peter, everyone except for Jesus had doubts at one point or another. We live in a sinful and broken world. By nature, our sinful minds tend to turn inward, to turn away from God. We’d rather trust in ourselves than trust in God. We’d rather trust in what we can see right in front of us, rather than in what God says is true. And this broken world we live in doesn’t help us any because it encourages us to doubt. And, to top it all off, the Devil is always nearby asking the question he’s been asking since the Garden of Eden: "Are you sure God really said that?"—casting doubt in other words. We should not be surprised, therefore, when we are troubled by doubt.

So what can be done to get over or get through or get around this wall called "doubt"?

Many religions teach that it’s up to YOU to find a way to get through whatever walls might be holding you back from God. If you feel distant from God, if you feel guilty before God, if you have doubts about God, then take it upon yourself to seek Him, find Him, get rid of all the walls that stand between you and Him, overcome the barricades that hold you from God—and once you do that, there He’ll be. It’s up to you. It’s your problem, so fix it.

I don’t find much comfort in that approach, to be honest. If I’m the one having doubts, and someone tells me to look inside myself for a way to get past the doubt, what good is that? I doubt that I can solve my problem of doubt! It’s a vicious circle. If I’m in charge of solving the problem of my doubt, I’m not going to get very far.

But watch closely how Thomas’s doubt is overcome. And watch closely WHO overcomes Thomas’s doubt. It isn’t that Thomas himself finally breaks through the wall of doubt. It isn’t that Thomas solves his own doubt problem. No, God breaks through Thomas’s wall of doubt. God solves Thomas’s doubt problem. John 20:26 and following: "A week after Easter, the disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them this time. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." In other words, Thomas couldn’t break out from his wall. But Jesus could break in. And He did. Thomas was locked behind a wall of doubt, saying Jesus CAN’T have risen from the grave. But Jesus walked right through the wall, stood in front of Thomas and said, "Oh yes, I can!"

And here’s another beautiful example of the joy and the power and the comfort of the Christian faith. Every other religion you’ll find in this world tells us that God is hidden behind all kinds of walls. He’s hidden behind walls of doubt, walls of confusions, walls of sin, walls of regret, walls of death. It’s an impossible maze of walls. According to these other religions, God says "Come find me!" And you and I are supposed to spend a lifetime trying to find God.

But Christianity is the exact opposite of that. Christianity isn’t about you trying to find God. Christianity is all about God tearing down the walls to get to us. Jesus is God in person tearing through sin, tearing through confusion, tearing through death, tearing through doubt, so that He can stand before us and say, "I know you think I can’t. But here I am. Because I can!"

To this day, Jesus continues to tear down walls of doubt. How does He do it? Look at the last verse of John 20, the conclusion of this story about Thomas’s doubt. God says "These accounts of what Jesus said and did are written down so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." Notice two things about that verse: First, this verse assumes that the responsibility for overcoming your doubts and bringing you to faith rests solely and completely on God’s shoulders. God is the one in charge of overcoming your doubt. It’s his problem, not yours.

And secondly, this verse tells us how God overcomes your doubts and brings you to faith. He does it through His Word. The Word made flesh, which is Jesus. The Word written down in the Bible. The Word we see and taste in Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These things, this Word, is what God uses to bring you into faith, strengthen you in faith, keep you in faith, that you may have life in His name. Romans 1:16 says "The Gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." God’s Word is more than just a rabbi walking around Galilee, it’s more than words on a page, it’s more than water in a bowl or bread and wine on the altar. God’s Word is living and active. God’s Word is powerful. God’s Word is able to create faith where there was no faith before, strengthen weak faith, and draw us closer to God. God’s Word is God Himself at work to create and strengthen your faith.

So, what do you do when you have doubts? Whether they be doubts about God or God’s Word or God’s will...

A. Don’t panic. You’re not the only one. The Bible is filled with people who doubted.

B. Put your doubts in God’s hands. It’s His problem to overcome, and He is more than capable of doing so. Don’t tell God what He can’t do. But pray as the man in Mark 9 prayed when he came to Jesus asking Him to help his boy who was suffering from convulsions. The man said to Jesus, "Lord, I believe. Help me in my unbelief."

C. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, as it says in Colossians 3. Listen to God speak to you through His Word, through His sacrament. Listen and keep listening. Listen especially to His promise to you that nothing in all creation will be able to separate you from the love God has for you in Christ Jesus.

Christ is risen! Alleluia! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!