Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The text on which this morning's message is based comes from our Gospel lesson (John 20: 19-31, Unbelieving Thomas) read earlier.

Have you ever considered that for the week after Jesus' resurrection, Christ had only 10 disciples, not 12? Judas had tragically taken his own life in despair, unbelieving and unrepentant. But Thomas too was an unbeliever for a week, a man who refused to listen and believe the witness of his fellow followers of Jesus. In English we usually give Thomas the benefit of the doubt, and call him "Doubting Thomas." But in English, the word "doubt" has connotations of someone who is wanting to believe, but struggles with questions. The word "doubt" implies a level of belief, but with hesitation and faltering. Luther once said "doubt is like a bird. You can't keep it from flying over your head, but you most certainly don't want it to make a nest in your hair."

When doubt is allowed to make a nest in one's hair, then we must call it "unbelief." Doubt had made a nest in Thomas' hair. He was an unbeliever for a week. He wasn't present with the other 10 disciples and the women at the tomb when Jesus had appeared to them. He heard their witness, their accounts of what they had seen and heard. He knew the tomb was empty. But Thomas didn't respond with just doubts. Thomas didn't say "Really, you think you saw Jesus? That's hard for me to believe. Let me think about it a while." That would have been doubt. In doubt, Thomas could have responded with a request. "Jesus, if you are alive like my brothers say you are, appear to me as well so I can believe". But no, Thomas responds with rank unbelief (v. 25) "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." Thomas is as unbelieving as he can be.

We live in a world of rank unbelief. Millions of people respond to Jesus' resurrection the same way Thomas did "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." To millions of others the unbelief is more subtle, but nonetheless as damaging, remarks like: "Jesus might have risen from the dead 2000 years ago, but what does that have to do with me today, in modern times? We live in a world of rank unbelief, and our old sinful natures tempt us to live lives forgetful of our Lord and his glorious death and resurrection that ransoms us and brings us forgiveness for our unbelief.

Actually Thomas wasn't the only unbelieving disciple, he was only an unbeliever the longest. All the other disciples first responded to the reports of Jesus' resurrection with disbelief. Jesus had told them repeatedly that he would die and then rise again. Matthew 16: 21 "Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." (also Mark 8: 31, Luke 9: 22, Luke 17: 25, Matthew 17: 22-23, Matthew 12: 40.) They all disbelieve until they come face-to-face with the evidence, with Jesus fulfilling his promises. Jesus appears to Thomas and the other disciples not because they request it or demand it. Jesus appears because He wants witnesses. Jesus appears in the eyes of some of his disciples, and in the ears of all of his disciples, so that we can be witnesses to his resurrection.

I've read this week that Barry Bonds hit four homeruns in his first two games this season. He had 9 RBI's in his first six at bats this spring. Last summer he hit 73 homeruns. If he could keep up his current pace (which he can't) he'd hit over 200 homeruns. But I didn't see Barry Bonds hit those 4 homeruns in person. Somebody who was an eyewitness told me about it, wrote to me about it in the newspaper and I got excited about it. Now I'm telling you. In the same way, we are not privy to be eyewitnesses of Jesus' resurrection. Somebody else was, and they then excitedly told others about it. About 500 people saw Jesus before he returned to heaven (1 Corinthians 15). They were so excited about what they had seen that they couldn't stop telling others about it, even when their excitement caused them to die the deaths of martyrs, killed by an unbelieving world who didn't want to hear this glorious story of good news. Several of them (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, & Peter) wrote down the details of Jesus resurrection so that we could hear it here today, and so we can continue to be his witnesses. John actually says in our text "blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed… these (words) are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name"

Once there was a man named George who was accustomed to driving his wife, Rosie, to church. They had a long and happy marriage; their love for each other was monumental. They did everything together; everything, that is, except one thing. When George drove Rosie to church each Sunday, she went in but he did not. He remained in the car, reading the newspaper. After 45 years of marriage, Rosie died. George was distraught with grief. On Sunday mornings George no longer made that drive to church, transporting Rosie. But several months after her death Easter Sunday rolled around. George drove to the church and he went in. The pastor delivered a stirring resurrection sermon and then closed with prayer. Then there were a few moments of silence as the pastor prepared to announce the final hymn. Suddenly George stood up and with deep emotion declared loudly, "Rosie lives!" Then he began to sing with a deep, rich baritone voice that song that he had always associated with Rosie--"My Wild Irish Rose, the Sweetest Flower That Grows..." The congregation was stunned at first. But several people in the congregation knew George and how he was grieving for Rosie. They stood up and joined in the song. Then more and more people. Finally, the whole congregation was joyfully and tearfully singing a glorious, secular Easter hymn. (from Collected Sermons, Dr. Bill Bouknight, ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., 2002.)

Our Lord was patient with George, and after Rosie had witnessed to him about Jesus' resurrection for 45 years, his love for her finally brought him to a love for Jesus, a saving faith in our risen Christ. We never know when or how the Holy Spirit will use our witness and prayers to bring someone to this joyous realization.   Our Lord was patient with Thomas. Jesus then appeared to him and said "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop disbelieving and believe." It took Thomas a week before he boldly confessed "My Lord and my God!"

On Thursday I went to the memorial services for the 3 soldiers at Ft. Riley who lost their lives in an explosion while in training. At the service I heard that all 3 men were committed Christians who had died on Good Friday, the day Jesus had laid down his life for all of us. After the service I learned from their chaplain's wife, the mother of one of our ECC children, that two of those soldiers had just publicly confessed their faith in Jesus Christ for the first time on only the Sunday before, on Palm Sunday. Someone had witnessed the resurrection of Jesus Christ to these two men, and the Holy Spirit had broken through their unbelief and brought them to faith just 5 days before God would call them home to their first Easter celebration, an Easter celebration we can only imagine.

Our Lord was patient with George, with those two soldiers, with Thomas. Our Lord was patient with us as well. Thanks be to God that someone has witnessed the resurrection of Jesus Christ to you and to me through these words of John and others, parents, pastors, Sunday School teachers, friends. Thanks be to God that the Holy Spirit has broken through our unbelief through Word and Sacrament and brought us to faith in this Christ before our earthly deaths. Thanks be to God that the Holy Spirit continues to break through our trend toward unbelief with regular news, good news, about Jesus' love and resurrection for us. Thanks be to God that He has chosen us to be his witnesses of the resurrection, to a world trapped in unbelief, to a world that needs to hear of His peace. Let us pray (Prayer of thanks for his first witnesses who have given us the written account of Jesus resurrection so that we can continue to be his witnesses in the world.) Amen.