Good
Morning All!!
John
20: 24-25; “Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them
when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the
Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails,
and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his
side, I will never believe.”
Many years ago, I had a great uncle who loved the sport of boxing. Of course he grew up in the era of great
boxer, Jack Dempsey, Max Schmeling, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano and the like. So one evening my mom invited him and my
great aunt out for supper and then we were going to sit down and watch a fight
night. I was watching the start and
hollered out to him that it was starting.
The fight had started as he came in and got settled in. He looked at me and asked, “what did I miss?” I had to tell him, “the whole fight.” One of the boxers got punched in the throat;
it stunned him for a moment and, in professional boxing, a moment is the whole
fight. The stunned boxer was met with a
cross cut to the jaw and the fight was over.
The whole fight took less than two minutes. By the time my great uncle got sat down; he
missed it all and he couldn’t believe what had just happened.
It is like that often; isn’t it?
You have important news; you announce it but someone who is not there to
hear it simply cannot believe what you announced. “I just can’t believe it!” “I just can’t believe he would retire.” “I just can’t believe they would leave.” “I just can’t believe this store is closing.”
And these people don’t believe; they won’t
believe until they see the empty store; they won’t believe unless they hear it
from the person himself. It might be a
question of trusting the person delivering the message; it might be that the
news is so out of context of the person involved; it just can’t be.
This is where Thomas found himself.
We are often tough on Thomas but wouldn’t we be the same? The idea that someone, who was dead, was
suddenly seen again, alive; would make us wonder, to question the news as well;
wouldn’t it? Thomas takes a normal human
view; I don’t believe what I can’t see.
This attitude is very human and it is designed to limit a limitless
God. It is designed to make God’s way to
conform to what man’s limited thought process can manage to conceive. Yet God goes so far beyond our limited
means. God, who created the universe and
all that is in it with a mere spoken word, is never limited in what He can or
will do. A limitless God has limitless
power, limitless, knowledge, but above all, limitless love which moved him to
die for you and for me.
It was the plan from the beginning, for Jesus to die to pay for your
sins. This act of limitless love, beyond
our understanding, shows us God’s very nature, even his very heart and it shows
the incredible love for us.
Gracious
Lord, through your death and resurrection you show us the greatest love ever
displayed. Help us to trust in this love
and help us to share this love to all those whom we meet. Lead us to celebrate your wonderful mercy and
love. In your precious name we pray,
amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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