Last Sunday, the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, we proclaimed with joy and wonder: \u201cHe is risen!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was the theme for the day, that was the truth renewed and declared. The stone is rolled away! The Lord is alive!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And what we have is an empty tomb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The women came to the tomb with the spices they had prepared for the body. Seeing heavenly messengers, they believed and ran to tell the men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when the women told their news to the disciples \u2013 what they had seen and learned at the tomb, that empty tomb \u2013 the men didn\u2019t believe them! \u201cThese words seemed to them an idle tale,\u201d says one gospel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so when we read the story of what happened next, when Jesus came into the house and stood among his disciples, we have to wonder what was going through their minds. After all, these were the same disciples who had refused to believe the women until they could see with their own eyes. And even running to the tomb to see what he could find, Peter did not go in: He stayed outside, seeing only the emptiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then, as we read in the Gospel of John today:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen 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. \u2026 Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They got it! They finally believed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But not all. No, just as there were disbelievers at the tomb, there is a disbeliever in their midst in today\u2019s story: Thomas. No sooner does one believe than another does not, and these back-and-forth tales persist throughout the Christian story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut Thomas \u2026 one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, \u2018We have seen the Lord.\u2019 But he said to them, \u2018Unless 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.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thomas was the holdout. There is no record of the other disciples\u2019 response to this, but they could hardly claim the moral high ground. Looking back in John\u2019s story only a few sentences, we read that Jesus showed them his hands and his side. It was only then<\/em> that the disciples \u201crejoiced when they saw the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is it about proof? Why do these disciples \u2013 the ones who were closest to Jesus, who walked with him, ate at table with him, listened to the wisdom of his preaching \u2013 require something more in order to believe? And how much is enough to tip the scale?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTip the scale\u201d: That\u2019s the image to hold in mind as we think about this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Have you ever watched one of the many dog shows on television, a dog show that has tricks and trials? Sometimes dogs will have to run an obstacle course, and one of the obstacles will be a teeter totter sort of thing, where the dog will run up one side, and carefully balancing, carefully stepping past the middle point, will tip the board down on the other side. At this point, the dogs often seem not to walk, not even to run off the board, but to jump<\/em> off, in their excitement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Faith is much like that teeter totter. It\u2019s a balancing act of running up one side of consideration to the tipping point, and having reached that dangerous ground, that area where you can stay safely balanced on your comfortable side, or you can even stand in the middle if you\u2019re very, very careful \u2013 and then jumping, with all you\u2019ve got, to the other side, where you might find the downside of the plank, or you might find only thin air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a useful application of the expression \u201cleap of faith,\u201d because that\u2019s exactly what it is. Most often, what we find when we get to that fulcrum, that tipping point, of faith, is only spiritual \u201cthin air\u201d on the other side. It\u2019s much safer, we think, to stay on the uphill side where we have solid wood under our feet. It\u2019s more uncertain, scarier even, to have to scramble to keep our footing and balance just like those dogs on the obstacle course, before deciding to jump<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The threshold of the empty tomb of Easter morning is a fulcrum, a tipping point, a place of decision. Imagine two people on a teeter totter, facing each other. What is in between them, in the middle, is the threshold of that tomb. The door. The entry or exit. What does each one see? A way in? A way out?<\/p>\n\n\n\n