Imagine yourself standing up here blindfolded. I have just placed a bucket in front of you. Without peeking, how can you tell if the bucket is empty of full of water? You could reach into the bucket to feel if there is any water in it. In other words, you could experience first hand if the bucket is empty or not.
Now if you didn’t want to get your hands wet, you could throw something into the bucket. If you heard a splash then you know the bucket isn’t empty. This approach to picking up knowledge is called reasoning.
A third way to discern if there is water in the bucket would be to ask someone you trust. That person could then look in the bucket and tell you if it is empty or full. This approach to learning is called believing.
Now, which of these three methods do we use most often for learning? Do we learn largely by experiencing things with our senses, by reasoning them with our minds, or by believing what others have told us?
If your answer is believing, you are right. Most of our knowledge comes from believing what others tell us. Perhaps we accept as much as 80% of our knowledge on the testimony of others. Much of our learning has been gained through the efforts of those who believe in what they have taught us.
For example, few of us have traveled around the world. Yet, we know that the world is round, not flat. Much, if not all, of what we know about any distant land is gleaned from what others have told us or from what we have learned with the use of books or films. By and large, we are apt to believe what we’ve learned until something comes along to disprove the facts.
What is true of the way we acquire regular knowledge is even truer of the way we gain religious knowledge. Most of our religious knowledge is gained from believing what the scriptures tell us or from what others have told us. We are gathered here because what we have heard from others or read in scripture has commanded our attention sufficiently enough for us to come and see who this Jesus, now risen from the dead, really is.
For the sake of those who would not have the opportunity to personally experience the risen Lord, John shares the story of doubting Thomas in his gospel. For whatever reason we will never know, Thomas was not present with the others when Jesus first appeared to them in the upper room. He was understandably skeptical when the others told him what had happened. Wouldn’t you be just as doubtful, had you been in his sandals?
A week later, Thomas was with them when Jesus appears again. Notice that Jesus never criticized Thomas for doubting the other disciples. Instead, he said, “Do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Jesus knew the value of doubt as a tool for deepening one’s faith. When Thomas professes his belief, Jesus adds, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
Aside from Thomas and the disciples, few people have had the chance to see firsthand the nail prints or touch Jesus’ wounds, but through the ages many, like you and me, have been moved to believe in the risen Lord on the faith of those who have shared the good news with them. While we do not have the opportunity to put our hands into Jesus’ side as Thomas did, we can and do put our trust in the testimony of scripture. We can go one step further and use our gift of reason to confirm what scripture tells us.
For example, could the early Church that we witness in the Acts of the Apostles have really existed had Jesus not risen from the dead? Something incredible had to have happened to transform these followers of Jesus Christ otherwise the impact of the apostles on history would have been short lived. Two thousand years later, the resurrection of Jesus continues to impact us.
When I think back on the number of classes I have taken in my lifetime, I confess that I have forgotten much of what I have learned for the simple reason that I have given little thought to them. I haven’t studied French since my freshman year of college forty years ago, so don’t count on me to accurately translate the menu in a French restaurant!
The same holds true for our religious knowledge. We are continually urged to grow in our faith through an ongoing deepening awareness of Jesus Christ and our faith through prayer, worship and study. That makes sense. The less we think about our faith, the more distant we could find ourselves from Christ. The more distant we become from Christ, the more likely we are to become indifferent to what Christ has truly done for us and his message of divine mercy. Look at it this way, think of the friends you have lost touch with over the years. A friendship that is not sustained eventually becomes a distant memory. That is a painful lesson we have learned from experience.
Opportunities abound for us to learn more about our faith. Classes will be offered this spring on the gospel of Matthew and the early church. The Sunday forum is another means to update one’s faith. It is never too late to learn more about our faith.
Poor Thomas often gets a bum rap for doubting his fellow disciples yet he grew in his faith, becoming, so far as we know, the first to proclaim Jesus as his Lord and God. May his example prompt us to question our faith so that in this Easter season in the classroom of our church we can see for ourselves that doubt can lead us to an even deeper faith than we ever imagined.