John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, 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 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.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

You’ve heard countless sermons about doubting Thomas. Every year without fail, the text for the first Sunday after Easter is Jesus appearing to the disciples and to Thomas. And you’ve likely heard many sermons or had Bible studies about how Thomas shouldn’t be known as doubting Thomas for a variety of reasons: 1. the word doubt isn’t actually in the text because in greek that word is unbelieving; 2. it’s unfair that Thomas gets the moniker of doubting when in fact he has the strongest confession of Jesus in the whole gospel, “My Lord and My God”. And 3. shouldn’t the other disciples also have the title doubting? After all they heard Mary Magdalene’s experience of seeing Jesus, alive and outside the tomb, and they don’t seem to believe her until they see him for themselves. So Thomas isn’t asking for anything more than what the disciples had already experienced.

That's the pattern throughout the Gospel of John. Folks have an encounter with Jesus, they go and tell someone else, and that person then desires to have their own encounter. Andrew stayed with Jesus two days, then told his brother Peter about it all, who then went to see Jesus for himself. Philip followed Jesus, then went and told Nathanael. Nathanael thought nothing good could come from Nazareth until he too encountered Jesus himself. The woman at the well went to tell her people about her encounter and after Jesus stayed with them, the Samaritans said “it’s no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know Jesus is the savior of the World.”

That pattern persists after the resurrection. Mary Magdalene tells the disciples, but apparently men not believing a woman’s own experience seems to go back a long way in history. Her story isn't enough; they need to see it to believe it. And they do and they tell Thomas, but not only does he want his own encounter, he wants a little more. If there is any charge against Thomas it’s that he is perhaps demanding: seeing won’t be enough, I need to touch also! But who doesn’t want this? I mean don’t we all want to see, to touch, to encounter the Risen Lord? Of course we do and for a number of reasons: to quash our doubt, to strengthen our belief, to give us a story to share. Maybe you sat here last week, singing and proclaiming that Jesus Christ has risen, while in the back of your mind, you wondered, “is this really true? How could there be a resurrection, where is the proof?”

The problem we have, or maybe it’s the problem I have, with Thomas is not that he doubted or was unbelieving. The problem I have with Thomas is that I am jealous of him. I don’t care that he demanded more than his fellow disciples. I am jealous of Thomas because he demanded more and it happened. “I won’t believe unless I see and unless I touch”. And miraculously it happened. It’s as if on command, Thomas made the request, Jesus heard it, and made it happen within a week. That’s the problem I have with Thomas, I am jealous.

Aren’t you? Don’t you wish that Jesus met all your requests, that you could give commands when you had doubts or when something was wrong and Jesus would show up within a week? How many times have you pleaded with God, saying like Thomas, do this for me God, then I’ll “fill in the blank” only for God to not hold up God’s end of the bargain? God fix my marriage and we’ll go to church every week. Jesus heal my spouse, my friend, my parent and then I’ll believe you really are a healer. Show up in my life when I am afraid, grieving, stressed, hurting because my faith is weak and I need to know you are there. You did it for Thomas afterall… Aren’t you jealous?

It’s trite to say that God’s ways are not our ways. But it's true. And I don’t believe everything happens for a reason. We face evil, we make our own messes. There are some things we just can’t know this side of heaven: like friends dying young, loved one’s, or ourselves, suffering cancer, or a seemingly unfair world full of violence and greed. Yet, when Jesus shows up to Thomas in that house, he brings good news not only to Thomas, but to as well. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Jesus calls us blessed, us… the ones who have not seen, the ones who make the request, the demands, and don’t get them answered like we want. The ones who have faced evil and cancer. The ones who are full of doubts and worries and stresses about life and faith and where Jesus is at in it all. Somehow we are blessed.

We’re blessed because we too encounter the Risen Lord, just perhaps not in ways we expect or are mindful of in the moment. For instance, feel Jesus' breath pass your lips and ears every time you hear or say the words, “I forgive you”, because it’s the resurrected Jesus who gives the disciples, and us, the mission of forgiveness, equipping us with the Holy Spirit to do so.

And every week here at this table, not only do we remember Jesus’ eating and drinking with friends, but we encounter the Risen Lord who says to us this is my body, my very self, given for you. So we come, we take the bread and the cup trusting that Jesus is really giving himself to strengthen and nourish us, for all that we may face.

And perhaps to some surprise, we see Jesus in other people. And I don’t mean your family or your friends, or pastor mark. No, we meet Jesus in those who bear his resemblance: the people who have nothing, those who are beaten down yet still living, crucified by those in power, and can’t help but show their scars. Dorothy Day, my favorite Catholic of all time, put it this way: “The mystery of the poor is this: That they are Jesus, and what you do for them you do for Him. It is the only way we have of knowing and believing in our love. How do we know we believe? Because we have seen His hands and His feet in the poor around us. He has shown Himself to us in them. We start by loving them for Him, and we soon love them for themselves, each one a unique person, most special!”

In this life, we may not see Jesus’ as Thomas did. But rather than be envious, we should ask, demand, request (whatever you want to call it) like Thomas. After all, Jesus did say to Thomas and to us, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”

So request to experience the love of God and then go and ask for forgiveness because that’s where you will feel it most. Cry out to God for strength and grace and hope, and then come to the table, because that’s where God gives himself to us, each time, every Sunday, offering us all exactly what we need. Demand to see the Risen Lord and then go and serve your neighbor, because that’s where you will find him.

John 13:1-17, 31-34

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already decided that Judas son of Simon Iscariot would betray Jesus. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from supper, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had reclined again, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, slaves are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him,[a] God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

For the last seven weeks, Katelyn and I have gawked over Clive: from his chubby little cheeks, his ever moving hands, his blue (hopefully turning brown) eyes, to the slow growing hair on his head. But there is nothing we have gawked at more than his feet. Not a day goes by when both of us, likely multiple times throughout the day, gleefully squeal, “look at those piggies”! And if you’ve ever spent time around a newborn, I think this is normal behavior. Or maybe we’re just crazy because we really think his little feet are so cute and small and soft! Nearly every night, we wash those feet, taking them gently in our hands, cleaning them with soap, drying them off, and rubbing them with lotion.

It’s one thing to wash or touch a baby’s feet, but as adults, that becomes a little more awkward. There's not quite the excitement or joy around adult feet as there is for a newborn. When I wear birkenstocks, no one comes up to me gleefully squealing “look at those piggies!” And for good reasons! Both parties would be embarrassed, I presume. And my feet aren’t like Clive’s; they aren’t soft or small, and I couldn’t tell you the last time lotion touched them, if ever. As adults, our feet become hard, calloused, and cracked; they might be discolored by disease; gnarled from years of ill-fitting footwear; and surely they’re smelly at the end of the day. From heel to toe, we feel there is much to be embarrassed about. So, unless you get a pedicure often, we keep our little piggies hidden, covered, and under no circumstances, perhaps other than tonight, do we let people touch them.

Why then, may we wonder, does Jesus wash the feet of his disciples and even worse tell us to wash one another’s feet?!

If you think feet are filthy now, they were likely worse in the time of Jesus: walking, nearly everywhere, in sandals on sandy roads and rocky ground. Feet were the dirtiest, dusty part of one’s body. As a sign of hospitality, a host would leave water near the door for guests to wash their feet off. Often a slave would do it. On a more rare occasion, a student would wash the feet of their teacher. But on Jesus’ last night with his disciples, he flips the script, humbles, or more like humiliates, himself and washes the dirty, dusty, smelly feet of each disciple.

But what does this act mean, both for the disciples and for us? What makes it so important? Is Jesus simply calling us to wash feet because they're dirty and smelly? Or is there something more going on here?

Peter, both horrified that Jesus would take the position of a slave and likely embarrassed that Jesus would see and touch his feet, replied how I imagine many of you did when you heard this was a foot washing service, “you’ll never wash my feet”. Yet, when Jesus says “if I don’t do this, you won’t be a part of what I’m doing,” Peter takes the washing with astounding literalism asking Jesus to wash his whole body. Yet it’s not about the feet or the washing.… It’s about love and what Jesus is about to do for the disciples and for us on the cross.

In washing their feet, Jesus is saying to everyone, (to you) give me the dirtiest, dustiest part of yourself and I’ll make it clean. Reveal the part of you that's broken and bruised, hurting and aching and I’ll heal you. Show me the part of yourself that you keep covered, that you don’t want anyone else to see and I promise I will still love you.

We all have that part of us, that memory, that trauma, that hidden secret, that we don’t want others to know or see or embrace. But that’s the part that Jesus wants to hold, to bear, to cleanse. And that’s exactly what Jesus does on the cross. He willingly takes from us all our sin, our shame, our guilt, and we are made entirely clean.

And because we have been washed, because we have seen and felt the example of Christ and his love, we can be foot washers, too. By this, Jesus isn’t calling us to be pedicurists in a literal sense, nor to be killed on a cross, of course. Rather, he is inviting us to love and be loved, which looks and feels a whole lot like washing feet: because it means dealing with the dirt in other’s lives and in your own. It means holding the brokenness and burdens of your neighbor while they carry yours, too. It means revealing the hard, calloused, and cracked parts of your life that you would rather remain covered. And doing all of this for a person or people whom you can’t stand or who may have even hurt you. Notice Judas was at the table that night and his feet got washed, too.

So tonight you are invited to get your feet washed, not because they need bathed (though they may), but so that we remember and experience, if ever so slightly, the humbly, cleansing love of Christ shown on the cross. Will it be awkward or embarrassing; it might. Will it be intimate, most likely. But so is loving your neighbor. Which is exactly what we disciples are called to do. Amen.

Close Encounters with the Risen Kind

Little Piggies