It’s easy for Christians to fall into a rut: Church is a thing you do, prayer is a box to check, and faith seems far from “the real world.” This fall we let Jesus himself confront our ruts. “Do you believe this?” he asks (Jn. 11:26).
To believe in Jesus is to experience him. It’s more than logic, argument, and doctrine. It is intimate knowledge of God himself. This fall, let Jesus himself speak to you in his seven “I AM” statements in the gospel of John. How is he changing you? What response is he inspiring in you? To believe in him changes everything.
Invocation
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Ponder:
Today we ponder the I AM statement: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Ponder the ways that Jesus is a shepherd. Look up descriptions of a shepherd on the internet. Search for videos on You Tube that show a shepherd and sheep. Ponder how Jesus is a “good” as a shepherd, as opposed to a hired hand.
Word
John 20:26
“Although the doors were locked…”
Meditation: Locked Doors and Unraveled Knots by Megan Roegner
In attempting to read the story of Jesus’s post-resurrection appearances in John 20 with fresh eyes, my attention was captured by locked doors. They are locked when Jesus first makes his appearance to the disciples on Easter and are locked again when he appears for the second time, eight days later, to show Thomas his hands, feet, and sides.
The parallel in this detail led me to other parallels: Thomas is often treated as the exception—the disciple who doubted contrasted with the other disciples who believed. But, really, the other disciples believed because of sight, too. They are hiding behind their locked doors “for fear” in verse 19 even though Mary Magdalene had brought them the news of Jesus’s resurrection earlier that day. Despite their locked doors, Jesus appears and shows them his hands and his side. But even after seeing the truth of the resurrection for themselves and hearing Jesus’s words of “Peace be with you,” they are still behind locked doors in verse 26 when Jesus returns for Thomas.
The English teacher in me sees a symbol in the disciples’ locked doors, a representation of every person’s struggle to believe without sight—the way fear so often dominates trust. But despite the locked doors of our hearts and minds, Jesus still enters and gives us a path to belief. Our barriers do not keep him out.
The English teacher in me also has a poem for every occasion. In her poem “St. Thomas Didymus,” Denise Levertov, who converted to Christianity when she was 60, writes in the voice of “Doubting Thomas.” Her Thomas, though, is not one who is shamed because he struggled to believe; rather, he is transformed because Jesus fulfilled his need to see and touch:
“But when my hand
led by His hand’s firm clasp
entered the unhealed wound,
my fingers encountering
rib-bone and pulsing heat,
what I felt was not
scalding pain, shame for my
obstinate need,
but light, light streaming
into me, over me, filling the room
as if I had lived till then
in a cold cave, and now
coming forth for the first time,
the knot that bound me unravelling.”
I don’t think Thomas is the exception. He may not be the model of who we should be, but he’s a good representative of who we are. Jesus tells Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” because our lives would have so much more peace if we could, but he still unlocks our doors and unravels our knots when we fail, so the light can stream in.
Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for your persistent love that knows no barriers. Help us be guided by faith, not ruled by fear.
Prayer
Jesus, you said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” There are so many voices that lure me to danger. Tune my ears to hear your voice. Be good to me. Shepherd me away from trouble and toward green pastures. Amen.
Benediction
May the love of Jesus draw us to himself;
May the power of Jesus strengthen us in his service;
May the joy of Jesus fill our souls;
May the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be upon us always. Amen.