Here’s a question for you; straight into our Gospel reading, it says in verse 26 “A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them…” Have you ever wondered about that? How could Jesus appear among them though the doors were locked?

We live in a very different age than even a few decades ago, let alone 80 years ago, as all the news is about at the moment. We are in a very questioning age. Nothing is ever taken at face value. Where once you were not encouraged to ask questions, especially about your faith, I think it is more important than ever to ask questions about what you believe! Where once you were just meant to accept everything you were told ‘by faith’, nowadays you would be scorned! Because the fact is, if you’re not going to ask those awkward questions, you can be completely sure that someone else will, especially in this age of cynicism and disbelief. And if you do not know what you’re going to say in reply to those questions, then you’ve lost the argument already!

Peter has a wonderful verse in his first epistle that you know well. He says, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”

I’ve heard it put another way; never go down without firing a shot over the bows!

In all seriousness, it is very important that we work out the answers to common questions. We are meant to use our brains, and I think that’s one of the things our Alpha Courses taught us to do a long time ago. It’s not just by argument, that we influence others, it’s how we act and what we do, as we said last week. Yet always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

I have a poster on my wall in the vicarage study which you may have seen before. It’s of a judge sitting behind his bench, looking rather stern, and the question below is, “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” Isn’t it a good question? Where would you begin your defence? And what would your main evidence be? “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”

Now this is traditionally ‘Low Sunday’, the Sunday after Easter, and with Communion and a Baptism, this is not the time for long sermons, so I’m just throwing this out to you. Please think about what you believe. Alec Moyter, a very famous Biblical scholar who has contributed to many popular books on the Bible, not least ‘The Lion Handbook to the Bible’, he has said, about seemingly impossible verses in the Bible to understand, he’s said, “There is always an answer”, there is always an answer.

And the one about Jesus appearing in the room through locked doors!

I’ll not keep you long, as Henry VIII said (the old jokes are the best!). There’s been a debate for a long time about the nature of Jesus’ resurrection. Was it a purely spiritual resurrection, or an actual physical resurrection? To this day, such a debate divides the more fundamentalist, evangelical Christians who insist on an actual physical resurrection and the more liberal Church which views the resurrection as entirely a spiritual one. It’s nice to be able to say that neither extreme is correct!

Of course Jesus rose from the dead. Of course he has achieved reconciliation for us with our heavenly Father. Of course he became as a slave, who being in very nature God…made himself nothing, taking the nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. None of that is in dispute. And the resurrected Jesus did eat broiled fish by the lakeside; people recognised him and had fellowship with him. “Touch me and see”, he said, “a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have”. Yet Jesus did appear to his disciples, often suddenly, through closed doors. Mary at the tomb thought at first he was the gardener, and he wouldn’t let her touch him. The disciples on the way to Emmaus didn’t know him until he broke the bread.

As the Vice-Principal of the Theological College, soon to be Dean of St. Patrick’s in Dublin once told us in an eloquent and erudite sermon, he concluded in a most unexpectedly simple way that Jesus… was the same, but different. That was his answer!

Jesus clearly rose from the dead, he was clearly the same person, but there were qualities about his appearance that made him different. He was the same, but at the same time he was different.

The most wonderful thing about this passage in John is Jesus’ encounter with Thomas. The one who doubted the most didn’t even need to put his hand into his side before he believed and said the strongest creedal statement of all the disciples, “My Lord and my God!” And Jesus’ response, “blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.