Second Sunday of Easter (sermon text)
Scriptures: Acts 4:32-35, Psalm 133, 1 John 1:1-2:2, John 20:19-31
The Faith of Thomas
In today’s readings, we hear several witnesses to the living Christ. In Acts, Luke writes, “With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.” In 1 John, the author writes to fellow early Christians, “we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us.”
And in the Gospel, we hear the powerful testimony, “My lord and my God!”
A quick review question: who gives that last witness? It’s one of the 12 disciples, and someone who has gotten a lot of bad press over the centuries. Those are the words of Thomas.
The scene in today’s Gospel is traditionally known as “The Incredulity of Saint Thomas,” but “doubting Thomas” is the popular name these days. Thomas remains a static figure in our culture and minds, trapped by his doubt. But we seem to forget that Jesus blesses Thomas, and we ignore what happens after that blessing. Like the other disciples, Thomas goes out into the world to share the Good News.
There are endless works of art that depict this scene. The cover of our bulletin this morning is pretty typical. A white-robed Christ occupies the left half, his chest bared to show the spear wound in his side. Thomas is turned away from Christ, even shielding his face, but Christ’s hand is wrapped around Thomas’ wrist, guiding him, even forcing him to feel the wound.
God, in flesh and blood, vulnerable and having suffered, yet returning after Easter, victorious, serene, a testament to the larger plan at work for the sake of the world God created and loves.
On Thomas’ face: still that nasty incredulity. He’s unable to believe that which is right before his eyes, that which his hand is touching.
When we call somebody a “doubting Thomas,” or when we see an image like bulletin cover, what we are criticizing is not “doubt.” “Doubt,” after all, can be perfectly healthy, even useful. It’s the mental pause we take between contradictions, to discern. A healthy application of doubt is what helps people keep from making rash decisions; it tempers fanaticism; it cools hot heads. We can’t live in a state of doubt forever, but we also couldn’t get by without it.
It’s not doubt, but “incredulity” that truly disturbs us. The unwillingness or even inability to believe something, even when it is right in front of our eyes. Being a “stick in the mud.” It’s this idea – incredulous Thomas – that sticks with us. But it’s not really what happens in the Gospel story! If we can move past this deeply entrenched image of “stick-in-the-mud” Thomas, we’ll finally see the man who knew and proclaimed Christ, to learn how his witness can inform our own.
When the other disciples say to Thomas, “We have seen the Lord,” he replies, “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.” One week later, Jesus to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side.”
Did you hear that? Jesus gives Thomas exactly what he asked for. Thomas then shouts, “My lord and my God!” Thomas got to proclaim Christ TO Christ. That’s amazing!
You may be thinking, “Well, maybe Thomas isn’t so bad. So why all the negativity?” How ironic that the negative image we have of Thomas may stem from the blessing Jesus gives next. In verse 29, Jesus says to Thomas, “‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’”
It’s easy to see this as a left-handed blessing of sorts, as though Jesus were saying, “Blessed are people who aren’t like you, Thomas.” The Gospel presents Jesus’ resurrection appearance among the disciples as a miracle, as he enters through locked doors to people in hiding. But we’re told that the miracles and blessings don’t end here, and that they’re not just for the disciples.
Verses 30-31: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” In other words, blessed are those who saw Jesus, including Thomas, and blessed are we by the witness we receive through their story, across the millennia.
Jesus is equipping the disciples, in this chapter, to be witnesses. It takes the arrival of a risen Christ to reveal God’s plan, for Thomas and all the disciples to finally “get it.” What a blessing the disciples received, to know Christ. They didn’t keep quiet about it. Jesus tells the disciples, in verse 21, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” They went, and they told Christ’s story to the world.
So what of Thomas? Did he live out that command? Well, according to tradition, his ministry reached as far as India. Some of his story is lost to history, but he may have joined a Jewish community on India’s southwestern coast, to tell them about Christ. Even now, Christians in that region of India trace their faith back to his work, and some even call themselves “Thomas Christians.”
In seminary, I was blessed to meet several Thomas Christians, from the modern Indian state of Kerala (pron. “Curl-ah”). I cherished every moment with these Thomas Christians, sharing the joy of witness with each other, and for my part, learning with amazement about the 2,000-year-old heritage of faith they celebrate and live out back home.
Thank God for the faith of Thomas. May it be our faith, in the name of Christ Jesus. Let us, too, proclaim with Mary, Peter, Thomas, and all the witnesses of the resurrection, that we are blessed to know the scarred, risen Jesus. Jesus, who came to bear our sins, and so transform us that whosoever believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life. Let’s look to the example of all our ancestors-in-faith, take in that Good News, and be transformed in Christ’s love, so that we may live and share it with a world that so deeply needs to hear this Good News.
Amen.
-Pastor Will Bevins