April 2, 2008

John 20:19–31

Wednesday in the Week of the Second Sunday of Easter, Year A

Trinity Church, Valparaiso, Indiana

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Out of the twelve disciples Jesus called to follow him, only one of the twelve is remembered with an adjective. For centuries, artists and poets and authors have come to refer to Thomas as “doubting Thomas.” On Easter evening, the risen Jesus appears to his frightened disciples, cowering behind locked doors. All of Jesus’ closest disciples were there, except for Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus unto death—and Thomas. One week later, Jesus again appears to his closest disciples, and this time, even Thomas is present.

“The other disciples [had] told [Thomas], ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But [Thomas] [had] 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.’”

Is Thomas a horrible sinner because he dared to doubt the Easter Good News he heard from the other disciples? After nearly two thousand years, since Jesus rose from death itself, Thomas is little different from how you or I would have reacted to such an unbelievable story about a crucified Jesus having risen from the dead. Throughout the ages, Thomas has been known as “doubting Thomas” simply because he resisted being caught up in pious speculations about a living Jesus coming back from his grave. It is not doubting Thomas who is the oddball disciple, refusing to believe the Good News of Easter. The evangelist John has included the story of Thomas in his Gospel story of Easter because you are Thomas. I am Thomas. Even as we celebrate these seven weeks of Easter, you and I might not be doubting descendents of a doubting Thomas, but if we are honest, you and I can be more than a little skeptical.

The reason evangelist John has written of a doubting Thomas is so that in Thomas, as he meets his risen Lord face-to-face, you and I might worship the risen Jesus who stood before Thomas. “[Jesus] 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 [Thomas]—no longer a doubting Thomas—‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

How much easier it would be to stand at the graves of those whom I loved if I had been close enough to reach out and touch a risen Jesus. In Thomas, you and I see our own doubts. How can the story of Easter be true? How can a living Jesus be close enough for me to see and hear and touch in my life? Jesus said to Thomas, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” In Thomas, we have seen the living Jesus of Easter. With Thomas, we have seen the proof we crave. Sharing the Easter faith of Thomas, we look upon the wounds of our crucified and risen Lord, and with Thomas we say, “My Lord and my God.”

Amen.

John Joseph Santoro +