Thomas said to the disciples, "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."
The Second Sunday of Easter is very dependable. This is Thomas’ Sunday, and every year in the Sunday right after Easter the Gospel tells us the story of Jesus’ special appearance among the Apostles to greet Thomas. There’s a good deal to appreciate about Thomas – and much we can learn from him, about both faith and doubt.
Thomas, along with Peter, is the most human of the disciples, so many human flaws and opinions, and today’s Gospel story is rich with interesting questions. The first thing that we notice is that Thomas misses out on Jesus’ first appearance to the disciples. It’s Sunday night, and they have been locked in the Upper Room, afraid for their lives since Friday night.
But not Thomas. Where is he? Was he terrified and trying to hide by himself, not wanting to be found by the Romans right in the middle of a pack of ringleaders of Jesus’ rebellion? Was he instead full of stoic courage, the only one brave enough to venture out and bring back food to his friends?
Whatever it was, he was definitely not there when Jesus appeared in the locked Upper Room. He missed the Resurrection. Many of us can identify with that sort of frustrated futility. We wonder if we’re missing the Resurrection in a lot of areas in our lives. God is raising things to new life and our attention is elsewhere, checked out, missing in action, like Thomas.
Thomas is always called “doubting”, Doubting Thomas, as if the other disciples had more faith than he did, but that’s misleading, because the problem really wasn’t with Thomas; it was with the other disciples. Thomas didn’t share their experience of the risen Lord. That meant they had something he didn’t have, and instead of their experience, what Thomas had was their word about what they had seen – which for him wasn’t enough.
Thomas never doubted Jesus. He wouldn’t put it past Jesus to come to them as a ghost. Lord knows Jesus did stranger things than that when He was alive. But He is no longer alive. He is dead, and Thomas knows that denying that won’t help anyone. Thomas won’t believe his friends, but the problem wasn’t really Thomas’ - the problem was the credibility of the Apostles. It is them that he doubts. They had seen the risen Jesus; they had been given His peace and His Spirit; they had been sent by Him to continue His work in the world. We heard all of that in the first part of the Gospel reading this morning.
It was now up to these witnesses to share the Good News. That’s what they were sent to do, spread the Good News, the Gospel. But, alas, their witness to the Resurrection was not even compelling enough to convince Thomas; and Thomas wanted to believe – he was ready to believe.
It’s the same way now. The temptation is to say that the problem is out there, with all of those unbelievers like Thomas - if they would only shape up and believe better, (preferably to the point of showing up in church on Sunday morning), then things, so many things, from our private lives to the world, would improve immeasurably. It’s easier to complain about them, than it is to pay careful attention to the less-than-persuasive words and lives of today’s disciples - of those who are called to be witnesses to Jesus. It feels better to call Thomas “doubting” than to call the Apostles – or ourselves - “unconvincing”.
Thomas is here in our readings to make us uncomfortable. Remember, faith almost always comes to people through the faith of others, through the life and ministry of the Body of Christ, through us. Virtually everyone “out there” is like Thomas. To point them toward faith, virtually everyone “out there”, and that includes our own families, depends upon people who already believe - depends upon us. This does not imply the tactics of the radical Christian right have validity. This means that we who believe live the lives of love and faith, and sacrifice to which Jesus has called us.
The other disciples told Thomas, “We have seen the Lord.” But just look at how they were acting. They were scared; they were hiding behind locked doors; they were only talking to each other. Just a week earlier, Jesus had stood among them - but you couldn’t tell it from them. They didn’t act like something wonderful had happened at Easter. They had joyously seen Him raised from the dead – but what is happening now? Are they beginning to wonder if they really saw what they saw?
They are not convincing, and Thomas didn’t believe them, even though he wanted to. That’s the way it was, and all too often, that’s the way it still is. Thomas was not the problem. Today’s doubting Thomases are not the problem. The problem is the authentic example, the power, and the persuasiveness of the Church, of us. This is our calling, and it’s not an easy one.
But there is Good News for Thomas, for the disciples, and for us. For Christ truly is risen, and He comes to us. Risen, He comes to us, and He brings to completion the work that a weak and sinful collection of disciples cannot do alone. Work that we cannot do alone. The Good News is that Jesus continues to be with us, that He continues to be for us, and that He continues to speak to His world and to us, His words of forgiveness, of love, and of peace.
This doesn’t mean that Jesus will do it all for us, and we can take it easy. But it does mean that we are able to continue in hope and in confidence. It does mean both that we are not alone, and that we do not need to be afraid. It means we can live the Gospel in our daily lives, and when we stumble, our Lord is right there to pick us up and give credibility to our possibly not totally convincing words and actions.
But we can’t let Thomas’s day slip by us without saying something about doubt. First of all, doubt is always part of the life of faith. There is never any really true faith without doubt; that’s something we all know about. And doubt is not a bad thing; it’s a necessary thing. Doubt happens - often in times of crisis and tragedy, sometimes just all by its own self. Faith matures with ups and downs, not in a straight line. Thomas knows Jesus through Jesus’ wounds, and often it is through our woundedness, when we are hurting and filled with doubt, that we find Jesus.
The heart of the story of “doubting” Thomas is not about doubt (Thomas’ or anyone else’s), it is about our calling to be witnesses to the Resurrection. And the biggest piece of good news is not that Thomas comes to faith; the biggest bit of Good News is that Jesus came to Thomas and enabled him to find his faith. The Risen Lord still comes to us. Believing is not always easy. Living the Gospel can be downright difficult. But we are called to be witnesses to the Resurrection, and our Lord Jesus is with us.
Alleluia, Christ is Risen. The Lord is Risen indeed, Alleluia.
Let us pray:
Lord Jesus, help us today to trust in Your plan for our lives, even when we are filled with doubt. May we surrender our fears and uncertainties to You, knowing that You are always with us. We ask for You love and mercy’s sake. Amen.