John 20:19-31
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he 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.”
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he 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 him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
You’ve heard countless sermons about doubting Thomas. Every year without fail, the text for the first Sunday after Easter is Jesus appearing to the disciples and to Thomas. And you’ve likely heard many sermons or had Bible studies about how Thomas shouldn’t be known as doubting Thomas for a variety of reasons: 1. the word doubt isn’t actually in the text because in greek that word is unbelieving; 2. it’s unfair that Thomas gets the moniker of doubting when in fact he has the strongest confession of Jesus in the whole gospel, “My Lord and My God”. And 3. shouldn’t the other disciples also have the title doubting? After all they heard Mary Magdalene’s experience of seeing Jesus, alive and outside the tomb, and they don’t seem to believe her until they see him for themselves. So Thomas isn’t asking for anything more than what the disciples had already experienced.
That's the pattern throughout the Gospel of John. Folks have an encounter with Jesus, they go and tell someone else, and that person then desires to have their own encounter. Andrew stayed with Jesus two days, then told his brother Peter about it all, who then went to see Jesus for himself. Philip followed Jesus, then went and told Nathanael. Nathanael thought nothing good could come from Nazareth until he too encountered Jesus himself. The woman at the well went to tell her people about her encounter and after Jesus stayed with them, the Samaritans said “it’s no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know Jesus is the savior of the World.”
That pattern persists after the resurrection. Mary Magdalene tells the disciples, but apparently men not believing a woman’s own experience seems to go back a long way in history. Her story isn't enough; they need to see it to believe it. And they do and they tell Thomas, but not only does he want his own encounter, he wants a little more. If there is any charge against Thomas it’s that he is perhaps demanding: seeing won’t be enough, I need to touch also! But who doesn’t want this? I mean don’t we all want to see, to touch, to encounter the Risen Lord? Of course we do and for a number of reasons: to quash our doubt, to strengthen our belief, to give us a story to share. Maybe you sat here last week, singing and proclaiming that Jesus Christ has risen, while in the back of your mind, you wondered, “is this really true? How could there be a resurrection, where is the proof?”
The problem we have, or maybe it’s the problem I have, with Thomas is not that he doubted or was unbelieving. The problem I have with Thomas is that I am jealous of him. I don’t care that he demanded more than his fellow disciples. I am jealous of Thomas because he demanded more and it happened. “I won’t believe unless I see and unless I touch”. And miraculously it happened. It’s as if on command, Thomas made the request, Jesus heard it, and made it happen within a week. That’s the problem I have with Thomas, I am jealous.
Aren’t you? Don’t you wish that Jesus met all your requests, that you could give commands when you had doubts or when something was wrong and Jesus would show up within a week? How many times have you pleaded with God, saying like Thomas, do this for me God, then I’ll “fill in the blank” only for God to not hold up God’s end of the bargain? God fix my marriage and we’ll go to church every week. Jesus heal my spouse, my friend, my parent and then I’ll believe you really are a healer. Show up in my life when I am afraid, grieving, stressed, hurting because my faith is weak and I need to know you are there. You did it for Thomas afterall… Aren’t you jealous?
It’s trite to say that God’s ways are not our ways. But it's true. And I don’t believe everything happens for a reason. We face evil, we make our own messes. There are some things we just can’t know this side of heaven: like friends dying young, loved one’s, or ourselves, suffering cancer, or a seemingly unfair world full of violence and greed. Yet, when Jesus shows up to Thomas in that house, he brings good news not only to Thomas, but to as well. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Jesus calls us blessed, us… the ones who have not seen, the ones who make the request, the demands, and don’t get them answered like we want. The ones who have faced evil and cancer. The ones who are full of doubts and worries and stresses about life and faith and where Jesus is at in it all. Somehow we are blessed.
We’re blessed because we too encounter the Risen Lord, just perhaps not in ways we expect or are mindful of in the moment. For instance, feel Jesus' breath pass your lips and ears every time you hear or say the words, “I forgive you”, because it’s the resurrected Jesus who gives the disciples, and us, the mission of forgiveness, equipping us with the Holy Spirit to do so.
And every week here at this table, not only do we remember Jesus’ eating and drinking with friends, but we encounter the Risen Lord who says to us this is my body, my very self, given for you. So we come, we take the bread and the cup trusting that Jesus is really giving himself to strengthen and nourish us, for all that we may face.
And perhaps to some surprise, we see Jesus in other people. And I don’t mean your family or your friends, or pastor mark. No, we meet Jesus in those who bear his resemblance: the people who have nothing, those who are beaten down yet still living, crucified by those in power, and can’t help but show their scars. Dorothy Day, my favorite Catholic of all time, put it this way: “The mystery of the poor is this: That they are Jesus, and what you do for them you do for Him. It is the only way we have of knowing and believing in our love. How do we know we believe? Because we have seen His hands and His feet in the poor around us. He has shown Himself to us in them. We start by loving them for Him, and we soon love them for themselves, each one a unique person, most special!”
In this life, we may not see Jesus’ as Thomas did. But rather than be envious, we should ask, demand, request (whatever you want to call it) like Thomas. After all, Jesus did say to Thomas and to us, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”
So request to experience the love of God and then go and ask for forgiveness because that’s where you will feel it most. Cry out to God for strength and grace and hope, and then come to the table, because that’s where God gives himself to us, each time, every Sunday, offering us all exactly what we need. Demand to see the Risen Lord and then go and serve your neighbor, because that’s where you will find him.
