“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.”
As I read this passage from John,
which we hear on the Second Sunday of Easter
every year
I’m again not struck
by Thomas’ disbelief.
This is the evening of the resurrection.
Up until this point
only the women have seen Jesus
and have run to tell the disciples
of his resurrection.
The disciples are locked away
fearing for their lives
lest they be accused and arrested
for stealing Jesus’ body.
The sealed tomb is empty,
and they’re having to believe women.
The first preachers of the resurrection
wouldn’t have been allowed to give testimony
in legal matters.
They’re scared
and Jesus appears to them.
For whatever reason
Thomas isn’t with them.
When they confirm the women’s testimony,
Thomas 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.”
This has gotten Thomas the moniker
“Doubting Thomas”
but John doesn’t tell us that Thomas doubts
any more than the rest of the eleven.
They have already seen Jesus’ nailed hands
and seen where the spear
pierced his side.
They believed because they saw.
Thomas is only asking
for as much as everyone else –
the women at the tomb
the eleven disciples –
has had themselves.
He wants to see the Lord
wants to know with his own eyes and hands
that Jesus is risen from the dead.
So as we hear this passage again,
I’m again not struck
by Thomas’ disbelief.
“These [signs] 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.”
As we’re reading through The 1619 Project
we’re all encountering
some big feelings.
There’s shock
at what parts of history
aren’t in standard curricula.
There’s heartbreak
at the ongoing impact and legacy
of American, race-based, inheritable
chattel slavery.
There’s regular wondering
Where was / is / has been God through all this
especially with the church’s role
ranging from silent to endorsing and defending
this kind of systematic racism
for much of our history.
There’s despair at the human condition –
which the church would name as sin –
how can we have done all this
and can anything be done now?
Shock. Heartbreak. Wondering. Despair.
These probably aren’t unlike the feelings
that all eleven disciples were feeling
when Jesus was killed.
He said he’d come back,
that he’d be raised from the dead.
But dead people don’t come back to life.
The disciples knew that to be true,
even after Jesus’ raised Lazarus.
Our technology may have advanced
but human understanding
of the finality of death
really hasn’t changed that much
in the last two millennia.
In their shock, wondering, heartbreak, and despair,
Jesus comes through a locked door
and shows them the realities of his body.
Jesus comes through a locked door
and blesses them with peace.
So this year as we hear this passage
I’m not struck by Thomas’ inquisitiveness
but by his absence
and the role of the community
in sharing the reality of the Good News
of Jesus the resurrected Christ.
Where was he?
We don’t know,
but undoubtedly he was feeling
scared, shocked, heartbroken,
wondering, and despair.
When he’s back with the group
he hears the Good News
that Jesus has been raised from the dead.
It takes another week
before he’s with them again
and Jesus appears to them all.
When Jesus says,
“Blessed are those who have not seen
and yet have come to believe”
I don’t think that’s an admiration
toward a blind faith.
It’s a reiteration
of what he told Mary in the garden.
He was back
but not for too long.
Not everyone would have the chance
to see Jesus in person,
to touch the wounds in his hands
and the wound in his side.
“Jesus did many other signs
in the presence of his disciples
These [signs] 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.”
As we’re working through
our heartbreak, shock, despair, and wondering
in The 1619 Project group
we’re doing it together.
As we’re working through those big feelings
we’re also having to shift some.
We’re having to realize that none of us
can fix any of this on our own.
We’re having to realize that
not even our congregation
can fix the whole of this broken world.
In those realizations
we’re having to fight
our American individualism
even as we learn how it has been embedded
into our laws and culture
for centuries.
We’re going to have to fight
rugged individualism
and our perceptions
that the guilt of our forebears
and salvation of our successors
falls on our shoulders
rather than the Wood of the Cross.
We’re out of practice partnering with others
to affect change
when we’re so accustomed
to making changes ourselves
and being the commanders
of our own destiny.
That’s not where or how
the disciples encounter Jesus.
It’s not thinking a new world into being.
It’s gathering together
and Jesus showing up.
As the disciples gathered together work through
their fear, shock, heartbreak,
wondering and despair,
Jesus joins them through locked doors
and blesses them with peace.
From Thomas to the other eleven
he shows them his glorious body
and they know for sure
that he has been raised from the dead.
Jesus says,
“Blessed are those who have not seen
and yet have come to believe,”
and invites us to do the same.
He invites us
to take his Most Precious Body in our hands
and experience the miraculous sign
that we would believe.
“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.”
Gathered together
and working together
we will see the Lord. Amen.