A video of the following sermon can be found here.
“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.”
Good evening, Saints! In this time of social distancing and stay-at-home measures, I thought I’d avail myself of some of the resources I have at home: namely, the sanctuary of Bethesda Lutheran Church. Welcome, all. Today, as we reflect on the readings for the second Sunday of Easter, I have to say, you just gotta give it to Thomas. I mean, he’s gotten a bad rap throughout history; with the one single sentence I just quoted a moment ago, he’s earned himself the moniker of “Doubting Thomas” for all time.
Whenever I come across this text, I admit I just feel bad for the guy; after all, he just happened to be the only one out of the twelve who wasn’t present on Easter Sunday evening, when Jesus originally appeared to the disciples gathered in the house. Any one of them might have found it a little difficult to believe that Jesus, whom they saw die on the cross and be pierced by a soldier’s spear, was miraculously back alive again, back to normal, eating broiled fish as if nothing had ever happened!
Of course, this crucified and risen Jesus is not the same as he was before. Carrying the scars of death on his body, it is the difference between Jesus, past and present, the very way that death was transformed into new life through his bodily death and resurrection, that makes Thomas able, finally, to believe.
This moment of Thomas finally coming to belief is the culmination of a plot that has been carrying on for a while. If you take a look at John’s Gospel and pick out the parts where Thomas is mentioned, then you’ll see that the theme of belief has been a recurrent challenge for him. And this is a big deal to John; in chapter 6 verse 64, John sets disbelief next to Judas’ betrayal in terms of significance, writing that “Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him.”
Beginning in John 11, we finally get to hear Thomas speak. After Jesus gets frustrated by his disciples’ inability to understand what he means when he says that he’s going to “awaken” Lazarus from his “sleep,” he exasperatedly lays things out for them clearly: “Lazarus is dead,” Jesus says. “For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
And here is where Thomas responds, almost out of nowhere, deciding to interpret Jesus’ intentions in the strangest, most morbid and pessimistic way possible: he says, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” And all of us readers are left asking: how the heck did he get that out of what Jesus just said? Even if you don’t know the rest of the story, Jesus’ suggestion to go and visit the dead doesn’t seem to in any way imply that they’re all going to die alongside Lazarus, as well! Clearly, Thomas was suffering from some severe pessimism and lack of belief in what Jesus had in store for them!
This pattern of Thomas failing to believe continues. In John chapter 14, after informing the disciples that he is going to prepare a dwelling place for them, Jesus says to them, “you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas asks of Jesus, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” And Jesus responds with a famous line, saying: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Now if you’re like me and have heard that verse used in conversations about religious pluralism and the validity of other religions’ truth claims, it may seem a bit out of context. When Thomas is confused about what Jesus is asking of them, and doesn’t know how to proceed without him to lead their way, why would Jesus respond with a proclamation about how Christians should relate to Islam, Buddhism, or any other religious traditions that his disciples haven’t even come into contact with yet? If Thomas is asking Jesus what to do once Jesus has left them, it doesn’t make sense for Jesus to respond, essentially saying: “All other religions are invalid!”
But in fact, Jesus’ statement makes perfect sense if you take it as an answer to Thomas’ actual question: when the disciples are unsure about the way forward, what to proclaim, or how to live, Jesus says that he is the answer to all of their questions. Far be it from Jesus’ definitive answer on a Christian theology of pluralism, Jesus was giving Thomas words of encouragement for and clarification of the path of Christian discipleship.
He is saying to Thomas and the rest of the disciples: “You who are huddled together now, unsure of what is to come after you are sent out into the world, take heart; you have learned from me now for three years, studied my words and my ways, prayed alongside me and attempted to conform your lives to the pattern that I have set for you, my disciples, to follow. You have no reason to fear; you have everything you need, because you have me.” It is in Thomas, and in Jesus’ response to him, that we see most clearly that the opposite of fear is faith.
Continuing the story of Thomas, today’s Gospel reading is the moment when Thomas’ fear is finally transformed into the faith that Jesus had asked of him all along. In response to the resurrected Jesus’ appearance, Thomas falls down on his knees and proclaims, “My Lord and my God!” In recognizing Jesus as his Lord, he commits himself to the path that Jesus had been leading him towards all along; the way, the truth, and the life that Jesus had shown all of his disciples.
This is the path that faithful Christians have trodden and trusted in for the past two thousand years: the path that leads us downwards before it raises us up; that takes us through death before it brings us to resurrection; that leads us all into solidarity with the poor and the oppressed, resulting in a bounty more precious than any material riches this world could offer. In doing so, we Christians are able to get a foretaste of the awesome resurrecting power of God, promised for us all.
This is why this passage is especially timely for us Christians today; not just because we too are all huddled in our rooms like the disciples after the crucifixion, fearful of what the outside world has in store for us. This passage speaks to us today, not only because of the fear so many of us feel, but also because it asks the same kind of faith of us that Jesus asks of Thomas, a faith that calls us to believe in Resurrection.
This passage speaks to us today, when we look at the flowers and the trees beginning to show new life all around us, rising out of the death of last year’s leaves and mulch, that we too might begin to believe in Resurrection; it speaks to us when we look around and open ourselves to the transformations already taking place around us in our global society and economy, which is dying only to be reborn in a way that will be forever transformed by and carry the marks of Covid-19, but will be new and once again
full of life, that we too might begin to believe in Resurrection; it speaks to us when we donate to food banks, volunteer our time to serve those who can’t shop for themselves, or turn our homes into mask-producing factories, sensing the priceless joy that comes of loving and serving our neighbors, that we too might begin to believe in Resurrection.
Today, when so many of us are frightened and huddled together with our housemates, loved ones, and quarantine buddies, not knowing how long this all will last, let us hold on to the promise given by Jesus, that though the present times may be frightening, death always leads to resurrection. And for all of us who are worried about comes next as we turn to summer, and especially for those of us who are graduating and setting out into an unknown ministry field, let us hold onto the words of Jesus, which he
said to the fearful Thomas: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. You have learned from me now for three years, studied my words and my ways, prayed alongside me and attempted to conform your lives to the pattern that I have set for you, my disciples, to follow. You have no reason to fear; you have everything you need, because you have me. Now go, and continue the work I have sent you to do.”
Peter Levenstrong 