Sermon, 2 Easter, John 20:19-31

It happens every year on this Second Sunday of Easter. Regardless of whether we are in Year A, Year B or Year C, every year we hear this gospel passage from John and the story of Thomas -- Doubting Thomas. And every year preachers around the world tell their parishioners that Thomas gets an undeserved reputation as the disciple who wouldn't believe the resurrection.

There are two things this passage brings up that we should pay attention to. The first is this idea of belief. Thomas is not with the other ten disciples when Jesus appears the first time; and when told of his appearance, he says, "Unless I put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe." Thomas is apparently the forefather of everyone who ever lived in Missouri -- show me.

Jesus again appeared to the disciples the following week, and this time Thomas was with them. Turning to Thomas, he says, "Put your finger here and reach out your hand to my side." At which point Thomas believes. And Jesus replies, "Do you believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have come to believe."

Have you read the Gospel of John? Have you actually sat down and read through that book? I ask this because in John the majority of people come to believe in Jesus through his acts. It's not, "Go, your faith has made you well," but, "He did this sign and people believed."

John doesn't record a whole lot of miracles -- water to wine, the feeding of the 5000, the healing of a blind man and the raising of Lazarus are about it. But in all of these, it's because of the miracle that people come to believe that Jesus is who he says he is. The disciples believed because he changed water to wine. The blind man believed Jesus was the Son of Man because of the healing. People came to believe in Jesus because he raised Lazarus from the dead. And then there is his foray into the Samaritan town where people believed because of what he said there. In John, it's through the acts of Jesus that people come to believe.

So Thomas isn't behaving any differently than any other person in this gospel -- including the other disciples; because they didn't believe the resurrection either until Jesus appeared to them the evening after the resurrection. All through John people believe because they have seen; but blessed are those who have not seen and come to believe.

And all through John we are told who Jesus is. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. I have been sent by the Father. I am in the Father and the Father is in me. I am the bread of life. Before Abraham was, I am. Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. The entire Farewell Discourse.

Why do we believe Jesus is the son of God? Do we believe because of some miracle in our life? Do we believe because of the accounts in the gospels? Do we believe because of the actions of others? There are probably as many reasons why we believe as there are people. But I think one of the reasons we believe that Jesus is the Son of God is because of what Thomas did -- he placed his hands in the wounds.

And that is my second point. Part of why people believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity is because of what Thomas did.

There are some sects, the ancient Gnostics being one, that claim Jesus wasn't fully human and fully divine. They claim that Jesus was simply a spirit sent from God who avoided the pain of the crucifixion for that very reason. This claim also has other implications along the lines of "spirit good/physical bad," not the least of which is that it contradicts the first story of creation in which God said that everything he created was good.

When Thomas touched the physical Jesus he gave himself permission to express the faith that was already within him. When Thomas touched Jesus, he proclaimed, "My Lord and my God." This was a verbal recognition of the faith that believed Jesus was the Son of God. When Thomas touched the resurrected Jesus, it confirmed his two-fold nature: fully human and fully divine. When Thomas touched the resurrected Jesus he did something that I can never do. When Thomas touched the resurrected Jesus, he did something that none of us can ever do; and he did it on behalf of us.

God, I think, is an opportunist. That is, he uses opportunities as they present themselves in order to further draw people to him. Could Jesus have waited to show himself to the disciples until all eleven were gathered together? Of course he could have. But the beauty of this story is that he didn't. Seeing that Thomas was away he saw the opportunity to reach out to others beyond the circle of disciples. Using Thomas in this way allows every believer down through the ages to have doubts about faith; it allows people to question the nature of God; it gives us all permission to explore and come to the point in our own journey where we can say, "My Lord and my God."

In the Farewell Discourse Jesus says, "I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." Because Jesus lives in us we are his physical representatives on earth. That is very important because it allows us to walk with people in their struggles and doubts; it allows us to reflect the face of Jesus to others; and it allows people, in some respect, to touch Jesus.

Our faith isn't simplistic. Our faith isn't black and white. We don't proclaim a gospel of "turn or burn." Our faith is many faceted. Our faith is nuanced. Our faith allows room for questioning and doubting. And our faith gives us the opportunity to allow others to touch Jesus.

So let us give thanks to Thomas, the first of the disciples to publicly question the resurrection; because it's only in questioning that we find answers.