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.”
(John
20:27)
It
looks like we’re catching the Apostle Thomas at a bad moment in the Gospel
appointed for Easter 2, Year C in the Revised Common Lectionary (John
20:19-31). This is where he gets that unflattering nickname “Doubting Thomas.” Prior
to this, Thomas gave every appearance of being a pretty gung-ho kind of guy.
When Jesus was warned not to go back to Bethany even though his good buddy
there, Lazarus, was deathly ill, Thomas wasn’t afraid of the death threats his
rabbi was receiving. He was all set to go and die with Jesus if it came down to
that. [i]
Christian
legend and that classic gore fest Fox’s Book of Martyrs tells us that
after Pentecost, Thomas headed east and spread the gospel in what is modern day
Iran and even got as far as India where, it seems, he got on the wrong side of
some pagan priests and was put to death by being impaled with a spear. You have
to hand it to the old boy, he certainly had zeal for the gospel.
But
you can’t be too hard on him for having his doubts right after the crucifixion.
Let’s figure Thomas has just spent three years following Jesus around. He hasn’t
always picked up on everything Jesus is trying to teach him. When Jesus tells
the disciples that he is preparing a place for them in his Father’s house and
that they all know the way he is going, Thomas takes this a little too
literally and has to have it explained to him.[ii] He seems to be a pretty
plain-spoken kind of guy, and you can’t fault him for being sad and
disappointed when one of his buddies turns out to be a traitor and his rabbi
gets nailed to the cross. Even someone who has been all in for a cause might
get discouraged and just want to go back to Galilee and get his old job on the
fishing boat back when things end as badly as they appear to have ended for
Jesus. Even if ten of his old gang tell him Jesus is raised from the dead, he’s
not going to buy it unless he can see it for himself and actually see the nail
scars in Jesus’ hands.
But
he does see them. Jesus comes and holds out his hands and shows Thomas those
wounds. Thomas sees the real human Jesus and sees the marks of the anguish Jesus
suffered. He experiences the flesh and blood reality which moves him with empathy
and with pity and brings him back to a place of faith.
“My
Lord and my God,” Thomas says. And it’s the first time someone expresses what
John has been trying to teach us with his gospel—the Father’s divine presence
is manifest in Jesus.
Now
here’s some wonky back story: In 1945 an Egyptian peasant name Mohammed Ali[iii] was digging around out
in the desert and discovered a giant stone jar containing thirteen ancient books
hidden in the sands for centuries and dating back to the early Christian era. One
of these writings is known as The Gospel of Thomas and is a collection
of the sayings of Jesus. Some of the sayings appear in slightly altered forms
in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, but some others seem really wacky and
arcane. The Gospel of Thomas didn’t pass the smell test for some of our
early Christian ancestors, and so it’s not included in the Bible that’s come
down to us today.
We
know historically that there were some early Christians who believed Jesus had
passed on some mystical, secret teachings (similar to the Jewish Kabbalah
tradition) to his disciples which might’ve left average believers scratching their
heads and saying , “Say what..?” The sayings in The Gospel of Thomas
might be a reflection of this sect and its teachings. It’s possible that John’s
gospel was written in opposition to this mystical school of early Christianity[iv]. John always locates the
holiness of God in the person of Jesus. There’s no secret mystery here.
If you want to know God, John seems to be saying, just look at Jesus. There is,
perhaps, a bit of poetic irony in John having Thomas, the guy whose gospel is
so esoteric, make the confession that Jesus is Lord and God.
It
used to bother me that John’s gospel made Jesus so God-like with all of those “I
AM” sayings, but I now see how John also made Jesus more human than had the authors
of the synoptic gospels. It’s in John’s gospel that Jesus cries. It’s here that
Jesus humbly washes the feet of his friends, that he arranges care for his
mother, and that he openly tells his disciples that he loves them. God’s
divinity is displayed in Jesus’ humanity.
It's
easy to be like Thomas at times. We try and try, and then we just want to give
up. But sometimes, just when we think we’ve had enough, Jesus comes to us and reaches
out his wounded hands. In the hurt or need or courage or compassion of another
flesh and blood human being, Jesus comes back to us and says, “Here
I am. And I am not finished with you yet. Do not doubt but believe.”
I
hope you had a blessed Holy Week and Easter. I know I did. Thank you for
reading this week, and please come back again.
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