Easter 2, Year C
John 20:19-31
Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd
Jonathan Hanneman
April 28, 2019
“Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it
in my side. Do not be faithless but be faithful.” – John 20:27b
*****
Thomas and I have had a rough couple of weeks getting to know each other. He’s both bold and enigmatic. Nearly as famous as the more vocal apostles like Peter, Andrew, James, and John, he doesn’t actually speak up all that often. But when he does, like in today’s Gospel reading, he really takes center stage. Which becomes a bit of a problem for me, because I think Jesus is still supposed to be the main character in the story. However, with such a famous supporting cast member, it’s hard to focus a sermon on anything other than “Doubting Thomas.”
Which isn’t a bad thing, in and of itself. Thomas gives us a glimpse into an important aspect of faith, which is disbelief. Despite what Christians want to think, despite what we like to tell ourselves, it’s not easy to believe all the time. First-Century people may not have been familiar with the Scientific Method or our current demands for empirical proof of just about everything that is, but they were still people like we are. People who need to see, touch, hear, taste, and smell things for them to be “real.” People who want more than mathematical equations or expert opinions. People who, in a world of uncertainty, fake news, and “alternative facts,” want to know what’s true. Thomas does give us a taste of that, a glimpse of the modern mind in an ancient setting. But like I said, Thomas is supposed to be a supporting character. The important thing should be what we can learn about Jesus from our passage.
Turning our attention to the main character of the Gospel, the first thing we observe is that Jesus seeks out the disciples—he doesn’t wait for them to find him. Just before our passage, Mary Magdalene has announced that she saw Jesus alive near the tomb, but John doesn’t tell us what anyone else’s response is to her proclamation. Last week’s Gospel reading from Luke said that the apostles didn’t believe what the women told them, and I think that’s a likely characterization of them here as well. After all, the door is locked because of their fear. But despite their fear, despite their disbelief—and despite the locked door—Jesus still comes to them. And what is his message? “Peace be with you.” At the Last Supper Jesus had promised them two things: peace and persecution.[1] They gather in fear of the persecution, and Jesus, in his first appearance to them after his resurrection, comes to remind them of the peace. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”[2] He shows them his hands and side, the very things that Thomas will ask to see, and only then does the Bible say they rejoice. (So the other disciples aren’t necessarily that different from Thomas. It’s just that he was the only one who had the opportunity to ask for what he needed.)
Next we see Jesus empower the disciples. We hear Jesus repeat himself, “Peace be with you,” but he doesn’t stop there like the first time. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you,” he adds. Those seemingly simple words are quite a statement! In the same way that the Father sent the Son, the Logos before all time and eternity, we believers are now being sent. The Greek word for “send” is apestalken, which contains the root of the word for “Apostles.” So Jesus is essentially commissioning all the disciples as little apostles! Then, in an unusual action, he breathes on them. The Greek word for “breathes” here is a rare one in the Bible, occurring only this one time in the entire New Testament. In the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible that was in common use during Jesus’ day, it occurs only two other times. Once is in Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones,[3] and the other is at creation itself, when God breathes life into the first human.[4] Just as God created life from emptiness, Jesus gives a new kind of life to his followers. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” he says. And this isn’t a restricted gift. Just like his commission of sending, he doesn’t give the Holy Spirit only to the apostles (“the twelve,” as John calls them). He breathes on and gives the Spirit to all the gathered disciples. By extension, he sends and gives the Spirit to us in the same way, breathing new creation life into all who would believe in him.
With that gift of the Spirit he offers the power to forgive sin. In John, “sin” tends to be associated not with moral failing, not with a bad deed, but with disbelief, not trusting what God is doing in and through the person of Jesus. Most Bibles read that he also gives the power to “retain” sin, but the word for “sin” doesn’t actually appear in that second part of the sentence. An intriguing minority reading suggests that “retaining” refers to people, not sin, meaning essentially that if you accept anyone as part of the family of believers, Jesus accepts them, too. If that’s correct, what Jesus is doing here isn’t creating the opportunity for us as believers to make an “in” and “out” crowd, a set of good guys and bad guys. Instead, by the power of the Holy Spirit, he’s giving us—all of us—the gift of forgiveness and inclusion.
Thirdly, we see Jesus offer exactly the intimacy Thomas needs to believe. As I mentioned, Thomas’ request wasn’t out of line. After all, Jesus showed the other disciples the wounds when he appeared to them the first time. From his other brief appearances in the Gospels, Thomas seems to be a pretty serious character. After all, he’s the one who suggests they all follow Jesus to Jerusalem to die with him.[5] I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a frequent target of the other disciples’ pranks. Getting everyone to say they’d seen their executed friend back from the dead could have been just another in a long line of jokes against him. However, his response is serious, and Jesus takes it seriously. One week after his first appearance, Jesus once again seeks out the disciples, this time with Thomas present, and repeats his greeting, “Peace be with you.” He then offers Thomas a special intimacy the other disciples didn’t receive: the opportunity to not only see but feel his wounds. Rather than rebuking Thomas for disbelief, Jesus immediately encourages him to be faithful rather than faithless. Oddly, we never find out if Thomas followed through with his earlier demand to touch the wounds. That’s left to our imagination. Instead, the text has him immediately profess Jesus as Lord and God, kurios and theos, the strongest confession of anyone in the Gospels.
For his final action in the scene, Jesus comforts us, his future followers, blessing “those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” The whole point of the Gospel of John is for its readers to believe through this sign to Thomas and the other disciples as well as the many other signs presented throughout the book.
So where does all this leave us, the future followers of Jesus, “those who have not seen and yet have come to believe”? Are we left to pine after miracles, longing to see Jesus appear in a locked room, desperate to touch his wounds, begging to feel the breath of the Holy Spirit? No, the signs are for us; the Spirit is for us; and the intimacy is for us as well. We gather today not for you to hear someone tell you about Jesus, but to experience him for ourselves. Just as Jesus appeared, saying “Peace be with you,” we will soon turn to our neighbors and share that same peace. When you take their hands, consider how you, like Thomas, get to touch this body of Christ. When you share your joys and sorrows in prayer, consider the sacred way you are entering into each other’s life and joining in one another’s wounds. Then, as you come to the altar for communion, consider what you’re doing. Consider the intimacy of the entire act. We may not have Jesus among us in the flesh today like the disciples did, but we do still have his body and blood. Not only can we touch those elements of the sacrament, but we consume them, mysteriously joining with the body of Christ, together becoming the risen Jesus that our hearts still long to see.
The body of Christ is here with us today, both in our greater communion as gathered disciples and in our consumption of the sacrament.
*****
“Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it
in my side. Do not be faithless but be faithful.” – John 20:27b
*****
Dear Heavenly Father, who sought out your people to be the body of Christ on earth, a blessed body that believes without having seen: send now your Holy Spirit among us and open our hearts to your intimacy, giving us the courage to forgive sin and include even the outcasts in your fellowship of love; show us the continuing presence of Jesus among us even today, touching him in the hands of our neighbors and uniting with him in the elements of communion; all this we ask through your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit now and forever. Amen.
[1] John 16:33 (NRSV)
[2] John 14:27 (NRSV)
[3] Ezekiel 37:1-14
[4] Genesis 2:7
[5] John 11:16 (NRSV)