Rev. George Miller
April 24, 2022
John 20:21-31
Today is a bittersweet day.
After 19 weeks of being immersed into the watery, light-filled world of
John, we come to our end.
No more woman at the well, no more picking up your matt to walk.
After today we set sail for the Book of Acts and Paul’s letter to Philippi,
with so much treasure to unearth.
Today we have one last glistening jewel from the Gospel of John.
What a jewel it is.
In my opinion, today’s scripture is one of the most misunderstood and poorly
nicknamed. Thomas is an unfairly
maligned character, because I think Thomas is a hero, and someone we can emulate.
It’s been about 10 days since Thomas and the disciples shared their Last
Super with Jesus. 10 days since Thomas
saw his teacher arrested and sentenced to death.
It's been about a week since Mary Magdelene went to the tomb and found
the stone rolled away.
A week since everyone but Thomas was visited by the resurrected Christ.
Imagine what the past 10 days may have been like for Thomas. How hard they may have been to process.
One minute Thomas is watching folk sing “Hosanna!” while Jesus rides into
town, the next there are police officers and soldiers coming to arrest him.
One day Jesus is turning water into a wine, and then he’s thirsty on a
cross.
How does one process that? How
does someone like Thomas makes sense that a man who healed could be killed?
Thomas is supposed to believe Mary when she says the stone’s been rolled
away?
He’s supposed to believe some guys locked away in a room saying that Jesus
walked through a door and said “Peace be with you?”
Thomas does not believe them, and rightfully so. Would you believe them?
If this story happened to you, and you didn’t have a 2,000 year old Gospel,
and the letters of Paul, and a lifetime of Christian preachers filling in the
gaps, would you believe them?
Let us not judge Thomas or weigh upon him a nickname of judgement.
Thomas is a person, just like us, trying to process recent events of a most
traumatic kind.
His way of choice is through his intellect. Thomas choosing to seek quantified truth does
not mean his faith is any less than.
Thomas’ story is rich because it tells so much while leaving room for our
imagination.
People ask “Why wasn’t Thomas with the disciples the first time Jesus appeared?”
We don’t know. We can guess.
Put yourself in his shoes. He just
experienced a community-wide traumatic event.
One thing we’ve learned from COVID, is that trauma affects individuals and
communities in different ways.
During COVID we’ve seen folk be in denial, going on with their daily
lives. We’ve seen people go into seclusion,
never emerging from their cocoon.
Many of us have been somewhere in between, depending on the day.
Perhaps Thomas is the kind of person who deals with trauma by being
alone.
Perhaps he felt it was safer to be separated, just in case the cops came
for them next.
Some people grieve best in groups, some folk thrive by being separate.
Whatever the reason, it was Thomas’ choice to make, and he should not be
judged.
Then we have today’s reading. The gang is together. They tell Thomas “We’ve seen the Lord.”
Thomas says “Unless I see, unless I touch, I will not believe.”
Good for Thomas! Good that he
wants assurance and tangible facts.
Good that he has the sense God gave a goose not to go along with mob mentality
and to think on his own.
Thomas is not about to believe something so inconceivable, so ridiculous,
so…. wonderful, without seeing it for himself.
This isn’t a lack of faith. This
is the faith of discernment.
This is the faith of someone who likes to process things, who likes to
act from their head and not just a highly emotional heart.
Thomas is like the Woman at the Well.
He’s not about to get a bucket to fetch water, unless he knows who he’s
gathering water for and what kind it is.
Just as Martha and Mary go to Jesus to state their feelings, Thomas wants
to go toe to toe with Jesus before he believes.
Some people find God in a sunset, some people find God by learning how a
sunset works.
Thomas is the latter, and his faith is no greater or lesser than Peters.
Thomas says “Unless I see and touch I will not believe,” and here’s the
cool thing- a week later Jesus appeared,
and he said “Thomas- put your finger here and see, reach out and feel.”
Jesus has no problem doing what Thomas needed in order to believe.
Just as Jesus empowered one man to walk and another to see, Jesus manifests
to Thomas in a way that offers him wellness and empowers him to encounter God
in a way that makes sense to Thomas.
How awesome to have a Savior who knows who we are, knows what we need,
and is willing to appear to us in a way that we can see, we can believe.
For me it may be at the sea, for you it may be a garden, for another it
may be a miraculous healing.
For Thomas, it was the concrete and tangible that empowered him to
believe, and for his faith to be secure.
And hear what happens-
Thomas says what he requires.
Jesus provides.
Then Thomas makes a proclamation-
“My Lord and my God.”
These are not empty words. This is
a not a testimony forced upon him.
These are the words of someone who got to experience the Resurrection in
a manner that makes sense to them.
Nowhere does it say that Thomas actually touched, no place are we told
that he reached out to feel.
What we do know is that Christ gives Thomas what he requires, and Thomas
responds with the most unique testimonies in all of the Bible- “My Lord and my
God!”
This is the only time in all 4 Gospels that Jesus is addressed as God.
These words are said by Thomas, the who was originally absent, the one who
needed to process the whole thing.
He becomes the 1st person known to call Christ Lord and God.
There are those who believe even though they do not see. There are those who testify based solely on
what they feel.
But God bless those who think with their mind. Thank God for those who experience the Lord
through logic.
Everyone is unique, everyone will experience Christ a unique way.
Since everyone is unique, Christ is made known in diverse ways.
Since we are made to be in community, to live and strive together, we benefit
when all kinds of people, with all different ways of experiencing faith, come
together,
To proclaim,
To share,
To show the world,
That Christ is not nor dead,
But that the resurrected Christ is here
Forever and ever.
So as we bid goodbye to John, may we not bid farewell to all that we have
learned, all we have encountered.
For the Jesus who offers you the chance to be made well, is the same
Christ who will gladly make himself known.
Are you ready to see, touch, know and believe?
Amen.
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