John 20:19-31
Jesus Appears to the Disciples
19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Jesus and Thomas
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “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.”
26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 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.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
The Purpose of This Book
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
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This sermon was originally preached to a certain people, in a certain place, for a certain time. But we believe in a God who transcends time and space, so perhaps this word might speak to you as well. You can read the manuscript below or listen to the sermon at this link.
Let us pray. God of light and mercy, as we enter into the experience of the resurrection, open our eyes to a new way of living and open our lives to transformation. In the name of your son, who is the first fruits of the resurrection of all of creation, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The gospel story this morning is one that seems to have a clear lesson: Don’t be like Thomas. It makes it easy to call Thomas the doubter, label him, and scorn him for not believing his friends when they tell him about what they’ve seen. Even though what they’re talking about seems a little far-fetched and ridiculous. The teacher they witnessed hanged on a cross, resurrected? Seems unlikely.
And then, of course, we can feel really good about ourselves because Jesus says that we are blessed because we have not seen the resurrected Jesus in the flesh and yet we have come to believe. Instead, we have been given these stories passed down and interpreted, we believe through tradition and the witness of the disciples.
But I think there is something to be said of Thomas’ doubting. He wants to experience Jesus himself. I don’t blame him. He wants to see these things with his own eyes— perhaps he’s a little jealous that Jesus would come when he was away. But I don’t think it’s uncommon for a person to ache to experience something in person.
We do this, right? We ask for signs, some kind of deep knowledge that God is near and listening… we hear other people’s stories when they have experienced God and we value the interpretations of scripture, but often times we don’t fully understand the impact of God’s grace until we have had a first-hand experience with it. At the camp where my husband spent several summers as a counselor, they called these “mountaintop moments.” Some of us can point to those moments in our own lives, right? Thin places, when we have experienced God so clearly that God’s presence was undeniable.
So I don’t think there is anything wrong with Thomas wanting to see Jesus for himself. We want to see Jesus for ourselves, don’t we?
And just like the disciples who were hidden away and afraid, and Thomas who longed to see his teacher one more time, Jesus knows what we desire in our moments of need. And God is ready to be present with us in those moments.
The challenge is, then, what we do with that experience. When we have those mountaintop moments, where God shows us who God is, when Jesus reveals his wounds and allows us to come close to touch him… Does it change us? Does it create something new within us? Has the experience of the resurrection done anything to change us?
When we see that the tomb is empty, do we run to our friends to proclaim that Christ is risen? When Jesus presents himself to us, do we shout “my Lord and my God?” Or do we stay quiet, keeping things to ourselves? Do we proclaim the resurrection of Christ Jesus when we have witnessed it ourselves or do we just continue on with our lives?
For the disciples and for the first Christians, walking with Jesus all those years and witnessing his death and resurrection changed not only their actions but their very identity.
We hear in the first reading about the kind of community they formed because of Jesus’ example and how they wanted to witness to the resurrection. They lived as if they were of one heart and soul, not claiming anything for themselves but keeping everything in common. No one was needy among them because they all sold their land and homes and everything was distributed to those who had any need. The resurrection changed them.
In the second reading, we hear again that Jesus' disciples are changed by their experience of him. They come into fellowship with one another, striving to be good and kind and, as they put it, walk in the light. And when they stray from that, they bear their sins openly and go to Jesus with confession, knowing that they are forgiven. The resurrection changed them.
Their personal and communal experiences with the resurrected Christ change them completely. Not just as individuals, but how they act as a community, how they understand their place in this world and as advocates for one another and for those who are in need.
So the question is, then, the week after this wild proclamation of Easter, that death is defeated and Jesus lives now and forever— that we have eternal life in Christ— this week, we ask “so what?”
Has anything changed? Have we changed? Are we going to change? Has our community changed? What has our experience of the resurrected Christ done in our lives? Anything?
Have we truly come to believe what John implores of us? That Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, and that through believing we may have life in his name? When we experience the risen Lord in this place, at this table, does it change anything at all? Amen.
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